News - FactoryLink

To satisfy requests from two of its customers, Ford and Goodyear, NETCON teamed up with Bob Reed and Mark Rutherford of USDATA and Dan Reed of High Tech Enterprises (HTE), a USDATA Tier One Partner (TOP), to incorporate wireless messaging into USDATA's FactoryLink product. Given the open architecture of NETCON's FirstPAGE Alarm Manager (FPAM) and USDATA's FactoryLink, it took less than 2 man weeks to develop an industrial strength solution that is not based on unreliable DDE agent technology or "klugey" RS-232 serial port text matching algorithms that are not able to keep up with any kind of real volume. The solution had to run reliably 24 hrs/day, 7 days/wk.

NETCON will be shipping, at the end of May 2000, the first FactoryLink Edition of FirstPAGE Alarm Manager to Darren Rawlinson from Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company's Wolverhampton, England Plant. NETCON was chosen for the job because of its experience in plant floor communications systems and because of its FirstPAGE suite of proven products. The FirstPAGE suite of products have been providing alarm notification and messaging for General Motors and DaimlerChrysler for over 3 years and are their only corporately endorsed/approved messaging products. HTE was selected because of their in-depth knowledge and experience with the FactoryLink product line.

A new FPAM pak was developed so that FactoryLink Administrators would simply have to install the pak to page enable their entire application. Along with the FPAM pak, a configuration agent was developed for FPAM that takes advantage of FactoryLink's unique system architecture to provide for easy configuration and maintenance.

The FirstPAGE Alarm Manager / FactoryLink turnkey solution includes:

	A FPAM pak that runs along side of each FactoryLink application and notifies FPAM as alarms fire and terminate (or get confirmed) via a TCP/IP sockets connection.
	A FPAM Server which receives alarm notifications and dispatches pages based on user-defined rules.
	A FPAM Administrator which allows the user to define who gets paged, how many times, and at what time intervals on an alarm by alarm basis.
	FirstPAGE Server which dispatches pages via in-house paging terminals or commercial carriers.

Key Features and Benefits

	Dynamic Alarms Complete and dynamic alarm lists, direct from FactoryLink, creates a point and click configuration environment that minimizes typing and thereby reduces errors. This also eliminates the need for alarms to be maintained in multiple applications (ie. FactoryLink and messaging utility).
	Escalation 5 levels of escalation are available for every alarm to ensure alarms don't get forgotten.
	Termination / Confirmation Can optionally send a confirmation page to people previously paged of an alarm letting them know that the alarm has been addressed.
	User Defined Messages Users can define custom messages at every level of escalation.
	Rapid Configuration Multiple alarms can be configured simultaneously.
	Initial Delay Alarms can be configured with an initial delay before messaging begins which handles quick self-correcting variances in the system.
	Shift Work A scheduling option is available to make shift work configuration a snap.
	Scalable Monitor an unlimited number alarms on an unlimited number of FactoryLink applications from a single server.
	Open Generic ODBC and text based agents are available so that messaging from all monitoring applications can be centralized.
	Industrial Strength The FPAM engine is a TCP/IP sockets based solution that runs as a Windows NT service. This provides a more robust and stable platform than other traditional DDE-based and RS-232 serial port-based solutions (i.e. server doesn't need to reside within so many feet of the serial port, don't need to leave a server logged on).
	Remote Management The FPAM Administrator can run on any Windows Client workstation so that administration of the system can be done by multiple administrators right from their desktops.

About SeQent

SeQent (formerly Plantwatch, Inc. and NETCON Technologies) drives cost savings and productivity improvements to enterprises by enabling real-time communication across the entire facility. SeQent bridges automation to people, empowering them to react immediately thereby preventing costly downtime and improving quality. SeQent is currently installed in over 350 facilities and is being used by all of the major automotive manufacturers as well as bottling and consumer products manufacturers and healthcare organizations. The company is privately held and is based in London, Ontario.

Contact Information:
Sales | Phone: +1.519.652.0401 | Fax: +1.519.652.9275
E-Mail: Scott Burns