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Production Management
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| History |
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Our client, an on-demand printer needed
to manage the turnaround of multiple jobs running simultaneously on an
array of printers, binders, shrink-wrappers, etc., before moving to the
shipping department for final processing, packing, shipping, and
billing. Turnaround time was short. Scheduling required knowledge of
the workflow, a matching of job specifications to machine capacity, the
certainty that all components of the books were present or preprocessed
when the job was ready to run, and an accurate record of the job linked
to correct customer information to complete the billing process.
At
the time we were called in, our Client relied on a combination of lists
maintained by hand on small desktop applications, and accounts updated
separately on a mainframe computer. Meanwhile volume was building while
customer expectations, driven by a competitive market environment, were
forcing shorter times to delivery.
Our Client had a LAN in place
to support middle-office functions. They agreed to use Microsoft Visual
Basic and Microsoft SQL Server to develop the new Production Manager.
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| Results |
The result is a three-tier
client/server application residing on a Microsoft NT server and
utilizing Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) on the middle tier. We
assembled the Windows GUI with Visual Basic employing ActiveX
components designed and built by DSI to create an object-oriented
environment. The "look and feel" is achieved by borrowing the Microsoft
Outlook vocabulary of sheets and icons.
In addition, DSI built a
browser interface that runs on the Firm's Intranet. This Website serves
as an order-entry mechanism as well as a means for customers to track
the status of their orders. To support the billing process, DSI created
an interface to an SAP accounting installation as well as to some
related UNIX-based legacy applications.
The final product is
dynamic, familiar, flexible, and extendible. It is dynamic in the
manner that it allows managers to track, update, and allocate jobs
based on criteria defined by equipment specification and order
requirements. It is familiar in that the managing staff already felt at
home in the Microsoft Outlook environment. It is flexible in its
support of navigation from detail to summary, and in the display
methods it supports, from a calendar-based view to traditional charts
and graphs. It is extendible in that the object-oriented design
supports the easy distribution of information over the manufacturer's
Intranet. |
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Technology 