Some plants bundle orders that consist of the same article into one large parent order that is split up into several successor orders for further conversion (e.g. customer specific printing etc). A new option has been added to the Machine Settings that allows treating pallets for orders that are the parent order of an order web and run on this machine as the last operation before the successor as external pallets on this machine. 

Now the PC-Topp.NET Palletisation Terminal lets you re-label already produced pallets without losing their SSCC number. This is useful if you want to produce orders that first go to stock and are later split up among several customers. The original SSCC number is retained so the system doesn't lose track of those re-labelled pallets.

The PC-Topp.NET Machine Settings page now supports setting up your palletizer for automatic downtime detection by means of a signal from a sensor.

A pallet's production status can only be modified from the pallet currently being produced backwards so users can’t randomly set any pallet's status to "Produced".

The PC-Topp.NET Palletizer Monitor can now be used for downtime recording, viewing, and modification. Besides, the Palletizer Monitor's restriction to four machines has been lifted: Now any number of machines predefined in the Machine Tables can be displayed.

In Passive Mode the production status of pallets is not automatically indicated, manual quantity changes of individual pallets are not automatically reflected in the total quantity of the order, and automatic pallet label printing is disabled. Use Passive Mode if you want full manual control over palletisation or if your stacker is able to automatically pass production data to PC-Topp.

A new PC-Topp.NET page allows defining pallet types available for selection in palletisation as an alternative to pre-defined pallet types.

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.

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.

With the new PC-Topp.NET Pallet Requirements you can instantly see how many pallets of what type are needed at which machine.

The page lists all available pallet types and formats in alphabetical order, along with a TGV-like time line that tells you what total number of each pallet type will be needed at what point of time. The intervals of the time line are 2 hours by default, but can be set to 6 hours, 1 hour or 30 minutes according to the users needs.

A mouse click on a pallet type reveals the required number of pallets of this type, listed separately by machine. You can exactly determine when and at which machines the displayed number of pallets will be needed.