Spanning four days and featuring five shows, the National Manufacturing Week tradeshow held at Chicago's McCormick Place last month showcased the latest trends, products and technologies within the manufacturing industries. In addition to the tradeshow's 1,000-plus exhibitors were seminars on topics such as supply chain management implementations as well as Webcasts highlighting manufacturing execution and enterprise applications.

A resounding theme throughout the show was collaborative and adaptive planning. Michael Frichol, general manager of manufacturing with Microsoft Business Solutions emphasized that customers are seeking solutions allowing companies to share information beyond their four walls and use it to collaborate with trading partners, suppliers, and other customers.

"What holds customers back in the marketplace is the inability to trust each other and share information, business processes and costs," commented Edward Sitarski, vice president of advanced planning at J.D. Edwards.