The listings of PC-Topp Paper Codes and Board Grades are now available as PDF files in the new design of all PC-Topp Crystal reports, or can be downloaded as Excel files. The new output formats offer several advantages: The PDF documents are more nicely formatted and yield A4-sized, easy to read print-outs compared to their classical predecessors. They appear on-screen first and can be sent to the printer only if a hard copy is needed. The PDFs and Excel files can be emailed or stored on your hard disc for further use. The Excel files can be used for importing data to other applications, e.g. databases or word-processing programs.

Step by step, all parameter listings will become available as PDF and Excel files, thus eliminating the need for printing through the classical PC-Topp modules.

The downtime causes defined in PC-Topp have different effects on the calculation of times in the PC-Topp production statistics.

These effects are best explained by taking a look at the basic hierarchical concept for calculating production times in PC-Topp.

Category	Abbr.	Definition
Available Shift Hours	ASH	Shift duration, e.g. 8’00 plus any overtime after the beginning or before the end of the shift.
Machine Shutdown Hours	MSH	In case of shorter shift duration Machine Shutdown Hours explain the difference between shorter Open Hours and Available Shift Hours.
Open Hours	OH	The total period of time during which a machine is open (Available Shift Hours minus Machine Shutdown Hours)
Break Hours	BH	Total time of breaks
Scheduled Downtime Hours	SDH	Total scheduled down time
Work Hours	WH	Open Hours minus Break Hours minus Scheduled Downtime Hours
Set-Up Hours	SH	Set-Up Hours including downtimes during set-up
Run Hours	RH	Run Hours including downtimes during run
Downtime Hours	DH	The time taken up by breakdowns (including Mini Downtimes and times unaccounted for which are treated the same as Mini Downtimes).
Downtime Hours during Run	DHR	Downtime Hours during run
Downtime Hours during Set-Up	DHS	Downtime Hours during set-up
Production Hours	PH	Work Hours minus Downtime Hours
Net Set-Up Hours	NSH	Set-Up Hours minus Downtime Hours during Set-Up
Net Run Hours	NRH	Run Hours minus Downtime Hours during Run

The following diagrams illustrate how the PC-Topp times are based on each other.

 

Focus on Stopped Time and Machine Productive Time

Here the PC-Topp times are visualized by stripping away one after the other of the different stopped times from the machine’s available time. The final result is the time during which the machine actually produces goods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Focus on Downtimes during Run and Set-Up

Downtimes can occur during set-up and run. Therefore in this diagram the Work Hours are divided into Run Hours and Set-Up Hours which are again subdivided into Net Set-Up and Run Hours vs. Down Hours during Set-Up and Run.

This is necessary to determine the time during which the machine actually runs without interruption by downtimes. Of course the Down Hours during Set-Up and Run equal the Down Hours in the above chart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above times are the basis for calculating speeds in PC‑Topp: The Run Hours can serve as a reference value for estimating the Planning Speed (used to compute how long an order will run). Speeds calculated using the Net Run Hours offer a guideline for a realistic machine Target Speed.

Board Grade and Trim Statistics

The Crystal report “Board Grade and Trim Statistics” lists production data on board grades by flute type. It shows production totals as well trim and average roll size within the selected date range for each grade, flute type, and roll size.

Separate summaries by flute type and roll size are additionally illustrated by pie charts.

The new report doesn’t show upgrade cost, like the classical report does. For analyzing upgrades, a new report will be available allowing more detailed analysis.

 

Corrugator Production by Day

This report shows production totals separate by shift for each day in the month (or other selected periods).

 

Corrugator Speed by Flute Type

The reports starts with a graphical view of day by day production speed for each flute type for a month, following by the underlying figures for each day.

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 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.