Case Study – Building Robust and Transparent QAD / MES Interfaces Using QAD QXtend and Dell Boomi Joseph Engler, A123 Systems Gary Yang, Roundview Technologies

Corporate Profile A123 Systems is a worldwide leader in providing complete lithium-ion energy storage solutions that offer high power, excellent safety and outstanding life for applications in the transportation, industrial, and consumer markets.

Charged for the Road Expanding Innovation Power for the Future Corporate Overview Transportation +Light weight options provide fuel economy improvements +Products available for micro-hybrids, PHEV’S, HEV’s, EV’s and commercial vehicles Industrial +Cells and modules available +Industries served: aerospace, medical devices, personal mobility & industrial applications Motorsports +A123 supplies the majority of the Formula 1 field +Featured partner with Porsche 919 in LMP1

 Founded in 2010 (  QAD Service Partner  Dell Partner (Boomi)  Specializes In QAD Consulting Services  Extensive Experiences In QAD Services Including QXtend, Dell Boomi,.Net UI, CSS, System Administration & Performance Tuning, Enterprise Financials, Advanced Customizations, etc.  Global Resources in QAD Technologies,.Net, J2EE Custom Developments About Roundview Technologies

 We currently average 1,000,000 to 1,200,000 transactions per month.  All Backflushing is completed through a interface  MES Boomi QAD  Due to the complex nature of building battery cells, A123 uses 2 MES systems.  The IMS System - tracks battery cells as they move through heating/cooling chambers and automatically performs a series of test.  The MES System – tracks battery cells through out the plant and drives the PLC’s on the plant floor. About The MES / QAD Integration

 Original Boomi design was very difficult to identify / fix errors. We spent on average 2 to 4 hours over two people to trace and resolve issues.  Occasional record locking can cause mass failures (in the range of thousands in a few hours)  Original Boomi design allowed for duplicate entries which caused significant inventory overstatements. December Physical Inventory net loss from systems issues 2.2 mil – at least half was attributed to the faulty design Challenges

To Meet The Requirements And Address The Challenges  Roundview Technologies was invited to evaluate the MES interface design and recommend solutions. The evaluation identified the following problems: Design did not address record lock situations well enough to prevent mass failures Business logic written into the Boomi layer No Message Queuing was used in the architecture, thus the system was vulnerable to mass failures No duplicate prevention was in place Visibility of message processing state is not adequate and there is no retry mechanism  Roundview Technologies recommended re-architect the interface from successful experiences at other clients

QAD QXtend Integration Framework And Dell Boomi  QXtend is the integration framework from QAD  QXtend is the adapter to QAD EA that allows QAD to communicate with 3 rd party applications using standard Web Service protocols  QXtend is NOT a middleware, so the request/response model does have some rigidity for inbound transaction processing  After evaluating 56 or so middleware solutions, QAD has partnered with Dell and recommend Boomi as the middleware to work in conjunction with QXtend

Messaging Middleware – Why We Need It?  QXtend Web Service Is Synchronous - SOAP over HTTP(s)  Need For Queuing Mechanism  QXtend Is Only An Adapter  Failed Message Retry And Exception Handling Can Be A Challenge For Third Party Caller  Transformation And Message Orchestration – Dealing With Text Files, For Example  Need For Data Encryption  Enterprise Service Bus Is Becoming A Standard In Corporate IT

Messaging Middleware ESB / EAI (WebSphere MQ, Oracle Fusion, MuleSoft, Boomi, BizTalk, etc) QAD EA 3PL MES Payroll PLM Banks QMS Corporate Systems Web Portal Workflow QXtend

Dell Boomi (  A Cloud Based Messaging Middleware Solution  Configuration And Developed Objects Are Stored in Boomi Cloud  Runtime Environment (Atoms) Can Be Deployed In The Dell Cloud, QAD Cloud Or On Premise  Queuing Feature Assures Message Delivery  More Flexible XML Structure (examples)  Customizable alerts  Various Adapters That Covers All Common Connection Protocols  Development Of Boomi Is Done Via the Graphical User Interface, Almost All Done Via Drag/Drop And Configurations  We Have Several Experienced And Certified Boomi Consultants On Our Team

Dell Boomi – Integration Platform As A Service (iPaaS) Social Networks PaaS Apps Cloud Services SaaS Apps Integration

Dell Boomi – Market Leader For iPaaS (Gartner)

Dell Boomi – Intuitive User Interface

MFG/PRO SI QXtend Calls To Populate Intermediate Table QXtend Outbound Becomes The Repository For Asynchronous Inbound Transaction Processing JDBC QDoc QAD DB Set User Can Review Inbound & Outbound Message Processing Status Via Message Monitor Event UI API SI API QXtend Inbound MES QXtend Outbound Boomi Atom Queue

MES Inbound To QAD Interfaces Around 15,000 Transaction Messages Per Day  MES To QAD Backflush Interfaces  MES To QAD Inventory Transfer Interfaces

QXtend Message Monitor  One Of The Most Important Aspects That Defines Successful Interface Project And Failure Is The VISIBILITY Of Message Processing State  Message Monitor Is A QAD.Net UI Plug-In  User-Friendly Tool To Check For Message Processing Status And Data:  Browse Widget Can Retrieve Large Set Of Data  Workbench Type User Interface Provide Rich Data Content  User Can Re-Process Failed Message From Here If Needed  Key For Our Effort To Enable Business To Take Control Of THEIR Data

QAD QXtend Message Monitor

Conclusion  The Boomi / QXtend Integration Framework Delivered All The Promises Of A Robust and Transparent System:  Message Monitor Empowers The Business To Handle Status Check, Root Cause Analysis And Issue Resolution  Alerts Provides Prompt Notifications When Exception Occurs  Boomi Message Queuing Ensures Message Delivery  Decoupling Of Message Processing From Boomi To QXtend Dramatically Reduced The Failure Rate  Common Interface Structure Makes The System Easier To Maintain And Trouble Shoot  Dramatically Improved Inventory Accuracy April Physical inventory net loss from system issues 125k July Physical inventory net loss from system issues 45k, most of the 45k has been identified as an issue between the 2 MES systems and will be fixed by the year end physical.

Do Not Get Used To Be A Firefighter…….

Questions? Joseph Engler At Gary Yang At /