Lock-Maker Benefits From Compete IT's Management

Compete IT has modernised Fullex Locks' infrastructure and integrated a production-control system throughout the organisation on the recommendation of production systems manager Paul Head. Head said: 'During the selection process the people from Compete IT demonstrated their manufacturing software several times to me, the departmental heads and to all the people on the shop floor that it would affect. 'As we had hundreds of finished parts and thousands upon thousands of component parts and multi-level assemblies/bill of materials with often 80 to 200 component parts in, the perceived success of such a project was initially doubted by many of the people involved,' he added.

There were four main problems with this project: all data (part numbers, bill of materials, customer and supplier information) was in the old Pegasus system; there was too much data to be able to manually input it into a new system; a lot of the data within the current system was obsolete or required amendments; and the stock count needed to be entered into the system from day one. Compete IT's manufacturing software allowed Fullex Locks to import from an MS Excel spreadsheet the following data: customer information, supplier information, part numbers, assemblies / bill of materials, stock take quantities and values.

This was achieved by exporting information from Pegasus to MS Excel and then, where necessary, the data was 'cleaned up'. Using the standard import facilities within Factory-Master, the data was then pulled through, removing the need to re-key data, saving time, money and hassle. 'I have been involved in similar projects of this nature many times before and had expected it to take six to 12 months to be fully utilising the system without any glitches. 'To my delight and surprise we were fully live and up and running on the whole system within only two months,' Head concluded.

DLoG Delivers ITC 7 'Industrial Thin Client'

DLoG has begun delivery of the ITC 7 'industrial thin client', announced last November at SPS/IPC/Drives 2008. It includes the features of a robust industrial PC in an overall system with the low TCO of a thin client. The Intel Celeron M-based device series, with a fanless design, is protected to IP54 against vibration, dirt and water, and has a breakproof 15in touch screen.

It is designed to manage the technical requirements for applications like data entry, visualisation and communication in production and manufacturing. With a depth of 70mm, the DLoG ITC 7 permits access to interfaces that are protected via a service lid. A service USB interface, which is protected by the service lid for mass storage and input devices, allows simple configuration and loading of updates.

It also includes an integrated Compact Flash slot. Besides mounting using RAM mount brackets, DLoG offers separate individual mounting brackets in its accessory range. These provide the 15in device with a secure mounting under a variety of conditions in stationary use.