Features/Benefits Provided: Retrofit and upgrade of computer system gives customer a highly responsive and flexible operation. Upgrade of conveyor controller improves tracking capability and reliability. Non-proprietary designs allow customer self-sufficiency.

A world leader in soft goods for apparel and interior furnishings found themselves a winner when they upgraded their vintage 14-aisle AS/RS operation. Installed in 1981, the hardware for this 129,836-location system was obsolete and the proprietary software was difficult to support. The customer's primary goal was to increase daily shipping productivity. To do this, the system software needed to handle the special requirements of five company divisions. Becoming Y2K compliant was also a major issue.

The customer's existing Manager (Digital PDP-11/70) and Real Time Control (Digital PDP-11/34) computers were replaced with two high availability (automatic fail over and disk mirroring) HP 9000 D370 computers. The new system includes the Oracle relational database management running under HP/Unix and graphical user interfaces. One SLC/5-04 programmable controller replaced two other controllers for conveyor control. A second SLC-5/04 serves as a cold backup for conveyor control.

As part of the upgrade, an interface was designed that maintains file transfer capabilities between the new computer system and its IBM host, as well as, one interface to all divisions and their transportation operation. The new system also handles all order processing. In addition, it handles the creation, modification and generation of shipping labels, and electronic packing lists and bills of lading business documents for a true "paperless" operation.

The new computer system includes several user interface screens for performing all necessary functions by all operators having access to the AS/RS. Screen management is intuitive for these operators. The screens were written with X-Windows and Motif standards for highly graphical and user-friendly interfacing. Upgrade source code was written in C; non-proprietary and was provided to the customer.

is a Proud Member of the AS/RS Product Section of Material Handling Industry of America

610 Fishers Run
P. O. Box 586
Fishers, NY 14453-0586
Phone: 585-924-6333   Fax: 585-924-6334
info@retrotech.com
www.retrotech.com