THINCing Exactly

The excellently named Exact Software has announced a partnership with Okuma, a computer numeric controls and machining technology company. The exact Exact division to be working with Okuma is Exact JobBOSS which, together with Okuma’s plug and play control platform Okuma THINC allows its machines to "think for themselves.”

Terminator-like fantasies aside, Okuma THINC is a PC platform is designed to enable access to almost any application and peripheral including shop management systems, and interfaces with bar coders, feeders, robots, probes and tool setters to assist in streamlining production. Thanks to implementation with Exact JobBOSS, the pair allows production data such as job starts, machine hours and part counts to come directly off the machine and into Exact JobBOSS, theoretically increasing accuracy to near-perfect levels.

The JobBOSS / Okuma pairing can be seen at the International Manufacturing Technology Show, a huge event for that industry, currently going on through September 13 in Chicago, Ill. at the Okuma booth.

Established in 1984, Exact Software boasts integrated business software solutions in 40 languages, including those in traditional enterprise resource planning, human resource management, customer relationship management, project management, business intelligence / analytics, and electronic workflow.

Exact is headquartered in Delft, the Netherlands and has offices in Europe, the Middle East, North and South America, Asia, Australia and Africa. Exact employs more than 2,700 employees in 42 countries, and currently serves customers in more than 125 countries.

Minneapolis, Minn.-based Exact JobBOSS is a producer of shop management software for job shops, small- to mid-sized make-to-order, engineer-to-order, contract and mixed-mode manufacturers.

Okuma products are used in the automotive, aerospace and defense, construction and farming equipment, oil and energy, medical, mold and die, and fluid power industries.