The palletisation functionality available in the PC-Topp Machine Terminal is now also available as an independent new PC Topp Terminal.

The PC-Topp Palletisation Terminal is designed for the following purposes:

• Re-printing a label that has been damaged or lost
• To correct palletisation information and print new labels when palettisation was changed.
• To print labels at a central location, for machines with no terminal or where the label printer has failed.

The Palettisation Terminal is available as a stand-alone station, or can be reached from the PC-Topp Supervisor Terminal.

Operation is straightforward: You type in the order number, and identify whether you want shipping labels (by selecting the last operation) or internal labels (by selecting the corresponding operation). The terminal then shows the palettisation in the screen known from the Machine Terminal, offering all functionality like changing pallet information, or printing selected labels, or all labels for the order at a time.

Paper Requirements by Roll Size and Week

The new Crystal report “Paper Requirements by Roll Size and Week” substitutes the classical report “Paper Requirements by Weeks”. It calculates the amount of paper required to produce all orders remaining to be scheduled on the corrugator.

The Crystal paper requirements report offers more reliable forecasts because it takes into account paper consumption data of the past: The distribution of the required amount of a particular paper over the different roll sizes is now based on the data of the same week in the previous year, in order to correctly reflect seasonal influences. (If there is no data available for that week in the previous year, then the last three months are taken as calculation base.)

Paper Consumption by Roll Size

The second new Crystal report "Paper Consumption by Rollsize" takes the place of the classical "Paper Consumption List".

Like the classical report it lists the consumption figures during a selectable period of the past for all papers, as well as their distribution over the available roll sizes. What is new is the nicer and clearer layout plus the fact that, like all Crystal reports, the report can easily be emailed as it is provided as a PDF.

PC-Topp.NET now offers a growing number of reports in a new style, as Crystal reports. They take the place of existing classical reports, or offer new information, both in a modern and fresh design.

The new reports can be identified by a PDF icon in PC-Topp.NET. Clicking on such a link generates an Adobe Acrobat PDF document that appears on the screen almost instantly, no more long waits required. You can already find them in several PC Topp.NET pages, their cover settings, production reports and schedule printouts.

Many reports are not really needed on paper; the PDF format allows easy on-screen viewing, or to save the report to a file that can easily be emailed. If a printed report is required, the PDF can be sent to any local or network printer. Many reports can also be downloaded as Excel spreadsheets, for further analysis or external use of the data.

Great care has been taken to make the new reports compatible to the existing classical reports: They will contain the same data, and deliver identical results. Many reports will contain additional information compared to their ancestors, and all are presented in color, well structured and easy to read. Footnotes appear on many reports explaining values that are not instantly understood.

The scope of available reports will steadily grow in the near future. They will open up further valuable new sources of information for planning, production and management.

PC-Topp.NET prints pallet labels in real time at the machine: Ideally, the person at palletisation will find just one label in the printer when he needs it, the label for the pallet he is just finishing. This is ensured by printing the label when the pallet is half full (or alternatively at the beginning or at the end of the pallet).

This gets desynchronized by waste during production: The counter shows the pallet as half full, but in fact that quantity is not reached yet. Small differences are not a problem, but when the waste goes near the quantity on a pallet the user will find two labels in the printer, the right label and – on top of it - the label for the next pallet. Of course, this can lead to errors.

Therefore, we created buttons to enter waste during production to re-synchronize the label printing in such a case. And while we were at it, we added a few more buttons, to make the solution complete.

Set-Up Waste

Sheets used during set-up are usually waste, and the terminal can be configured to count set-up waste automatically (the number can be corrected manually during or after set-up). Set-up waste is entered in sheets (and not in finished goods, e.g. on a die-cutter).

Production Waste

Waste occurring after set-up is entered as the number of faulty products taken out before palletisation.

Waste Before the Machine

Sheets sorted out before feeding them into the machine have no influence on label printing synchronisation. But if a high quantity must be sorted out, then PC-Topp's estimated ending time should be adjusted. To do so, enter the waste before the machine using the corresponding button (quantity is entered in sheets).

Sheets From / to Stock

Like waste occurring before the machine, sheets added from stock (or excess quantities not converted but moved to stock instead) can change production time quite dramatically. Therefore, we added a button that lets you change the quantity that will go through the machine by entering the number of sheets going to (or coming from) stock.

This information is not stored at this time. We have future plans to keep quantities moved into stock in memory so that the terminal can later suggest what quantities (and from which production orders) could be added from stock for a given article.

Products Moved to Stock

A final button added at the end of the machine lets the crew reduce the quantity going to Shipping or to the next machine. This is useful if e.g. printing is done for a big overrun coming from the corrugator, but because the customer accepts only exact quantities, only a smaller number must go to the die-cutter.

The reduced quantity gives the order a correct duration on the next machine and thus allows more precise planning.

The entries are not stored, however: Again, we have future plans to create a memory of quantities of an article (or semi-finished goods) moved into stock, so that they can later be identified and retrieved.

