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.

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.

In autum 2006 the PC-Topp 2000 Machine Terminal Intranet page has been substituted by the much improved PC-Topp.NET Machine Terminal.

The old Machine Terminal page was an important step toward PC-Topp's becoming a full Intranet and Internet solution. Yet its interface was too limited. It didn't offer enough space for all relevant information. Besides, the data was displayed in small fonts that are hard to read from even a little distance. And it offered only a small part of the functions the classical program provides.

The new Machine Terminal has been thoroughly revised. Among the most obvious enhancements is its optimisation for use with a touch-screen. You can now optionally operate the Machine Terminal with a finger tip (provided the machine is equipped with a touch-screen). And all information is displayed in large fonts for better readability.

The classical Machine Terminal still runs alongside the PC Topp.NET Machine Terminal but many of its functions are now available on the PC Topp.NET Machine Terminal page, too. Besides, some new functions have been added. To accommodate all those features the interface is now structured by tabs that bundle the Terminal's functions.

1. General:
   The General tab is displayed by default when the Machine Terminal is started. Here you find an overview of the most important data on the machine itself, its production status, and the current order, illustrated by a graphical schema of the machine that shows the production process along with the relevant figures. In the future, waste entry right at the machine will be possible here, too.
2. Order:
   The Order tab is divided into sub-tabs. "Data", the primary sub-tab, shows the summary of the current order. The further tabs offer access to PDF files of stereo, forme, and article (if available) that open directly within the page.
3. Schedule:
   Here you find the machine schedule, now vastly larger than in the old Machine Terminal page, and easily readable. A click or finger tap on the links of any order opens the "Order" tab and displays the sub-tab you viewed last.
4. Personnel:
   In the near future this tab will provide the Come / Leave functionality of the classical Machine Terminal. Personnel can log onto and out of a machine here or change to a different machine within the Web page instead of having to switch to the classical Machine Terminal.
5. Messages:
   PC-Topp.NET's messaging module has been embedded in the Machine Terminal so you can send messages to any PC-Topp.NET user and to any other Machine Terminal right from the Terminal page. Messages to the Machine Terminal are displayed as pop-ups in the toolbox so they can't be overlooked.
6. Quality Check:
   Another new feature available at the new Machine Terminal page are the Quality Checks. In spite of its name the functionality isn't connected to the quality checks in the classical Machine Terminal. Even though it basically does the same it is much more powerful. Whereas the classical quality checks are confined to a fixed set of possible quality checks the new functionality lets you run self-defined quality checks that you can adapt exactly to your needs. You can precisely define conditions when these new quality checks should be performed. And if there is a customer complaint for an article or if a customer is marked as Service customer or Flop Ten customer the system triggers a quality check-like message to make sure you notice.

If you outsource certain production steps to a subcontractor company you can now offer a convenient new service to your subcontractor. Those companies can now create pallet labels for orders partially processed by them with the new Label Printing Terminal.

After having located an order with the handy "Find Order" feature they can view all relevant order details and, if necessary, change the number of pallets they want to print labels for. (They don't get access to the full PC-Topp.NET system but are restricted to the Label Printing Terminal page.)

When the "Create Labels" button is pushed the Terminal generates as many pallet labels for the order as specified in the "No. of Pallets" field, numbered consecutively. The labels are output as PDF files that can be printed on any local printer.

Runs Are Recorded Automatically Now

Production feedback from the corrugator can be done largely automatically now thanks to a new optional feature of the PC-Topp Corrugator Terminal. The terminal can now be connected to a signal from the corrugator that indicates the end of a run, enabling the software to register production data automatically, at very little additional work and costs.

No More Manual Data Entry

In the past, runs had to be recorded manually by the corrugator staff. This meant that someone had to watch for the end of the run and press a key. That was relatively easy with corrugators that stop between runs, but as good as impossible if the machine continued to run at full speed during a format change.

Now there is a way to automatically detect format changes. All that is required is a counter (the exact type is NE 212) which can register two separate signals, one for the lineal meters produced and the other at every format change.

Easy Use of the New Automatic Recording Functionality

In automatic mode, the terminal records the starting and ending times as well as the lineal meters produced and marks the run that just ended as produced, in a preliminary way: The run is shown in a special color (brown) until the operator confirms it. The operator can choose to confirm little batches of runs now and then; the terminal can store the data of many runs that have been finished.

Secure Operation through Manual Confirmation

Operator confirmation seems important because there is a risk that the corrugator occasionally sends an incorrect format change signal (for example following a jam), which would lead to totally incorrect production figures.

A special situation occurs when the terminal is first started, for example in the morning: PC-Topp cannot be sure that the run known to the terminal as "current run" is still in production, or if one or several changes have occurred while the terminal wasn't "watching".

For that reason, the terminal always starts in manual mode, where it requires operator input after each and every run. Once the operator has made sure that the current run is shown right, he can switch to Automatic Mode by hitting a function key (F10).

Thus, the new feature for automatic production feedback from the corrugator offers a cheap, convenient, and highly precise method of production data recording.

So far only the PC-Topp Machine Terminal offered a way to record staff work time by pressing Come / Leave in the blue section of the menu. Now the new PC-Topp.NET Staff Time Registration Terminal allows the users to sign on or off on any PC on the network. The Staff Time Regstration screen is an Intranet (HTML) page, so that it can be accessed any PC.

The users can sign in at any machine (or for any activity), change to a different machine (or activity), and sign off again. And the procedure has been simplified to make the functionality easier to use. Moreover, an overview of all machines shows who is currently present at which machine.

The Staff Registration Terminal can be viewed and tested on http://demo.pctopp.com.