Activplant Launches Insight for Microsoft Excel
Latest manufacturing intelligence solution is first product launched under ActivEssentials umbrella
LONDON, ON -- February 20, 2006 -- Activplant today announced ActivEssentials, its new vision for the future of manufacturing intelligence. The ActivEssentials platform extends the capabilities of the Activplant Performance Management System (APMS), its enterprise management intelligence (EMI) software solution.
ActivEssentials consists of four main components: Insight, Gateway, Collect, and Operations. These modules leverage the power and flexibility of the patented Universal Factory Data Model (UFDM), offering manufacturers information transparency, enterprise integration, process adaptability, and interoperability with their existing systems. Customers can expect to see improved product quality, enhanced performance, and greater return on investment.
The first product to be launched under the ActivEssentials umbrella is Activplant’s Insight for Microsoft® Excel®, which was developed in support of Microsoft in Manufacturing’s Peak Performance Initiative. The enterprise reporting module will enable manufacturers to create specific functions and detailed reports of Activplant-collected data directly in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software, dramatically reducing the time and costs associated with creating custom reports.
As part of the ActivEssentials suite, the Insight module provides manufacturers with the reporting capabilities to boost production efficiency, product quality, and total output. The module marries the rich dataset of its Universal Factory Data Model with Microsoft Excel, a data analysis tool favored by manufacturers. A drag-and-drop report-builder wizard makes it easy for employees with limited knowledge of the Activplant database to quickly create custom reports in Microsoft Excel. With this solution, it is anticipated that manufacturers will be able to save up to 50 per cent on the cost of traditional custom reporting.
The service oriented architecture of the ActivEssentials platform enables users to create reports and pull data from the UFDM to matrix cells in Microsoft Excel. In addition, the reporting module maintains a live Web link to the Activplant system. Users can build, store, and publish reports for upcoming months and the system will automatically populate the data as the time frame becomes relative. When users extract the data, they have the added value of the filtering, sorting and graphing capabilities in Microsoft Excel.
Users can also store and share reports with the other applications in the Microsoft Office suite, including Microsoft SharePoint® Services. Moreover, the Microsoft Excel client can now connect to multiple servers, enabling users to consolidate data from different plants into a single report.
About Activplant
An enterprise manufacturing intelligence market leader, Activplant’s performance management solution is designed for high-volume, high-automation plants and consolidates plant-floor data into relevant, real-time, and historical information, enabling productivity gains by optimizing product, people, equipment and processes. For more information please visit http://www.activplant.com.