Databases are information and information is power for those businesses that are able to leverage it to their advantage. To gain this advantage, businesses must provide the integration of their enormous business database with smaller tactical databases that service specific shop floor applications. Current Directions exploits existing database resources while providing robust database interfaces that facilitate shop floor transaction processing.

Database interfaces must meet the challenge of real time responsiveness necessary for shop floor applications, while maintaining accessibility to management for queries and reports. Current Directions develops and utilizes technologies and methods that are capable of mediating data exchange with the time sensitive shop floor, the back-end administrative applications, and the business application host database.

Most organizations require their shop floor activities to proceed uninterrupted. Making information available to the shop floor at all times is a challenge for system integrators. Current Directions meets this challenge, by dedicating smaller task-specific databases to the shop floor needs. These techniques provide efficient database balancing and permit shop floor automation to function independently of the core business application while remaining in sync with it at all times.

Current Directions tailors each database interface to take advantage of existing system resources, while balancing workloads to maximize availability and capacity to all of the respective users. Each installation requires it own unique solution to database integration. The following is a partial list of the methods used.

• Multiple data sources managed both inbound and outbound.
• Providing transaction records to and from the business system application for proper posting.
• Direct access and/or update to host business application tables (utilizing ODBC).
• Direct updates of replicated tables that are located on the host business application system.
• Replication of entire tables from the host system into the shop floor data collection database.
• Import or export data into existing tables of data and purging old data automatically.
• Provide data interchange for inbound or outbound files by using flat ASCII text files.
• In extreme cases we use terminal emulation to directly populate application user entry screens (screen mapping).

Listed below is a sample of some of the databases that Current Directions has successfully integrated.

Oracle Progress Informix MS Access

MS SQL Server IBM/DB2 Ingres dBase/FoxPro