Processtrakker Is Made Available Through Click-Once, and a Windows Installer If Requested

ProcessTrakker

Installation

ProcessTrakker is made available through click-once, and a windows installer if requested. Since Installations are remote, and database changes are generally required, installs should be planned instead of just grabbing the latest version off of the website.

Either way will suffice, with click-once generally being much faster, but occasionally a computer will reject the click-once installation requiring a windows installer.

I will have automatic updates turned off to prevent unintended installs, but you will be able to get the program at:

Administrators View

Logging In:

To view the program from an administrator’s perspective, you login with your area being “Administrator”. This makes your default form the area dashboard.

Area Dashboard:

The area dashboard displays information about what is going on in your areas. The areas that you see are the areas that you chose to see using the ‘options’ menu. You can also change how your dashboard is laid out using the ‘options’ menu.

The main information on each tile is orders, average time, and shift information. Orders are how many orders that have been finished during the last time period, and average time is the average time each workorder stayed in an area. The time period is set in the ‘options’ menu, and average time only calculates orders that have left the area in the time period, not orders still there. Though it is possible to calculate the time an order has been in an area while it is still there; orders that have only been there a few seconds will always skew the time greatly to the positive side making you think that you are doing better than you really are.

Shifts are based on the current day of the end of the shift, and are counted backwards. This means that when the dashboard is up, you should be able to see how many workorders have been finished during the current shift, and any other shift that has finished previously during the current day.

If an area is blinking, then it means that a machine in that area is down, and should be repaired. You can see which machine is down by going to the machine dashboard as described below.

To view the area summary page, left click on an area. To view the machine dashboard, right click on an area.

Machine Dashboard

The machine dashboard is just like the area dashboard, except it shows information about items finished at a machine instead of workorders. The machine dashboard also allows you to view exactly what machine is down, and by rolling your mouse over the machine, you can view how long it has been down, and any notes. The machine dashboard is only available in the label system.

Area Summary

The area summary allows you to view detailed information about an area. It includes many of the functions that users on the floor will see if you are using the label system. Since the rfid system basically runs itself, there is far less to do here, but you view very similar workorder data.

The rfid system will show the data in a single grid. Each row represents a workorder, and information about the workorder as it relates to the area is given. You have 3 options at the top to filter the orders.

The label system contains a tiered grid, which allows you to view workorders in the area which have been filtered by the options at the top, the workorders items, and its entries. Each grid has its’ own context menu that can be viewed by right clicking on a row. More information about the context menus will be given in the users’ section.

Menu

In the following section, I will describe what some of the menu options do that might not be self explanatory.

View | New Instance : This opens up a new instance of your default form. If you signed into the system as an administrator, then this will be the dashboard, else it will be the area that you logged into.

View | Areas: This allows administrators to go into any area and behave as a normal user.

View | Employees : This shows the employees forms so that administrators who aren’t readonly can make add/edit users.

View | Reports : This shows the reports form to administrators.

View | WorkOrders: This shows the workorders form to administrators

View | Windows | Reset: This resets the skins to what they were when you logged in, and it also deletes any grid formatting that has been saved out of the system, and returns the grids to the default look.

View | Windows | Reset Default: This resets the skins to what they were when you installed the system, and it also deletes any grid formatting that has been saved out of the system, and returns the grids to the default look.

Tools | Create Connection File: This creates a connection file with your encrypted database connection string that can be read back into the program. This functionality is intended at Rfid system users so that they can easily more easily move their databases without having to reinstall the system.

Tools | Finish Workorders: This allows administrators, and employees with permissions, to open a form that allows you to declare a workorder finished. This is only used in the label system since workorders are automatically finished in the Rfid system.

Tools | Inspection: This allows administrators and employees to open the inspection form to perform inspection on items. This is currently only available in the label system.

Tools | Maintenance: This allows administrators and employees to open the maintenance form to create and finish maintenance records. Any employee can say a machine needs to be maintenanced, but only an administrator or an employee with permissions can take a machine off maintenance. No items can be finished on the machine while it is under maintenance. This is currently only available in the label system.

Tools | Options: This shows the options form to administrators.

Employees

The Employees grid shows all the employees for the company that are allowed access to the system. It allows you to sort, filter, and group users. If you have setup printing for employee badges, then you can select one or many employees, and hit the print badge button.

When you add/edit an employee, the main thing to determine is if they are an administrator, or just a regular user. If you decide that they should be an administrator, then you can limit their permissions by making them a read-only user. You should then determine the areas that the user needs to do work in, and determine whether he should be able to finish workorders, declare a machine maintenanced, and perform inspection.

