I/Gear

I/Gear, Inc.
Private
Founded 2003 in United States
Headquarters Louisville, Kentucky
Key people
 Don Korfhage,
CEO
Products Industrial Automation
Manufacturing execution system
Website www.igearonline.com

I/Gear, Inc. is a software and solutions company based in Louisville, Kentucky. Their main product, the Data Transport Utility (also eponymously referred to as "I/Gear"), is used in manufacturing to allow users to connect all their shop floor systems (programmable logic controllers (PLCs), bar code scanners, marquee displays, weigh scales, torque guns, etc.) together and allow for managed communication between them.

I/Gear also allows users to connect these devices to business level systems like databases and e-mail servers for data collection, notification, and analysis. Though mostly used by automotive manufacturers and their suppliers, it is also used in paper, food and beverage, and other discrete manufacturing industries.

History

I/Gear has been providing solutions to the manufacturing industry since 1986, and has its roots in the systems integration business. In 2000, while working as a focused division of integrator Advanced Production Systems, a team of MES (manufacturing execution system) experts and software developers began building a portfolio of branded I/Gear products. Due to customer demand for more features and capabilities, I/Gear decided to incorporate as a dedicated product company in June 2003.

Products

I/Gear develops "application infrastructure" software platforms that enable the deployment of various manufacturing solutions to better address quality and throughput requirements.

Data Transport Utility (DTU) - allows for the collection and distribution of information to virtually any device or system. It is the only tool capable of integrating shop-floor devices, MES systems, and Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems all within a single software package. This through a simple "point-and-click" interface eliminating the need of writing custom software. It is typically used to build higher level applications for error-proofing (a.k.a. Poka-yoke), part tracking, notification, and traceability.

The DTU accomplishes this by connecting to a number of industry standard communication protocols such as Modbus, OLEDB, OLE for process control (OPC), SMTP (E-mail), TCP/IP, Telnet, Web Service, and many others.

Web Framework - a web-based data presentation tool that allows for the connection to multiple databases for reporting and analysis.

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/22/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.