Time and money savers and interface improvements abound

The newest version of CompuTec PDC (Plant Data Capture) landed on 29^th of November 2018. CompuTec PDC is a solution for ProcessForce users for recording worktime and operations via production panels directly from your factory floor. In this latest version there are a number of quite nifty upgrades and changes which I would like to present to you today.

 

Weight Scale Support

In a significant leap forward, CompuTec PDC now supports industrial weight scales which means you can issue goods to production by weight, rather than by counting, weighing or measuring manually as in previous versions.  There is a handy progress indicator which will let your operatives see how much product they still have to add to the scale (both at the task selection stage and during weighing) and it is possible to compare the planned, issued, picked and remaining quantities right from the wizard itself.

 

 

This new feature has a twofold effect;

• Increased accuracy – more accurate picking practices will help you cut down on waste and save money
• Improved efficiency – the automation of this process will save your employees substantial time and effort by removing the manual weighing and counting process entirely.

You can also choose which batches your materials are taken from and see how much is remaining in each batch after the goods issued to production have been subtracted.

All electronic weight scales can be supported by writing a custom driver, however out of the box we provide integration for the Mettler Toledo ICS429 weight scale as well as Precisa models XB320M, 480S/BK1200D, BK1200D, 480s/BK1200D, XB120A and XB320M.

 

 

Input and Output Properties

This new functionality allows you to record the properties of each item bound to each operation before and after the operation takes place. You can define the planned or acceptable values, your production staff will then check the actual value on completion of the operation, enter that value and confirm via a checkbox that the output value is compliant.

Let’s look at the example given below. This company produces metal parts for the construction industry. In order to meet customer requirements these parts need to fall into a certain weight range. The standard metal bar should weigh between three and three and a half kilograms, screws should weigh between four and a half and five and a half grams and so on. At the end of the operation the production operative should weigh each part, record the actual weight of the item at the end of the operation and check that the part falls within the desired parameters and verify this by checking the check box.

While my example here concerns item weight, it is possible to use any kind of property or unit of measure for example temperature, density, potency, acidity to name but a few.

 

 

Synchronize Team Work

When recording work time, you can now use the work-time data for the foreman and use that same data for the rest of the team. This is useful when tasks are completed by teams as a whole. Instead of wasting time entering data for 10 or even more employees, you can synchronize the whole team’s recorded work time with that of the foreman.

 

New to Quick Time booking

We have added a couple of small but handy enhancements to this function to improve its usability.

• Two new filters : Manufacturing Required Date and Manufacturing Start Date
• Improved table function (you can now click and drag to scroll)
• The header has been reorganized to make it more intuitive

For more information on Quick Time Booking, please see our previous blog post.

 

Other improvements

• UDF fields are now displayed on the Quick Receipt form.
• If default issue/receipt warehouses have not been assigned, a dialogue explaining the issue will be displayed when the user attempts to create Issue to Production or Receipt from Production documents.
• Log-in error messages now contain more comprehensive information and advice about the cause of errors.
• The application log file format has been changed from a text file to a comma-separated values file (CSV) for clearer insight into application performance data.

And while that may be all for this version, there is a lot more on the way. If you have any questions or would like a full demonstration of CompuTec PDC, please don’t hesitate to contact us by email or on +48 68 38 188 00.