109 At about the same time, the Western States service team noticed that many sugar plants were eliminating in-house maintenance teams and machine shops. They created a program through which customers could send components or complete machines to Hamilton for repairs. While the idea took off slowly, it has flourished and positioned Western States as a premier service provider within the industry. During 1984, programmable logic controls were added to an automatic batch centrifugal, and it wasn’t long before small computers became standard equipment for that type of machine. Computers came to the Engineering Department in the middle of the decade, with CAD (Computer Aided Design) equipment increasing efficiency. By 1988, Western States implemented its first enterprise computer system, which integrated order entry, purchasing, inventory, machine, and shop floor operations. above: Bill Duersch, a Western States Service Technician, at Mid-Siam Sugar Co., Ltd., in Bangkok, Thailand. December, 1983