Why do so?

Activating a job signals to the Matics system to begin monitoring and recording the machine’s production activity. The system uses sensors and other methods to measure and record machine activity. These data and set points in the job's recipe provide production rate and other metrics, and are the basis for calculating KPIs.

Best practice: use the Time Left Current Job widget

The option for activating a job from the Time Left Current Job widget is available when the counter is zero, indicating that there's no active job:

Tap Activate.
In the Select Job list, tap the row of the job you want to activate.
You can search for the job you want to activate using any of the search boxes at the top of each column.
The job will open in an Actionable Jobs page to show the full job details:
1. If you want to check the recipe definitions and make adjustments, tap Display Recipe. (Editing a recipe depends on your permissions.)
2. Tap ACTIVATE to activate the job.
The Activate New Job prompt is presented. Tap Activate to confirm that you want to activate this job.
The selected job is now activated, and the machine status changes to 'working in setup', which means the system expects you'll be making adjustments to the machine at the beginning of job production.
When the selected job is activated, the widget transitions to Setup mode for ending setup.

Note: If the machine transitions to a non-setup status this means that no setup is required by operators.

Job activation options

The basic flow of activating a job is to use the Time Left Current Job widget or select the activation action, and select the job to activate from the list of the machines' pending jobs.

Sometimes you may want to make adjustments to the job recipe, and if the machine is in no production status, there will be a few more steps.

Finally -- if available for the machine + you're using a barcode scanner, or have the job's ERP ID -- the Activate Job widget can make it even quicker to activate a job.

Using the Job Actions menu

Tap the Job Actions menu.
Tap Activate Job.
In the Select Job list, tab the row of the job you want to activate.
You can search for the job you want to activate using any of the search boxes at the top of each column.
The job will open in an Actionable Jobs page to show the full job details:
1. If you want to check the recipe definitions and make adjustments, tap Display Recipe. (Editing a recipe depends on your permissions.)
2. Tap ACTIVATE to activate the job.
The Activate New Job prompt is presented. Tap Activate to confirm that you want to activate this job.
The selected job is now activated, and the machine status changes to 'working in setup', which means the system expects you'll be making adjustments to the machine at the beginning of job production.

Note: If the machine transitions to a non-setup status this means that no setup is required by operators.

Activate last job prompt

This prompt is presented when you activate a job for a machine in 'no production' status. It lets you choose whether the last job the machine worked on and was stopped for whatever reason should be activated, or if a new job should be activated.

Activating the last job

In the Activate last job prompt ("Do you want to activate the last job you worked on?") tap Activate Job to activate the job indicated in the prompt.
The next prompt is whether the job requires setup before activation.
(You're asked about setup since the machine is resuming work on the job after an interval or other reasons that might require machine setup.)
- If no, tap No Setup.
- If yes, tap Go to Setup.
A success message will be presented briefly to confirm the job was activated and the machine status will change accordingly: either working, or working in setup.

Activating a job that wasn't the last job the machine worked on

In the Activate last job prompt, tap Don't Activate to select a different job.
Follow steps 3 onward in the basic flow above.

Activate Job widget

In the Activate Job widget's text box enter the ERP ID of the job either through a barcode scanner or manually to activate.
Tap Enter on the virtual keyboard.
The selected job is now activated, and the machine status changes to working in Setup state -- to accommodate any adjustments you may need to apply to the machine at the beginning of job production.

Machines in non-production status will provide the quick activation input field in the 'Attention' pop-up message:

Quick activation through barcode scanner or manual ERP input via this non-production attention message

One final note

Not all jobs are activated manually. Jobs may be automatically activated via synched data and machine controllers.

Troubleshooting

Error message: "the pending job list is empty"

If there are no pending jobs, then there's nothing to activate.

(This may indicate you're not supposed to activate jobs on that machine, or that there was a planning issue.)

Error message: "Product machine type doesn't match machine machine type"

General error that indicates the job wasn't activated. There are various reasons that can trigger it, such as the job per its definitions wasn't supposed to be in this machine's pending job list, a mold used for this job may be in maintenance, the product's recipe is lacking settings.

Administration info

To add the activate job widget to a machine:

Go to Setup > Site Configuration > index 5 (Step 5 - Define Machine Types).
Click the index of the machine type.
In the machine type's form click the Machines tab.
Select the machine by clicking its index number.
In the machine's form > General tab > Operator App section select the Fast Job Activation Widget check box.
Click Save Changes.