West Fraser Timber Co Ltd — British Columbia
Background
West Fraser is an integrated forest products company producing lumber,
wood chips, MDF, plywood, pulp, linerboard, kraft paper, and
newsprint. It holds extensive timber rights in British Columbia and
Alberta that provide raw material for its manufacturing operations.
Challenge
The current system at West
Fraser Mills was originally deployed 6 years ago. It uses a legacy
HP database and query/entry system. While it does provide the needed
basic functionality, new business developments introduced by
acquisitions, changing business procedures and government
regulations, as well as Y2K compliance are becoming major issues for
West Fraser Mills. Connections to several remote locations are also
causing problems in terms of communication speed and processing
time.
The new system is required to meet all the BC reporting requirements
and upload all required weigh scale load data to the new HBS
Internet site.
Solution
With its ability to handle a virtually unlimited
number of users and vendors (limited only by the power of the
server running the Oracle database), LIMS provides a comprehensive
solution for the management of West Fraser's numerous holdings.
Y2K compliance is assured with four-digit year encoding and the
use of modern programming tools.
The version of WeighScale implemented for West Fraser is
specifically tailored to the needs of BC's reporting requirements.
This WeighScale will collect all required information for
delivered loads, so that even while operating in stand alone mode,
a given weigh scale site will be able to upload all required weigh
scale load data to the new HBS internet site. Because data
summarization requirements are configurable from the load delivery
detail, the WeighScale software minimizes the need to rollout new
versions due to changes in HBS requirements. With WeighScale, BC
clients can use LIMS to submit load deliveries, sample,
piece/volume and receive electronic invoices/reconciliation
information and automated MOF payment advice transactions.
Project
3LOG's LIMS system replaces the company's existing Woods System
that was developed by West Fraser technical staff. The new
financial system is based on Oracle financials, and LIMS is based
on the Oracle client server system making them a good match for
the long term.
Results
Developed specifically for West Fraser, LIMS System was
designed through an examination of West Fraser’s business practices,
and discussions regarding increased flexibility and enhancements.
3LOG has built this system with
American weights and measures, taking into account the West Fraser’s
specific business practices. This has been accomplished by making use
of the core functionality of LIMS program and the expertise of 3LOG
key developers.
This system will be referred to as WFS-LIMS.
3LOG Systems Inc. is committed to maintaining and enhancing the
system, and providing user support on a long-term basis.
Benefits
LIMS' client/server architecture greatly increases the scalability,
compared to mainframe systems, with its ability to share resources
between the central computer and remote stations. To decrease network traffic, the LIMS server application
contains most of the logic and business rules. Also, the client
application has been developed to reduce traffic volume on the network
to further increase efficiency, even for slow remote connections.
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