Nexprise Inc. last week rolled out a library of customizable business process applications for discrete manufacturers and Nprocess Platform, which the applications run on.
The applications are tailored to specific business processes, such as engineering change notices, and allow manufacturers to quickly automate their paper-based processes, according to officials.
The library consists of a number of applications, including Engineering Change Manager, Quote Manager, Supplier Quality Manager and Contract Data Manager. The balance of 25 or 30 applications should be up and running in a month and a half, said officials in Carlsbad, Calif.
Nprocess Platform resides below the application layer and allows users to build and customize business process applications or Web services. The platform offers drag-and-drop functionality, automatically generating required Java code and database calls.
Other key functions include object definition and mapping based on a flexible data model that enables business model definition, a roles-based user interface, a graphical workflow that enables authoring of processes, tools for creating templates and forms that can replicate a companys electronic or paper-based forms or processes, and a new suite of legacy integration adapters.
Trelleborg Automotive, a unit of Trelleborg AB, is using NexPrise for quote management and document management processes and looks to purchase the new software.
“The benefit to us is I dont have to buy a system to manage each process; I can use one system to manage all processes—and I can use the tool in engineering, in quality assurance, manufacturing,” said Janet Lubeck, global administrator for e-commerce at Trelleborg Automotive, in South Haven, Mich.
Lubeck will work with NexPrise to develop additional business process applications.
“For example, if a supplier ships in a bad product, we communicate from the manufacturing plant to the supplier, and they communicate back to us,” said Lubeck. “Right now, thats a very manually intensive process, using phones and faxes.”