COMPUTER-INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING -- Making Customers' Work Flow

Any attempt to build a system that can address all of those needs must start with establishing some consistency in the requirements, Jones asserts. The critical first step is to capture the customer's intent in a defined way.

"If you are going to get into open-architecture, JDF-based communications, you have to establish a product definition," the company exec explains. "The better the (input) information, the more efficient the workflow it feeds."