Abstract: An updateable enterprise resource planning system to coordinate and reconcile a seller's, a buyer's, a supplier's and a third party logistic supplier's business systems into a single updateable central system hosted by a seller. The seller is provided with information to forecast, plan, and coordinate present and future purchases in a timely and efficient manner. The buyer, seller, and third party logistics supplier are also provided with updated information to use to ship product to the buyer in a timely and efficient manner. A second aspect of the present invention provides the buyer with access to a web server controlled by the seller, wherein the buyer can link up with a third party logistic supplier web site coupled to said web server to monitor shipping status of the shipping orders. This allows the buyer to facilitate planning for arrival of shipments to improve efficiency, leading in potential cost savings.

Abstract: A peer-to-peer control system for a circuit board production line includes multiple processing stations, each of which has an adjustable width conveyor. Control means are provided at each station for controlling the width of the conveyor, receiving board width data signals from an adjacent upstream processing station, and passing the board width data signal, in turn, to an adjacent downstream processing station. A data signal communication network directly connects the controller of each of the processing stations, such as a programmable logic controller, to the controllers of adjacent upstream and downstream stations. Data signals corresponding to the width of circuit boards to be processed by the circuit board production line progress downstream through the line in tandem with circuit boards of that width.