Tangible Intranet

Before there was a cloud, there was an internet, and before there was an internet, there was a collection of increasingly sophisticated (but separate) networks.  This was one of them.

By the time this project started, I had already developed a fleet of processing, calibration, and test equipment for the company.  Some of the systems generated output that was used in the next stage of fabrication, so there was a natural need for data to flow from one system to another.

There were also a great many people interested in the flow of work-in-progress through the plant and in the data as it was generated.

This project connected all the automated systems to a central server.  Each system has its own wire and its own account login.  The teams using the data also got their own connections and login credentials.

This project highlighted the nature of human factors in every project.

In the initial release, each automated system reported its data to the central server immediately after each test or process.  That left machine operators with idle time while the report was made, and lower throughout.

The solution was to have the operators signal to the machine when they were going on break.  The automated system would collect data locally until that time, and then send it in bulk to the central server while they were away from the machine.

The network spanned the entire building, a 100k square foot (10k square meters) manufacturing and office facility.