Union Switch & Signal Inc. of Pittsburgh, PA (founded in 1881) is a leader in the design, manufacture and service of signaling, automation and control equipment and systems for the railroad and mass transit industries worldwide. US&S signaling and control systems and equipment  are used on railroads and  light and heavy rail transit systems throughout the U.S. and  around the world -- from New York to Los Angeles to Seoul, South Korea.  

Successfully converted from Target Batch to EnterpriseSCHEDULE

In a recent conversation with ISE, US&S IS Manager Jim Johnson described his success in converting his lights out job scheduling operation from his former batch job scheduling system, Target Batch to EnterpriseSCHEDULE. Starting with close to 800 jobs in 32 job streams, Jim's conversion process was performed with assistance from ISE's technical staff.   Most of these jobs deal with the business operation. Many other key system management functions, such as starting system backups at the right time are also managed by EnterpriseSCHEDULE.

The process involved sending (via Email) job summary information from the Target Batch system to ISE .  The ISE support staff then ran the data through their conversion utility and  the resultant command file was then sent back to US&S.  This command file defined all the needed definitions and jobs in the EnterpriseSCHEDULE system. Following the initial conversion, the results were already very close to a "ready to go" system.  After some minor tuning and adjustment the system was fully operational.

"The conversion [from Target Batch] went very well and I was pleased with ISE's technical support". Jim Johnson
Union Switch and Signal

High volume lights out operations

All ordering, production, assembly and shipping at US&S is orchestrated using MANMAN from Computer Associates.  Interactive users enter orders, view bills of materials, set up engineering requirements and view accounting information during daytime hours. Starting at 10 pm every night, 7 days a week, the system is turned into a batch processing system. Orders are rolled up into the ordering and inventory system.  Pricing adjustments and purchasing costs are also rolled up. 

The MRP system run is executed every Friday so that it is ready for the buyers on Monday morning. Reports, order information, accounts receivable and accounts payable details are prepared and readied for the office personnel by the time they return to work the next day. There are at least 50,000 parts detailed in the MANMAN database. The system occupies approximately 150GB of disk space. The importance of these jobs is invaluable in a high volume manufacturing environment like US&S.

A satisfied customer

The vital service that ISE performed for Jim in converting Target Batch jobs to EnterpriseSCHEDULE saved him untold hours of job stream creation and testing. Jim's comments regarding this conversion to EnterpriseSCHEDULE were extremely favorable, saying "The conversion went very well" and "I was pleased with ISE's technical support".