Differing Plastics Flavors
P.J. Jakovljevic - September 6, 2006

Introduction

Plastics products in 2002 ranked fourth among the top manufacturing industry groups in shipments—behind only motor vehicles, petroleum refining, and electronic components and accessories. Comparative growth rates suggest that productivity in plastics manufacturing grew about 1.2 percent per year from 1980 to 2002, which was almost equal to the productivity growth rate achieved by manufacturing as a whole. Yet relatively few major enterprise applications vendors have chosen to target this industry with industry-specific systems, capabilities, or modules. Specifically, rather than focusing on the special requirements of the industry, the vast majority of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) vendors have chosen to develop software solutions that address mostly those needs that plastics manufacturers and distributors have in common with other discrete manufacturers and distributors...