HIGHLIGHTS

In version 3.5, Matics line management is given the spotlight and introduces complex lines management as well as providing more line-level information and actions.
Distinguishing between planned downtime and unplanned downtime is essential for effective production-time management, so to support the wise configuration of your stop event groups and reasons per the industry standard tenets of scheduled time and unscheduled time, the stop event customization page was redesigned. If you prefer importing stop event groups and reasons in bulk, there are new data sync interfaces for doing so.

Frontline workers on the production floor will enjoy the new options for embedding media, structured information and detailed instructions in tasks, service calls and QC test forms.

For details about all the improvements introduced in this release, please continue reading.

PRODUCTION LINES

Complex production lines

Matics now offers support for complex manufacturing system configurations, encompassing branching and convergence of production lines. This includes the management of asynchronous and heterogeneous production lines with series-parallel flows, incorporating processes such as reworking, scraping, and product splitting/merging.

Setting up complex lines in the system is currently done by Matics personnel.

Line's master view in the machine page

The timeline widget is now available for production lines.
The line master view's widget library has expanded to include PE, Availability, Cycle Time Efficiency, Quality Index, and Rejects.

[Web app]

REDESIGN OF STOP EVENT CUSTOMIZATION

Newly structured group-creation flow

The Stop Event Customization page was redesigned to align easily with the scheduled / unscheduled time management model. Create stop event groups that group reasons using any one of the following time classifications:

planned downtime (scheduled time)
unplanned downtime (scheduled time)
unscheduled, off-limits time (unscheduled time)

Group targets

Setting targets is available individually for each stop event group, or you might find it more convenient setting the targets for all groups at once through the dedicated Stop Events Group Targets page in the Targets Management module.

Setting the target % of each group reflects what you consider to be acceptable downtime for this stop event reasons group and you have the flexibility to set and continually adjust targets. Automate actions based on these targets using rules.

Bulk import of stop-event groups & reasons

If your site has a a very detailed breakdown, resulting in lots of stop event reasons, you'll find the option of using Data Sync to populate this page's groups and reasons automatically, particularly useful.

[Web app]

CONNECTED FRONTLINE

The following improvements help connect frontline workers on the production floor: operators, QC, maintenance people, and more:

Task descriptions and service call descriptions are now based on rich text, which enables users to embed images--including video--in addition to helpful formatting of the text with headings, lists and more.
When automating the creation of tasks via Rules, you can add multiple types of attachments to that task: videos, images, text files and more to provide the person who will be performing the task with all the required information and instructions.
You can now configure a test field with the option of Add image. When this setting is active, testers can embed in the response for that test field an image/video. Ensuring that everybody understands the test results.

[Web app]

QC

Create QC tests with ease through the redesigned Configure Quality Tests wizard, which also provides a few new fields and options that give you more control in designing the test form. For example, the option of adding description lines to test sections, which can be used for short instructions and what not:

[Web app]

MISCELLANEOUS IMPROVEMENTS

User roles

To add flexibility in user classifications, User Roles were added to the system. This is particularly useful when disseminating information via notifications, in which you want to target people by what they do, and not by their system access permissions grouping.

[Web app]

Task management

Filter tasks to find those that weren't assigned a start or end time by using the new filter option No start or end time.
You'll now have an indication for your new tasks only until you click to view them. (Previously the new task indication included the count of all your open tasks, regardless if you clicked to open them or not.)

Machine page

A new preconfigured widget for showing the percentage of reported stop events is now available in the widget library.

[Web app]

Working time

A new parameter Working Time reflects the time it took in hours, without breaks, for producing units as reported either through the tablet via the Report Production job action, or through the web app via the machine's Create Inventory Item action. The aggregated working time for a job is presented in the Jobs Report Working Time column.

[Web app, Op app]

Automatic actions on running jobs

Split the job automatically if a recipe parameter changes by activating the new Automatically Split Job On Value Change check box that's available for each machine type property in the property's General tab.
OPC machine controllers can provide in real time the machine's actual units in cycle, so now there's a new option to automatically populate the recipe with the current value by setting this at the machine level for any machine parameter via the Action on value change > Change Units In Cycle setting in the target parameter's General tab.

[Web app]

Tablet

Reporting production now provides the Working time field for logging how much time (in hours) it took to produce those units.
Same as operators sign in to multiple machines in one go, they can now sign out.

[Op app]

Gantt

Actual setup time is now visible in the Gantt:
- In the chart area hovering over the setup you can see the gap between the standard set for this job's setup and the actual setup time.
- A column for actual setup time was added to the list of columns, and that data can be presented as stable data to the left of the chart by itself, or with the setup time standard.
- The actual setup time is also reflected in the Duration Left for that job, also available in the column selector as well as in the hover-over tooltip if thus configured.
Job notes were added to Gantt:
- They can be displayed as column information and tooltips.
- You can search for jobs based on the content of their notes.
- You can filter jobs per information included in their notes.