Intelligent Manufacturing € October € 1996 € Vol. 2 € No. 10

Monsanto Gets Its Info "In-Time"

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Chemical manufacturer Monsanto Co. (St. Louis, Mo.) has implemented an integrated manufacturing solution based on in-time information software at its Pensacola, Fla., chemical plant. The software, Hewlett-Packard's Enterprise Link, has enabled Monsanto to unify manufacturing processes with SAP's R/3 business system to achieve supply chain management.

The implementation has allowed Monsanto to reduce its working-capital requirements while increasing production yields, according to Robert Barrett, director of Monsanto's worldwide operations and financials program. "In addition, in-time information enables us to better manage fulfilling orders, integrating processes and building speed and quality within our supply chain," he added.

Monsanto's Pensacola chemical manufacturing facility links R/3 enterprise resource planning (ERP) software with real-time process manufacturing systems on the plant floor. Specialists from Monsanto, SAP, HP, Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group/ICS, Raytheon Engineers & Constructors (Rust Division), and Lab Systems teamed up to design, test and implement the integration for live production at the Pensacola plant.

Monsanto's Pensacola plant, the largest within its Fibers Division, was chosen as the prototype for the company's worldwide operations and financials project. Last year, after extensive evaluation of a number of existing technologies, Monsanto chose HP Enterprise Link to provide its PIE (plant integration enabler) technology. HP Enterprise Link software drives real-time information automatically between the manufacturing floor and Monsanto's R/3 ERP system. Workers at the Pensacola plant now can quickly pull product "recipes" from SAP application servers in St. Louis and report material consumption and finished-goods production to R/3 automatically.

By tightly integrating manufacturing and business processes, Monsanto has increased its flexibility, allowing it to lower working capital, improve decision making, improve customer service, realize faster paybacks, and gain insight on expenses.