The question is not, Why Delta? The question is, Why anything else?
or, Why buying networking from your machine vendor may not be a smart
move.
Of the many firsts VeriStitch is responsible for bringing to the machine
networking world, three things in particular have brought significant
productivity and maintainability benefits to our customers:
- VeriStitch brought the idea of production tracking decorative sewing
machines into the consciousness of the industry. Once just a dream,
production tracking and management statistical reporting is now an everyday
occurrence on the floors of the largest decorative sewing operations
in the U.S., thanks to the Delta Automated Personalization System (Delta APS).
- VeriStitch connected machines across the room and across the world
by assigning globally routable IP addresses to machines. Our customers
routinely connect machines to a single server across wide area networks
spanning large geographical areas.
- VeriStitch introduced the convenience of wire-free technology to
decorative sewing machine networks.
Since we created this market years ago and provided product that performs
as promised, machine vendors have struggled to develop and introduce products that attempt to imitate our technology. That leaves you, the customer, in the position
of deciding to whom you want to entrust your machine networking.
Once you spend some time answering the following questions, we're confident
that you'll see the wisdom in entrusting your machine networking to VeriStitch,
the industry's networking specialists.
10 Questions to Ask About an Embroidery Machine Network
Before Buying
1. Does the network connect every machine on the floor, including your
older models?
If the network only works with "the latest machine model,"
is the promise of networking being used as a motivational tool to get
you to buy newer machines?
Why customers choose Delta:
- VeriStitch doesn't have any machines to sell. Networking with production workflow automation is our only
business.
- We can network machines that are almost considered ancient by today's
standards, right alongside the latest machine models.
2. Does the network connect different manufacturers machines?
Or does it work only with the machines sold by the machine vendor offering
the network? In our experience, larger operations tend to purchase machines
that are right for their particular production centers. Maybe you will
find a Brother is best for certain things, but prefer a Melco Amaya, Barudan or Tajima for other things.
Why customers choose Delta:
- We have the technology to make no-fuss mixed machine networking a
reality. We have customers running mixed machine environments every
day, even running Barudan and Tajima machines side by side on the same
network.
3. Does the network support both push and pull design access?
Push systems require someone at a central computer or software interface
to stage a design for a specific machine. When the machine operator requests
the next design, he or she gets whatever has been staged. Pull systems allow
the machine operator to specify the design they want to load right at
the machine. Push systems are the easiest to implement, but double the
work it takes to get a design to a machine. A pull system is more sophisticated
and best fits the workflow of large U.S. decorative sewing operations.
Why customers choose Delta:
- Delta supports both push and pull design downloads, with the following
special pull-mode features: with bar code scanner option, no operator keying
is required at Delta Terminal to download a job (immediate download after successful bar
code scan); supports long job/design names such as are commonly assigned by mainframe order entry systems
4. Does the network allow designs to be referenced by job/work order
numbers, or is the design name/number the only reference to a design?
In some operations, the machine operator works with a job or work order
number, not the design number.
Why customers choose Delta:
- In Delta, a design is known by its design name and as many job/work
order numbers as you want to create to point to it. Machine operators
can download the design either by its design number or job/work order
number.
5. How large of a design library can the network handle, and how does
it store designs if it stores them at all?
Our experience is that a customer's design library is always growing,
and they want all of their designs available to the production floor.
Most of our customers have libraries that exceed 20,000 designs; some have libraries that number into the 6-figure range.
Why customers choose Delta:
- The current version of Delta, using SQL Server as its back end database solution, can store a virtually unlimited number of designs
depending on SQL Server implementation. In Delta, a design is actually imported
into a database where it can be accessed quickly without network overhead
and file I/O.
- Some networks, instead of storing designs in a database, simply look
in a directory on the network for stored files. We abandoned this approach
years ago because of the network latency involved in opening a directory
with large numbers of files in it.
6. What client software is available for accessing the design database?
Nothing is more important than to be able to see exactly what design
is on file to be downloaded to the production machine that will run an
order. Will your people be able to do that?
Why customers choose Delta:
- Our suite of client software offers a simple way for all of your
users, including production and sales people, to view the production
database, while at the same time restricting them from adding, deleting
or modifying designs. You can also provide complete access to the database
to those who need it, so they can add, delete and modify designs as
needed. And our client software works equally well over your LAN, WAN
and the Internet if needed.
7. Is the network software a shrink-wrap solution?
Does the vendor also offer order entry integration or other custom programming
that may be needed to get the most out of your investment?
Why customers choose Delta:
- We are not a shrink-wrap software vendor. Our software is hand crafted
to meet the needs of our customers. Because we do all of the hardware
and software development right here, we can respond rapidly to your
unique requests. Want to pass information from your order entry system
through Delta to your machine operators? We can do it. Need a report
customized to your needs? We can do it. Read more about custom programming here.
8. Who do you call when there are problems with the network?
Does the vendor have people on staff who are networking savvy, or are
they machine techs who are trying their best to deal with what is essentially
a foreign technology to them?
Why customers choose Delta:
- Again, networking is our only business. When you call us for support,
you are talking directly to the people who develop, document, install
and support Delta every day. That's all we do. We'll do whatever it
takes to walk you through a problem to a final resolution. All we ask
is that you put a technical person on the other side of the phone with
us and we'll take it from there.
9. What sort of track record does the network have?
Are there references you can call to discuss reliability of the product
and the reputation the vendor has for supporting the product? Are there
installations you can visit to actually see the network being used in
production to support 100 or more machines?
Why customers choose Delta:
- We are happy to supply references on request, no problem. Want to visit an installation?
That can be arranged, too. In fact, that's how we built our business,
by one company visiting another. The unfortunate history of machine
networking in this industry put us in the position of having to show
customers the product actually does work, and works reliably enough
to bet a business on it every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
10. This last question is more about you than the network, and it is
simply this: Do you feel lucky?
Well, do you? If you're going to bet your business on an unproven product,
your answer to this question had better be, Yes. On the other hand, if
you want to leave luck out of the picture, bet your business on a sure
thing: reliable, proven networking from the industry leader. So, what
are you waiting for? Contact a sales representative
now.
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