The Manufacturing Operations Blog

I thought EMI as a term is dead and has instead evolved into Operations Intelligence. Turns out, I was wrong. In her latest AMR Alert, Alison Smith, brings back the term in full swing. Good or bad, AMR has the knack for coming up with acronyms that stick. Some of them stick a bit too much, more than AMR would have liked, example MES. AMR would like to move on with the term and evolve MES into something broader and more inclusive. But MES refuses to go away. It is the best known and most used term (no scientific poll, just my perception based on the discussions I have had with customers and partners) in manufacturing software systems landscape. But in case of EMI, it had its problems. While it conveyed the aspect of lifting Manufacturing discussion up in the Enterprise arena, it didn’t quite convey the dual nature of EMI applications. As per AMR’s definition of EMI solutions, EMI was supposed be as much about integration as it was about intelligence. EMI didn’t quite convey that. But either does Operations Intelligence. But Operations as a term is more inclusive and broader than just manufacturing. For that reason alone, I liked the transition from EMI to OI.

Click here to read the AMR alert.