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Disaster-assessment teams at the scene of flooding in Iowa, piloting new technology to capture damage information instantaneously. Teams recorded their findings on GPS-enabled handheld computers that automatically upload data and photos from the field straight into a central computer. The system eliminates time-consuming data entry from paper sheets, and possible errors that can arise from illegible handwriting or misread maps.

Disaster-assessment teams at the scene of flooding in Iowa, piloting new technology to capture damage information instantaneously. Teams recorded their findings on GPS-enabled handheld computers that automatically upload data and photos from the field straight into a central computer. The system eliminates time-consuming data entry from paper sheets, and possible errors that can arise from illegible handwriting or misread maps.  U.S. Steel uses IT to ensure employee safety, monitor environmental performance, increase efficiency, and improve product quality. During one step of the steelmaking process, steel slabs are rolled into thin sheets at facilities called hot strip mills. Operators in elevated pulpits use IT systems to control and monitor the process.  Construction workers connect to corporate data using wireless networks and tablet PCs. Wireless PDA/cell phone devices are standard issue for every Skanska employee, allowing for instant access to information, e-mail, calendars, and contacts. Skanska USA Building was awarded the Wireless Innovator Award in 2005 from <i>InformationWeek</i>.  Allstate Mobile Response Units (MRUs) are dispatched and positioned in strategic locations to serve customers affected by disaster. MRUs are equipped with satellite technology that allows onsite claims adjusters to quickly and effectively help customers begin the claims process.  An area of Virginia hit by tornadoes in April 2008. Members of Allstate's National Catastrophe Team were dispatched and positioned in strategic locations. MRUs equipped with satellite technology allowed onsite claims adjusters to rapidly begin the claims process.  A manufacturing technician in National's South Portland, Maine, facility keeps a photolithography tool loaded with silicon wafers. The wafers have been treated before being exposed and then developed to produce a map image, i.e., circuitry, on their surface. Ultraviolet light interferes with this process; therefore, yellow lighting is necessary.  Lee Eggleston, special projects manager for APS, demonstrates the company's Distribution Operations Management System (DOMS), a real-time, interactive representation of the company's entire electrical service territory, which spans 35,000 square miles. The technology behind DOMS enables APS to more quickly identify power outages, zoom in on trouble spots, track data, and manage construction and repair resources. DOMS is centralizing computer systems and key operational functions from five major metro operations centers and four state territory offices into one system. Full deployment is scheduled for 2010.  A wireless order system on a plant truck tells a GM employee the parts he needs to retrieve. A 22-MBps per second wireless network runs throughout the Lansing Delta plant, the automaker's newest U.S. plant. The Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia, and Saturn Outlook are built here. See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/galleries/showImage.jhtml?galleryID=193&articleID=208700771" target="_blank">more photos of IT at GM</a>.  A GM plant employee checks a Windows XP terminal for assembly information. GM personnel can get status views from the in-plant order management system, which talks to thousands of networked plant devices and also connects to the outside supply chain to keep needed parts coming in. Most suppliers are local and deliver materials in four-hour production batches. Personnel also can view the product routing and tracking system, which ensures such things as the correct paint color on a specific vehicle. Terminals offer a color-coded view of production status to alert employees to any stalls or problems.  PACCAR ITD is embedded in the business and technology is applied to provide innovative applications that drive high-quality products and efficiency across all PACCAR businesses. Here a QA specialist at a truck factory works through a checklist on a tablet PC, gathering information after completion of a truck build. The data is sent directly from the tablet to a database.  An assembly technician at a truck factory is filling coolant, lubricants, and refrigerant using the Smart Fluid Fill System. This system uses truck chassis configuration data to assure that the correct fluids and quantities are used before engine start. The data is stored in the historical records for the chassis.  Exhaust ducts crossing over a main supply duct in a tight corridor space, in a snapshot from NavisWorks. Each trade models its respective discipline -- before installation -- as part of a trade coordination effort to better visualize, and thus reduce interference, in how the systems will interact.  Systems seen here were prefabricated from the NavisWorks model and brought to the site to be installed. Modelling, as seen in previous image, saves time and money on job sites that otherwise would have been lost to delays and costs associated with resolving unforeseen problems.  Gallo makes and bottles 75 million cases of wine annually. Technologies used include strategic sourcing models for Gallo grape providers (worldwide); wine management and tracking systems from vineyard to bottle; tax compliance systems for government reporting; and environmental systems for maintaining appropriate storage, barrel tracking, and cellar management systems.  Arch Coal uses longwall mining systems, such as the one here, to produce nearly 12% of the total U.S. coal supply each year. This technique uses a rotating shearer to maximize coal recovery underground. Once coal is mechanically removed, it travels by conveyor to the surface for shipment to electric power producers and steel manufacturers.  Dr. Richard Shalvoy of Arch Chemicals uses an Electron Spectrometer at Arch's research center in Cheshire, Conn., to study the encapsulation of a powder form of one of Arch's water-treatment products. 

Extreme IT: Systems That Can Take A Beating
Red Cross

Disaster assessment teams at the scene of flooding in Iowa, piloting new technology to capture damage information instantaneously. Teams recorded their findings on GPS-enabled handheld computers that automatically upload data and photos from the field straight into a central computer. The system eliminates time-consuming data entry from paper sheets, and possible errors that can arise from illegible handwriting or misread maps.

Photograph by Talia Frenkel/American Red Cross