The work-center job pool

In some cases, allocating machines for jobs needs to be done dynamically, directly from the production floor. In these cases, machines can be grouped together and jobs can be sent to the machine group rather than to individual machines. Use this guide to set up a machine group that is a multi-machine work center.

About the work center

All machines belonging to the same machine group share the same job queue.
Jobs will be allocated to a machine group rather than to a specific machine.
Users of the Operator App can search the shared job queue for the machine group and activate any of the jobs in the queue from any of the machines in the group.
Upon activation, the system will update the job, and log which machine produced the job.

Create a machine group

Go to Settings > Machine Groups.
Click Search.
This presents the search preview with the list of existing groups in tabular format, if machine groups have already been added, or an empty list if no groups have yet been configured.
You can now add new groups.
Click Add.
In the new row:
1. Enter a description for the machine group.
2. Enter its ERP ID.
3. Select the Active check box, so it'll be available for use.
Click Save changes.
The table is now updated and you can and should fill in the Name and English Name fields.
Click Save changes.

You are now ready to assign machines to the group.

Assign machines to a machine group

To assign individual machines

Go to Setup > Site Configuration > 5 (Step 5 - Define Machine Types).
Click the index of the target machine type.
In the machine type's page, click the Machines tab.
Click the index of the target machine.
In the General tab's Machine Group field, select the machine group that should be assigned to this machine.
Click Save.

To assign multiple machines

Go to Setup > Site Configuration > 5 (Step 5 - Define Machine Types).
Click the index of the target machine type.
In the machine type's page, click the Machines tab.
In the Machine Group column set for each machine its assigned machine group.
Click Save changes.

Configure showing the shared job queue for the machine group in the Operator (tablet) app

In the Web app, go to the machine's configuration page (detailed in steps 1 to 4 above).
The General tab's Pending Jobs Report Filter field controls the job queue, the machine's pending jobs.
By default, it's populated with MachineID. This means that the pending jobs list will only show jobs that have been assigned to the specific machine.
If you want the machine's job queue to show the pending jobs list for the machine group change the text in the field to JobMachineGroupID .

Optional: Set up a shared job queue for all machines belonging to the machine group

Set the Operator (tablet) app to show jobs that have been allocated to the machine group, but not any specific machine. The jobs will be in status 01.

In the Web app, go to the machine type's configuration page (steps 1 & 2 above).
The General tab's Pending Jobs Minimum Status field controls which jobs are included in the job queue and are shown to operators in the Operator app as ready for activation. By default, the value is 3. This means that the pending jobs list only shows jobs that have reached status 03 in Matics. Job status 03 indicates job recipe approval.
But since you want jobs at any planning stage to appear in the job queue, change the value of the number in this field to 1.
The check box Allow Activate Job Without Recipe Approval controls whether jobs can be activated if their recipe has not been vetted. Select this check box if you want to allow activating jobs without requiring recipe approval. Otherwise, the system will block activation and return an error message to the user.
Click Save.

Job status