Proplanner’s Shop Floor Viewer is the most intelligent MES application for assembly plants because of its tight integration to the Assembly Planner process engineering database with part consumption linking and Model/Option variant coding. While powerful features for authoring process plans and work instructions, these features really add organization value at the shop floor workstations where “REAL VALUE” is derived. Overall, these features provide visibility to the worker on part shortages, upcoming unit option codes and unit sequence skips and inserts. They also allow for skills-based task filtering which can greatly declutter the task list for experienced operators while still alerting those operators to any engineering process and part changes since they last performed that work.
Content Filtering
- Display Options filtered to Station –Shop Floor Viewer (SFV) now has a filter that enables users to view the option content of all units assigned to a station during their assigned workday. This feature allows the operator at that station to be prepared for an upcoming unit’s configuration in advance. For each unit, we filter the list of options by looking at the work instructions for each station/operator position. In other words, we only show those options that are applicable to the unit at that station for that operator position (not the entire option possible). We also highlight the options that have a change tied to them: a bill of material change, process change or a quality related issue. The key purpose for this feature is to provide operator visibility to downstream unit options so that they can plan and prepare the work, parts and tooling to achieve lower cycle times for a quicker and smoother flow with less error.
Skill Level Based Viewing
- Display Tasks based on Skill Level – Each operator has a different skill level based on their qualifications and experience and the objective of this feature is to display content catered to each operator’s role and skill level. In this initial rollout there are two skill levels, experienced and new. The experienced operator list of tasks will highlight only those tasks that need review and acknowledgement, whereas the new operator will be required to review and acknowledge all tasks for that unit. In the image shown below, all red activities require a sign off whereas the green ones do not. For the inexperienced operator, all tasks may need manual confirmation.
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Handling schedule adjustments – Skips and Inserts
- Handle unit skips and inserts – With part and labor shortages being almost commonplace today, units that are on the line may have to be pulled offline for future completion. The unit skip feature allows the line leads to identify units as skips to provide an alert to all stations downstream. This is useful for downstream sub-assembly stations that can now see which of the units on their build list they need not build. This feature allows unnecessary sub-assemblies to be built thereby utilizing those parts for units that are on the line. The skipped units can be easily inserted back on the line and the skip flag removed.
Part Shortage Notification
- Part Shortage Notification – Parts that are under-consumed due to shortage on the line, get marked as "short" on the Components list for the unit. This feature allows the line-leads to be aware of the specific stations where there is a shortage of parts. This feature also allows repair operators on the line to be aware of parts that have not been installed. The part shortage alerts and the unit skips often happen together.
