Executives face numerous challenges in managing global manufacturing operations and successfully collaborating across internal groups internal groups and external partners. In today's economic environment, the number one driving force behind focusing on manufacturing operations is to "reduce the total cost of manufacturing." Prior Aberdeen research has found that to synchronize manufacturing operations by deploying a common platform to manage maintenance, production, quality, and inventory. This new research will show how such a platform can provide the basis for managing not only manufacturing operations, but also quality and inventory across global supplier networks.