Brooks Software Enhances FACTORYworks3 MES with Multisite Capability
Monday August 29, 9:00 am ET
Multisite Offers Greater Visibility into Supply Chain, Increased Asset Utilization and Reduced Manufacturing Cycle Times
CHELMSFORD, Mass., Aug. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Brooks Software, a division of Brooks Automation, Inc. (Nasdaq: BRKS - News), and a leading provider of real-time applications for collaborative, complex manufacturing operations, today announced the availability of FACTORYworks® Multisite, a new module for its industry-leading FACTORYworks Manufacturing Execution System (MES). Multisite provides a seamless, real-time exchange of MES configuration and WIP information between multiple production systems, across multiple manufacturing sites on a global scale.
Already deployed in a high volume, shared manufacturing environment at a large electronics manufacturer, Multisite has proven to increase utilization and reduce manufacturing cycle times and cycle time variability. As many as 10 manufacturing sites at one company have been integrated with Multisite, essentially making them appear as one site in terms of maintaining product genealogy.
"Manufacturers must deploy manufacturing software solutions that can sense and respond to supply chain dynamics in real-time," said Joe Bellini, executive vice president and general manager of Brooks Software. "For manufacturers, the enhanced real-time visibility in Multisite enables them to start production in one facility and then move it to another site to optimize overall production and improve "order-to-promise." These are all significant steps in Brooks Software's overall strategy to deliver applications that bring manufacturers closer to enabling a real-time enterprise throughout their supply chain environment."
Multisite can transfer and manage all process flow information between sites and across the FACTORYworks product line, solving problems that could never before be addressed by a single out-of-the-box application. Multisite allows facilities to share work and determine system availability across multiple manufacturing sites. Multisite can transfer product information in mid-process and monitor product progress once transferred while preserving track and trace information.
Brooks Software built Multisite in collaboration with its customers to address the challenge of integrating manufacturing sites to ensure optimized utilization of capital equipment and greater production output. Prior to Multisite, MES customers with multiple production sites were faced with the challenge of preserving track and trace information as well as ensuring the system did not impact the production performance of any of the sites involved in the exchange of production information. Maintaining product genealogy (resulting from splits and merges) across production sites required large and complex custom applications that were layered on top of the MES. Brooks worked with its customers to simplify the situation by making Multisite part of the core MES, rather than a custom application, thereby lowering the overall cost of ownership. FACTORYworks users now have the ability to decide which facilities are best suited to meet their production goals and then route work to those facilities while maintaining complete process and product traceability.
About Brooks Software
Brooks Software, a division of Brooks Automation, provides real-time applications that support enterprise-wide initiatives for greater efficiency and productivity in collaborative, complex manufacturing. Brooks' Sense Decide Respond(TM) manufacturing software solutions are the foundation for enterprise initiatives in supply chain execution, closed loop automation, lean manufacturing and enterprise performance management. Installed in the majority of Fortune 500 manufacturers, Brooks Software delivers competitive advantage to aerospace & defense, automotive, high tech, life sciences and semiconductor manufacturers worldwide. For more information, visit brookssoftware.com.
About Brooks Automation, Inc.
Brooks Automation (Nasdaq: BRKS - News) delivers automation solutions to the global semiconductor and related industries. The company provides hardware, software, and professional services to help manage every wafer, reticle, and data movement in the fab, improving throughput and yield while reducing cost and time to market. Brooks' products and capabilities are used in virtually every semiconductor fab in the world. For information, visit the company's web site at brooks.com.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The foregoing discussion contains forward-looking statements related to future results and product capabilities and speaks only of Brooks Automation's expectations as of the date of this press release. The forward- looking statements involve several known and unknown risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, the continued success of Brooks Automation, Inc. (the "Company") in the marketplace, the Company's dependence on the cyclical semiconductor industry, the highly competitive nature and rapid technological change that characterize the industries in which the Company competes, the performance of the Company's products and services, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward- looking statements include statements concerning Brooks' software MES products and their capabilities, the Company's software marketing capabilities and its ability to continue to expand its served markets. As a result, there can be no assurance that the Company's future results will not be materially different from those projected. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
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Source: Brooks Software |
