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CAQ Interface iQ-Basis - INFOR AS

Interfaces determine Capacity Factor and Economy

The software product INFOR AS by the company INFOR Global Solutions (formerly BRAIN) is one of the leading PPS systems that are nowadays on the market. For this reason it is mainly used by companies that have far-reaching demands on the product and service quality.

A similar status has the product iQ-Basis by the company AHP. It is one of the leading CAQ systems. INFOR AS customers are using iQ-Basis for over 10 years in productive use.

The interface technique of iQ-Basis to PPS systems is basically different from those of the competitors. The core of an extensive and effective integration of PPS and CAQ is the communication between both systems. The table below shows an extract of the even larger number of single interfaces between both systems.You have to consider that for a complete CAQ integration there are a lot more needed than those. But usually there are three to five standard interfaces, e.g. for bought-in parts. This shows that already in medium-term there will hardly exist another interface technique than that one AHP uses. The main difference between other commercially available systems and iQ-Basis appears therein that:

The interface concept that has been developed for the INFOR AS environment turned out to be profitable and simple. We will extend these experiences also to other PPS systems.

The technical Realization of the Interface

The Supply of Information from INFOR AS CAQ Interface

For the deployment of our software we use the development tool Uniface. For this reason our iQ-Basis modules are executable on all standard operating systems and DBMS. Furthermore the applications are able to access several databases of different producers (Oracle, Informix, DB/400 and so on) simultaneously. We used this capacity.
The graphic on the right side shows exemplary tables for master and dynamic data in the INFOR AS environment.
For the data that is relevant for iQ-Basis we set up a logical view for each table. Via the view it is possible to access the BRAIN tables directly by the application without using active components of INFOR AS.
With this method we have important advantages compared to the standard interface technique:

The Transfer of Results to INFOR AS CAQ Interface

For the reserve of data to INFOR AS it is prohibited to write it directly into the INFOR AS tables. For this purpose we use the brilliant INFOR AS monitors.
The monitor technique of INFOR AS is carried as follows: For a particular monitor the data that has to be booked is extracted from a batch file. Then it is booked in the INFOR AS tables only using already existing INFOR AS programs. The only used interface to INFOR AS is the official monitor table that is provided by INFOR AS.

Examples for Monitors

SCK monitor: For the response of usage decisions for the supplied material after the inspection has been carried out and evaluated in iQ-Basis.

MCP monitor: For the reservation of replacement parts in the course of the generation of a maintenance order.

With the clear table structures of INFOR AS, the excellent monitor technique for diverse functional areas and the manifold Uniface performances an interface technique has been proved of value that ensures us the headstart over competitors (considering that diverse additional interfaces have to be realized).

The interface between PPS and CAQ

for an extensive integration