Case Study: Fluor achieves handheld inventory control efficiency with SYWARE Visual CE

Handheld Database Application Provides Industrial Strength Inventory Control for DuPont

Fluor Global Services worked with DuPont’s Nylon division to support a large inventory-control initiative tied to a migration from legacy systems to SAP. The challenge was to quickly and accurately capture detailed equipment information across a complex manufacturing plant, including location, function, part numbers, manufacturers, and specifications for thousands of components. SYWARE’s Visual CE handheld database software was used to build a mobile data-collection application for the project.

Using SYWARE Visual CE, Fluor created customized handheld forms for 21 component types and linked them to Microsoft Access databases and reference tables for efficient upload/download and lookup access. Technicians used HP Jornada handhelds to inspect equipment in the field and entered data directly on site, then synchronized records back to Access; the project had captured more than 37,000 records by May 2001, with uploads/downloads taking about five minutes. The solution reduced manual retyping, improved flexibility, and gave Fluor a low-cost way to adapt the application for additional DuPont plants.

Fluor

Frank Reaves

Database Developer