The manufacturing shop floor presents a difficult challenge in terms of providing electronic information to users efficiently, cost-effectively and without violating corporate information security policies. Too often, the need for maximum availability of information conflicts directly with the small number of terminals available to manufacturing workers.

Alternatively, one workstation per manufacturing employee is not only too expensive, but sharply inhibits flexible operations on the shop floor.

Balancing Security with Efficiency for the Manufacturing Shop Floor

Faced with the task of balancing security and cost concerns against the need for efficient and fast flow of information to workers, manufacturing companies are responding with group logons for more availability. But this exposes the entire network to attacks from insufficiently secured network nodes that are physically insecure as well.

CSC’s Manufacturing Information Kiosk Application (MIKA) is an innovation solution that resolves these challenges by:

• Providing fast, secure and individual login capability at the manufacturing information terminal to support multiple users, which in turn decreases the number of terminals needed on the shop floor
  
• Reducing wait time between sessions through a Windows service that can quickly switch from one user to another
  
• Placing all user sessions in a cache for immediate return

In effect, MIKA can instantaneously turn a workstation into a secure kiosk. The application’s biometric sensor interface permits instant login to both the machine and manufacturing support applications, as well as other employee network applications on a company’s network.

MIKA is fully compatible with all current versions of Microsoft Windows XP client, network and Web applications. It is also compatible with Active Directory and LDAP standards. MIKA does not violate existing Microsoft licensing agreements.

Secure, Encrypted, Modular: MIKA’s Features and Benefits

MIKA’s modular application architecture — made up of a network software component, a replacement kernel for Windows logon and a Windows XP client application — makes it both flexible and easy to use. The application provides total security through the use of encrypted templates, database and communications.

MIKA also protects user privacy — all fingerprint images are destroyed once a template code is created. The application’s architecture, leveraging commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software as well as Windows components, is elegant and user-friendly.

Here are some other features and benefits of MIKA:

• Cost-Efficient: Supports up to 20 users on a single network node or standalone workstation
  
• Easy: Secure, simple, straightforward enrollment process
  
• Fast: Sub-5-second user login/user switch/user cache processes
  
• Versatile: MIKA can be incorporated into any technology or application — whether it’s a USB pod, a smart card or smart token, an embedded notebook sensor, a keyboard sensor or a rugged outdoor sensor.

Increasing Efficiency, Boosting Manufacturing ROI

With its ability to cut costs while increasing employee and shop-floor efficiency, MIKA is the perfect application for manufacturing environments.

By making more information available faster, and at a steeply lower cost to employees working on the shop floor — without compromising the security of either individual users or the corporate network as a whole — MIKA opens a clear path to boosting return on investment in the manufacturing sector.

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