Stations

In Busroot, stations are where any manufacturing occurs and all units of production are related to a station.

Scheduling

Stations can be scheduled to produce a specific SKU for a specific time. A schedule can be for a specific quantity, for a specific duration or 'Continuous'.

Station Management

To open Station Management, select Admin > Management > Station in the main menu.

To add a new Station click ‘Add New’ button.

The following fields can be entered when adding a Station, some are mandatory, others depending on the type of manufacturing or data to be monitored.

• Code - Mandatory, can’t be edited once the station is saved.

• Name - Mandatory, can be edited if required.

• Cycle Time (secs) - This should be set to the average Cycle Time of the station. Busroot will use this to calculate estimates and downtime (this will only be used if there is no Cycle Time Override set for a schedule or the SKU has no Cycle Time set).

• Minimum Cycle Time (secs) - For stations that produce multiple signals during production, this should be set to the minimum operating window to be counted as one cycle.

• Line Speed Target - For stations set to Productive Status Mode > Line Speed. A target speed can be set, it will appear on the Line Speed Chart as a dashed line. If the current Line Speed of the station drops below 80% of this target, a period of downtime will be added with issue type 'Slow'.

• Group - For easier management, stations can be grouped by type, function or area. Station groups can be used in reports for searching and filtering.

• Shift Pattern - Shift patterns can be set for each station. If not set at station level, Station Group shift pattern will be used.

• Allow Manual - Control whether production units can be added into Busroot manually via the Operator Tablet or only directly via a signal from the machine.

• Downtime Detection Mode - Busroot will report downtime for a station using either Utilisation or Production Cycle data.

• Utilisation Downtime Threshold (mins) - Mandatory, if Downtime Detection Mode is set to Utilisation Monitoring. This should be set to the minimum period of inactivity before Busroot will start recording downtime.

• Productive Status Mode - Different types of signal can be monitored for a single station Explicit Productive Signal, Electrical Usage and Line Speed. This setting controls which type of signal Busroot will use to determine the productive status (utilisation) of a station.

• Stopped Threshold (kW) - Mandatory, if Productive Status Mode is set to Electrical Usage and the station has energy monitoring hardware installed. This should be set to the minimum kW required for the station to be considered active.

• Line Speed Stopped Threshold - Mandatory, if Productive Status Mode is set to Line Speed. Anything below this speed Busroot will record as downtime.

• Allow Cut Short - This setting controls whether the ‘Cut Short’ button is available on the Schedule Management page. It is intended for stations that may need to switch between schedules depending on priority. If ‘Cut Short’ is clicked the current schedule will be ended and a new schedule created, with the same work order reference and with the remaining quantity of the original schedule.

• Productive Hold on Time (mins) - For stations set to Utilisation Monitoring. This controls the length of time a station is considered active after a productive signal. Each time a new signal is received the hold on time will restart.