As some of you may already know, part of SlimSoft's business model is to establish a presence in Costa Rica. We intend to establish a team there which will eventually provide the majority of the IT services which can be performed remotely.

We have started on this journey and Renata and I have decided to record our experiences as we work our way towards this goal. Since these experiences fall under a different category than what we plan to normally post on this blog, we have created another one to specifically record the process. You can keep up to date on our progress at http://www.slimsoft.com/crblog.

For the next week or so, most of the postings will be catching up to where we are so far, but from then on, it will hopefully be a running commentary of what it takes to start a business in Costa Rica. Hopefully, they will be interesting, and maybe, they will be useful to someone else out there...

We've seen a strong movement over the last couple years for companies to begin using their Manufacturing Execution Systems for execution, rather that just for data gathering and analysis. A typical project now includes an ERP interface to bring Process Orders electronically to the Plant Floor; execution and real-time feedback of the schedule using their MES system; and the return of Production, Quality and Consumption data back to the ERP system.

Some of the reasons for this trend are:

1. Its always been there, but we haven't had visibility due to our project mix.
2. Execution using MES has been more relavent in some industries than others.
3. The packaged MES solutions are just now gaining the needed functions.
4. Manufacturing companies now have the infrastructure and mindset in place to absorb these solutions.

I lean towards the 4th point, but I'd sure appreciate your input and comments.

A while back, I was able to acquire the rights to SlimSoft.com from its previous owner (thanks Stephen!). The process of buying a domain name is an interesting concept, but having the .com of your company's name is really quite an important asset for any company so we were very excited to get it. Yesterday, we made the big move. We are now a Dot Com company ;-).

As of now, our website is accessable at http://www.slimsoft.com. It will still continue to be available at the old address as well thanks to our ISP overlaying the new domain over top of the old.

Our email addresses have also changed. You can reach us now at Firstname.Lastname@SlimSoft.com. Again, the old addresses will continue to work as well.

So now that we're a big time Dot Com company, we better do something about the website... Stay tuned...

One of the side benefits with starting a new job, is that you have the opportunity to upgrade your various tools. You get the latest computer, install the latest versions of software, get a new business cellphone and, if you work out of your house, upgrade your home network.

A cool piece of technology that I adopted was a Windows Mobile based cellphone. These are called Smartphones and the model I selected was the Motorola MPx220. I picked mine up from eBay for a pretty reasonable price. As I said, this phone runs Windows Mobile, which is basically Windows CE and supports versions of many applications that you may already be running on your laptop. The small screen and limited keyboard make it impractical to run applications like Word and Excel, but it is excellent for Outlook and a few other programs. It can use an external keyboard, but I haven't done that. It can hold a mini-SD card to expand the usable memory and I picked up a 1.0GB card for about US$100. That gives me a lot of room for music, video files, photos, etc. For more storage, I could carry a couple of these cards if I wanted, as they slip in and out very easily.

Synchronizing with my laptop Outlook is easy and fast. That allows me to maintain all my contacts and appointments within either tool. I've chosen not to synchronize my email Inbox yet, but I may enable that. You can also configure the phone to send and receive emails using POP and SMTP through the phone's GPRS connection. I'll probably do that in a couple months, as I travel quite a bit and it is really handy to read your emails between flights or when you have a couple minutes to spare. I miss the real-time aspect of the BlackBerry I used to carry, but I can easily accomplish the same functionality with this phone.

You can also use the phone as a modem for your laptop by taking advantage of the built-in Bluetooth, a USB cable or Infrared. I haven't done that yet, but will experiment with it, soon. The catch here is that data through your phone can be expensive depending upon your provider and contract.

Now for the coup-de-gras. The guys and gals where I used to work, pooled their money and gave me a "CoPilot Live for Smartphone" package as a "bon voyage" gift. This includes a Bluetooth GPS and software for the phone (and your laptop). To use it, I turn on the GPS and place it on the dash (or clip it to a vent) when I'm driving, and launch the CoPilot software on the phone. I'm now equipped with a full function GPS navigation system similar to the Garmin or Magellan products. Some of the features include:
- very long battery life.
- clear and legible voice prompts through the phone's speaker.
- it can update CoPilot's website with my current location so friends and family know how I've progressed on my trip. This uses the phone's GPRS connection to talk to CoPilot's Web Service.
- download traffic and accident information to the phone real-time so it can plan a better route and I can avoid the problem areas. This uses the phone's GPRS connection to talk to CoPilot's Web Service.
- the GPS receiver is small and takes up almost no room in my laptop bag.

I've just completed a short trip to three cities and I'm really happy with the phone and GPS navigation. No complaints at all.

While searching the web the other day I came across an interesting quote....

.....Vashistha, a U.S. citizen who was raised in India, sees another major benefit in the offshoring trend--it helps spread wealth from rich nations to poor ones. "When I walk through the streets of Manila or Bangalore, it makes me proud to see the impact we're having," he says. Among its many other virtues, the Internet may turn out to be the great equalizer..... (link)

At SlimSoft, our business model includes an offshoring component. I find the concept of the internet making it possible for people around the world, no matter where they live to be able to have the jobs they want in the field they have studied fascinating.....

In my recent post on Open Source Software, I received a comment about Linux and its impressive stability. My comment back was that while I agree that Linux is very stable, and that stability is an essential component of any manufacturing system, usability is the essential component which is missing from many solutions currently in the marketplace. Open Source, or not.

Earlier today, I was discussing usability with someone and we got to talking about the conflict that is often faced between making a system as easy and intuitive for the user as possible, and making it as standardized and easily maintainable as possible.

