Factboard is Proplanner’s new 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.
Station status information includes the UNIT# and Model in the station, the cycle time of that unit, and if that unit is on-time or late as well as when the unit was signed on and off. Additionally, users can see and query any quality issues raised about the unit as well as any logistical issues arising from missing or damaged parts needed to complete the unit.
Real-Time main-line view with two sub-lines.
The graphical layout of stations in the display is called a view. Views are fully configurable by the user or the company IT administrators. Companies can create as many views as they wish and users can switch between any of these views at any time to help them see the overall status of the factory, department, line, or station. Colors are assigned to these station icons based upon the Model, Time, Quality, or Logistics status of the unit. The top-right portion of this display records the number of units that have exited each assembly line for the shift or day. If companies provide a daily build list file to Factboard, then Factboard can report the completed unit counts as compared to the desired unit counts. These build lists also provide Factboard with the Model number for each Unit scanned and this allows Factboard to color code the stations according to the model of the Unit currently within the station.
Factboard views can be accessed from any computer, via mobile devices such as phones and tablets, or shown on large displays permanently mounted on the shop floor.
Any Factboard view can show the real-time status of those stations, or users can select a time range in the past and view a count of the over-cycle, quality, or logistics issues posted to those stations. Selecting a station in this view will pull up a detailed report of what those issues were. Additionally, users can choose to replay a range of times in the past and speed up the events in order to evaluate what happened in that area and why.
Historical view showing Time, Quality and Logistics issue counts
which occurred over the selected time span.
In addition to tracking and reporting which unit serial number is actively at each station, Factboard records the inventory of units located in buffer storage at the end of each set of stations (sub-line) which is explicitly shown in the layout view as well as any units stuck between stations which are implicitly inferred on every arrow connector. Units can be stuck between stations if they are signed out of one station before being signed into the successive station.
A pop-up window of units in an inventory buffer at the end of a
sub-line (explicit) or between sequential stations (implicit).
Any computer application or hardware device can create events for Factboard to view. Factboard receives all of its information via JSON files which are small specially formatted text files sent to a web address where the Factboard server is installed. As such, Factboard can be deployed on a cloud server, such as Azure, or it can be deployed on an IIS server internal to your company. Access to Factboard is available to any web browser on any device which has the credentials to log into the Factboard application as the Factboard application is 100%, thin client.
Sample JSON file Posted to Factboard and recorded as a Sign-On event for a Unit at a Station
Factboard receives information (called Events) via JSON files which are posted to the Factboard server directly from another software application or device. A JSON file is essentially an ASCII text file with Tag and Attribute Values corresponding to Events that Factboard is reporting on. Currently, Factboard supports three types of events Cycle Time, Quality, and Logistics. However, work is underway to allow users to create their own events and event data attributes which will make Factboard infinitely extendable to support a wide variety of shop floor information needs.
Sample JSON definition for a Quality Event.
In addition, Factboard’s single station view can provide basic station status information related to Cycle Time, Quality, and Logistics. This display can also show if the station is on a BREAK status, has exceeded its expected build time, or if the station is down based on receiving a Hot-Issue Alert from the Shop Floor Viewer or another system or device. While currently a very simple station-based layout, Factboard’s Station View is being expanded to support the Azure IOT Dashboard technology which will allow full user-controlled layouts, including the charting of Factboard Events or Direct Data Streams from IIOT devices.
Sample Single-Station View in Factboard which can serve as a Station based
Andon display including Color, Audio, and Flashing Alerts.
If you'd like to learn more about Factboards, head to our YouTube channel where we have multiple videos over it. To keep up with the latest Proplanner news, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or join our mailing list.
