Recently, I was asked to explain Metrology.NET®, usually an easy task, so I thought. What is it that Metrology.NET does, without comparing it to a completely different software product. And, I was asked to explain it in terms a non-programmer/non-metrologist could easily understand.
So, for the past few weeks, I have been racking my brains thinking of a way to explain software without talking about software like a typical programming nerd; putting it into words and concepts everyone can understand. For me, this is not an easy task!
Then I remembered a technical paper I was going to write for the 2020 MSC Training Symposium and later recorded for the NCSLI Technical Exchange.* The topic was on “Model Driven Software Engineering.” Yes, it has software in the title, but the idea is a carry over from Model Driven Engineering, something engineers have been working on since the beginning of Industry 2.0.
The idea is simple, and it all falls around the idea of interchangeable parts, the cornerstone of modern industry and manufacturing. Back in the 1800s, manufacturing was one-off; a company would make products that were sized to fit that product. Rather than build to a specification, if something didn’t fit, it would be shaved or filed down to fit. This made each item and its parts unique in size.
If you watch This Old House, or have ever been in a turn of the century kitchen, you will notice the cabinets were built for that specific house. They were most likely built on-site to the exact measurements of the kitchen. It was truly a custom fit!
The transition to Industry 2.0 moved production into assembly lines. This required that each part be built to an exacting specification so that it fit into place when the item rolled down the production line. Cabinets today are built to a specification, the lower kitchen cabinets are 30 inches high and 24 inches deep. Architects draw the kitchen layout, knowing the cabinet’s dimensions come in a 24, 30, 36 or 40 inch width. A modern kitchen really isn’t custom as it is drawn to spec.
So now let’s shift gears and talk about software. Most software and automated calibration procedures built today are built with an Industry 1.0 philosophy. They are built to work only in that limited scope of the tasks and features they were built to perform. They are not built to use interchangeable parts; everything has to be known when they are built.
If new hardware comes out, the software has to be recompiled and redistributed to include the new feature or hardware. Under the hood, everything is built like industry 1.0 technology–all the parts only work together as a whole. So the application has to be built to support the new hardware, recompiled linking all of it’s internal custom built parts together, and then sent out to replace all the previous versions of the software with the new one.
Think about that for a minute. The inefficiency of it all. If every time you wanted to upgrade the tires on your car, you had to buy a new car because your current car doesn’t support the latest Goodyear all season radials.
Metrology.NET is the first metrology based software solution engineered and built on the principle of interchangeable parts. Yes, those parts are software parts. But just like in an Industry 2.0 assembly line, the part fits if it was built to specifications and made to be interchangeable. And like the car analogy, it can be easily upgraded with parts built to specification. You can upgrade and accessorize the software.
The technology was built to be very flexible, adaptable, and interchangeable. Recently, Meatest introduced the 9010 Multi-Function Calibrator. All we had to do was write a driver to spec, drop it in the \Drivers directory, and we were calibrating digital multimeters that day. We didn’t have to rewrite hundreds of automated calibration procedures to add the new calibrator. We didn’t have to recompile and distribute a new copy of Metrology.NET to add the new hardware. No! All we did was add an interchangeable part!
* If you are a current member of NCSLI, you can watch the video for free at https://ncsli.org/page/MSMD.
