Let me open with a qualifying statement: This is not a blogabout fruit and veg – so if you are growing your own it will, most likely, begood for your health if you subsequently eat what you grow.
What I’m talking about is if you have a project, as amanufacturing company, to monitor machine and shop floor performance as part ofa Continuous Improvement programme then trying to grow your own software fordoing it will not necessarily be good for the health of your business.
In my travels I come across a lot of companies that havetried to build their own software for data collection so they can measure OEE(Overall Equipment Effectiveness) and in almost all cases I’m there becausethey face one of the following issues;
The project is taking too long to deliver the software sothey aren’t realising the benefits that were outlined in the original plan.
The people doing the programming just don’t understand whatis required by the CI team and are delivering software that simply doesn’t dothe job.
The project gets so far and then a key person in IT leavesleaving a skills gap and a suspended project.
The business has changed significantly during the projectand the functionality delivered is too narrow and doesn’t meet the newrequirements and the cost of making it meet the new needs are prohibitive.
I think in only one case have I seen a fully functional andreally good home grown system – but the company had spent a small (actuallyquite large) fortune in realising their ambition.
From my point of view being called in at this stage is great– because I’m able to demonstrate Plantnode from Shoplogix which has hundredsof man years of development behind it and can be up and working within a coupleof days. The fact that the business can start monitoring, amongst many otherthings, downtimes, mean time between failure, OEE at a machine and job leveland benefit from real-time visual management means that the return on investmentwindow is typically a matter of a few months. Compared to growing your own itis quicker, allows you to concentrate on your core business and of course,overall, less costly.