A gap exists between process control and management information systems (MIS). The gap is formed by philosophies, vendors, marketing strategies, programming languages, and communication protocols. This paper describes a system that traces ingots in the hot line department of a rolling mill, and bridges the gap between MIS and process control. Communications with MIS use a vendor-specific synchronous protocol, while communications with process control systems use a start-stop protocol that was developed in-house.

Because of unpleasant experience with an earlier system, production people are potentially hostile to this one. Their hostility has been softened by good design and a good training program. If a system like this is to survive, software people must be devoted to maintaining it. For future systems of this type, more commercially available software should be selected before the hardware is picked.