A Sneak Peek Into IQMS’ Upcoming Applications – Part II
IQMS‘ Automation Department has some additional exciting projects to tell you about. In the first part of this blog series, I mentioned some inside information on the latest technology coming out of the Automation Department, such as RealTime™ Process Monitoring and Android tablet applications. Now I’d like to jump right into some applications that are also sure to be a hit.
Weigh Scale Interface:
About two years ago, when the IQMS Automation Department first started on some customized solutions, a customer asked if we worked with weigh scales. We had worked with scanners, PLCs and several other serial type devices, so after reviewing the technical documents for weigh scales, the project was an easy integration for our development team. Recently, the application has become somewhat of a hit.
Here’s what it does: Your users come up to a touch screen computer and choose what item they would like to count … by weight! The application looks at our EnterpriseIQ manufacturing ERP software and, based on your user specified Bill of Manufacturer (BOM), calculates the weight per part (including the individual components, packaging and inserts), minus tare weight. The user clicks the weight button and as soon as the scale reads a value, the calculation is instantly performed and the application displays how many parts are sitting in the box on the scale.
If the part quantity matches the BOM specification, the user sees green. Otherwise, they see red. Very simple! From here, the user clicks one button to print a label and perform a transaction into inventory. As a developer, I love it when people ask how to use an application, what changes they can get integrated into it and what else can we add to it. This is one of those applications that has had a lot of movement lately and I can see why.
CMM Import Tool for SPC:
Attention SPC users who use CMM machines! IQMS has spent no small amount of time and collaboration with CMM software vendors to create an application called the CMM Import Tool for SPC. This application allows users to map their SPC parameters to the output files generated by the CMM software. When the CMM machine completes a cycle of measuring parts within its part program, it simply calls our application with the output file and the data is instantly imported into a new SPC inspection subgroup! If you’ve been re-keying data from your CMM application into our SPC module, then this application is your new best friend!
Shipping Manager:
The last application that I want to mention is, believe it or not, one of the largest ongoing projects at IQMS. IQMS has developed native support for the UPS and FedEx shipping carriers, which only a few application vendors in the world have done! Titled Shipping Manager, the application is incredibly complex underneath the covers, but to anyone using UPS or FedEx applications currently, this is your ticket to a seamless, all-in-one solution. The full integration allows IQMS to give our users the flexibility of using their favorite carrier without having to track data, print labels or copy addresses, shipments, carrier documents, etc. in a separate application!
Hopefully one of the projects listed so far in this series piques your interest. If you have a project in mind and are serious about having the manufacturing plant of the future, we’d love to develop something for you!