Introduction
A typical production line consists of several interconnected stations or workstations, each dedicated to a specific task in the manufacturing process. These tasks can include material handling, assembly, testing, packaging, and labeling, among others. Components or products move along the line from one station to another, undergoing various operations until they reach the final stage of production.
Efficient coordination and synchronization of activities are crucial for production lines to function optimally. This requires careful planning, layout design, and continuous monitoring of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as cycle time, throughput, and quality metrics. Regular maintenance and optimization efforts are also necessary to keep the line running smoothly and avoid disruptions in the production flow.
Effective monitoring of KPIs through Matics requires configuring the production line machines' order and role: leading machine, last machine, and which machines are to be considered in calculations.
Maintenance routines can be automated through Matics rules to help ensure the line runs smoothly.
Configuring production lines
Adding a production line entity
PREREQUISITE
The department and machines that will be comprise the production line must already be in the system.
Go to Settings > Production Line Configuration.
Click Add Production Line.
Enter the identifiers of the line:
Name - enter a name for the production line.
ERP ID - if there's an ERP identifier for this line, enter it here.
Display Order - enter a number that determines the position of this production line relative to other production lines. The system uses a descending order.
Department - select the department to which this production line belongs. This determines which machines will be available for adding to the line.
Description - it can be helpful to others entering a description of what this production line is for.
Click Save if you want to stop at this point and continue later.
In this case, you might want to clear the Active Line check box so the line's name won't be visible in various system pages.
Grouping stop events under root causes in production lines
The value set for Event duration (min) associated with root event determines the period for linking subsequent stop events to the initial stop, which is known as the root event. For example, if you set the value to 5 minutes, all subsequent machines' stops will be grouped beneath that root event up to 5 minutes after the root event ends.
NOTE
Production lines must use linking ERP jobs for root-event grouping to work.
Bulk actions for all the line's stations
End setup simultaneously
Change Units In Cycle simultaneously
Operators Login Simultaneously
Activate job simultaneously
To apply any of these actions to all the machines that are part of the production line, select the check box of that action.
Applying the action to one machine (it doesn't have to be the first machine in line, it can be any machine) will apply it to all the other line's machines too.
Structuring the sequence of the line's machines
In the Line structure box select a machine from the list of that department's machines.
Click the add control (+). A square representing that machine is added as the starting point of the line, and the next line structure box is added automatically.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 to add machines that should be included in the line.
Use the move and delete controls in each machine box to adjust the sequence of the line as needed.
Click Save.
Determining which machines impact the line's overall status
Lines are a single container entity that you can analyze as a whole, or examine any part of it.
Not all the production line's machines are equally important for production line analysis and monitoring. There may be machines you'll decide to exclude, and there may be machines that should have prominence over others.
Configuring this is done by establishing the scope of machines that should be included in the Online dashboard's analytics and monitoring.
To do so:
After adding your production line entity, two additional fields will be available:
Gross Units Machine
Reported Units Machine
Define the machine that's the start of the scoped machines by choosing it from the Gross Units Machine list.
Define the machine that's the closing machine for the scope of analysis and monitoring by choosing it from the Reported Units Machine list.
Determine which of the machines in the line's set scope impact the line's availability by selecting its Include In Availability Calculation check box. Otherwise, that machine will be excluded from availability checks and won't impact the line's status.
Determine which of the machines in the line's set scope impact the line's efficiency calculations by selecting its Include In Cycle Time Calculation check box.
If selected, the system will also consider that machine when it's in alarm state for setting the machine's state in the Online dashboard and elsewhere. More information about this is provided in the next section.Click Save.
Line's overall status logic
In general, the line will either be in a working state or in a non-working state.
The line will be considered to have stopped if all the machines in the line scope are in a non-working status.
As mentioned above in steps 4 & 5, the system checks only machines that have the Include In Availability Calculation check box active and/or machines with the Include In Cycle Time Calculation check box selected.
The actual non-working status applied will be that of the first machine in the line which has the Include In Availability Calculation check box selected.
If any of the machines in the scoped line are working, the line is shown as working. There is a hierarchy of working states, with Working in setup status the highest-ranking status and after it come Working alarm and then Working OK. So, if there's a machine working in setup, the line's status will be working in setup even when there's another machine in that line segment that's working OK.
As mentioned above in step 5, to apply to the line a working alarm status, the machine that's in that state must have been configured with the Include In Cycle Time Calculation check box selected. Otherwise, that machine will not impact the line's status even if there's no other machine in a working state.
EXTRA INFO
The system offers six statuses for the different non-working states:
No Production
Stop
No Communication
Setup Stop
Stop Idle
No Production - Downtime
And three working statuses:
Working OK
Working in alarm state
Working in setup state
Line's production speed
After saving your configuration of the production line, the Line speed machine field will be added.
This field determines the line's speed: on which machine it's based and which production rate parameter rate to use.
NOTE
If the selected line speed machine is in non-production status (No Production, No Communication, Stop Idle, or No Production - Downtime), line speed will be based on the first machine in the line which has the Include In Cycle Time Calculation check box selected.
Line's efficiency value
The line's efficiency value shown in the Online view, is based on which machines have the Included In Cycle Time Calculation check box selected.
If only one machine has it selected, the line's efficiency value will be based on that single machine, which is considered the line's leading machine. If multiple machines in the line have this check box selected, the line's efficiency value reflects the calculated average of all these machines.
Line's job details
Units produced reflect the total count of units produced on the line's Reported Units Machine.
Units target reflect the job's target for production.
Good units reflect the calculation of good units produced on the line's Reported Units Machine.
Theoretical units reflect the line's Reported Units Machine expected production for the time that elapsed since the job started. The number of expected theoretical units is based on the job's Units Target and the machine's production rate.
Rejected units reflect the aggregated count of all rejected units from all the line's machines (as scoped for online analytics), including units rejected during setup.
Related articles
The Online dashboard section in the Web App Overview