Quality Checks

Fully Configurable in SQL Server

Quality checks are defined in a SQL Server table, and are thus highly personalized. In cooperation with the customer, we create all the different checks that may appear when an order is run as database entries.

Those entries define

• The type of the quality check,
• Its trigger (when and how often it appears),
• What values (if any) the users must enter,
• When the check is considered as failed,
• What happens when a quality check fails,
• HTML-based help (instruction) pages,
• Many more details.

Quality Check Types

A quality check can be a simple signature accompanied by a failed/succeeded information, or it can ask for a set of values to be entered. Values can be entered into free fields (e.g. board thickness in mm), or selected from an on-screen list of values.

For example, one check could be to ask for each printing unit what ink (as given in the order) is in that unit, to avoid printing in the wrong sequence. Or the users can be asked to enter the board thickness they measure, and if the value they enter is out of limits the quality check fails.

Consequences of a Failed Check

A failed check can be simply recorded (and will appear on various reports as well as on-screen displays so that e.g. supervisors can recognize that a machine is producing a lot of failed checks or fails to do the checks at all).

Or it can lead to reactions of the system: For example, it can be specified that a failed check always requires an explaining comment, or that a particularly critical check requires a superior to sign by selecting his name and entering his password.

Or a failed check can trigger further checks, to get more measured values to better understand the situation, or to help the operator realize what he must do to avoid failed checks of that type.

In the worst case, a failed quality check can lead to a message that the order must be taken off the machine (to avoid producing rubbish).

A quality check's result can be either "ok", or "failed", or "expired" (check not done within the time limit prescribed in the SQL Server table for that check).

Quality Check Triggers

Quality checks can be triggered by a variety of conditions and events. Examples are: Beginning / end of set-up (or production), end of downtime and so on, or e.g. "every X pallets" or "every X minutes" or "every X pieces".

Checks can also be done additionally at any time the operator wants, and checks may be conditional depending on order specific values.

(For example, a particular check may only make sense and will only appear when an order has scores on the corrugator, or teartapes.)

Preview of Upcoming Checks

When an order's set-up starts, PC-Topp will show a list of all upcoming checks for that order, including one-time checks and repetitive checks. That list shows at what time each check is expected to be required, and those times are permanently kept up-to-date as production progresses.

This makes it easy for operators to recognize when they need to go to the terminal to do the next check.

Visual/Audio Alarm

Optionally, (at a small additional cost) an electrical switch can be triggered when a check is due, or when it has been due for a few minutes and risks being recorded as missed. That switch can then control a flashing light or a siren to alert operators.

Alarms can generally be programmed based on nearly any imaginable condition that can occur on the Machine Terminal.