A short overview for those who already use Factbird: what stays the way you are used to, what changes, and how an order goes from the plan to closing. The detailed description is in the full description of Production planning × Factbird.
ApprovedIf you already use Factbird, measurement and analysis on the production line, stop detection and the OEE calculation stay there. PlanitExo Production planning adds the order data, the plan, and on the tablet the starting, closing and entering of stop reasons. The order reaches Factbird only when production starts, from the latest plan, so the plan can change freely until then and batches do not have to be entered by hand.
| Factbird | PlanitExo | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Line | Resource | connected on the Admin → Machines tab |
| Batch | the blocks of one order step | one batch even when split into any number of blocks |
| Batch number | batch identifier field | an order field copied to the block, today the SAP order number |
| Item / Product | article number + name | a missing article is created by the upload |
| Packaging | packaging at the resource | needed to create a new article |
| actualStart / actualStop | “when the first / last piece came off the line” | with a slider, on the tablet |
| Stop cause | stop reason (category → reason) | the list set up for the line in Factbird |
| New batch with the same number | continuation number|N | the system appends a sequence number |
The planner schedules and freely rearranges the order on the Gantt board, and nothing goes to Factbird yet. At the machine the operator starts it on the tablet (entering when the first piece came off the line), and PlanitExo then uploads and starts the batch from the latest plan. During production the tablet shows Factbird's live piece count and OEE, at the end the operator closes it, and in the planner the block shows the good and scrap pieces produced.
At start the system creates a batch from the data of the block (if the order is not yet in Factbird). The batch identifier is the block-copied value of the order field the admin has designated (today the SAP order number), the quantity is the quantity of the order (or the part falling on the resource), the start is the start of the earliest block, and the speed is 60 divided by the raw cycle time. A missing article is created with the packaging of the machine. A preliminary upload is not needed, and if the order was uploaded in advance and the plan has changed since, starting would start the old version held in Factbird.
With the Start order button the operator chooses from a list cut around the shift, and with the “when did the first piece come off” slider gives the real start (Factbird counts pieces from this point). The previous order running on the line is closed at this moment, and on the piece-count check screen the good count from Factbird can be compared with the counter of the machine, and the start corrected afterwards if needed.
When closing, the operator enters the time of the last piece and the manual scrap the sensor does not measure. An order that needs to be continued is never created with a repeated number, but with a sequence number appended (for example 123|1), with the remaining quantity, which is the quantity of the order minus the pieces produced by all variants.
The tablet shows the stops without a reason that are longer than a micro stop, from the current and the previous shift, on a timeline and in a list. The operator selects one or more stops, picks the category and the reason from Factbird's two-level list of reasons, and the server checks it against fresh data and records it in Factbird.
On a Factbird resource the tablet and the dashboard show the four levels from Factbird's time components (Production = TEH1, Changeover = TEH2, Machine = TEH3, Total = total capacity utilisation), matching Factbird's own interface to the decimal for the same time window, but the denominator of the Total level is the full calendar time.
On an order block a turquoise mark shows that the data in Factbird matches the plan, and a yellow mark that the plan has deviated since (a modification has to be sent). At the bottom of the block a green-red bar shows the good and scrap pieces produced in proportion to the plan, with the exact numbers in the tooltip.
A started or closed batch can no longer be modified from the plan (this is why it is worth leaving the upload to the start). With an empty batch identifier there is no upload (it can be filled in on the block), micro stops do not have to be entered, the two parts of a stop split by production have to be selected separately, the sequence numbering is recognised only in the form |1 … |9, and if Factbird is unreachable the data of the other resources is still shown.