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| Computer directory listing in a command shell. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
PROMIS is an acronym that stand for
PROcess
Manufacturing
Integration
System. It is basically a shopfloor control system.
It is written primarily using
Fortran, and was initially lauched running in
VAX platform, and later on, a separate version was created to run in
Unix.
Being
text-based, it was fast and efficient, and since it was introduced while every computer program was running in
DOS mode, that wasn't a problem - it was the norm.
However, with the introduction of
Windows-based computing, this text-based computing was losing appeal. By then, Promis (the company) was already brewing something to catch up.
Windows-like
user interfaces were presented to replace the text-based interactive session windows, for used by Manufacturing folks, and even for keyusers, who define the mainstream flow and devices in PROMIS, were given a GUI, again, to replace the text-based windows session.
But what's the price to pay?
These are all add-on to the currently existing system, and is not really a breakthrough, so many of the people already "used" to the text-based mode were resistant to embrace the
GUIs, especially for the management folks, who knew that there is not really a significant improvement in other parts of the system. It is sugar-coating, in some ways.
But there are those who have taken advantage of starting off the PROMIS and using the GUIs - from the start. They have deemed that using GUI-based user interfaces when everything else is GUI-based makes sense.
There is really nothing wrong if you use
text-based interface, or GUI-based interface. It is, to some point, already your preference. That is the case to me, since I started computing when DOS was the only prevaling operating system (I mean, for
PC). But to the management folks, this spells out money, and they would usually go for less expenses when the job can be done just the same.
PROMIS is mostly suitable to wafer fabrication manufacturing, or for factories that manufacture medicines, and the likes.
When applied to backend semiconductor manufacturing, there are areas where it is always grey, where the implementation and customization is dependent on site requirements. So although PROMIS is a canned software that can be used straight from the box, there is a certain degree to which it can be "tweaked" or customized, per site, or, per implementing company.
Aside from the system management team (purel IT jobs), a group of keyusers, or main users, is a must who will be tasked to define the building blocks of the system, the knowledge and skillset of which is a hybrid of end-users and IT folks.
I belong once to the system management, but I am currently with the keyuser team. I serve my team (and company) better this way.
So that is PROMIS in its introduction. I will be back discussing scripts and techniques on scripting in PROMIS. This will touch on a bit of VAX scripting, the platform that I am using for abou 15 years now.
Leave a comment, a question, or a clarification. I'd love to hear from you.
Till then.
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