Today's manufacturers face a number of challenges, including escalating business costs, shortages of skilled personnel, the intensification of competition in international markets, and the need to stay ahead in the race for innovation and productivity improvement. Over the past decade, Canadian manufacturers have worked hard to reduce the inefficiencies in their supply chains, which has led to dramatic improvements in operational efficiency and the emergence of today's increasingly lean and responsive supply chain. However, to achieve full competitive status, manufacturing companies need to respond to customers faster and create value that extends beyond a quality product. You need complete real-time visibility of important data and business assets across the entire operation. Rogers offers a full suite of solutions and services to assist in capturing, communicating, storing, and analyzing the data that fuels supply chains, integrates and streamlines operations, and provides unbeatable value to customers.

Our solutions for the manufacturing industry include:

• Converged Networking of the Value Chain

CRM/ERP applications and Internet access have a mainstream role in manufacturing companies, enabling business critical sales, customer support, competitive analysis, and supplier/partner communications. Convergence applications like IP telephony, IP-enabled contact centers and videoconferencing also deliver important benefits by significantly lowering costs, enhancing employee productivity and delivering better customer service. Rogers can deliver a secure, scalable and converged IP network which will lead to dramatically lower operating costs while enabling more flexible and efficient ways of conducting business in almost every part of the value chain including supply chain/inventory, financial reporting, customer service, security, and communications. By upgrading the infrastructure between head office, plants and distribution centres to IP, voice and data traffic can run over one network, achieving lower communication costs and improved employee productivity. In addition, Rogers can provide centralized traffic monitoring and policy management and reporting.

• Field Sales and Service Mobility

In today's global environment, manufacturing organizations need to operate well beyond the walls of factories and offices. At any given moment, executives and plant managers are traversing the globe, service technicians, suppliers, and distributors are on the road, and assets and inventory could be anywhere. Rogers delivers customized solutions that leverage a comprehensive wireless and wireline communications portfolio. Our solutions help manufacturers more efficiently manage their business in the design phase, on the plant floor, in the warehouse, on the road, at points of sale and beyond. Your frontline personnel can meet the unpredictable demands of this discerning market with mobile technologies that allow real-time, remote access to enterprise systems and databases, such as IP VPN solutions, mFORMS, Rogers Sales Anywhere CRM solution and access to the only GSM/GPRS/EDGE wireless network in Canada for wireless communication anywhere in the world.

• Mobilizing Production Management

Every unplanned work stoppage means lost productivity, potential delivery delays and ultimately serious revenue off the bottom line. Increased automation and new technologies - in combination with increasingly dynamic market conditions - mean increased complexity in manufacturing systems, and increased vulnerability to disturbances and interruptions. Rogers Wireless Communication Solutions can cut unplanned stoppage times by ensuring the right people are reachable and can respond quickly from wherever they are. Our solutions can also be integrated with plant monitoring and alarm systems so that critical alarms immediately trigger an alert to the most appropriate person. Wireless solutions also contribute to a more productive, more responsive and safer production environment, especially during time-critical situations such as maintenance or machine changeovers. Our solutions provide integration with monitoring and maintenance systems so maintenance teams can manage and perform their tasks anywhere on site. Rogers Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) provide virtual real-time alerts on everything from late orders to bottlenecks, and WLAN enabled mobile devices facilitate immediate access to inventory, production schedules and work orders on the go.