Station Setup

Station Setup:

To open Station Management, select Admin > Management > Station in the main menu.

To add a new Station click ‘Add New’ button.

The following fields can be entered when adding a Station, some are mandatory, others depending on the type of manufacturing or data to be monitored.

• Code - Mandatory, can’t be edited once the station is saved.

• Name - Mandatory, can be edited if required.

• Cycle Time (secs) - This should be set to the average Cycle Time of the station. Busroot will use this to calculate estimates and downtime (this will only be used if there is no Cycle Time Override set for a schedule or the SKU has no Cycle Time set).

• Minimum Cycle Time (secs) - For stations that produce multiple signals during production, this should be set to the minimum operating window to be counted as one cycle.

• Line Speed Target - For stations set to Productive Status Mode > Line Speed. A target speed can be set, it will appear on the Line Speed Chart as a dashed line. If the current Line Speed of the station drops below 80% of this target, a period of downtime will be added with issue type 'Slow'.

• Downtime Cost (£/min) - Enter the cost of Downtime for a station in £/min. Busroot will calculate the cost of any Downtime that occurs, visible on OEE Analysis.

• Speed Scale - For a station that is providing a speed signal. The scale on the Line Speed Chart can be set to match the units being measured. So for example if a station is currently giving a speed signal of bottles/min this can be changed to bottles/hour by setting the scale to 60.

• Speed Offset - This allows for any necessary calibration of a station's speed signal. This can be set as a - or + value, to align the reading on the Line Speed Chart with what’s happening on the shop floor.

• Group - For easier management, stations can be grouped by type, function or area. Station groups can be used in reports for searching and filtering.

• Shift Pattern - Shift patterns can be set for each station. If not set at station level, Station Group shift pattern will be used.

• Allow Manual - Control whether production units can be added into Busroot manually via the Operator Tablet or only directly via a signal from the machine.

• Downtime Detection Mode - Busroot will report downtime for a station using either Utilisation or Production Cycle data.

• Utilisation Downtime Threshold (mins) - Mandatory, if Downtime Detection Mode is set to Utilisation Monitoring. This should be set to the minimum period of inactivity before Busroot will start recording downtime.

• Productive Status Mode - Different types of signal can be monitored for a single station Explicit Productive Signal, Electrical Usage and Line Speed. This setting controls which type of signal Busroot will use to determine the productive status (utilisation) of a station.

• Stopped Threshold (kW) - Mandatory, if Productive Status Mode is set to Electrical Usage and the station has energy monitoring hardware installed. This should be set to the minimum kW required for the station to be considered active.

• Line Speed Stopped Threshold - Mandatory, if Productive Status Mode is set to Line Speed. Anything below this speed Busroot will record as downtime.

• Allow Cut Short - This setting controls whether the ‘Cut Short’ button is available on the Schedule Management page. It is intended for stations that may need to switch between schedules depending on priority. If ‘Cut Short’ is clicked the current schedule will be ended and a new schedule created, with the same work order reference and with the remaining quantity of the original schedule.

• Productive Hold on Time (mins) - For stations set to Utilisation Monitoring. This controls the length of time a station is considered active after a productive signal. Each time a new signal is received the hold on time will restart.

Force All Shift Time to be Considered as Planned Production Time

Ordinarily downtime and OEE should only be considered when there is an active production schedules. This is known as planned production time.

In order for Busroot to be more useful even when production schedules are not being strictly used, there is an option to consider all in shift time to as planned production.

This will cause downtime to be detected even when a production schedule is not active, and will could in the OEE analysis as planned production time.

This feature is enabled on a per station basis using the field `force_all_shift_time_as_planned_production`.