Shopfloor Online - Product Overview

How Shopfloor-Online Supports Your Business

So many manufacturers have invested in expensive ERP systems and yet have not invested in their manufacturing operations. Operations teams are often working with poor, fragmented, out-of-date information - making the measurement of targets difficult, never mind the achievement of them.

And yet every year the pressure to improve performance increases, whether it is from customers, regulations or shareholders - the pressure is relentless. The challenge is to squeeze yet more performance out of already lean operations.

So how do manufacturing operations provide everyone, at all levels, with accurate, real-time information?

Shopfloor-Online from Lighthouse Systems is a web based MES solution that provides real-time visibility of the entire manufacturing environment. The information it collects can be accessed by anyone who needs it - at whatever level and at whichever facility - and it is easily scalable so when proven in one part of the factory it can be extended to other areas.

It is based on the latest web-based architectures and is certified by Microsoft, easily slotting in with your existing IT infrastructure and integrating with existing IT applications such as ERP.

The gains that come from such an integrated and systematic approach can be dramatic and payback is typically measured in months. By concentrating on the very heart of manufacturing operations, Shopfloor-Online MES gives you the means to reduce spoilage and downtime and improve quality, performance and on-time delivery.

Shopfloor-Online Modules

The modular structure of Shopfloor-Online give users the flexibility to approach the issues they face in their own order of priority and then roll out a wider solution as required and when proven. These modules are far ranging and cover everything from Inventory to Quality to OEE. They also share common functionality creating ease of use across the modules.

The following modules are all available within Shopfloor-Online:

Job Scheduling

Many companies use a simple spreadsheet to plan the production schedule. Shopfloor-Online allows scheduling to be managed more effectively and allow changes to the schedule to be made and to see the affect on delivery commitments.

Works Order and Job Tracking

The works order is the batch record. Shopfloor-Online is able to record everything that happened on the Works-Order: the lines used; the materials consumed; the product batches made; serial numbers; quality checks; any exceptional events. This traceability record is key in many industries like pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food and beverage.

Inventory Usage

Shopfloor-Online can record when materials are delivered to the factory. It then records each batch of material as it is used on the line - the part numbers, the batch numbers and the job it is being used on, and therefore knows what materials exist and where they are located.

Build Records (Product Genealogy)

This module extends the inventory module to add additional traceability for those situations where it is required to track every serialised component that is built into an assembly. Shopfloor-Online records the serial number of the finished part, the serial number or batch of each component and the time and machine of manufacture.

Inventory Creation

Product that is created is given a unique identifier and recorded. Shopfloor-Online can track produced inventory and generate production reports. All inventory is managed through states, so produced inventory that is isolated, scrapped or reworked can be easily identified.

Ticket Printing

Often when product is created a label is printed to signify the batch of production, e.g. pallet label or box label. The labels can include product, customer and batch information and often include bar-codes. Shopfloor-Online can generate these labels automatically using pre-defined templates.

Line Log Book

Many companies have operators writing comments in a line log book as a history of key events. All of this can be recorded automatically in Shopfloor-Online, increasing visibility and traceability. Common events can be defined and easily recorded against any process.

Quality

This module allows the creation of the quality control plan. The quality check specifies the characteristics being measured (variables or attributes), the sample sizes, frequencies and the specifications. It can track product or process characteristics. It reminds operators when checks are due; allows all quality measurements to be captured, either manually or directly from the measuring equipment. Out of spec measurements are flagged up as alarms.

SPC

This extends the quality module to allow SPC charts to be used to chart and trend product and process characteristics. Control limits can be set and SPC rules defined to spot trends. Out of control violations are raised as alarms.

Out-of-Spec and Out-of-Control Alarms

Every violation is raised as an alarm, initially in the open state. Operators can record causes and actions and close alarms. Alarms can be analysed e.g. for occurrence, frequency, common causes, common actions and closure rates.

Process Monitoring

Shopfloor-Online can interface directly with production equipment and take real-time data like temperatures pressures, fee rates and other process parameters. When used in conjunction with the SPC module, statistical trend alarms can be set up to monitor process parameters and generate alarms.

Production Counting

Machines and Lines often have PLCs that count products being made. Shopfloor-Online can take the data directly from the PLCs to give real-time production counting at each point down the line. Alternatively production counts can be recorded manually.

Spoilage Counting

Some machines are able to detect reject parts e.g. in-line vision systems and test equipment. Shopfloor-Online can connect to these machines to give real-time spoilage counting. Spoilage counts are collected by machine and by reason. Shopfloor-Online can flag when spoilage levels are too high and provide detailed reporting.

