Manufacturing Execution System (MES)

Work instructions are automatically filtered and deployed to the shop floor so that shop floor workers do not have to sort through all work instructions for all models; only work instructions that apply to the unit are shown.

Instructions are published to the MES system with date, series, or serial number effectivity, and each operator logs into a pre-defined station position to ensure that every operator gets exactly the correct set of instructions for a specific order on the date that order is produced.

Proplanner’s new Power BI connector for Shop Floor MES (SFV) and Factboard allow you to combine, summarize and report on the vast amount of data collected by those systems.  This data can then be aggregated, filtered, analyzed, formatted, charted and displayed per your needs and even shared among other users in your company.

Shop Floor MES collects data about every Activity performed by every user on every unit.  Additionally, engineers can choose to ask the user to scan or enter additional data as they perform Worksteps inside those activities.  Since all Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) interfaces, such as DC Torque Tools, Pick-2-Light Systems, or PLC’s are connected to SFV Worksteps, this means that all collected data from those systems is available as well.

Factboard receives Posted transactions from SFV and any other factory systems capable of sending a JSON Posted messages.  Often these transactions involve key shop floor events such as products arriving and departing stations, Assembly line stoppages, or Quality and Logistics issues.  These transactions, including all of their attribute data are available to Proplanner’s PowerBI connector.

To take advantage of this powerful new capability, find the Proplanner connector, (included free to all subscribers) and connect to your dataset, then sign into your Proplanner account and then the connection will be established.   When you open your Power BI session this connection will provide access to all the SFV MES and Factboard data tables.  Check out our blog here

Operators sign on and sign off of each unit they work on, generating unit genealogy, time data, unit tracking, process verification, and accountability. Our MES system also allows operators to define when they are on break or when the station is shut down for a worker-selected reason.

Station sign-offs, breaks, and shutdowns are all logged and reported to provide a quick response from supervisors and more accurate process time tracking for engineers.

Collect and maintain accurate records of which operators completed which steps at which stations and when, work instruction revisions used for each completed unit, missing or damaged parts during the build process, serial number collection of serialized parts, critical tooling data, and more. A live process tree shows the completion status of each unit at each station.  

Through barcode scanning, verify that the correct part has been installed. This is typically a challenge to maintain in other MES in high mix/low volume environments.

Collect testing inputs and enforce role-based sign-offs for critical to quality tasks.

Proplanner’s new Shop Floor Viewer now allows workers on the floor to capture Pictures and Video from their phones, tablets and USB Cameras and associate those images to Activities/Worksteps in the Process as well as to the specific unit (order) they are working on. Using the new MES CAD Viewer feature, workers can also store snapshots from CAD models which are contextually available to them.Additionally, any file type (PDF, XLSX, DOCX, etc.) can be saved and associated both to the Activity/Workstep and the specific active unit they are working on.Workers can also annotate Images, Videos and Documents to enhance collaboration and communication among themselves and the engineering team.

With this powerful new capability, Engineers and Workers can visually and textually collaborate in real time which substantially enhances the quality of the shop floor documentation while reducing the time and effort to both create and maintain.

Since all of this collaboration is linked to both the Process and the active unit (order) being processed the worker is simultaneously recording unit-specific issues while effectively communicating to their peers and engineering team the active issues of the day.Phone calls, texting and email traffic is reduced, and searchable issues management and documentation is enhanced, in a way that is easier to the worker than any other option available to them.  Check out our blog here.

Users can easily file process or instruction change requests without having to search for a change request form or leave the shop floor.

The MES Viewer supports a wide range of external workstation devices such as Light Boards, Torque Tools, and Dimensional measuring equipment. Some of this support is direct between our MES application and the device, or via the Azure IoT hub. In other cases, we provide support via an interface to some of the popular MES hardware vendors such as Pivotware, and others.

See a Workstation Demo Video here!

Watch a short video on our secure multi-tier Architecture and Optimal Workflow here!

• Bar Code Scanners

• PLC's and Measurement equipment

• DC Torque Tools (Atlas Copco, Cleco, Desoutter, etc.)

• Lightboards

• Andon Light Towers

Factboard is Proplanner’s ANDON Dashboard environment for the shop floor. With Factboard, users can display the real-time status of one station, all the stations in a line or department, or even all of the stations in the factory, limited only by the size of their display.

Factboard is uniquely tailored to the display of assembly lines or departments where the sequential routing of part movement between those stations is pre-defined.

Units or Orders (hereafter referred to as Units) can skip stations in the sequence but the movement to downstream stations is implicitly defined in Factboard which means that users are not required to BOTH sign-on and sign-off of the unit for Factboard to understand the progression through the factory. Blog Here

Factboard visualizes, logs, and reports the status of transactions which can come from our Shop Floor Viewer/MES system, or from any device capable of creating a JSON text file and posting it to the web service address of the Factboard server (Hosted Locally or on Cloud).

Andon display screens are completely configurable and support an unlimited number of views that can be tailored to the needs of any user capable of accessing the system.

Proplanner supports a wide range of display devices with our MES Viewer, Andon Display, and PFEP Scanning interfaces. Our partnership and integration with Proceedix also provides support for a wide range of wearable devices such as Google Glasses. With this integration, shop floor workers are able to sign onto an order and receive the work instruction information specifically on that product for the operator position they are logged into.

In addition, images, videos, and responses to questions (textual spoken or scanned) are stored back on Proplanner to enhance the record of assembly captured for each operator on each product produced.  Blog Here

Shop Floor Viewer's latest enhancement allows operators to view the 3D CAD model directly within the work instructions as they navigate the assembly process.  Operators can also manipulate the 3D model, apply their own markups, and create custom views. This brings an end-to-end connection between the engineers designing the assembly process within Assembly Planner Virtual Build module and the shop floor operators utilizing the work instructions, all sharing the same 3D Model.  Blog Here