Redwood Shores, Calif. -- Tyson Foods has installed Oracle Rdb 6.1 as the database engine for its new, business-critical warehouse management system. The system includes McHugh Freeman's WMS software and Digital Equipment Corp.'s Alpha 2100 processors. Already implemented at Tyson's largest distribution site, which ships almost 30 percent of the company's volume, the new warehouse system will be rolled out to Tyson's remaining warehouses with one implementation every three months. The new warehouse management system tracks 13 million pounds of chicken and other meats every week at a highly detailed level, including each product case's data, production line, weight and real-time location. It guides the labor of more than 200 concurrent users around the clock, assigning receiving, putaway, loading and shipping paperwork. McHugh Freeman's software works with Oracle Rdb to provide: bar-coding to track products throughout the warehouse; radio frequency terminals on each forklift to guide workers' activities without unnecessary downtime; and detailed warehouse mapping for consistent knowledge of product location. Tyson chose Oracle Rdb because the product offers "outstanding reliability, complete and easy recovery, ease of management, real-time monitoring and ease of growth," said Steve Hankins, Tyson's vice president of MIS. For disaster tolerance, Tyson's warehouse management system runs on lights-out dual clustered Alpha 2100 processors for immediate failover, using Rdb's rolling AIJs (after-image journaling) three times daily for ongoing backup. Run remotely from Tyson's Springdale, AK headquarters, the system backs up nightly to tape drives and over the network to Tyson's main Sales and Inventory Management (SIM) system, also based on Oracle Rdb. The new system is Tyson's latest effort to gain competitive advantage through an Rdb-based information architecture. SIM integrates the efforts of everyone involved with Tyson's supply chain including customer service, transportation, logistics, production, pricing, third-party warehouses, and even customers themselves. SIM users can reach the warehouse system's real-time information as needed. SIM, which handles 100-120 gigabytes of data and supports an average of 650 concurrent users, runs on Oracle Rdb 6.0 and a Digital VAX 10,630 system. At Tyson's, Oracle Rdb also runs such applications as accounts receivable, purchasing, materials, grower management and data warehousing for sales reporting and analysis.