Re: Uninterupted Business -- BPCS-L

>From Al Macintyre

This has been a fascinating & illuminating discussion.  We do not yet use 
Data Collection but there is recurring interest in using some form of it in 
which the personnel who report shop floor work would be other than those who 
actually do the shop floor work.  

We do not need 24x7 shop floor availability but we do have some night & 
weekend shift conflicts, in which the day shift works with great efficiency 
thanks to on-demand access to BPCS 405 CD data through MRP300 SFC300 BOM300 
INV300 and so forth, but then we take the system down in the early evening 
for backup & MPS/MRP CST900 CST600 SYS120 and so forth & people working night 
shift, who were trained by people working day shift, cannot get at the data 
they need.

Now while save-while-active could theoretically be done on the backups, we do 
not have that kind of capability on the BPCS updates, and we have a large 
number of people who leave sessions in the middle of something when they go 
home for the evening, including people at remote sites & inside locked 
offices locally ... ie. by the time I realize potential problem it is too 
late for me to get to most of the screens.  I think we need something like 
WRKACTJOB 4-End that sends to the interactive BPCS job whatever F3 strings 
are needed to get out of the program with a minimum of disruption.

We have some day shift people who work a while into the evenings, so before I 
go to restricted state, I phone their stations to find out if the session has 
a human participant who will be here for how much longer so I can work on 
some programming project until they are done, or if they have gone home 
leaving the session in the middle of something.  Every night I have several 
of these phone calls to our remote sites & now that we have gone to voice 
mail, I sometimes have several phone calls to the same remote site on the 
same nite.  Then I kill half a dozen BPCS sessions, without collecting any 
detailed knowlege of what data base chaos is generated by abnormally 
terminating abandoned sessions.

> Subj:  Uninterupted Shop Floor Data Collection 
>  From:    jraper@distinctsolutions.com (James L. Raper)
>  
>  Shop floor data collection done in real time with seven day a week 24 hour 
a 
> day shop floor availability is the goal of every transaction based system.  
>  
>  Most AS/400's running BPCS are down daily for system back ups, and day end 
> processes to resync inventory, clean up allocations or for some reason that 
> is routine enough to be done daily or weekly like MPS/MRP.  Most systems 
like 
> BPCS are down monthly for period rolls in addition to daily processing.  
> While the AS/400 is active 24/7 it isn't available for transaction 
processing.
>   A manufacturer requiring high availability transaction processing must 
> either have a high availability solution for their entire AS/400 like 
MIMIX, 
> or be able to process and validate transactions off line.
>  
>  DistinctRF by Distinct Solutions uses the AS/400 and an NT server to 
> maintain uninterrupted transaction processing.  With BPCS, CIM in older 
> versions and SMG's in 6.04+, transactions are collected and validated in 
real 
> time and processed real time when the AS/400 is available.  Or the 
> transactions are stored when the AS/400 is not available and processed when 
> the AS/400 becomes available.  The data validation occurs on the NT box 
using 
> tables created using FTP from the AS/400.  Critical data elements from 
files 
> like ILI, ILM, ILN, IWM, etc. are replicated continuously with net change 
> data with little load on the AS/400.  Transaction sets (menus)  are loaded 
on 
> the RF scanners using DistinctRF.  These menus are user created and 
> maintained, and eliminate the load on the AS/400 that terminal emulation 
> would create.  When the AS/400 is not available, the user with an RF 
scanner 
> is still able to process transactions uninterrupted unlike terminal 
emulation.

This fascinating story implies that the NT server has 24x7 without any 
scheduled down time comparable to the reasons for AS/400 down time ... nature 
of BPCS or any other software package beasties sharing the same hardware 
system, backup, periodic re-IPL, operating system upgrades like PTfs, let 
alone the predudicial stereotypes many midrangers have about other platform 
reliability.  It sounds like a great solution, but I suspect that the NT 
server in turn would need some kind of fancy save-while-active backup system 
to complete the package.

>  Unlimited facilities can be tied to the NT server using 14.4 telephone 
lines 
> supporting hundreds of RF devices.  The ability to administer the entire RF 
> network centrally is a benefit to most AS/400 support groups.  The ability 
to 
> load the RF device over the RF network with its transaction set is a 
benefit 
> for the user eliminating carting it back to the computer room for 
> reprogramming.  

That also sounds great.  Our facilities are separated by hundreds of miles.  
May I assume that the NT server is using something comparable to our WAN-like 
AS/400 simulated remote controllers from Perle, so that the Radio Frequency 
communications in separated communities are updated irrespective of the fact 
that they are hundreds of miles apart?

>  DistinctRF is a functional and economic answer to high availability 
> transaction processing and RF network administration.  If you have some 
> interest or questions about DistinctRF or Distinct Solutions, my contact 
> information is below.
>  
>  Jim Raper
>  Distinct Solutions
>  804-914-3212
>  jraper@distinctsolutions.com
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From:    jeff stevens [SMTP:jstevens@gssolutions.com]
>  Subject: Data Collection
>  
>  We are an SSA AS/400 business partner and are currently working with a 
>  client locally who is interested in evaluating data collection software 
>  packages that can interface with BPCS and preferably runs native on the 
>  AS/400.
>  
>  Our company sells data collection hardware, but we do not get involved 
>  selling or implementing data collection software packages.
>  
>  We are familiar with DCServ a potential solution.  Can anyone suggest 
>  additional software packages that my client would be interested in 
>  evaluating?
>  
>  Any input would be greatly appreciated.
>  
>  Thank you.
>  
>  Jeff Stevens
>  G/S Software Solutions
>  Ph:  (616) 956-1121
>  Fx:  (616) 956-6681
>  jstevens@gssolutions.com

Al Macintyre
I am the total MIS staff excluding PC & internet at
Central Industries of Indiana Inc
http://www.cen-elec.com
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