Formation Systems Pioneers Product Design Collaboration For The Process Industries
Steve McVey - April 23, 2001

Introduction

What the process manufacturing industry lacks in glamour it makes up for in complexity. Software companies have for decades used technology to automate business processes found in discrete manufacturing, becoming giants by selling their products to the Dells, GMs, and Toshibas of the world. In discrete manufacturing, much of the complexity lies in coordinating the great number of parts that are assembled into PCs, minivans, and televisions. Capacity needed to assemble the multitude of intermediate parts and sub-components into finished goods is a simple function of the number of assemblers brought to the task, which can be increased or decreased according to demand...