Today, manufacturers like you are focusing on customer-centric objectives such as shorter lead times, higher quality, and faster turnaround. To do this requires real-time access to integrated information from all departments. This degree of visibility fosters collaboration and allows for faster decision-making and response to changing customer demands and floor conditions.

Manufacturing processes, administrative systems, and control systems, however, are usually isolated in information repositories on proprietary networks. To support key business objectives, manufacturers must define architectures that integrate these disparate sources of information which are instrumental in supporting key business objectives. Using a common network infrastructure can help:

• Break down application and information silos
• Drive operational excellence
• Increase supply-chain visibility
• Allows for continuous innovation
• Improves customer intimacy

Using the Cisco Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA) framework can help you minimize downtime and improve:

• Collaboration between factories
• Regulatory and safety compliance
• Vendor management
• Production yields
• On-time delivery
• Quality and inventory control