eCHR
Generation of HTML report to Calc Task
Some ECHRs can extend to hundreds of pages. To enhance user experience and prevent prolonged loading times or timeouts, the generation of this HTML report now occurs in the background, enabling users to continue their tasks while the report is being prepared.
Whilst the final HTML report is generated, the eCHR is locked for any other updates. The status of the eCHR is ‘Generating Report’. Once the report is ready, the eCHR status is updated to ‘Pending Approval’.
You are notified that a background task has been created for the Calc Tasks event to process and you are notified when the event has run and has completed.
Handling of repairs within the original manufacturing eCHR
In most cases, once an item is manufactured, the eCHR can be closed and the item can be sold or used. In some cases, issues are found post-manufacture that must be resolved before the item can be sold or used. It may be important that any additional work done on the item post-manufacture should also be recorded in the eCHR.
When you raise a repair post-manufacture, before the original eCHR is closed, the repair information will be stored in the original eCHR (if configured to do so). If the original eCHR is closed, it must be manually re-opened before a repair workflow that is configured to collect data into an eCHR can be started.
Serial number changes resulting from the repair workflow will be stored as a compulsory record in the eCHR profile.
eCHR Line Type: Case Data
Case Data may be configured for inclusion in an eCHR. There are two reasons for using case data:
As purely transitional / transactional (not relevant for inclusion in the eCHR).
Record decisions (inclusion in an eCHR under Case Data Line Type). An example of this type of case data is a recording of a Pass/Fail of an item based on a check result set or rework / scrap / concession decision on a non-conformance, including any additional information for the decision.
eCHR Report Approval Status displayed clearly
The status of the eCHR is now clearly displayed on the printable eCHR report and highlighted in red if not approved.
Increased control of eSign Profiles
The signature requirements from eSign Profile may be edited. This means that current signature requirements may differ from the requirements that were in place when a signature was collected in the past.
By default, editing these profiles are prohibited, but we added a permission, "Edit Used Signature Profile", to allow you to edit an eSign Profile if you need to.
The signature profile revision history shows what requirements were in place at any given time, but you typically don’t want to edit the requirements for a signature profile that has been used to avoid confusion.
Label Printing
Workflow copy
If the workflow you were copying was using the latest version of a finished product label for product X, it allows you to use the latest version of that product label for product Y.
Workflow approval validation
A workflow cannot be set to Virtual Test / Pending Pre-prod / Pre-prod / Pending Approval / Approved if a label print action is missing a product label or references a product label that is not linked to the product that the workflow is created against.
Improved label printer management
There are now additional pop-ups to help manage the assignment of label designs to label printers from both the label design screen and the label printer screen.
On the Label Design screen, a Label Printers button is added and can assign / unassign label printers to label designs (including a device filter if helpful).
On the Label Printers page, the existing pop-up to assign label designs now has an additional search text box for label design to help the user find the correct designs quickly and accurately.
Label printers can be assigned/unassigned.
UI for test printing Standard labels
Previously, you could only test-print a Product label but not a Standard label. In 9.4, you can print both Product and Standard labels. On the label design screen there is now a test-print button, allowing you to select a label design version and create a test print.
Further improvements to Label Printing
Previously, to link a device to a label printer you had to do it from the Label Printers screen, but now you can also do it from the Devices screen.
You can select a Label Design version and click 'Download btw file' to download the file.
The Label Types screen is now available from the main menu, not just from the Label Printing screen. Enhancements to the Label Type screen have also been made.
The Label Print service management has been improved to allow you to easily check the status of the label print service from the website. Furthermore, the support team can very quickly ascertain the status of the label print service.
Several improvements have been made to the Label Design Management screen, including additional information and more filters.
Public API
Organisations
Organisations can be managed using the Public API.
BOM Upsert
The BOM Upsert endpoint has been enhanced to be able to take a full BOM structure in one payload, which consists of BOM, BOM Version, BOM Slot and Candidates. Previously, each section in the payload needed to reference the parent section, for example the BOM Version had a required field for the BOM.
Upsert on Unique fields
You can call the following upsert endpoints without an ID (where the entity exists then the ID is retrieved from the unique field, i.e., name).
/api/BOMSlot/Upsert
/api/BOMSlot/UpsertCandidates
/api/BOMSlot/UpsertProperties
Quality
It is possible to configure specifications where the upper and lower specification limits are the same. This is required where the target value is fixed and no tolerances allowed.
Reporting
OEE Details report
Improvements have been made to the OEE Details pop-up which is now also accessible from the OEE Top Line Analysis screen by clicking the OEE dial:
Filters for Department, Work Centre Group, Work Centre, and date range.
Provides the details about the elements of OEE on a work centre on a period-by-period basis, such as, Run Minutes, Production Minutes, Speed Loss Minutes, Rework Minutes, Scrap Loss Minutes, etc.
The report allows export to Excel and CSV.
Rework by Work Centre Analysis Power BI report
The report displays the layout, filters, and visualisations based on Rework Minutes, and updates according to applied filters.
Pie charts and stacked column charts are shown. The report supports hierarchical drilldowns to visualise more granular detail.
New Cycle Time Dashboard
The Cycle Time Dashboard was designed to help customers track current status vs standard cycle time for long running jobs. It is useful for customers that might be running an operation for several hours, with partial completions at regular intervals.
The report compares actual completions vs expected completions based on std times for the operation in question.
The dashboard displays job, operation, timing, and production metrics, including hourly and cumulative output versus expected values, based on the executed workflow and job data.
Tooling
Manual Tool Use Count
When adding a new tool in MES, you can optionally record its current use count. This is helpful if you know the tool’s usage, especially during implementation when it may be mid-calibration or maintenance. Setting the existing use count ensures maintenance occurs at the correct interval. Note that you must also provide a date of the last maintenance in the ‘Record Maintenance Completion’ pop-up the tool’s maintenance to be tracked.
Improvements to Maintenance & Calibration Plan functions
If you are setting up a critical maintenance plan with a due date that can’t be missed, you must provide the date of the last maintenance.
When you select a tool that is on a time-based maintenance plan in the Maintenance Plan Assign Asset pop-up, you have a choice of assigning it to the Maintenance Plan or you can select to “Assign and add last maintained date”.
When adding a new maintenance plan to an existing tool:
Time-based maintenance
If the maintenance type is time-based and does not allow use out of maintenance limits, it is compulsory to populate a 'last maintained' date.
Use-based maintenance
If the maintenance type is use-based and does not allow use out of maintenance limits, it is compulsory to set a 'last maintained' date.
Workflow
Configure recovery mode at Operation node
Previously, the system would force you to define one recovery mode for the whole workflow. In 9.4, you can define recovery modes at operational level giving you more granularity which makes the recovery more insightful and accurate.
If a Default Recovery Mode is set at workflow level, every operation in that workflow will be restricted to that mode. The behaviour recovery mode is always determined by the operation setting. If the Default Recovery Mode is set to “No Recoveries”, then a recovery mode can be set for each operation. For more information on Recoveries, see Overall Labour Productivity documentation.
For example, you might have a moulding machine followed by 4 operators assembling. You might want a different recovery mode for the machine because you calculate efficiency in a different way to people doing assembly. So, on a moulding line you might have a recovery on Operation Completion mode that is shared across the people in that area. On assembly, if each person is doing their own work, you might want Op Qty Completion mode which assigns recoveries to each person for their completions.
