GE Releases Inventory Tool Based on Predix

This week, GE announced the availability of its WIP Manager, a manufacturing system that uses the Predix operating system — cloud-based — to provide better visibility into work orders.

The WIP Manager is in competition with traditional Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) in the maintenance space and offers the ability to integrate into a company’s business enterprise system for better inventory tracking.

According to the press release, the system can “track production and service processes through work orders, which are created in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and an operational route through the shop floor. This is all done from the customer’s manufacturing execution system (MES). Once the work order is created and the required materials are available, using WIP Manager, work center operators can begin the operations listed on the work order to build or repair the specified parts.”

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“Heavy industrial assembly and MRO operations can see a step increase in productivity by just knowing where the component parts are when they’re needed,” said Greg Gorbach, vice president, ARC Advisory Group.

Other highlights include the ability to track part repair from start to finish using data from work orders, analytics charts showing how many parts are queued at each work center. Scorecard charts show the view of a line of balance, where the user can select a part and display how work orders containing the part are balanced for In-Progress, Hold, and Rework for each operation.

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