Downtime

Shopfloor-Online can capture downtime and stoppages either directly from machines via the PLCs, or manually recorded as a log. The system captures when the downtime occurred, the duration and the reason. Reasons can be annotated after the fact in the situations where the PLC knew the machine had stopped, but did not know why. Downtime reports can pin-point the extent; where and why the losses are occurring.

OEE

The OEE module builds on the production counting, spoilage and downtime modules to give real-time OEE calculations and analysis.

Repair Management

Shopfloor-Online includes the ability for people on the shop floor to identify the need for repair work and for the maintenance department to schedule when the repairs are best carried out. This is very useful for capturing those non-critical repairs and getting them done the next time the machine is scheduled for maintenance.

Maintenance Management

The software has the ability to create a maintenance schedule based on various events like run hours, parts made, reduction in process capability. Detailed maintenance procedures can be developed and results quickly recorded when maintenance work is carried out. Maintenance work hours planned and used and spare parts planned and used are covered.

Tool Management

In many environments key tools need to be tracked and managed e.g. moulding tools and forming tools. Shopfloor-Online is able to keep a record of tool in terms of their status, location and use. Shopfloor-Online can manage multi-cavity tools and track the state of each cavity. When used in conjunction with the quality and SPC modules, analysis can be conducted by cavity.

Customer Complaints

Shopfloor-Online gives you the ability to record customer complaints and track them through their life to closure. On receipt of complaints key people can be automatically notified by email, actions can be assigned to individuals. Actions can be classified, e.g. containment, corrective, and preventative. Root causes can be identified and recorded and analysed by occurrence.

Supplier Complaints

Supplier complaints are similar to customer complaints but used to track supplier issues.

Concerns & Actions

Sometimes concerns are raised internally or between departments. Companies want to generate actions, assign them to individuals and monitor them to closure to ensure the concern is addressed. In addition, actions can be recorded in a task list. This gives visibility of actions against people, and has a myriad of uses from tracking minutes of meetings, to tracking improvement tasks or other coordinated activities.

Links to Documents

Many times in the manufacturing process reference documents are required, e.g. drawings, specifications, recipes, standard operating procedures, ISO procedures, diagnostic and trouble shooting guides or maintenance manuals. All of these can be provided in an easy to access, context sensitive way making it easy for people on the shop floor to get what they need.

Management Reporting

Management reports are available across all modules. Reports can be accessed on demand or scheduled and emailed. Reports are presented in tabular and graphical format.

Traceability Reporting

Traceability is a key requirement in many industries. In some cases it is a legal requirement in others essential e.g. to support customer complaints. All information recorded in Shopfloor-Online is automatically traceable by user, date and time, shift, machine, line, product, process and so on. Traceability is inherent in everything Shopfloor-Online does. This information is used to support the electronic record as well as analysis for production and quality purposes.

Shopfloor-Online Common Functionality

The following functionality exists across all Shopfloor-Online modules:

User Access and Security

Users can only gain access to the system through a login account and password and at the level of control that they are allowed.

Browser based

Shopfloor-Online is entirely browser based, meaning anyone anywhere can access the system from across the network, whether it is to see the state of the factory, configure the system or run reports. No software has to be installed to access information, which makes deployment, maintenance and support considerably easier.

Factory Model

Shopfloor-Online has at its heart a model of a factory. Each of the modules builds on the same model, so that as more modules are used, the configuration task becomes easier (since more of the factory is already known). The information held also becomes more inter-related and powerful.

Visualisation

Shopfloor-Online is able to be configured with custom web-pages that give powerful screens to summarise key data. Screens include things like line-mimics and are annotated in real-time with alarms and events. Everyone can see in real-time the process, and performance indicators.

Links to ERP (e.g. SAP)

In very many instances Shopfloor-Online has to link with the ERP system. Various items of information can be exchanged, from part and jobs related, to inventory and even quality data. Shopfloor-Online supports a flexible interfacing component that will easily link into common ERP systems like SAP or J D Edwards.

Reporting

There is a huge selection of standard reports available for each of the module. Reports can be configured by users and can be scheduled to run on a regular basis either for easy access or to email to people. All reports can export data to Word, Excel or PDF.

Email and SMS alerts

Shopfloor-Online can be configured to look for key events. Everything from quality issues, production issues, spoilage issues etc. On detecting an event Shopfloor-Online can send emails or SMS text messages to selected people.

Electronic Signatures

In the pharmaceutical world, electronic signatures are required. Shopfloor-Online meets the FDA CFR 11 standard for electronic records and signatures.

Interfacing

Shopfloor-Online has a key component called the UDI (Universal Data Interface) which is a tool that facilitates the construction of interfaces between almost any system. This could be a measuring gauge outputting data via RS232, or a computer based system generating text files, or a database system that need to be interrogated. Shopfloor-Online also has an OPC client that allows for easy connection to PLCs by simply configuring the OPC items.