Like many
software vendors, Newline Computing wanted to modernize its core
software package so it could offer features such as a graphical user
interface and access to data from mobile, hand-held devices. It
also wanted to move to a relational database and re-energize the task of
software development, all with minimal retraining and investment.
The solution it chose? Acucorp's extended 5 family of technologies and
Microsofts MS SQL.
On The Road
Founded in 1987, Newline Computing
Systems Ltd., specializes in just-in-time (JIT) inventory managment
systems for automotive manufacturers such as Renault in France and Audi
in Germnay. Newline's core packages, the Palletized Stock System
(PASS) application, performs inventory control and warehousing
management for manufacturers, and today includes a variety of add-on
modules such as scanning and bar code reading. These modules
give
individual manufacturers the ability to tailor the system to meet their
needs.
Getting Up To Speed
Originally, Newline PASS system was a
character-based UNIX application developed in Micro Focus COBOL.
As Newline prepares PASS for the year 2000, it decided to modernize the
application and move it into a MS Windows NT environment. Because
Newline felt that the absence of a graphical user interface was putting
it at a competitive disadvantage, the development of a GUI was critical
to Newline at this juncture. Also critical was the ability for
users to access data from mobile, hand-held devices such as bar code
readers and scanners.
A file size limitation in MF COBOL was
of concern to them, and very large flat data files often became
corrupted - resulting in system downtime - and Newline wanted to move to
a relational database.
Automotive
manufacturers measure the cost of failuer in terms of tens of thousands
of pounds per minute, so it was imperative that Newline eliminate file
corruption problems. After considering many alternatives, Newline
selected Microsofts MS SQL database. Newline would use embedded
SQL to provide access to the data and to give programmers a higher
degree of control over the data.
Finally, Newline hoped to expand its customer base over a wider
geographical area in the future, so it required development tools that
were stable and offered good remote support techniques.
Newline serached for tools that would
make use of the skills of its existing workforce, thus avoiding
extensive retraining. At the same time, it sought a more exciting
development environment for programmers and it wanted tools that could
support rapid production. Warehouse staff at Renault, for
instance, have only 44 minutes to process each factory request for parts
from the time the request
is received in the warehouse to the time the parts are fitted to the
vehicle. It is vital that Newline's application support these
stringent demands.
Last, but
equally important, Newline wanted to work with a company that had a
demonstrated long-term commitment to its products and that would make a
long-term commitment to Newline.
Shifting Into High Gear
After deliberation, Newline decided to
reimplement the application from scratch rather than update the existing
PASS application. This would free Newline to consider new
development alternatives, and give it an opportunity to add new, much
desired functionality to the application.
Newline considered several COBOL
solutions as well as non-COBOL languages such as Visual Basic and Delphi
before selecting Acucorp's extend5 solutions. Newline felt that
the other COBOL vendors were either less focused on COBOL, or that their
packages were less advanced that Acucorp's and it was not satisfied with
the event-driven approach of the non-COBOL languages for its
sophisticated business application.
According to Neil Cartwright, Products
Development Director at the Newline facility in Erdington, UK, Newline
decided to stay with COBOL to take advantage of its existing skills, and
because it liked the descriptiveness of COBOL, its ease of use, and
speed of problem solving. Newline decided to go with Acucorp
because of its stability and its ability to provide local support in the
United Kingdom. Also important was the fact that Acucorp could
work with the MS SQL database and that it offered strong graphical
development tools in COBOL with top class debugging and tracing tools.
Once the tools were selected, Newline
began writing a new PASS application using Acucorp's graphical workbench
environment, AcuBench.
Some existing Micro Focus
programs were converted to ACUCOBOL-GT for placement in the workbench,
particularly standard procedures and programs that had no screens.
Where the old application was
character-based the new application was entirely graphical. The
programmers were extremely excited about AcuBench's graphical
development environment and found the graphical development environment
and found the graphical screen designer very intuitive. Cartwright
said that "Acucorp has kept all of COBOLs strangth and made it an
exciting languahe again!". One developer with Visual Basic
training, Andrew Shaw, took to AcuBench very quickly due to the
similarities between the two. Shaw now says that he prefers the
AcuBench development environment because of the more structured nature
of the code that the screen designer produces.
Concurrent with the graphical
development, Newline extracted the data in one manufacturer's flat Micro
Focus ISAM files and placed it into MS SQL. It then embedded SQL
statements into the ACUCOBOL-GT source code so that end users could
access the relational database from the new PASS application. The
finished source was run through the AcuSQL precompiler for behind the
scenes SQL-to-COBOL translation, then through the AcuCOBOL-GT compiler.
Development productivity increased as
time passed. Newline's test system was installed at its first
manufacturing facility, Renault, within eight months and in less than
one year, the system went into production use. "We could never have
managed the tight project deadlines without Acucorp" Cartwright says.
Life In The Fast Lane
Today, with the help of British hauling
company, Exel, Newline's enhanced PASS system is operational at two
sites: Renault in France and Audi in Germany, and implementation is
underway at other automotive manufacturers in the UK, France and Sweden.
At Renault's high-volume
production warehouse in Le Havre, whenever a part request is received
from the factory, the new PASS system creates barcode labels that give
warehouse personnel information about which parts pull, when to pull
them, and where they are to be delivered. The staff use radio
frequency bar code scanners and hand-held devices to read the bar code
data real-time. The system features an automatic warning
indication if the wrong part is about to be pulled off the shelves, and
when the right item is pulled, the system updates the warehouse
inventory database. Each hand-held device has an operating range
of up to 60 meters from the base-station. In the PASS application, a
Microsoft ActiveX control called MSCOM32 is used to control the mobile
devices, through the terminal's COM port.
The new PASS application offers many
benefits including speed, accuracy, and ease of use. With scanners
and barcode labels, warehouse staff are able to meet Renault's 44 minute
per request criteria. In addition, Newline is able to support and
debug the PASS system in France from its offices in the UK, and it is
able to install new customer systems at a faster rate, and to train end
users much more quickly (because of the GUI).
"Everything that has happened in the
last year has served to confirm that our decision to use Acucorp
development tools was the right one" Mike Carus, Managing Director at
Newline, says "Acucorp gave us better tools, faster development, better
service."
