Re: RFID -- BPCS-L

You are talking about programming languages that I do not associate with as being the normal stuff used to talk to BPCS with, but there are already other applications out there for which this is the case.

A lot of what can be done with BPCS is version specific, and what options a company chooses to implement. BPCS inventory does go down to the facility-warehouse-location-lot-container level. Transactions, that change inventory, thanks to factory work, shipments, receipts, can get into BPCS via the reading of bar codes. BPCS data can be generated in a form that ends up on a bar code.

People can connect to the 400 via PCs through a network, in which some of those PCs are wireless, although I am not comfortable that all the security issues have been adequately addressed.

Before wireless became the big thing, there was radio frequency communication between hand helds and the 400 for purposes of portable bar code readers ... so for example, someone is wandering around a warehouse with some portable device say on a fork lift truck, bar code wanding some product and getting back info on what it is all about, thanks to the wireless link to some PC connected to the 400.

I do not know how widespread this application area might be within the BPCS community.

I think what you might want to take a look at is the state of the art of what used to be called bar codes, and is now called data collection, because it not limited to bar codes any more.

I am thinking that software, designed to process data that in the past would have come from a bar code reader, and in the future from an RFID reader, might already have a lot of what you are looking for, because there are several critical design issues, one of which being to efficiently interface the BPCS data and the data associated with this data collection methodology.

This is also where different versions of BPCS plays a major role. Many BPCS capabilities did not exist before some version of the software.

SSA delivered various bar code and data collection solutions to various versions of BPCS, then in later versions, came out with something else. There is also a thriving third party market, in which companies opt not to go with the SSA data collection approach, but get some 3rd party package that interfaces with BPCS.

You might also look at the e-commerce connection, where companies can connect their BPCS data base to web page software tools, and have the choice of a number of different vendors there also. I have seen demos of various packages, and personally the one that impressed me the most was from LANSA ... if I am remembering it correctly, you could have a scenario in which you want multiple different vendors and customers able to connect via e-commerce to your BPCS data base, but you do not want customer-A to see what you are doing for customer-B which adds an extra layer of security requirements over an above what normally comes with BPCS.

There's also the question of where the demand is driven. In our case, we do things different because either management needs to save costs, or some customer has a packaging mandate. I suspect that some industries have an RFID or other mandate, where in other industries this won't be on our radar screen for many more years.

Dear BPCS List subscribers
Firstly I ought to say hi as I am new to the group. My background is in application development since the early days of the AS/400 using RPG.

Anyway since being thrust out of the RPG market for various reasons political, personal and outsourcing, my interest has turned to handhelds. Now that IEEE 802.11 wireless is even available on a £99 toy (Nintendo DS) due out next week, I think there is good potential for linking portable field applications to BPCS in the warehouse. I am not too expert in BPCS, does it do container un-/stuffing also?

PSION Teklogix have just announced a new handheld RFID reader, http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050302/25133_1.html, although I haven't looked at it in detail, I expect their lead in the market means this is another significant announcement.

Anyway it is still early days as far as developer productivity, since I really want to develop applications using the Python programming language under the Symbian OS (currently installed in numerous so-called Smart Phones).

If this is an area that is not being addressed by SSA then I would like to take up the challenge, if there is any interest or comment to make by interested users I would be grateful.
Pete R Moore
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