The PC-Topp.NET Machine Terminal has been enhanced to meet customer needs for printing pallet labels with the correct quantity of products per pallet right at the machine and for assigning a unique identification number to pallets for use with a warehouse system.

The Palletisation tab in the Machine Terminal (to be found under the Order tab) can handle internal pallets as well as pallets intended for the customer and serves the following purposes.

Flexible Pallet Label Printing at the Machine

The Palletisation tab lets you print out pallet labels at the machine. Labels can be printed in the following ways:

• Label by label – the label is sent to the printer when the pallet is half full so that it is always ready when the crew needs it
• All labels at once at the start of each order,
• Individually when required (e.g. when a label is damaged or wrong)

The label for the last pallet is only printed when the order is finished and the quantity on the last pallet is clear. The system also makes it easy to e.g. move a small quantity on the last pallet onto the last full pallet (or the last two full pallets), and to reprint the labels for those pallets with the corrected quantity.

Assigning Unique IDs to All Pallets

Whereas in the past PC-Topp.NET only printed pallet labels without retaining the information on the pallets, the system now creates a data base entry for every pallet it processes. PC-Topp.NET assigns a unique identifier to each pallet by generating an SSCC number, an ID capable of identifying any single unit (pallet) produced by any company worldwide.

The pallets information is kept in PC-Topp’s database ‘forever’ and may be useful e.g. in tracing where the problem on a pallet sent back by the customer comes from, a particular operator or a bad paper reel.

The main use of that database is, however, to inform an external warehouse system of the pallets it will be receiving, and to give it the exact quantities and other pallet data. The system ensures that the warehouse system (or ERP) receives a record for each pallet that will enter the warehouse, and that no pallet will be published that eventually does not arrive there.

Manage Every Pallet Individually

Not only the quantity for the last pallet can be different from the rest of the pallets, there may be other differences as well: There may be several ‘small’ pallets, or a part of the order is put on pallets of a different size or type (because the order is palletized alternatingly on tall and low pallets, or because there were not enough pallets of the right type in stock).

In short, any detail of each single pallet will reflect reality exactly, and the label will contain the right quantity and other information for each and every pallet.

The graphical user interface shows the pallets in an easy to understand and intuitive way, making it easy for any machine operator to make the required entries or to re-print a label.

A new page has been created to show, create or modify downtime causes. Besides, a new class of causes has been added, to explain planned machine shutdowns.

Better User Interface, New Options

The PC‑Topp.NET Downtime Causes page combines breakdown causes, scheduled downtimes and internal complaints plus the freshly introduced downtime category "Machine Shutdown Reasons" in a single page. The downtime categories can be selected via the tabs at the page top.

This is what sets apart the four different categories:

Like before, the causes in each category are broken down by groups. It is easy to create new groups and downtime causes, or to edit entries.

Flags for Breakdown Causes

For the breakdown causes you can now say whether the downtime is machine related, or order or crew related. Note that any combination of those flags is possible.

These flags are not evaluated in most PC-Topp reports, except that some statistics show downtime totals grouped by these flags. However, they are available in PC‑Topp's SQL Server database and can be used in personalized reports.

Like before, you can say which downtime causes are supposed to appear on each machine, to exclude causes that don't apply. However, this "filtering" still needs to be done in the "classical" Downtime Causes program (DOS).

It can happen that gaps appear between the produced orders on a conversion machine, in particular if production data entry was manual (no Machine Terminal).

Those gaps usually do not reflect reality correctly: Either an order is missing where the gap is, or the machine was closed during that time. A new link now appears next to such gaps offering a quick way to close the machine for the corresponding time period.

This link appears instead of the link "Move following orders" that is offered next to a gap between planned orders. For produced orders, moving many orders at a time is not useful as it would give faulty starting times to potentially many such orders.

Historically, PC-Topp would either calculate the duration of an order by itself - based on conversion machine parameters - or the user could tell the system how long he estimated the duration of the order from start to end. Of course, that duration could also be received from the host system in the Order Data Transfer.

While this seemed sufficient for planning purposes, this approach had the disadvantage that the set-up time was always based on machine parameters even for orders with a manually given duration. This made it impossible to compare the actual set-up time to the target time for such orders where the set-up was more difficult than for a normal order.

Therefore, it is now possible to specify also the set-up time for an order, either manually or in the Order Data Transfer.
This opens the following options for the calculation of the total duration of an order.

Set-up time calculated Based on number of colors and die-cut or not		Run time calculated Based on machine's average speed
Set-up time given By host or manually	Run speed given (Indirectly based on total duration)

Obviously, the run speed does not appear in the order data or in the data transfer; it is specified indirectly by giving the total run time to maintain compatibility with earlier versions of the order data transfer.

This means that instead of sending a set-up time of 27 minutes and a speed of 5000 / h, the host must calculate the run duration based on the quantity (e.g. 10000) and give PC-Topp the result for the total time (0'27 + 2'00 = 2'27).