A user other than administrators can only perform maintenance, and inspection in areas that they have permission to. On maintenance, any user can declare a machine tore up, but only a mechanic or a non read-only administrator can declare the machine fixed.

Finish WorkOrders

This form allows for administrators or employees with finishing permissions to declare a workorder finished in the label system.

Inspection

For administrators or users with permissions, this form is used to perform inspection on workorders. You just scan a workorder in, select the item, select the area, count, and notes, and you inspect. The two things about this form is the reject, and add-back checkboxes. Rejection increases the scrap count for the item in the workorder, and removes that amount of items from the item count. The add-back checkbox keeps the item count at what it was, simulating that you removed the items, and then added items back to replace them.

Maintenance

This form allows for all users to declare that a machine needs maintenance, and for administrators and users with permissions to declare that a machine has been fixed. You just select a machine, and turn it on or off respectively.

Options

In general options, you can say what you want your dashboards to look like by selecting how many columns and rows there should be.

Calculation days is the number of days that statistics such as are what on the dashboard are calculated.

Then there is a general printer section. The alias is the name that is given to the printer in loftware. The drop is the location of the wddrop folder for loftware on the network. Then there are 4 labels that can be setup for different tasks. Currently the only one designated for a task for all systems is the employment label.

The areas and machines tree is used to order the areas and machines how you want them on the dashboard, and/or as a priority system for maintenance.

Instructions for each section are included on the form.

Database Configuration is used when the database is moved to a new location.

Reports

The reports form displays the reports that apply to the system. Any administrator can view the reports. You select a report, and then it creates the parameters that you need to fill out. If it is a parameter to the report, then it is required. Just click on print to print the report, or preview to view the report. Once you are viewing the report, there are lots of options such as page setup, exporting, and emailing of the reports in many different formats.

WorkOrders

The workorders form is a grid that allows you to view workorders filtered in three different ways that occurred in certain time periods. This is one of the easiest ways for an administrator to view what workorders are in a system, or which ones finished in a certain time period. It provides context menus that allow you to edit, delete, and print at different levels, especially in the label system which has the tiered grids. You can also finish rfid orders, view history, delete workorders, etc.

User Forms

Warehouse

This form is only in the label system. You can open up multiple copies of the form, and change the user badge at the top giving each user their own form to work from. You just enter the workorder, heat, and puck numbers. You then add the items, and count for each item into the listbox, and submit the order as subcontracted or in-house.

Basic Area Forms

This form is only in the label system. You can open up multiple copies of the form, and change the user badge at the top giving each user their own form to work from.

To get the workorder into the system, you just enter or scan it in. The order becomes part of the area, and then you perform actions on it by using the trees, and context menus that are shown by right clicking.

WorkOrder Context Menu:

Edit allows you to change the heat and puck numbers.

Finish removes the order from the area.

Item Context Menu:

Edit allows you to change the count of the item for the workorder.

Finish pops up a dialog, which lets you finish items under a machine.

Entry Context Menu:

Delete removes the entry.

Edit lets you change how many items were finished.

Print Label prints a label for this entry if it has been setup.

Indirect Area Forms

This form is only in the label system. You can open up multiple copies of the form, and change the user badge at the top giving each user their own form to work from.

To get the workorder into the system, you just enter or scan it in. The order becomes part of the area, and then you perform actions on it by using the trees, and context menus that are shown by right clicking.

WorkOrder Context Menu:

Edit allows you to change the heat and puck numbers.

Finish removes the order from the area.

Item Context Menu:

Edit allows you to change the count of the item for the workorder.

Finish pops up a dialog, which lets you finish items under a machine.

Entry Context Menu:

Delete removes the entry.

Edit lets you change how many items were finished.

Print Label prints a label for this entry if it has been setup.

Indirect Options:

Each company has its own set of indirect options. You just select a workorder, and then click on a radio button to choose that option. You can see which indirection option is selected for each workorder by viewing that rows data. The only real rule about indirect options is that an order needs to be in production for you to be able to finish workorders. The other rule is that you should change the option before you do things. If you change your status after going to lunch, it isn’t near the same data as if you had changed your status before lunch, etc. You can select multiple workorders to change all their statuses at once.

Production Start

This form is only available in the rfid system. It allows for an administrator, or a user that belongs to the area to enter orders in to the system. Currently this works by entering a workorder id, and bin, and then Associating. This associates it into the system, and then you use the pre-printed label.

In the near future for companies who choose to do so, you will just enter a workorder, and an rfid number will be created automatically, and a label will be printed using your rfid printer. If you have an rfid printer, you will also be able to come back to this area to reprint a label if something has happened to it.

UnAssociating just allows you to correct a mistake in associating an order.