The freshly created Events & Actions module is a versatile tool for triggering messages on all kinds of unexpected events or situations needing close control. It is highly customizable and can make information on all sorts of events available via a wide variety of media and devices inside as well as outside PC‑Topp, thereby extending PC-Topp’s informational power beyond the system itself.

From downtime alert e-mails to a supervisor and Twitter threads on quality checks to status messages to Management members’ SmartPhones, everybody in charge can receive real time alerts in his preferred technological environment. This ensures that relevant information is noticed in time.

Monitor All Actions and Events

You can closely cover all sorts of user actions and goings-on in production or in the system itself, whether it is unexpected events in production, situations you want to keep an eye on, or system problems. A wide range of message triggers is already implemented and can be further extended on short notice.

The following types of events are currently available, some for free, while others require an additional license. (For a full list of all supported events and more information on event pricing please read PC-Topp.NET Events & Actions)

• Unexpected or Undesirable Production Events, e.g.
  • Downtimes
  • Excessively long production times or shifts
  • Over- or underrun orders
• Production Events Indicating or Potentially Causing Irregularities, e.g.
  • Use of the “Undo” functionality at the Machine Terminal
  • Manual runs
  • Pending confirmation of the next order
  • Pending or failed quality checks, failed quality checks that nevertheless got backup approval etc.
  • Production material not prepared
• Production Situations or Events Where Extra Attention Is Advisable, e.g.
  • Special or problematic orders (with production control code, internal complaints, …)
  • Password protected actions
• System Related Events and Problems, e.g.
  • System failures (backup failed, terminals off, …)
  • Program Memory full
  • Archiving required

You will find more detailed information on event types and pricing on the following page: PC-Topp.NET Events & Actions

Send Alerts to All Types of Recipients and Media 

Messages can be used very flexibly in a variety of ways to inform certain people or to trigger predefined actions. They can be targeted not only to individual recipients or predefined groups of users or staff members, but also to PC-Topp terminals or even to external services or media.

Or they can trigger actions like setting off devices like alarm lights etc. Currently the following recipient types and target media are supported:

• E-Mail
  You can send messages to
  • Individual e-mail addresses or recipient groups, including all persons signed in at certain machines or machine groups (machine tables)
  • Personnel Numbers
  • PC-Topp Users
  The system allows easily configuring individual messages as well as creating and using your own HTML e-mail templates.
• New (Jan 20, 2011): iPhone Message
  The PC-Topp.NET iPhone app lets you receive information on production events or system incidents on your iPhone in real time. You can get in the Apple App Store.
• SMS Text Messages
  You can also send messages to a mobile number in SMS format (provided you have an e-mail / SMS server). This greatly helps keeping the persons in charge up to date on the current situation in the plant as the recipient isn’t bound to a workstation to stay informed.
• PC-Topp.NET Message
  You can send messages to all PC-Topp.NET users in general or to selected PC-Topp.NET users only.
• Publish in Twitter or in an RSS Feed
  Twittering messages or publishing them in an RSS feed is an interesting way of distributing information beyond the limits of the system to make it available to many people without having to target them individually.
• Log File Entry
  Another possibility is to have a log file entry written as soon as an event is triggered, thereby creating a history of events.
• FTP Upload
  You can also trigger a file upload to a server via FTP with an event.
• Set Off Alarm Device
  It is even possible to make an event message trigger a visual alarm by setting off a police light, e.g. to alert personnel present on the shop floor to downtimes etc.

On demand, new events can be easily and rapidly implemented at little additional cost to meet each customer’s individual needs.

If you are interested in using Events & Actions please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

If a corrugated plant produces orders with more colors than its conversion machines can print at a time those orders have to be printed in two passes.

PC‑Topp.NET Conversion Scheduling now better supports this way of production by displaying the colors for each printing step of an order. The colors appear in one line per printing pass, those for the current production step in black, the others grayed out. A tooltip shows the full color name.

Let PC‑Topp.NET help you to improve production flow in conversion by ensuring that materials required for production on the machines are available on time. The new Material Preparation Terminal is a valuable instrument for avoiding machine downtime in conversion due to missing materials.

At the new terminal the status of the materials required for all scheduled orders is displayed with colored dots. The personnel responsible for readying inks, dies, pallets etc. can see at any time whether everything is prepared for producing an order and, if not, what is still missing.

The items to be prepared can be individually configured; the available options are:

Color Coded Preparation Status

Unprepared items appear as white dots (). After having prepared an item for an order the person in charge clicks this item’s status dot to change it to “ready” (). In case it isn’t available (due to damage, insufficient stock etc.) he can set its status to “not ready” ().

The overall preparation status of an order only changes to “ready” if all individual items required for an order are marked “ready”. As long as the materials for the order are only partially prepared (e.g. the inks and the dies are ready but the pallets aren’t) the order’s overall status remains yellow (), indicating that the preparation has begun but isn’t finished yet.

If the mouse is moved over the overall status indicator for an order’s machine or for the order itself the status details of all required materials are shown in a tooltip. Thus it is easy to keep track of an order’s overall preparation status and to check what is still missing.

(Orders with nothing to prepare are marked with .)

Customizable View

By default the orders are shown by start time so the ones that have be prepared next are always on top. Thus the person in charge can always make sure he doesn’t overlook imminent orders which are not yet completely prepared. But if he wants to prepare the materials for all orders scheduled on a specific machine he can switch the view to display just this machine.

Print Out Material Preparation List

Staff members responsible for readying production materials can’t always stay within eyeshot of the Material Preparation Terminal. They can export the list of orders to prepare in PDF format for printout so they can take the materal preparation list along.