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Make your manufacuring cycle management system up and running

The application requires a connection to a database in order to work. The first time that the app is started it will ask you to setup said connection. The available options are SQLite and Microsoft SQL Server.

SQLite

Easy as creating a file

Nothing to install

Ideal to be use locally

Handles small number of cuncurrent users

Does not support encryption

VS

SQL Server

Supports a large number of concurrent users

Supports encryption and advanced security features

Fastest query execution

Requires a running instance of Microsoft SQL Server

Harder to configure

Step by step guide

Click on the SQLite button to open the configuration form;
Fill the Data source with any path on you machine or on you company network and specify a file name.
1. For example D:\DataBase\MyDataBase.db;
2. If the database already exists the application will connect to it otherwise it will be created;
3. More on connection string;
Click on confirm and the application will inform you that it needs to be restarted;
Confirm again and the application will close;

The application must be manually restarted in order for the connection to take place!

In case the connection with the server fails, a message will be displayed with some details about the problem. Close or confirm the message box and you will be redirected to the connection page where you can try to reset the connections parameters.

It is possible to manually configure the connection string for both data providers in case options beyond the one provided by the interface are required.

Download and install Microsoft SQL Server or SQL Server Express if do not have any server already installed;
Click on the Microsoft SQL Server button to open the configuration form;
Fill the Data source field with server address.
1. For example (SQL Server Express) (LocalDb)\MSSQLLocalDB;
2. More on connection string;
Fill the Initial catalog filed with the name of the database.
1. If the database already exists the application will connect to it otherwise it will be created;
Complete the form with the rest of the information based on your server configuration;
Click on confirm and the application will inform you that it needs to be restarted;
Confirm again and the application will close;

The application must be manually restarted in order for the connection to take place!

In case the connection with the server fails, a message will be displayed with some details about the problem. Close or confirm the message box and you will be redirected to the connection page where you can try to reset the connections parameters.

It is possible to manually configure the connection string for both data providers in case options beyond the one provided by the interface are required.

Company

How your business is structured

The company represents the operations your business can perform. The departments divide the company into different units, which could be separate facilities or various services your company offers. The areas serve as specialized subunits within these departments, grouping similar operations and often led by an area manager driving the team’s performance. The stations represent the workstations contained within an area.

Departments

For example, you might have Facility A, Facility B, etc. Or you may have the production department, the sales department, etc. The key property of a department is having a layout.

Areas

Inside a department you might have one or more areas. For example, a department might have the assembly area, the painting area, etc. The key property of an area is having a manger.

Stations

The stations are where the work is done. They might represent a machinary, a desk, etc. They might have one or more employees working on them. There could be also a set of identical stations in an area.

Steps

What your company does

The steps encompass the operations your company can perform. They are executed at the stations, and a sequence of steps is called a working cycle. Each step may have one or more requirements, which could potentially lead to failure modes that allow for identifying causes and effects. For each cause of failure, one or more preventive actions can be determined. Additionally, the steps might necessitate one or more controls on the product or process. These controls typically mirror the requirements and generate control plans for the working cycles.

Controls

The controls on product might be visual, dimensional, etc. The controls on the process might be the temperature, the pressure, etc. They will build the control plans for the working cycles.

Risks

The requirements, failure modes and causes are your PFMEA. The risks are evaluated by an index and a priority. The priority is designed to account for severity relatively to occurrence and detection.

Opportunities

The actions based on the risks analysis lead to opportunities. The actions are direclty related to failure causes and automtically review the risks indexes. Your PFMEA will be always up to date.

Products

What your company sells

The products represent the goods or services that your company provides. They can be customer-specific or standard. It is best to have standard products rather than customer-specific ones to reduce complexity. For each product, you might have one or more cycles that represent the operations needed to produce the product. Having well-defined company structures and steps is crucial for a realistic cost estimation. The cost estimation is done by considering the time and resources needed to complete the working cycles. For each step of the cycle, you might have one or more materials that are consumed in the process. Additionally, there might be external processing steps within the working cycles, which refer to outsourced operations.

Costs

Each step of the working cycle has time, people and parts parameters. The time is how long a step takes to be completed in minutes. The people is the number of employees that concurrently work on the batch. The parts are the number of items that are produced in the step also called batch.

Materials

The materials are mainly the consumables and the raw materials that are used during the working cycles. They can be part scoped or batch scoped this affect the cost estimation.

External Processing

These are the operations that are outsourced. They are defined as a cost per part with no other parameters. This means that they are a flexible way to add costs to the working cycles with no strings attached.

Control plans

For each cycle the control plans are generated from the requirements and the controls. This is convenient so that the control plans are always up to date with the working cycles. By making this information available anybody can verify the products requirements.

Customers

Plan what you are gonna deliver

The customers are the entities to whom you deliver your products. This section is meant to gather essential data about which products you sell and to whom. Each customers might place one or more commissions, reflecting their tailored orders. These commissions encompass initial start-up entries for any preliminary costs, up to shipment costs. All elements of a commission—such as products and work cycles, start-ups, and shipments—can be used to create a price offer for the client.

Commissions

The commissions are very flexible and can be matched with the orders that the customer makes but is not strictly necessary. They can have quantity, start date and due date, but those values are just for record. Commissions can be marked active or expired.