Technical Overview for
IT Professionals
Application Template: Manufacturing Process Management
Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 is technology in Windows Server® that offers an integrated
portfolio of collaboration and communication services designed to connect people, information, processes and
systems both within and beyond the organizational firewall. Now available at no additional cost, Windows
SharePoint Services makes it simpler for IT professionals to implement and manage a team collaboration
infrastructure. Application Templates are tailored to address the needs and requirements for specific business
processes or sets of tasks for organizations of any size. The templates provide out-of-the-box, customizable
scenarios which solve business needs as well as providing a starting point for partners and developers looking to
build more sophisticated Windows SharePoint Services solutions.
Description of Template
The Manufacturing Process Management application template for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 helps
teams document and track the steps involved in a linear manufacturing process. The site includes the ability to
identify unique manufacturing steps.
Users can then enter the step’s
predecessor and any dependent steps
to build a manufacturing timeline in a
Gantt
Chart
format.
Materials
required and descriptions of the
detailed tasks required can also be
added to each step.
The site also
allows team users to identify issues
that arise, assigning them to a step in
the manufacturing process. Manufacturing processes with issues are shown on the main page as red, enabling
team members to see at a glace which processes are at risk of being delayed.
Once an issue is identified, team members can assign task owners to resolve the issue or use the engineering
contacts list to determine which team member is best suited to resolve the issue. The Manufacturing Process
Management site also includes an announcements location as well as the capability to upload supporting
business information and product specification to the site.
© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
www.microsoft.com/sharepointapps
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Activities Performed in this Application Template

Document a Manufacturing Process:
Site users begin by entering in the
details of a linear manufacturing
process. Each step in the process is
assigned
a
duration
and
predecessor, if appropriate.
a
Slack
time is entered to help build the
Gantt Chart showing the flow of the
manufacturing process. The site also enables users to enter a
description of the manufacturing step as well as the materials
that are required, helping other team members understand
what needs to be completed in order to manufacture the
component.

Track and Assign Issues: As the manufacturing process
commences, site users have the capability to track the status of
issues that may affect a manufacturing step. The issue can be
assigned an owner, given a description and tagged with the
appropriate priority and status.
Users can also identify any
related issues, which may help team members better resolve the
issue at hand. The site also keeps track of all changes to a
particular issue, showing the changes made, date and who made
the changes. This functionality helps simplify the process of
tracking changes to an issue as well as roll back any incorrect
changes made.

Track Tasks: The site also enables team members to track and assign responsibility for completing tasks.
Owners of tasks can use the site to keep team members in the loop on their progress by updating the
status, description and percent complete indicator for the tasks they are working on.
The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are
fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, places, or events is intended
or should be inferred.
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This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
www.microsoft.com/sharepointapps

Listing of Related Information: Team members can use the sites document libraries and lists to upload
business information and product specifications as well as detailed information on engineering contacts.
For users of Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007, contacts can be synchronized so they are available offline and
always kept up to date with changes made by other users to the site.
Site Lists and Libraries
Business Information: Teams use this document library to upload and store information about the business
Product Specifications: Team use this document library to upload and store specifications on the product being
manufacturing using the Manufacturing Process Management site.
General Tasks: Use the Tasks list to track what work you or your team needs to complete.
Engineering Contacts: Use the engineering contacts list to track contact information of extended engineering
team members, enabling users of Office Outlook 2007 to synchronize for up to date offline access.
Issues: Team members can enter issues related to the manufacturing process and identify which step in the
manufacturing process the issue is affecting.
Manufacturing Tasks: Team members document the manufacturing process that is being listed by the site
Announcements: Use the announcements board to post messages on the home page of the site.
Customizing SharePoint Sites and Templates
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is a Web site development and management program that provides
powerful tools to build, customize, and contribute to Windows SharePoint Services sites using the latest Web
design technologies and established standards in an IT-controlled environment.
Use Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to create and deploy interactive solutions without having to write code.
Automate business processes, such as document approval, custom event notification and other collaboration
tasks with the workflow designer. Create reporting and tracking applications using data views and forms to
easily gather and aggregate data from outside your site and from lists and document libraries on the Web.
Extend your solution by building advanced interactive Microsoft ASP.NET pages. Insert and edit controls with
the same powerful activity menus and control property grids previously found only in the Microsoft Visual
Studio® development system.
The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are
fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, places, or events is intended
or should be inferred.
iii
This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
www.microsoft.com/sharepointapps
Technical Dependencies
The Manufacturing Process Management application template has the following technical requirements:

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0*

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (optional)
*Review Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 system requirements for additional information:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/techinfo/sysreqs.mspx
More Information
For more information on the technologies described in this article, please visit:
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0:
http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007:
http://office.microsoft.com/shareointdesigner
Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services:
http://www.microsoft.com/sharepointapps
The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are
fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, places, or events is intended
or should be inferred.
iv
This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
www.microsoft.com/sharepointapps