Relational Database Technology: Its Use for Real‐time Management Information Available to Purchase

Associated Newspapers have recently moved to a new £150m production facility in the London Docklands development area. The new production plant is one of the most modern printing plants in Europe for newspaper printing. With a “greenfield” site the Associated Newspapers management were able to plan and purchase state‐of‐the‐art technology for all phases of their production processes. These include a computer‐controlled press management system, a publishing system,automatically guided vehicles, an automated warehouse and a plate‐making system. These five different computer based systems were integrated using local area networks; and an Oracle based Management Information System (MIS) developed to collect data for management use. A number of reports are automatically generated at shift end, while other ad hoc enquiries can be made using the standard Oracle facilities at any time, as the database is updated frequently by the MIS. For the first time the Associated Newspapers management are able to examine and monitor their production processes in real‐time rather than many hours after the event.