Press Room

Starthis Releases New Torque Tool Integration Module for Improved Quality Assurance – Accelerated TREAD Compliance

Company Delivers First SOA Compliant SCADA Module
for ‘Torque Tool’ Controllers

ORLANDO, FL (February 22, 2006) - Starthis, Inc, the leading provider of SOA compliant industrial automation middleware announces the successful development completion of their Torque Tool Controller Device Bean for their iTapestry Suite of industrial automation solutions. This accelerated development release was driven by a recent production integration project awarded by a major heavy equipment manufacturer and J2EE based Supply Chain Execution (SCE) software provider and systems integrator

The initial decision to shift to intelligent Torque Tool equipment was driven by a need to improve first production run compliance with new Quality Assurance analysis requirements resulting from the TREAD Act. Applying correct torque settings in a fast paced heavy equipment production environment and then validating the results before moving the vehicle to the next production step is a critical requirement in order to keep pace with the production schedule while still delivering the audited quality necessary.

Now that the core elements had been selected – material handling automation equipment and software, as well as the Torque Tools and Controllers – the next critical element was finding an open supervisory control architecture that would connect all of the various elements together and deliver the results in real time to the existing QA database server.

• SCE provider would serve as governing application logic, as it was coordinating material movement and timing
• Already based on a Java architecture, the SCE provider and systems integrator, would prefer using a Java based middleware between the Torque Tool Controllers, legacy Rockwell Automation SLC 5/05 PLCs, and new Rockwell Automation MicroLogix PLCs to meet performance and programming requirements
• Previous experience with Starthis iTapestry from an RFID Driven Manufacturing project, ruled out slower OPC based integration in favor of iTapestry’s ‘services oriented’ direct connectivity between all devices and platforms
• End to end information extraction and delivery was provided within 100 milliseconds, all prompted by simple method calls within the existing SCE application – reduced coding, complexity avoided, project delivery accelerated

The project management team needed both real time performance and an open software architecture so they could stay within budget and deliver on the project performance requirements:

‘This project was so visible and so critical for our client that we were skeptical, but after our previous RFID driven production project we knew an OPC connection would be too slow and take too long to integrate, so we turned to Starthis and asked if they could develop a Torque Tool bean within our project delivery timeframe. They delivered and well within project performance requirements’

Manufacturing is an increasingly dynamic environment generating sizable amounts of critical production information that must be moved to and from industrial automation control devices. Data is only valuable when it becomes useable intelligence distributed to the decision-makers with enough speed so that they can take action. iTapestry is an enterprise server based solution providing direct real time access to all plant floor controls devices enabling these production processes to now be registered as ‘services’ within any corporate SOA directory. iTapestry finally facilitates collaboration between IT and Production personnel – the speed manufacturing management demands with the enterprise systems administration tools IT executives require.

About Starthis
SERVICES ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE for MANUFACTURING
The Starthis iTapestry architecture provides industrial automation software tools for managing the real-time flow of production information within your plant and across your enterprise. This is the next step in the Services Oriented Architecture evolution occurring within the other major information solutions areas of any corporation today – CRM, SCM, MES, and ERP. The iTapestry suite of productivity tools provide direct access to data, management of data distribution and integration, work-in-process visibility, security, continuous availability, reporting and monitoring, and interactive operator interfaces. This is the best way to make vital real-time information available to all key decision-makers in the enterprise - whether on the ‘shop floor’ or in the ‘executive suite’. Further information about Starthis is available at www.starthis.com.