Kenandy and NetSuite have recently made waves in manufacturing markets for their incorporation of enterprise social tools into manufacturing software. Kenandy, which is built  on the Salesforce Fore.com platform, has incorporated Chatter into their cloud manufacturing solution while NetSuite has incorporated Yammer's social into their manufacturing software. The incorporation of social tools into manufacturing software UIs is an innovative change of pace for a set of technology that hasn't changed much in the last decade. It's refreshing to see Enterprise 2.0 tools and strategies to start making their way into the technologies that manage our production.  

Incorporating activity stream data into manufacturing software UIs has important  implications for collaboration manufacturing environments. The main benefit, obviously, is the speed at which email can be relayed and proliferated throughout the organization. For instance, it enables rapid information sharing between sales teams and production teams to provide instant updates on things like purchase orders. This is great from an operational perspective as it makes it cuts down on things like phone calls, emails and IMs. Activity streams, however, have important implications for the UI itself. I'd like to share three ways that I think activity streams can change manufacturing UIs for the better. 

Three UI Innovations that Activity Streams Can Spur

Beyond allowing users to enrich transactional data, I think that activity streams carry three other important implications for manufacturing software UIs. If incorporated, these features could help to further improve the way that manufacturers operate their shop floors. Activity streams could be use to:

1. Automate reminders that keep projects flowing. A key benefit of an activity stream is that it automatically updates subscribed users with the latest action taken. An activity stream could be used to update every employee on their current and future tasks, directly from the system. This would keep projects flowing while enabling employees to plan ahead for future projects.

2. Stream educational reminders along with tasks. Activity streams allow employees to engage in a virtual conversation about a particular topic. Through these conversations, employees inevitably share educational information. Manufacturing UIs should aggregate this information and attach the bits of wisdom to tasks that employees routinely have to perform. While many systems have wikis built into their software, a stream with this information attached proactively delivers the right information at the right time to the right individuals.

3. Aggregate the most pressing tasks for immediate action. A final benefit I see in activity streams is that it keeps employees abreast of the highest-priority action items. Manufacturing UIs could create an automatically generated list of the most important tasks to accomplish on the shop floor. For instance, an order may need to be completed and rushed to an important client prior to starting on a new purchase order. A manufacturing UI that can order tasks by importance would help manufacturers become more efficient.

This article is adapted from an article that originally appeared on Software Advice – a resource that presents comparisons and buyer's guides for manufacturing software. You can find the original article at: The Benefits of Activity Streams for Manufacturing UIs.

Kenandy and NetSuite have recently made waves in manufacturing markets for their incorporation of enterprise social tools into manufacturing software. Kenandy, which is built  on the Salesforce Fore.com platform, has incorporated Chatter into their cloud manufacturing solution while NetSuite has incorporated Yammer's social into their manufacturing software. The incorporation of social tools into manufacturing software UIs is an innovative change of pace for a set of technology that hasn't changed much in the last decade. It's refreshing to see Enterprise 2.0 tools and strategies to start making their way into the technologies that manage our production.  

Incorporating activity stream data into manufacturing software UIs has important  implications for collaboration manufacturing environments. The main benefit, obviously, is the speed at which email can be relayed and proliferated throughout the organization. For instance, it enables rapid information sharing between sales teams and production teams to provide instant updates on things like purchase orders. This is great from an operational perspective as it makes it cuts down on things like phone calls, emails and IMs. Activity streams, however, have important implications for the UI itself. I'd like to share three ways that I think activity streams can change manufacturing UIs for the better. 

Three UI Innovations that Activity Streams Can Spur

Beyond allowing users to enrich transactional data, I think that activity streams carry three other important implications for manufacturing software UIs. If incorporated, these features could help to further improve the way that manufacturers operate their shop floors. Activity streams could be use to:

1. Automate reminders that keep projects flowing. A key benefit of an activity stream is that it automatically updates subscribed users with the latest action taken. An activity stream could be used to update every employee on their current and future tasks, directly from the system. This would keep projects flowing while enabling employees to plan ahead for future projects.

2. Stream educational reminders along with tasks. Activity streams allow employees to engage in a virtual conversation about a particular topic. Through these conversations, employees inevitably share educational information. Manufacturing UIs should aggregate this information and attach the bits of wisdom to tasks that employees routinely have to perform. While many systems have wikis built into their software, a stream with this information attached proactively delivers the right information at the right time to the right individuals.

3. Aggregate the most pressing tasks for immediate action. A final benefit I see in activity streams is that it keeps employees abreast of the highest-priority action items. Manufacturing UIs could create an automatically generated list of the most important tasks to accomplish on the shop floor. For instance, an order may need to be completed and rushed to an important client prior to starting on a new purchase order. A manufacturing UI that can order tasks by importance would help manufacturers become more efficient.

This article is adapted from an article that originally appeared on Software Advice – a resource that presents comparisons and buyer's guides for manufacturing software. You can find the original article at: The Benefits of Activity Streams in Manufacturing UIs.

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