Think & Do, a popular PC-based software from PLC Direct SA, is now a leading e-control software supplier in the market. E-control is a new way of approaching the automation of manufacturing and distribution systems, combining communications, information and control technologies in open architecture solutions.
E-control lays the foundation of e-manufacturing infrastructure for on-line business strategies where the integration of control with connectivity and information management facilitates the achievement of lean manufacturing systems.
The products include Microsoft DNA compatible enterprise connectivity and productivity enhancement tools that are integrated with control and operator display capabilities. Think & Do offers transparent scalability across the range of Microsoft platforms, including Windows 2000 workstations as well as Windows NT embedded and Windows CE controller platforms.
E-manufacturing is a new approach to manufacturing and distribution systems implementation that provides full integration between manufacturing control systems and enterprise applications using commercially developed off-the-shelf software components. It cost-effectively eliminates the massive information bottleneck that exists between the plant floor and information systems - and equally important, it provides direct, easily-configured information exchanges between manufacturing and customer relationship management systems and supply chain management systems. All of this may sound like the proverbial 'mouthful' but the result is an agile, re-configurable manufacturing capability that can respond instantly to the changing demands and opportunities that are characteristic of e-business.
E-manufacturing works by replacing traditional, proprietary control devices (such as PLCs and custom controllers) with enterprise-enabled control and realtime information platforms (e-controllers) that make full use of commercial IT technology to integrate both control and information systems on standard platforms, like PCs and embedded Windows CE devices.
E-manufacturing is essentially a shrink-wrapped manufacturing system infrastructure built on IT standards including Microsoft Windows, Ethernet and the Internet. With its standard IT technology base, it replaces monolithic, proprietary manufacturing applications with component-based, Internet-enabled solutions. Leading e-business companies are rapidly developing e-manufacturing solutions to complement their e-commerce systems and as a result, they are able to rapidly respond to customer demand, add value to their e-commerce interaction with customers, and rapidly deploy manufacturing systems on a global basis. PLC Direct believes that E-manufacturing is a necessary part of e-business strategy for companies making real products to successfully transform themselves into e-business enterprises.
PLC Direct believes that the most successful implementation of e-manufacturing solutions is more likely to bypass the traditional vendors of well-known brand names of proprietary manufacturing systems. "They will more likely favour hardware and software from a new 'e-breed' of open systems suppliers, many of them with funny-sounding names like Think & Do, DataSweep, Efinity, HotSamba and Bamboo." This new breed of suppliers focusses on standard interfaces, configurable software components, standard hardware platforms and supplier collaboration to rapidly implement e-business solutions for manufacturing and distribution companies. In the process, they are driving the same kind of dramatic changes in customer expectations, supplier base, and distribution systems that PC technology brought to office automation, computer-aided design (CAD) and the Internet.
E-control is the foundation of e-manufacturing solutions and e-controllers are hardware/software solutions that integrate control, communication and information technologies on scalable Microsoft platforms. These controllers provide high-performance realtime control for machines and processes while simultaneously providing enterprise connectivity and local data processing of production and productivity data. Hardware platforms for e-controllers include commercial PCs and servers, industrial PCs and a host of embedded devices. E-controllers include native Microsoft DNA connectivity through DCOM, OPC and/or XML and typical E-Controller operating systems include Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows NT embedded and Windows CE.
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