Product/Service

PI-RLink (Integration)

Source: OSI Software, Inc.
Many major corporations have implemented SAP's R/3 for integrated financial, manufacturing, sales, distribution and human resource support.
Many major corporations have implemented SAP's R/3 for integrated financial, manufacturing, sales, distribution and human resource support. To get the maximum benefit from SAP, manufacturing companies need to close the loop between the operating decisions made using SAP R/3 and the actual plant floor operations. RLINK, the PI System gateway to SAP, is the missing link for such integration.

RLINK is a bi-directional link between the plant floor and SAP business applications that collects data from real-time systems on the plant floor and translates these data into information expected by R/3 modules. RLINK supports transferring recipes, specifications, and maintenance orders back to the plant floor systems to directly support optimizing the manufacturing process.

It reduces the integration costs by providing a standard interface between all plant systems across all sites. To ensure long-term success, the company developed this gateway using tools supported by SAP and products provided by Microsoft. RLINK runs on Microsoft Windows NT, uses Microsoft SQL Server and features ActiveX. It was developed using RFCs (Remote Function Calls) and BAPIs (Business Application Programming Interfaces) from SAP. The RLINK gateway is proven technology that is working today in operating plant facilities.

RLINK goes beyond simple data transfer between the plant and SAP. It includes numerous functions designed to make the interface reliable, especially to engineers and managers that make process-related business decisions. SQL Server is used as a data repository to queue data requests and responses, making a single transaction available to multiple applications. The gateway supports SAP's three-tier architecture and ActiveX technology. Both SAP and OSI Software are licensed to embed Microsoft's VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) into their products. This allows PI-ProcessBook and SAP R/3's GUI to contain ActiveX controls and manipulate other compatible containers such as Microsoft Word and Excel. Since OSI has adopted these technical directions, future releases from SAP and Microsoft can be easily incorporated into RLINK.

OSI Software, Inc., 777 Davis Street, Suite 250, San Leandro, CA 94577. Tel: 510-297-5800; Fax: 510-357-8136.