Mitigating Risks in Global Manufacturing Operations

Best-in-Class Manufactures Are 91% More Likely to Drill Down Risks by Facility and 143% More Likely to Drill Down Risks by Assets Than Laggard Manufacturers

| Source: Aberdeen Group Aberdeen Group

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - April 3, 2008) - Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), through the analysis of over 250 manufacturers, reveals that Best-in-Class manufacturers realize an 11% increase in products manufactured in compliance, a 40-hour earlier response time to non-conforming shipments, 10% less asset downtime, and a 1.5 standard deviations reduction in production process variability. Putting these findings in context, Mehul Shah, Research Analyst with Aberdeen's Global Manufacturing Practice, states that, "To efficiently manage manufacturing operations, manufacturers must have capabilities to manage and mitigate risks from key areas such as supplier non-conformance, quality and compliance management, asset management, employee health and safety, environmental concerns and, finally, time-to-market deadlines. Best-in-Class manufacturers are taking a holistic approach by standardizing processes for managing risks, investing in capabilities to escalate non-conformances in real-time, linking operational metrics to financial metrics and integrating manufacturing solutions with risk solutions to proactively address and mitigate risks across the critical aspects of manufacturing operations."

The research offers the following recommendations: 

--  Escalate non-conforming alerts to appropriate decision makers in real
    time to ensure that timely actions are initiated to mitigate the risk of a
    non-conforming incident
--  Link operational metrics with financial metrics to understand the
    impact of an adverse event on the companies' bottom line
--  Provide drill down visibility to operational risks and performance
    metrics by facility and assets
--  Invest in an integrated solution across quality, intelligence,
    maintenance management and inventory management

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: ETQ and IBM. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4736.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

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© 2008 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
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Contact Information: Media Contact: Mehul Shah Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5212 Mehul.shah@aberdeen.com