A dot-net solution

By Len O'Neal , Web Editor -- Plant Engineering, 5/1/2000

If you were looking for a common theme during the recent National Manufacturing Week, it's likely that you came away with the realization of the impact the internet is having on manufacturing and plant operations. However, to understand the real story at the show, you were better off using your ears and not your eyes.

Walking the aisles, whether it was in the Design Engineering hall or the Plant Engineering and Management hall, overhearing someone comment on the abundance of new dot-com exhibitors was quite common. If you listened closely, however, many of those comments seemed to suggest an annoyance at the proliferation of companies claiming to provide your solution to doing business on the internet.

One such new company that stands out from the rest, which is hard to do when promoting itself from the basement of an exhibit hall, is not really that new at all. If you're a regular reader of this publication, the web address of www.manufacturing.net should sound rather familiar to you. So what's so new, you ask, and what makes Manufacturing.net different from the rest of those dot-coms, besides the fact that it is really a dot-net company?

At first glance, it would be easy to suggest that, yes, Manufacturing.net LLC is just another company wanting to be an e-commerce marketplace for the manufacturing industry. But tear off the wrapping of this newly formed joint venture between Cahners Business Information and i2 (formerly Aspect Development, Inc.), and you'll see more than just a company that can supply comparison and purchasing information and capabilities for millions of standard parts and products. (There's no surprise as to why it's called the SuperCatalog.)

In its past 4 yr as a property of Cahners, and continuing through its current partnership with the company, Manufacturing.net has been recognized for its ability to provide high-quality, timely, industry-leading content in such areas as automation and controls, design engineering, plant operations, and manufacturing processes. By combining and integrating this wealth of information with a market-leading exchange for MRO procurement, Manufacturing.net now offers users the ability to make more informed buying decisions.

Buyers of industrial products and services who visit Manufacturing.net can access an end-to-end, one-stop shop that allows them to:

• Research and learn about products from respected information brands, such as Plant Engineering, Industrial Distribution, and Purchasing magazines

• Easily find those products and compare them to others

• Buy preferred products from trusted suppliers.

So while more and more dot-coms continue to surface, creating what seems to be even more confusion and frustration among buyers, put the internet to work for you-and put your e-commerce worries to rest-with the power of knowledge that can only be found at a dot-net...Manufacturing.net.