The Problem:

A manufacturer of high quality wooden pallets wished to automate the time and attendance system at one of their pallet repair facilities. Their current system required employees to punch in and out on time clocks. At week's end the cards were key-entered by clerical staff. The process was slow, cumbersome and costly. It was also subject to misplaced cards, and clerical error.

  The Solution:

Intermec 9560 transaction managers were connected via a Intermec 9154 to the host AIX based, IBM RS/6000 system to provide easy clock-in and clock-outs. The Current Directions team embedded new commands into the existing Progress language based system. With this additional capability added to their already familiar programming environment, the company's own applications programmers are able to easily send information and programs to the Intermec reader devices. The collected data is stored in Progress databases and can be imported into the main SYMIX system for further processing. Employees were assigned badges with unique bar-code identification numbers printed on them. To check in or out they just scan their card in the appropriate reader. The information is instantly processed. All clerical work key-entering the cards is eliminated.

  The Benefits:

The new system streamlined both the collection and processing of the company's time and attendance information. Hours of clerical key-entering have been eliminated, along with the errors associated with that effort. The administrative review and verification of that work is no longer necessary. The complaints of workers due to missing timecards or inaccurate entries have now disappeared. The system is fast, easily to use, and a cost savings to the company.