SANTA CLARA, CA (February 10, 2010)– Hobart Machined Products has implemented a real-time operational visibility and supplier collaboration solution from Omnitrol Networks at Hobart’s Ellensburg, WA plant. The OMNITROL Supplier Visibility (OSV) solution automates tracking, production status and delivery projections of work orders for such key customers as Boeing and NASA, through a secure collaborative web portal. As a completely automated real-time information exchange platform, OSV removes the overheads and inaccuracies found in tracking orders for on-time delivery.

OSV automates order and part tracking through wireless sensor technologies, and captures key performance metrics for further production analysis. One such analytics capability includes real-time order forecasting with which Hobart can proactively manage and prioritize order commitments to reduce delays and keep a 100% on-time delivery. Hobart’s customers can now keep informed, anywhere, anytime, through an intuitive and secure web portal without requiring any manual data capture or reporting.

"We have taken the initiative to push our lean manufacturing operations into the new age of collaborative manufacturing," said Rosemary Brester, President & CEO of Hobart Machined Products. "With the growing challenges of managing outsourced partners, our customers require real-time visibility into order status to proactively and consistently track on-time delivery." Hobart designs and manufactures precision parts and hardware for the military and aerospace industry, as well as the automotive, medical device, and electronics industries.

Hobart selected Omnitrol Networks’ real-time business intelligence solution because it automates shop-floor visibility while implementing collaborative processes with Hobart’s customers allowing them to manage outside manufacturing operations as if they were a “virtual” extension of their own operations. Omnitrol Networks’ unique model for automated tracking of work orders, quality metrics and delivery status removes manual logging which inevitably becomes error-prone and difficult to synchronize with supply-chain back-end systems. The OSV solution automates this processing and continuously tracks orders, staff and workflows to pinpoint bottlenecks and production challenges before they happen. Through powerful predictive analytics, OSV projects delivery times and completion times at each stage of the manufacturing process. Additionally, by allowing access to that information through secure web services, supplier management is transformed into exception-based collaborative partnerships.

"The advantages go both ways," says Hobart President Rosemary Brester. "The OMNITROL solution provides Hobart’s manufacturing team with real-time visibility on all our customer orders without any impact on our operations. The solution eliminates the tasks of order tracking and manual entry. More importantly, the solution makes us a better partner to our customers by automatically sharing critical order information with them 24x7."

"Collaboration benefits both parties,” says Omnitrol Networks President Raj Saksena. “The Hobart installation is another example of real-time visibility providing performance optimization not only for the manufacturer but also for the manufacturer's OEMs and supply-chain partners."

About Hobart Machined Products

Hobart Machined Products is a solution-oriented, customer-focused manufacturer of precision parts and hardware. Excelling in complex machining tasks, Hobart partners with customers to meet project specifications. Long-term customers worldwide rely on Hobart for exacting quality and project confidentiality in precision machining; high-end assemblies, design and engineering; prototype production; and tooling fabrication and weldments. For 32 years, Hobart has earned a global reputation for consistent performance ratings and customer service excellence for customers in the aerospace, medical, automotive and electronics industries.

About Omnitrol Networks, Inc.

Omnitrol Networks is the industry's first end-to-end solution delivering real-time collaborative supply-chain. Using predictive analytics directly from shop-floor operations, the OMNITROL solution enables real-time operational and supply intelligence in the aerospace & defense, food, retail and logistics markets. The OMNITROL solution automates real-time visibility into operations through digital sensors, RF and Wi-Fi technologies. Omnitrol Networks Inc. is a privately held company with corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, California, USA. Additional information about Omnitrol Networks' products and services are available at www.omnitrol.com.

Santa Clara, CA – November 10, 2009 – Omnitrol Networks, a pioneer in delivering automated and predictive real-time operational visibility in logistics, food-chain and apparel manufacturing markets, announced today that they will be delivering their valued solution for real-time intelligence in retail shop-floor operations. The real-time, item-level inventory solution utilizes Omnitrol’s unique federated services architecture to create an integrated intelligent retail-distribution network. The retail shop-floor inventory visibility solution will be sold through Omnitrol’s channel and integration partners.

When questioned as to “why now”? Omnitrol’s response was to outline the current issues with slow RFID adoption in the retail industry. However, with their proven solutions, Omnitrol felt that the retail market is now ready to accept RFID as a legitimate technology to enhance business performance in day-to-day shop-floor operations, including global traceability.

In a retail industry study conducted by the University of Arkansas, 80% of lost sales days are from out-of-stocks, which current processes take seven to nine days to correct, and cost the industry upwards of $93 billion per year.

Omnitrol Network’s low cost, simple, pre-integrated, plug-and-forget Retail Inventory Tracking solution is proven to not only reduce stock outs and increase sales, but also reduce the labor costs associated with inventory taking while improving stock, promotion and sales analysis. The solution provides daily inventory in minutes for a retail store with multiple zones or multiple locations. It can even scale to provide end-to-end global tracking from manufacturers. Inventory and velocity reports are available through secure web-portals in real-time between trading partners. The Omnitrol solution allows retailers to configure inventory movement and stock-out rules to automatically send alerts and notifications to management and partners without any manual intervention.

ABI Research's RFID practice director Michael J. Liard explains, “RFID’s use in the apparel sector represents the greatest near-term opportunity for business improvements and fewest impediments to growth in the retail industry. A quick, demonstrable ROI and key business metrics for adoption have been clearly established and the results of nearly all evaluations conducted have been compelling. As a result, market activity is brisk and promising, especially among early-adopter specialty apparel retailers.”

"We are very excited to release this solution to our channels and system integration partners which will help accelerate the deployment of real-time intelligent edge solutions with quick ROI. We are now taking our inside-out visibility strategy to the retail industry,” says David Orain, VP of Marketing at Omnitrol Networks. “The Omnitrol solution can be deployed in days without any impact to existing systems or processes. Our solution extends real-time inventory visibility seamlessly to existing operations at the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry", added Orain.

About Omnitrol Networks

Omnitrol Networks is the industry's first end-to-end solution delivering real-time collaborative supply-chain. Using predictive analytics directly from shop-floor operations, the OMNITROL solution enables real-time operational and supply intelligence in the aerospace & defense, food, retail and logistics markets. The OMNITROL solution automates real-time visibility into operations through digital sensors, RF and Wi-Fi technologies. Omnitrol Networks Inc. is a privately held company with corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, California, USA. Additional information about Omnitrol Networks’ products and services are available at www.omnitrol.com.