| Cannondale
bicycles have a reputation for quality and that quality starts on
the shop floor. In 1990, the bicycle factory in Bedford, Pa.,
underwent a major conversion, which resulted in the ability
to build at least five times as many bikes while maintaining
less inventory. How this was accomplished was by careful implementation
of new technology.
Cannondale's
production system is now a patented CAD-CAM process, and each
step is tracked using Progress Software's WebSpeed and Report
Builder to collect data, allowing Cannondale to gain information
from anywhere from within the plant. According to programmer/analyst
Bill Miller, the factory currently has eight or nine tracking
stations on the floor capable of scanning in bar codes, keeping
track of shop order numbers, and tracking quantity of product
produced by each individual, by date and time, and by department.
WebSpeed
enables developers to create enterprise database transaction-
processing applications including order entry, claims processing,
customer service, e-commerce, and others for the Internet,
extranets, and corporate intranets. The way it works is, using
a familiar Web browser, users can access WebSpeed applications
and invoke data requests. The request is processed in a messaging
environment that connects via dedicated agents to multiple
data sources. The results are HTML forms created on the fly
from the Web server and dynamically sent back to the browser.
WebSpeed 2.0 runs on Windows NT Intel and Alpha, Sun Solaris,
IBM AIX, Digital Unix, HP-UX, and SCO UnixWare. The product
supports native database access to Oracle, DB2/400 and PROGRESS,
and ODBC access from Windows NT to DB2/MVS, Informix, and
other data sources.
Report
Builder, the product Miller uses to create custom reports,
is capable of performing complex calculations and analysis
while presenting the information in a concise, graphical format.
Critical to Cannondale's needs is the fact that Report Builder
combines advanced, visual querying capabilities with the ability
to customize the report format. Report Builder runs under
Windows 3.1 or NT, requires Progress version 8.l, and supports
data managers including Progress, Oracle, and DB2.
Miller,
trained as an industrial engineer, chose Progress tools because,
"they get the job done." The biggest difficulty he's run into
has been, "producing the specialized reports and industrial
engineering information I'd like to have pre-generated."
For example, he'd like to be able to take the data and develop
flow rates in and out of area. Currently Miller is able to
develop his own custom reports and those that are required
by management with Report Builder. When, for instance, there's
a build up of inventory, he can develop a report using Report
Builder, showing the average inventory by the hour, the flow
rate before and after to show the bottlenecks, and more.
When asked
why he chose to go with Progress Software tools rather than
using a third-party package designed specifically for factory
floor tracking, Miller explained that Cannondale almost
always chooses to go the homegrown route, "We're very innovative
across the board, and RAD tools just don't fit our environment."
Miller and his team of eight have seen the RAD tools available
for their application, but have always been disappointed with
the user interface. "I knew they wouldn't fly on the floor,"
Miller stated, adding that, "while other companies might force
a pre-packaged GUI on their workers, we build our own to their
specs."
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