Fleet, Hampshire-based SD-Scicon Plc has developed an on-line SQL database query language, CIM-QL, which is claimed to give manufacturers the ability to produce detailed reports in any format from any supervisory data held within a SETCIM database. With CIM-QL, operators use basic commands lines to produce customised reports using any combination of data, such as when and for how long certain machines are out of service. It uses the ANSI standard and is claimed to help manufacturers to share data between different organisational levels, enabling shop floor data to be integrated into management systems. It can be used interactively to perform or prepare one-off reports and analyses. It can run in background mode to query the database whenever a SETCIM event occurs, such as an operator request, a database change or a periodic timer. This facility is used to produce regular reports such as a fault or downtime analysis at the end of each week. These reports can be written back to the SETCIM database and displayed graphically as a colour bar chart. CIM-QL’s main query functions are select query, update query and query writer.Select query retrieves data from the SETCIM database and displays the results as a list on the screen, output to a file or written back into SETCIM for graphical presentation and/or further processing. Update query is used to selectively modify data held in a SETCIM record. Query writer enables CIM-QL queries to be entered at low-cost character terminals using an in-built query writer. It is used for ad-hoc queries, developing new queries, maintaining disk or database-held queries, executing standard or commonly-used queries and database maintenance. SETCIM operates as a real-time database system integrating with programmable logic controllers and industrial computers and with MRP II, scheduling and management information systems.
