'The FactorySuite does for industry what the Microsoft OfficeT suite has done for the office.'
microsoft.com
John
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White paper
Wonderware FactorySuite The launching of the Wonderwarer FactorySuiteT of integrated software development tools signals the beginning of a new era in industrial automation. Just as the company's pioneering use of the Microsoft WindowsT operating system brought new ease of use and high performance features to the human-machine interface (HMI) segment of the market nearly a decade ago, the FactorySuite can provide plant-wide ease of application development for any manufacturing or process operation.
The FactorySuite does for industry what the Microsoft OfficeT suite has done for the office. Just as office workers have been empowered with easy-to-use, tightly integrated bundles of applications that let them handle all needs for word processing, spreadsheets, databases and presentation graphics, so industrial workers now have the same ability to handle a range of requirements for process visualization, machine and process control, real-time database management, work-in-process tracking, batch management and even "industrial browsers" for remote viewing of production activities.
This new approach benefits everyone. It makes sense for the industrial user because it provides a simple and very cost-effective way to implement multiple, integrated applications that are easily adapted to any company's operations. Plant and process engineers will have the tools they need to solve literally any production automation problem. It is smart business for Wonderware because it simplifies the business of supplying high performance tools to virtually any industry around the world. And it's good for the automation industry because it is a quantum leap forward in providing truly "open" architecture for meeting users' needs without locking them in to a single supplier.
User Benefits
The primary customer benefits of Wonderware's suite approach are:
simplification of application development to meet a far broader range of production needs, and
the ability to implement more systems at much lower cost.
<JM: lots of cost pressures; not many C/assembler programmers around -> nice proposition! >
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"Having all of these development tools in a convenient bundle gives users the ability to create integrated automation applications that make their operations far more productive," said Joe Cowan, vice president of sales and marketing.
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"All development tools are bundled to run on a single development workstation, and users will simply buy run-time copies of each application program as needed, for installation on the plant floor," he added. "The suites will have a common install/uninstall capability and we are providing a new license manager that can eliminate hardware keys so customers can implement network applications as large as they wish. Another cost savings is provided by having on-line documentation included in the suites, so that we don't have to print, inventory and ship paper manuals. Anyone who needs a hard copy of particular documentation can simply print out a copy.
"The next stage, which will be launched later in 1997, will tightly integrate all of this functionality," he said. "All modules will have common communications capabilities, will provide an integrated development environment, will have many shared components and will provide common application program interfaces (APIs) to other Windows NT applications.
<JM: 'other windows NT applications': think plant floor / MIS integration (BackOffice) again!>
We also are instituting new third-party developer programs and providing economically priced toolkits so that it will be easier for system integrators and independent software vendors to develop add-on programs and
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Industry Benefits
In the process of simplifying industrial automation for the user community, Wonderware anticipates creating a new model for the control software industry - by creating a new and broader market definition.
In the past, the industry has been so fragmented that even market research companies had trouble drawing boundaries between applications and determining the size of the resulting market segments.
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"The use of open automation applications in an integrated suite should bring new order out of what has always been chaos, making it simpler for everyone concerned - the customer, the supplier and the industry overall," Cowan concluded. |