Future improvements are planned: In a future version PC-Topp will be able to use a given set-up time and speed per article, or base the entire calculation on past experience with previous orders for that article.

On the Machine Load page, so far you didn't have a chance to see whether the brown (scheduled) and red (full) days on a machine contain orders that will be late.

Now a small violet sign with a white exclamation mark tells you at first sight if you are in danger of running an order too late. There are two kinds of situation that this icon warns you about:

Orders Scheduled Late on a Machine
The violet icon tells you that there are orders threatening to be late on the machine in question and thus won't be delivered in time if nothing is done about them. When you click the icon the dialog displaying the day's orders opens, and orders scheduled late are marked by a red due date so you can easily find them to mend the situation.

Machine Load Is Too High to Produce Unscheduled Order in Time
The violet icon is also displayed when the machine load is higher than the machine capacity on that day (red background) and there is no chance to put the surplus load on any previous day, either, because the capacity on earlier days is insufficient. Therefore one or several unscheduled orders pre-planned on this machine can't be produced in time to meet their due date.

However, if you click the icon expecting to find the unscheduled late orders highlighted in the day details as well you might be disappointed: Unscheduled orders are not marked in red (except when their due date has passed) because the system can't predict which of them you will schedule on time using the available capacity on earlier days.

The Corrugator Control page fulfills two main purposes:

In the corrugator control room it functions as the online connection between corrugator and Planning. The Corrugator Control page lets the corrugator operator transfer runs to the Dry End controller and change the run sequence while keeping Program Memory and Dry End controller synchronized.

Furthermore, the Corrugator Control page lets the corrugator crew print out a variety of production documents like corrugator programs, cutting and material lists or pallet labels right at the machine.

Elsewhere in the plant, e.g. at the Wet End, the Corrugator Control page allows printing corrugator schedules and material requirements but without the possibility to make sequence changes or to transfer runs to the Dry End controller.

More Control for the Corrugator Crew, Program Memory Always Up to Date

The Corrugator Control Page changes PC-Topp's approach to the link between Planning and the corrugator: Originally, the On-line Link program was run on a PC in the planning office. When new schedules were ready, the planners used it to transfer them to the corrugator.

Now, the Corrugator Control Page is used by the corrugator crew, directly in the corrugator control cabin, for the same purpose. This not only gives the crew much more control over what programs are downloaded to the corrugator, it also allows PC-Topp to follow corrugator production more closely.

Before, new programs were sent by Planning always to the end of the queue of schedules waiting to be produced. If such a new schedule needed to be run earlier, the corrugator crew had to make the necessary sequence change at the Dry End controller computer, which had the advantage that they maintained full control over what was happening at the machine. Planning could not simply make a sequence change without informing them, or without their okay. The disadvantage was that the schedules in PC-Topp's Program Memory usually stayed in the old, now obsolete sequence.

Now, Planning simply releases new schedules for production, and they appear at the end of the queue of schedules waiting for production. If a sequence change is needed, the corrugator crew makes it right there in the Corrugator Control Page, which is usually much easier than using the corrugator's own user interface. The sequence at the Dry End controller computer is automatically kept in sync with the changes done on the Corrugator Control page.

Moreover, the Corrugator Control page automatically synchronizes Program Memory with the new sequence. This way, the actual program sequence is always visible in Planning as well as at the corrugator.

With the Corrugator Control page, runs can be transferred to the Dry End controller computer either manually or automatically. The automatic mode always keeps enough programs in the queue to maintain a smooth production flow. Optionally, the Corrugator Control page can only be used for displaying and printing programs and paper requirements, without the functionality for modifying the run sequence.

Changing the Production Sequence

The Corrugator Control page displays the runs in the corrugator queue marked with padlock symbols. They show the status of each run and allow you to change it.

	Runs whose position can't be changed anymore because they are either already being produced or very close to production.
	Runs that have already been transferred to the Dry End controller computer. Those runs are locked, i.e. their sequence can't be changed. If you want to modify the position of those runs you can unlock them with a mouse click on the green padlock. Unlocking a run means that it is temporarily deleted from the Dry End controller computer. The run is retransferred as soon as the desired sequence has been established.
	Runs that are in Program Memory but haven't been transferred to the Dry End controller computer yet. You can change their position anytime.
	Runs whose position in the queue of the Dry End controller computer is different from their position in Program Memory. This happens when runs are manually inserted or when the sequence is modified at the Dry End controller computer. These runs can be changed after unlocking them with a click on the padlock.

The queue always starts with one or several red padlocks, followed by runs with a locked padlock symbol (ideally all green, after changes done at the Dry End controller some of them may be orange). The last run with a locked padlock marks the end of the schedule that has already been downloaded to the Dry End controller. After that point, all runs have open padlock icons.

Sequence changes in the section marked with open padlocks can be done directly. If however a change is needed in the locked part of the queue, then the corresponding runs must be unlocked first by clicking on the padlock symbol of the first run in the locked part of the schedule.