Warehouse Automation Project

Hello,

well, we have a bunch of warehouse automation machines that exchange data with 
our 
AS/400. These machines basically read and update from about 5 dedicated 
interface files.
Problem is that we currently have 3 kinds of systems:

            Warehouse filling machine:  RS/6000 with DB2/Connect
            Picking/Labeling device:       Win2K-Server with OLE-DB ( Visual 
Basic prgs.)
            Sorting machine           :      Win2K-Server with ODBC (also 
Visual Basic)

The software for these machines is done by third-party (which also does the 
machinery). These 
guys have no knowledge of AS/400 and what I have seen of their programming is, 
er, strange.

Anyhow, additional stations for lot-tracing are planned, and third-party came 
up with a central, 
non-AS/400 server (with Oracle-DB). Here, the 400 would only exchange order 
data with the 
Orcale-Server.

Performance is one of our major problems here. DB2/Connect is okay, but the 
OLE-DB and 
ODBC connections needed some major tuning. SQL-statements used are very 
straightforward 
and the correct logicals are available.

What other connection methods are available for this type of work? We basically 
need close to 
real-time connections.

I have thought about going to dataqueues and skip all that SQL-stuff. Are there 
dataqueue 
tools for Unix and Win2K systems (Visual Basic)?

Some statistical data: We process about 20.000 orders/day and 99.5% are shipped 
same day 
to about 20 European contries. Orders come in through EDI and are processed 
automatically. 
Warehouse people pick up the delivery note and fill the order. It is then put 
on the sorter and 
transported to the correct delivery station (carrier dependent).

Best Regards,

Oliver