Atlanta, GA. CNX returned to the annual ANAUG user convention in Atlanta to demonstrate the latest release of the ATOMIC Planning and Execution System. Version 3.0 includes the newly released Quality Control Module and is fully compliant with PRMS versions 9.0 and 9.1. ATOMIC version 3.0 uses a single service program to interface with the PRMS database, hence making the upgrade process from one version of PRMS to another a simple matter of switching a system control setting. “With this release of ATOMIC, we’ve made it easier for heavily modified PRMS sites to upgrade to 9.0 and beyond,” explains Rob Swanson, CNX President. “If a plant running PRMS v8.4 installs ATOMIC, they gain the simultaneous benefit of (1) eliminating much of their outgrown custom modifications for shop floor scheduling and production reporting, and (2) making the transition from 8.4 to 9.0+ essentially a non-issue for the shop floor.”
Also included in this release of ATOMIC is the new Quality Control Module, recently completed and installed through a Beta program at the Tones facility in Des Moines, IA. The ATOMIC QC Module allows users to define their own screens or templates for collecting quality control data. A series of rules can be defined such that users are required to report measurements at pre-determined intervals, based, for example, on production time or quantity. “We now have ATOMIC seamlessly enforcing our quality measurement requirements in conjunction with the collection of manufacturing information from the shop floor,” says Philip Borntrager, Operations System Analyst. “What used to require strict supervisory oversight to ensure compliance has been replaced by computerized enforcement and on-line edit-checking. You can’t get much more interactive control over the process than that!”