In manufacturing, practically all HMI/SCADA screens are custom made for the specific machine they are designed to control. An operator can typically look at the screen and immediately see the process for which they are working, and visually identify where things are running well, or poorly as the case may be. On the other hand, up at the business layer, ERP systems typically are forms based and utilize out-of-the-box software which is almost entirely standardized. Some customization is usually implemented, but in general, the users are expected to conform to the software, not the other way around.

MES is stuck somewhere in the middle. I have been to plants who have a completely standardized approch to MES, others which have developed completely custom user interfaces for their operators to interact in, and still others which have integrated MES functionality into their existing HMI/SCADA solution to create a single solution for their operators.

My personal favorite of the above is the latter. Some time back, Microsoft had a very impressive video demo of their, along with Invensys Wonderware's, vision of the future of manufacturing after Longhorn, the next version of Windows. While this demo is more of a vision statement than a real product at this point, it is a very impressive look at how collaboration, and the integration of data from a variety of sources into a single view is very impressive. Giving an operator a one-stop shop for all their computer interaction will not only simplify their lives, it will reduce mistakes and improve their efficiency. Unfortunately, the vision presented in this video, I suspect, is one based on custom developed, site specific solutions.

Why do we need to choose? Wouldn't it be great if we could have both? A system which is tailored to our users needs and skill level, and at the same time, simple to maintain and upgrade. Sounds like a dream come true! Unfortunately, the dream is just that... for now.

What do you think? Which is more important? Usability or Maintainability? Or should we all start pushing for the best of both worlds?

My first job after I finished university was drafting process and control diagrams using Microstation. The company I was working for was pioneering computer aided drafting at the time and there was a shortage of PC’s. For the first year I worked shift work, because not enough PC’s were available for the demand. I remember talking to some of my colleges about how one day there would be a computer on every desk. About 10 years later that was definitely the case. Now people were talking about working from home so they could move out of the city and lead a more comfortable lifestyle. Well another 10 years later the concept of a virtual office is reality for us.

At SlimSoft, we believe that people should work where they live. This concept of course has it own perks and challenges. The biggest challenge is communication, how do you work effectively as a team when the team members are scattered all over the world. Well, although we are only 4 right now, 3 in Vancouver, BC Canada and one in Ottawa, ON Canada we are trying to create a corporate culture that embraces this concept. One of the tools we are using is BASECAMP from 37 Signals (http://www.37signals.com/) which is a web based project management tool. This tool is allowing us to form virtual teams of customers, contractors and internal resources that have constant access to project related matters such as design requirements, design changes, progress reports and files. Another tool we are using is Journyx (http://www.journyx.com/), a web based time keeping system that allows us to centralize our time tracking requirements so we can bill our customers at the end of each month.

If you are working in the virtual office environment and have any other cool tools that you have come across we would love to hear from you……

When I started University, I was very Anti-Microsoft. I ran OS/2 on my PC and generally tried to avoid Microsoft's products. Then, at some point along the way, I took a step back and took a looked at the real world. I realized that MS was by far the most employable technology platform, and I became a believer...

I made the decision to focus on Microsoft Technologies for my professional career.

Up until now, this decision has served me very well. Lately however, I've been spending a fair amount of time investigating the other side... and I'm beginning to appreciate the potential of Open Source products. I'm not saying that I believe all software should be free... and when you look at most Open Source products, they aren't. Look at RedHat, MySQL, JasperSoft or Astersik and you will see that there are companies behind these products which are making very good money by selling support or "subscriptions" to the products. Still others charge for the "pro" version, or even charge for the entire software. Open Source does not mean free software; it simply means free access to the source code. How companies choose to go to market is a different matter altogether.

The concept of sophisticated users helping to implement the features they want most is very powerful. It makes me think of the philosophy of attacking the "lowest hanging fruit" when attempting to improve any product or process. The interesting thing about Open Source is that it allows each customer/user to improve their own lowest hanging fruit rather than the software vendor choosing the features needed for that next big sale.

It's surprising, but there has not been much Open Source activity in manufacturing. Should there be? I'd love to hear your thoughts...

We are very pleased to announce that Brent Seely has joined us at SlimSoft.

Brent and I have been working together for over 7 years through a few different companies and I'm very happy that I can now also call him a partner.

Brent has a tremendous amount of experience in MES, and industry as a whole, and will be a great asset to our customers, and to us.

Welcome on board Brent!

Well, this is now old news, but I figured this was a good thing to make my first post about.

I think that this is step one of the next big trend in MES. The ERP systems out there have already established a stronghold on the business tier in business and really have no-where to go but down towards the plant floor (at least in manufacturing.) Large corporations find the prospect of having all their data in one central place extreamly valuable. We've been preaching that in MES for many years... eliminate islands of data. In most companies, the islands of data have been consolidated down to a few, and in many Manufacturing plants, the two big islands of data are MES and ERP. There have been lots of (and there is still lots of) effort put in to interfacing these two systems together by lots of different vendors and standards bodies such as the World Batch Forum's XML Based B2MML Standard. These standards, used along with tools such as BizTalk are the current technique used to bridge these islands of data... SAP has started the process of the NEW way to do it. Make them all part of one system.

What worries me about this approach is what happens to the smaller manufacturing companies out there. If the big ERP systems slowly buy out the small players, or at least take over the MES space with their own products, the solutions will no longer be affordable for the smaller, single line factories out there. Especially those that are not part of a large corporation. It will be interesting how the market responds as that hole develops...

Hi Everyone,

Well, I guess everyone is probably going to be no-one for now since this is new...

Anyway, welcome to our new blog. The SlimSoft team will use this blog to keep you in tune with what is happening with the company, with interesting trends and developments in the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) space, Manufacturing IT in general, and anything else which we think is cool.

That's all for now, we hope you enjoy and we look forward to hearing from you.