Manage Your Stations

Station Group

Stations can be grouped together to make stations easier to view and manage.

It is possible to set things like shift patterns and default production rates at the group level, thereby removing the need to set these on each individual station.

Filters and groupings throughout Busroot work on a station group level.

Shift Pattern

This can be left to inherit from the station group, or set explicitly for this station.

Performance Mode

This determines how we should measure the performance of this station. This broadly falls into 2 methods:

by Production Output

This is the preferred method as it aligns directly with how OEE performance is measured. Busroot will compare the actual production output with the ideal production output for a given period of time.

The rate of production can be specified as number of seconds required per part (Cycle Time), units per minute or units per hour. There is no change to the logic however the rate is specified.

The rate set at the station level is only used if no rate is specified at the SKU level.

Example: An station has a target rate of 60 units per hour. In 1 hour, the station produced 48 units. The performance on this station, in that hour, is 48 / 68 or 80%.

by Process Speed

If production count isn't (or can't) be directly measured, an alternative is to measure the speed of some part of the manufacturing process. This, for example, could be speed of a conveyor belt, the rotational speed of a motor, or Feed Rate Override of a CNC machine. In each of these cases, you are not measuring the actual production output, but what is being measured is a good indicator of the manufacturing speed.

The units of measurement are arbitrary in this case, it could be meters per second, or more commonly, percentage of maximum performance.

Busroot will record this process speed independently to production output, and performance will be a straight comparison between the average actual process speed, and the target process speed.

Example: For an extrusion line, the target extrusion speed is 30m/min. The operator changed the extrusion speed several times during his shift, and therefore averaged 24m/min over 1 hour. The performance of this station, in that hour, is 24 / 30 or 80%.

Speed Scale and Offset

If process speed is being used to measure station performance, it can be that the signal value is not in the desired units. Scale and offset can be used to map the raw signal value into a value that makes more sense to users.

Example: The sensor is reading the control voltage of a motor from 0 to 10 volts. However it is preferable to see this as a percentage value from 0% to 100%. Is this case, the Speed Scale can be set to 10 to achieve this result.

Productive Status Mode

Productive status is independent of performance and is an indication that the station is engaged in a value-adding-activity. An example of this would be a CNC machine that is engaged in machining a part, rather than being loaded or unloaded.

When productive vs non-productive time is compared, we get an asset utilisation rate. This utilisation rate can be a good indicator for how 'hard' this station is being worked. i.e. If the utilisation rate is low, there may be an opportunity to reduce time spent on non-value-adding activities like change overs and loading/unloading.

The way the productive status is determined can be 1 of 3 methods:

Based on an Explicit Signal

Based on Electrical Consumption

Based on Process Speed

Availability Status Mode (aka Downtime Detection)

Production Cycle Monitoring

Utilisation Monitoring

Visibility