Project Management 411

Greenfield Plants Contribute to Drive to Adopt Technology in Older Plants

by Bob Turek on March 19th, 2008

Greenfield plants are increasing around the world. They tend to have the latest technology and their success tends to drive technology changes at older plants. Manufacturing Business Technology magazine’s article on IT going deeper into manufacturing plants reveals these interesting revelations in a quote from IBM’s Dave Petrucci:

“Greenfield plants are being built around the world. Many U.S. companies haven’t touched the plant floor in 10 to 20 years. They need greater flexibility and common processes across locations merely to survive. It’s an opportunity for management to push IT, operations, and engineering to become more single-minded in their focus.”

So, there are a couple of things going on here. One is simply how greenfield plants tend to be more technology enabled and how that drives other plant improvement within a company. Another is that older US plants are becoming non-competitive with newer technology-laced foreign plants. When combined with the tendency toward establishing and improving global supply chain strategy, the pressure on IT to dive deeper into plant operations increases.

How do greenfield plants affect your competitiveness? Are they driving manufacturing costs down? Is technology responsible for costs going down or is it new manufacturing techniques like lean manufacturing?

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POSTED IN: Solutions and Trends Requiring Projects