Ankeny, IA. CNX Corporation, makers of the ATOMIC Planning and Execution Product Suite for PRMS, today announced it has forged an agreement with Tone Brothers, makers of Spice Islands, Durkee and Tones brand spices, to co-develop a quality control interface for use on the shop floor. The resulting Q/C module will be available for general distribution as a new ATOMIC component by January of 2002. Tones implemented ATOMIC’s SF (shop floor) and UDS (user-defined spec) modules in early May. The programs, which interface directly with PRMS, allowed the company to reduce the amount of paper forms and hard-copied specifications necessary to process work orders through the shop floor. Operators receive work order instructions and key production information directly on-line, bypassing most paper forms altogether.
Tones is now looking for a similar solution to the paperwork associated with collecting quality control information. “With ATOMIC controlling the sequence of work orders on the shop floor and the correlated collection of production data, it seemed a natural fit to add quality control information to the package,” says Philip Borntrager, Operations System Analyst. “Our goal is to have ATOMIC seamlessly enforce our quality measurement requirements in conjunction with the collection of manufacturing information.”
CNX will begin Beta testing the Q/C module at the Tones facility in late October. The Q/C module will be an extension of the UDS module, which will allow Tones to create customized data-entry templates for quality measurements, set tolerance thresholds and define control settings to ensure data is recorded at proper predetermined intervals (based on machine time and/or production quantity). “What currently requires strict supervisory oversight to ensure compliance will soon be replaced by computerized enforcement and on-line edit-checking,” Borntrager says. “You can’t get much more interactive control over the process than that!”
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