Ocean Spray Cranberries New Plant Cuts Deployment Time 30-50% by Standardizing on Intellution FIX Dynamics Software and Windows DNA for Manufacturing
Tuesday, February 23, 1999

Norwood, Mass. - February 23, 1999 - Intellution®, Inc. announced today that Ocean Spray® Cranberries, Inc.’s newest plant in Henderson, Nevada has selected Intellution’s FIX Dynamics™ industrial automation family of software solutions based on Microsoft’s Windows Distributed interNet Applications for Manufacturing (Windows DNA for Manufacturing) as the plant’s standard for enterprise manufacturing systems.

"By utilizing the scaleable platform provided by Intellution and Microsoft’s Windows DNA for Manufacturing in all aspects of our operations, from the plant floor to our business systems, Ocean Spray Cranberries has seen programming development time reduced by 30 to50 percent," said Mike Smith, National Manufacturing Systems Manager, Ocean Spray Cranberries. "Because of Intellution’s iCore foundation, distributed architecture and component solutions, we can deploy pre-programmed objects to gain time and cost savings in a variety of areas of the enterprise, and at other Ocean Spray Cranberries facilities."

Microsoft Windows DNA is a technology infrastructure that solves industry-specific challenges while lowering costs associated with deploying and managing information technology systems. The Windows DNA architecture is a comprehensive framework for new business solutions that combines the benefits of the Internet, client/server, and PC models of computing.

FIX Dynamics, an industrial automation family of software solutions, is based on Intellution’s iCore for manufacturing technologies, including Windows DNA for Manufacturing architecture, as well as other manufacturing benefits, such as Secure Containment of ActiveX objects, enabling seamless integration from plant floor applications to business applications.

Ocean Spray uses the seamlessly integrated Windows DNA for Manufacturing and FIX Dynamics solution to improve accuracy and timeliness, and to more effectively identify and analyze process changes. Ocean Spray uses the batch component of FIX Dynamics to build applications that directly access information within its plant floor Microsoft SQL Server database. It then integrates that data with its business systems such as SAP’s R/3 enterprise software.

"Using Intellution and Microsoft technologies as a standard for our manufacturing and business processes was the only solution that provided Ocean Spray Cranberries with a scalable enterprise-wide architecture," notes Smith. "It allows us to grow our applications within our plant and grow our business globally."

According to Smith by using Intellution’s solution and Windows DNA for Manufacturing platform, the Nevada plant can integrate all of its business processes into one plant operation. For instance, plant operators are not only completing a task (e.g., blending), but are also performing all of the transactions that have to occur (e.g., decrements of inventory, consuming the right components, balancing of materials, tracing of lots, etc.) in the background. Smith attributes this flexibility to Intellution’s Human Machine Interface and embedded application of Microsoft Visual Basic.

"Windows DNA for Manufacturing and Intellution allows us to develop, implement, and integrate all this technology," states Smith. "It eases interoperability among system components and provides improved information flow throughout our operations."

Microsoft Windows DNA represents a unified and integrated approach for building distributed, scalable, multi-tier applications. The Windows DNA framework allows organizations to focus on producing and implementing value-added business solutions rather than systems integration. Integration is key to the success of deploying a modern manufacturing system, but wiring the components together to produce such a system is often difficult and time-consuming. Windows DNA-M is a framework that allows manufacturing software applications to integrate seamlessly.

About Intellution: Based in Norwood, Mass. and founded in 1980, Intellution is the leading supplier of industrial automation software, with more than 100,000 installations worldwide. The company offers the industry’s only fully integrated component object solution, FIX Dynamics, which is built on the iCore foundation. They also offer "plug-in" automation software components, ranging from SoftLogic control (SLC) to entry-level human-machine interfaces (HMI), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and batch. The company’s Internet products include full Internet browser-based data display and "push" technology. Intellution’s product family is represented in over 48 countries and is available in 14 languages. For more information visit www.intellution.com.