Microsoft BizTalk Customer Solution
Corning Integrates Seven Manufacturing IT
Infrastructures with BizTalk Server
Published: September 2002
Solution Overview
The Specialty Materials Division of Corning produces specialty materials
for use in advanced industrial products applications, such as
semiconductors and the space shuttle. Many of the materials the division
produces are not only complex and exacting, but also constantly
changing. In addition, the division provides a variety of product lines to
different industries through three independent commercial organizations.
With seven manufacturing sites across North America, Corning joined
forces with Camstar to develop an IT solution that seamlessly integrates
the seven IT manufacturing infrastructures to the different commercial
groups using a shared Microsoft® BizTalk® Server.
Situation
Corning Specialty Materials annually earns approximately U.S.$300 million in sales and is active
in the semiconductor, photonics, and industrial materials sectors, providing advanced products for
applications from lenses for computer chip manufacturing to windows for the International Space
Station. Corning’s vision is to be the world’s preferred supplier of unique specialty materials
solutions, but it faces the challenge of costly materials and products that must get to market
quickly, with no margin for error.
The Specialty Materials Division has seven manufacturing sites across the United States, each
with its own unique, often “homegrown” IT infrastructure. With the introduction of the Six Sigma
quality program and a new company directive to develop a collaborative manufacturing strategy
Customer Profile
Corning Specialty Materials earns
approximately U.S.$300 million in
sales each year and is active in
the semiconductor, photonics,
and industrial materials sectors,
providing advanced products for
applications from lenses for
computer chip manufacturing to
windows for the International
Space Station.
Business Situation
Corning’s vision is to be the
world’s preferred supplier of
unique specialty materials. To
accomplish this goal, Corning
needed a way to integrate the
separate information technology
(IT) infrastructures of its seven
manufacturing sites.
Solution
Camstar created a solution based
on a single server running
Microsoft® BizTalk® 2000 Server
that not only integrates the plants
into one “Virtual Factory,” but also
increases manufacturing capacity,
improves manufacturing
processes, and reduces time to
value.
Benefits

among plants, a solution that would integrate the factories became essential.
Corning needed a solution that would help link manufacturing facilities to each other, as well as

help automate complex business practices between the seven factories and the three commercial

organizations.
Savings, from $750,000 to
$2.3 million in manufacturing
execution system operational
costs
Improvements in business and
manufacturing processes
Reduction in time to value
Software and Services
Microsoft Windows® CE Edition
Microsoft Visual Studio®
Microsoft Windows Server 2000
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000
Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000
Hardware
Zero-byte thin client
Solution
Camstar, the leader in collaborative manufacturing execution (CME) solutions, used Microsoft ®
BizTalk® Server to create a unified manufacturing execution system (MES) that provides the
company with real-time tracking, visibility, and control across the plants. Taking advantage of the
“Being able to bring a
new product to market
Process Orchestration Services technology in BizTalk, Camstar gave Corning the ability to track
and ramp it up to volume
changes to the manufacturing process regardless of where those decisions were made. Camstar
for our customers is
created an MES solution, Virtual Factory, which operates on BizTalk Server. Virtual Factory
critical to our business.
captures critical data points during production, allowing changes to the manufacturing process to
be deployed in real time and essentially providing a single source of reference for any new
manufacturing processes.
“Being able to bring a new product to market and ramp it up to volume for our customers is critical
We need an IT
infrastructure that
supports our innovation
to our business,” says Doug Anderson, Chief Information Officer of Specialty Materials for
cycles to accelerate the
Corning. “We need an IT infrastructure that supports our innovation cycles to accelerate the
whole process, from
whole process, from design to volume production.”
design to volume
production.”
Doug Anderson
Chief Information Officer of
Specialty Materials
Corning
Every site on the Corning WAN can access critical data through a translation application
anchored in the XML. BizTalk Server 2000 allows “any” to “any” integration for all seven plants as
well as outside customers through an open framework compliant with the SOAP. XML and the
Microsoft .NET Framework are key features of BizTalk Server that make it possible for Camstar
to easily integrate the different IT infrastructures and outside customers to the existing sites. The
diagram illustrates how the South Carolina and the Massachusetts factories connect to the
Corning Data Center in New York.
Benefits
With BizTalk Server, Camstar developed an architecture, including applications such as LiveView
and LiveRelay, so that Corning can:
“Camstar has built a

Manage multiple plants as one factory.
solution for our entire

Obtain detailed histories of products, processes, and resources.
manufacturing

Manage process specifications for multiple sites from a central location.
enterprise. Using BizTalk

Collect real-time data and connect it to the enterprise.

Shorten cycle time from research and development to volume production.
Server, production can
begin in one plant and
then be transferred—
Broadens Manufacturing Capacities and Capabilities
with all relevant
BizTalk Server allows for easy integration with virtually any application or technology. Using
manufacturing data—to
shared meta-data on industry standards such as electronic data interchange (EDI), XML, and
SOAP, Corning now can manufacture the same product in multiple plants. In addition, Corning
another site for further
can manage all product and process specifications centrally, even though each plant site controls
processing. The
its own execution and workflow.
flexibility and control
Anderson says, “Camstar has built a solution for our entire manufacturing enterprise. Using
take advantage of
BizTalk Server, production can begin in one plant and then be transferred—with all relevant
excess capacity without
manufacturing data—to another site for further processing. The flexibility and control take
adding costly
advantage of excess capacity without adding costly equipment.”
equipment.”
Ensures Customer Needs Are Met
A major challenge for this division is to ensure that the dozens of customer-required product
attributes are met. Every plant, as well as outside customers and manufacturers, can connect to
the Corning WAN through BizTalk Server regardless of its platform. Camstar’s Virtual Factory
captures critical data points during production, provides revision control over the constantly
changing specifications, and then allows Corning to compare, in real time, measurement to
specification. Every site working on the Corning WAN has access to this information through
zero-byte thin clients, enabling the manufacturing sites to work collaboratively. BizTalk Server
handles all updates, meta-data changes, and IT infrastructure reconfigurations and then deploys
automatically to all required sites.
“We needed a way to maintain information that reflected activity on the shop floor in real time,”
says Anderson. “But we would not have been able to afford to implement and administer a
massive set of point-to-point interface programs. Camstar's LiveSync, powered by BizTalk
Server, is what makes this possible in our distributed computing environment. The ability of
BizTalk Server to reliably exchange XML messages makes this possible.”
Reduces Time to Value
“Corning has been able to construct a very complex manufacturing model in a fraction of the time
and at a fraction of the cost it would have taken with a purely custom approach,” says Anderson.
BizTalk Server allows Camstar to rapidly build and deploy secure, reliable business operations
with and between the existing IT infrastructures. Camstar, using XML, seamlessly integrates
meta-data across any platform through only one location—BizTalk Server—allowing changes to
be made to the existing infrastructure with less custom coding and maintenance.
Doug Anderson
Chief Information Officer of
Specialty Materials
Corning
In addition to decreased development time and costs, Corning’s Specialty Materials division
expects to save between $750,000 and $2.3 million in MES operational costs over three years.
Now, Corning can focus on the big picture. Anderson explains, “The solution provided by
Camstar, centralized around BizTalk Server, makes it possible to solve our biggest challenge:
turning all the collected data into useful information to help our businesses win in the
marketplace.”
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protocols and standards in order to revolutionize the way computers talk to one another.
For more information about Microsoft BizTalk Server go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at
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For more information about Corning products and services, call [1-607-974-9000] or visit the Web site at:
http://www.corning.com/
For more information about Camstar’s products and services, visit the Web site at: http://www.camstar.com
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