How do I put the right work drawing in front of each production line?
| Intagya ERP
Tie the file to the stage and the production line together, not to the manufacturing order alone. In Intagya ERP the designer uploads, on the work line of the cost sheet, one PDF for each line that can run the stage, such as Cutting 1 and Cutting 2. When the customer approves, the files move into the bill of materials, and the work order and the worker screen show the file of the line the order runs on now. Move the order to another line and the file changes by itself, and the hour cost of the new line follows.
Ten in the morning. The Cutting 1 saw is down for maintenance, so the workshop supervisor moves the gate order to the plasma cutter. The plasma operator stands there with a sheet printed yesterday: a saw cutting plan, bar lengths and the order to cut them. It is no use to him.
He calls the engineer. The engineer is at a customer's site. The machine waits an hour.
Why is one file per stage not enough?
Because the same stage is done in different ways. Cutting on the saw needs a list of lengths and the order of pieces on each bar. Cutting on the plasma table needs a drawing of the sheet with the pieces nested on it. The name is the same, cutting, but the paper the operator needs is not.
In most factories that difference lives in the engineer's head, or in a WhatsApp group. It works as long as the line does not change. When it does, the calls and the waiting start.
My view: the file is part of the stage, like its time and its cost. If it is not in the system, it will not be in front of the operator when he needs it.
Where do I upload the work file so nobody uploads it twice?
Where the work is first thought through: the cost sheet in the design team. When the designer adds a work line and picks its line, such as Cutting 1, a Worksheets button shows beside it.
It opens a window with the main line of that work and a table where you add one PDF for each line that can run this stage. The table offers only the main line and its alternatives, so you cannot tie a file to a line that has nothing to do with the stage.
If you have one drawing that suits every line, such as the full gate drawing with its sizes, leave it without a line. It is then used on any line that runs the stage.
The table takes PDF files only and refuses anything else, even with a renamed extension. Print your drawing to PDF from your design software before you upload it.
When the customer approves the quotation, the system creates the bill of materials for the order and the files move with the stage as they are. The engineer sends nothing to the workshop, and nobody uploads them again.
What happens to the file when I move a work order to another line?
It changes by itself. The work order reads the stage file of the line it runs on now. Open the work order, then the Worksheet tab: you see the saw plan as long as the order is on Cutting 1.
Move the order to Cutting 2 and the plasma drawing shows instead. The file is not the only thing that follows: so does the cost, because the work order prices its time at the hour cost of the new line. The plasma cutter costs more per hour and runs faster, the saw costs less and runs slower, and the figure on the manufacturing order tells the truth either way.
And because the order reads the file from the stage instead of copying it, any file the designer adds or corrects in the bill of materials shows on open work orders straight away.
What if one order needs a different drawing?
A customer wants the same gate with a different pattern on the top part. Do not change the stage file for him; it serves every order still to come.
Upload the drawing in File for this order only on the work order. It shows instead of the stage file on that order alone, and the general file stays as it is.
How does the operator see the file at the machine?
On the worker screen, beside the stage name, there is a Worksheet button. The operator presses it and the same file opens that the work order shows: the file of the line he is standing at.
When he leaves the worker screen with the Back button, he goes back to where he came from in Manufacturing, not to the home page. A small detail, but it saves the supervisor dozens of clicks a day.
Do I need a design team to use worksheets?
No. If your bills of materials are fixed, open the stage in the bill of materials directly and you will find a Worksheets tab with the same table. If every order is new, start from the cost sheet, because whoever decides how the work is done is the one who prices it.
Start tomorrow with one stage where the machine changes often, usually cutting. Upload two files for it, one per line, then move an order from one line to the other and look at the screen with the operator. The steps with pictures are in the user guide.
Design and engineering, step by step
FAQ
Can I upload a file that is not a PDF?
No. Worksheets take PDF files only, and the system checks the content of the file itself, not its name.
What if the new line has no file?
The work order shows the file with no line, if there is one. If there is none, it says this stage has files on other lines and names them, so the supervisor knows where the file is.
Do open work orders change when I edit the stage file?
Open work orders read the file from the stage, so they show the new one. An order with its own File for this order only keeps its own file.
How do I get to the design from the quotation?
A Designs button sits at the top of the quotation. With one design it opens it directly; with more than one it opens a list to choose from.
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