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Ask the Experts
 Does your company have IFS-related questions? Perhaps you are facing Manufacturing, Financial, or Distribution problems that are begging for a solution? Do you have a technical issue that needs to be resolved?
Here is your chance to ask IFS-related questions to our team of highly qualified experts.
Email us your questions. Our team of experts will get back to you with our best answer. If your question is featured in The Edge, we will send one of our favorite toys. |
 Consultant's Corner |
The Kansas City Royals' "Slugger Base Run"
By Don Nedved - Business Analyst and Data Collection Specialist.
The Royals wanted an attraction for kids and would-be kids that simulated the competition between a participant racing against former Royals greats, including Willie Wilson, George Brett, and Frank White. The idea was that a participant would select his favorite player, the attendant would initiate the system. The participant starts at home plate and begins running when ready. The major league player's progress would be simulated by a series LEDs mounted on a wall along the 90- foot base path. Player and participant times would show in real-time on the eNSYNC-designed scoreboard. When the participant reached "first base," the scoreboard timing digits of the winner would flash.
As it happened, this project did not involve IFS at all, but the technology is in many ways exactly what goes into automating the picking and shipping processes for a warehouse.
Read the full article here.
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Technical Tips & Tricks
 Spring Cleaning Time for your IFS Engine Room
Time to dust off those Servers, Update your Software, Clean your Windows, and Tidy up that Oracle database! By Alan Clark, eNSYNC's Master Cleaner
 If it has been a year or more since you've really cleaned up your IFS engine room, a "Spring Clean Up" should be planned and eNSYNC can help. Your IFS infrastructure works hard but does require some basic maintenance, repair, and tune up to maintain top performance and the reliability users expect. Besides basic tuning and updates there are many things to tidy up: old Log files, temporary files, orphaned records, security accounts, restricted old user profiles, indexes, backups, exports and much more. Alan Clark and his technical team discuss "spring tune up" program that will analyze your Windows, database, and file servers. He discusses updates, cleaning up files, recovering unused disc space, and improving the performance of your existing infrastructure, saving you money on replacement hardware that you may be considering.
Read the full article here.
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Greetings!
 KC Royals, Base Run Automation, and IFS??
So, what do the KC Royals baseball team and IFS really have in common? Absolutely nothing!! The only possible connection would be service partner eNSYNC Solutions and a really fun project we just completed as part of the Royals Stadium (The "K") renovation. eNSYNC was selected to design and build the automated timing system for Slugger's Base Run Exhibit.........one of several interactive fan exhibits that lets the kids get involved the action in a theme park play area behind center field. From running the bases against former Royals greats, checking the speed of their fast ball, to batting against their favorite major league pitchers in a "way cool" virtual batting cage, the Little "K" Theme park has much to offer.
eNSYNC System Engineer Don Nedved (see Consultant's Corner) did a great job delivering a high quality automation system which features precision timing of the runners who compete against an integrated high intensity LED "pace" lighting strip which runs the length of the base path. The acceleration of the pace lights and finishing speed match that of the selected Royals' runner making the virtual race very realistic and a true test of your speed. eNSYNC's design features the same high quality industrial control components (programmable controllers, touch screen monitors, and ruggedized PCs) used in our shop floor data collection solutions for IFS customers.
Tools and techniques for integrated shop floor data collection with IFS Applications have been packaged in service we call DataWorks, which is discussed in our "What's in the Works" column in this newsletter. Projects completed for IFS customers include data collection via PLCs for Quality Management, integrated machine vision inspection systems, and data capture and reporting from robotic palletizing cells. While it might be a "long" run from Royals Stadium to IFS Applications, the tools and techniques we use to integrate shop floor devices are delivering a very high "on-base percentage" for our customers every day..........now if we could just automate the Royals for a World Series Run!!
Let us know if you need any help making a run at shop floor data collection or automation!
Sincerely,
Roger Resley
President
eNSYNC Solutions, Inc.
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ScanWorks Scoreboard
Ultimate Technology Implements ScanWorks™ from eNSYNC
Ultimate Technology Corporation (UTC) is a leading provider of open system point-of-service (POS) hardware solutions and services. Based in Rochester, NY, UTC goes beyond offering retail-hardened products by delivering a range of POS services that ensure customer success. UTC implemented the IFS application suite to help manage their rapidly growing business.
UTC operates two distinct businesses; one in Victor, NY that engineers and manufactures new POS equipment and systems, and the other in Cleveland, OH which maintains existing POS systems. Both units use IFS to run their business, but in very different ways. Victor uses shop orders to manufacture new systems and Cleveland uses work orders to repair and maintain used equipment. Each business unit has significant serial number recording and tracking requirements. Equally important is the need to track labor and material with each order. The business driver for the project was the need to provide customers with a web portal so they could track their order status. The only practical way to meet the demands of the customer-driven tracking system that UTC wanted was by using real-time data entry and validation as material moved within the plant.
This article describes how UTC was able to accomplish all of this quickly and effectively using eNSYNC's ScanWorks.
Read the full article here.
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DataWorks
DataWorks™ consists of three components which provide connectivity to devices and communication to IFS application modules: DeviceWorks provides both serial RS-232 and broadband Ethernet connectivity; CommWorks maintains the protocols for various device types and is the traffic manager to and from IFS. The third component, LinkWorks provides a real-time link between the automation system (PLC) and IFS.
DataWorks provides a real-time connection for rapid and secure reads and writes to the underlying Oracle database for IFS. The activity APIs provide access to the data, tables, and views within IFS. This allows eNSYNC to build a data collection system tailored to specific customer's requirements. DataWorks is built on the exact architecture which powers eNSYNC's popular ScanWorks™ bar code data collection solution for IFS.
DataWorks is an application tool kit which connects to IFS through the Information Access Layer and leverages the component based architecture of IFS (picture to left). DataWorks uses published APIs which form the business logic and data gateways to IFS modules,
Read the full article here.
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"Coming Soon: IFS University for Advanced Studies"
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