New ERP Sites

I ran across a couple of new manufacturing ERP sites that look quite promising. I think that they'll soon have a lot of very good content. The first one is http://erp-software-solutions.com/. It already has a good section of "News and Views".
The other site is about agile manufacturing systems. And since that's the title of this blog, it's gotta be good. There's not a lot of content there yet, but I'm sure that there will be more in a little while.

Day 2

Hello, it's me again, Hal Hamer, back for another day of programming at Tuppas Software. Today I've worked some more on the Stone Interiors and Bellevue projects. For Stone Interiors, we're using ASP.NET to turn a Sales Quote into a Purchase Order, and then to print that Purchase Order. My ASP.NET skills aren't that great, so it's a wonderful opportunity for me to improve them!

I know HTML/XHTML/CSS, etc. so that's not a problem. And I know VB.NET so VBScript isn't a problem either. It's just using ASP.NET to combine HTML and VB that I'm a little shaky on. I don't know all of ASP.NET's methods and config variables, and more importantly how, and when, to use those variables.

I also did some minor changes to the DataBases for Bellevue. They needed a way to identify which Blanks and Coils went together so there needed to be a Blank/Coils xRef table. So I added that table, and the necessary columns to other associated tables. And then using our custom framework I added the tabs on the Blanks screen to show a screen with a list of the Coils. From that Coils screen, the user can easily add or delete a coil. This work took a very short amount of time. The Tuppas framework is set up in such a way that I, as the programmer, don't have to create the "Add" or "Delete" buttons, nor actually do the DB processing. As surprising as that sounds, all I have to do is to create a screen with the necessary fields, and then link that screen to its parent. It's sorta like a Bound Control in VB, but it doesn't take nearly as much effort or time. The framework takes care of the DataBase processing for me!

The only two areas that slow me down are not knowing exactly how the Framework works (since I've only been using it for a week) and handling errors when I do something incorrectly. (The errors show up with ASP's cryptic error messages, and there's nothing I can do about how they show up!) But once I learn all of the features of the Framework I'll be even more productive since I won't have to correct nearly as many of my Framework mistakes, nor have to spend a lot of time trying to decipher ASP's error messages.

As you can tell, I'm having a great time here at Tuppas. (And for those of you who are wondering why I'm writing this instead of doing more programming, this blog is actually part of my job!)

Hope you all have a great weekend.
More next week. Til then,

Hal Hamer

Welcome to my new blog

Hi, my name is Hal Hamer and my background includes 30+ years programming experience, mostly in various forms of RPG (RPG II, RPG/III, RPG/IV, and ILE RPG) on midrange IBM systems (S/34, S/36, AS/400, iSeries). A week ago I started a new career track, working as a programmer at Tuppas Software. Last week was spent in training on how to use their neat framework (which sits on top of ASP.NET).

Tuppas Software makes highly configurable manufacturing software and manufacturing execution systems (MES) for the shop floor. They also provide ERP class software for manufacturing enterprise management. Their industrial software is browser-based, using thin-client .NET technology which makes management of MRP, MES and ERP functions easy and quick, even across a large enterprise.

This week, in just the few days that I've been here, I've already helped with setting up systems for:

• Stone Interiors, a custom counter top company in Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina that fabricates granite, marble and other natural stone for counter tops, fireplaces and custom specialty projects.;
• The Bellevue Manufacturing Company, an Ohio manufacturer that creates and distributes oil filters for the automotive industry;
• Schneider Electric, a recognized world leader in Electrical Distribution and Automation & Control, operating in 190 countries and headquartered in France, with US Headquarters in Illinois.

While the items above were jobs that Tuppas Software has been working on for a few weeks, next week I'll be traveling to Cleveland, Oh to meet with a new customer to do a demo of our system and to define what they need in their new system. It'll be interesting to see the progression from start to finish, and I'll keep you updated about this project as it progresses, as well as all of the other jobs I'll be assigned to.

Thanks for coming to my blog, and I hope that you'll find it interesting and want to come back often. Bye for now.