2009 Press Releases
Glovia in the news
Glovia Works With National Ignition Facility on Their Path Towards Fusion
El Segundo 06/01/2009 - Glovia International, (a subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited and a leading provider of extended ERP solutions for engineer-to-order and high volume manufacturers,) congratulates the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on the successful completion of a major step towards their first mission, which is to demonstrate fusion energy gain. For the first time, the 192-beam system shot to the center of the National Ignition Facility Target Chamber was fired, marking the transition from construction to operations as the NIF is prepared to go for fusion ignition. LLNL and NIF have been working with Glovia for more than ten years. NIF purchased Glovia software to use in a number of ways. The primary feature was its ability to manage their inventory. They are not a manufacturing or retail company, but the end users of the pieces they buy, which are so numerous that they needed Glovia's help. Many parts in the massive engineering process have unique serial numbers. Glovia tracked each part with its serial number, as well as adding information about its usefulness.
As James Gorham, Vice President of Glovia International explained, the scientists needed to know, "Where is it? What is it? Who did I get it from? How many times have I touched it?" Glovia allows a great transparency to "look" at all the components and pieces, as well as their usability. NIF also used Glovia work orders to group all the parts correctly, in something called a site register. This is a highly visible, graphical model of indexing all of the pieces, along with their serial numbers and where they are. Gorham describes it as something like a family tree. For Glovia, "The key was to manage their configuration."
Frank Papp, Director of NIF Information Technology (IT) for LLNL says that that NIF is just about to start the next phase in their 30-year-operations life cycle. Glovia, he says, "is the foundation for our configuration management of the installed condition of the laser... Glovia was the foundation for our manufacturing activity, which was very large, both in-house and out-house." Glovia allows them to know where a part is by serial number, as well as its working condition. He describes it as an airplane seating chart, a pictorial view of the laser which shows every location that you can install a device, and a visual graph of that seating chart, tied to Glovia. When you click on one of the cells, it gives you part number, serial number, and device status.
NIF also used Glovia's routing capabilities, re-interpreted to make them equivalent to their commissioning process. During the commissioning process, each step or sub-step gets assigned a color - green, which means it is installed and operational; white, which means nothing is there; orange or purple, which means there is something there that isn't yet ready to be used.
Papp says the Glovia functionality is instrumental in understanding the state of the laser.
There were millions of parts managed by Glovia. Papp says, "The last number I remember was close to 3 million, and that includes all the way down to the nut-and-bolt level. Most of the devices we install in the laser are refrigerator-size, and they have multiple sub-assemblies, and then obviously lots of individual components. Think of that hierarchy track all the way from the individual component up to that refrigerator-sized device."
Papp says the preparations for ignition experiments are underway.. Papp says about this program, "NIF is all about our children, and every generation to come. The research enabled via the National Ignition Facility can fundamentally alter our lifestyle on this planet."
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About Glovia International
Glovia International, Inc., a subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6702), is one of the world's most experienced and solidly backed providers of extended ERP solutions for businesses of any size - from small and mid-sized companies to global enterprises. The powerful and flexible Glovia ERP suite, glovia.com, provides for the unique needs of engineer-to-order, make-to-order, high volume and mixed-mode manufacturing environments through comprehensive, end-to-end functionality for the entire product lifecycle. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., Glovia has helped manufacturers to cut costs, improve productivity, and meet customer demands for over 30 years. For more information, please visit http://www.glovia.com.
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of IT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 175,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.6 trillion yen (US$47 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com/.
