A Sampling of Accel Clients

The principals of Accel are currently teaming with a variety of clients to apply model-based technology to R&D and full-scale production systems. These efforts will lead to the successful demonstration and fielding of unprecedented software-dependent systems having advanced capabilities. Our current experience with each of these projects enables us to continue to extend and refine the capabilities of the technology.

Accel is working with galvanizing facilities to integrate the shop floor systems, business systems, and outside supplier and customer systems to provide a company-wide Manufacturing Information System (MIS). Legacy systems have been integrated and new systems developed where necessary. Development of the MIS entails interacting with people from a variety of domains of expertise and an evolutionary development approach. The MIS will increase information availability, ease information access and understandability, and streamline the overall business process. Current systems automated and integrated include:

• Galvanizing Mill Projects (1993 - Present)
• Coil Profile System (2) - records quality of strip thickness and provides reporting capabilities
• Coating Weight System (2) - records quality of zinc coating applied and provides reporting capabilities
• Coil Inventory Management System - tracks coil inventory and provides scheduling and reporting capabilities
• X-12 Supplier Information Integration System
• Factory Integration Services
• All data is integrated into Syman/Progress database

Accel provides Progress Database support to several companies related to Progress-based products. The support includes: training, technical support, software development, and system administration. The products include:

• SYMIX® (by Symix Inc.) is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for medium-sized manufacturers.
• COINS® (by Shaker Computer and Management Services Inc.) is for the construction industry.
• UNIFI® (by FISERV Inc.) is for the mortgage lending industry.

Several projects related to the Symix/SyteLine product line include:

• O2 Lance Manufacturer Project (1999 - 2000)
• Shop Floor Inventory Control System - provides ability to assign inventory to jobs by person and operation and provides real-time validation. Integrates data into SyteLine/Progress database.
• Remote Reporting System - provides remote, character-based access to mission critical SyteLine/Progress data, specifically Job Summary information by job, customer, item & family.

• Electronics and Shear Knife Manufacturer Symix/SyteLine Projects (1996 - 2000)
  • New order summary
  • New shipment summary
  • Order Acknowledgment
  • Job/Material Allocation

Accel Software Engineering was awarded several contracts that seeded commercialization efforts for Accel's software product, MTV Builder. MTV Builder is a model-based application development tool useful for developing applications that must interface with other systems and devices. It provides the capability to convert between external communication formats and application-specific data formats and is intended to be used by either programmers or non-programmers (such as domain experts, system analysts, or users). The contracts are:

• Air Force, Electronic Systems Center (ESC/ENS) (1995 - 1998)
  Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase II Contract
• Builds on the prior research and development (see below) results to strengthen and extend the foundation Ada software, advance the prototype tool to an alpha stage, and begin to develop usage and training material.

• Air Force, Electronic Systems Center (ESC/ENS) (1994 - 1995)
  Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I Contract
• Technology research, development, and proof of concept.

• Ben Franklin Challenge Grant (1994 - 1995)
• Prototype tool development and proof of concept.

• Oregon Graduate Institute (1994 - 1995)
• Training course development and delivery to support OGI experiment.