Work Center PODs

Work Center PODs are used in complex assembly and industrial machinery companies (IMC). These PODs queue SFC numbers or shop orders in a work center and specific operations within a work center in the manufacturing process. One or more operators work on a complex assembly that remains in a work center and has multiple operations being worked for a long period of time. Operations are being performed simultaneously and often require components to be assembled, tools to be logged, data to be collected, or work instructions to be viewed. The primary advantage of these PODs is the visibility of the necessary key manufacturing data without paper being introduced. These PODs provide access to key lists and data entry plug-ins that are used on a daily basis.

Recommendation

Work Center PODs are configured and designed to benefit complex assembly manufacturing, to better enforce actions on the shop floor by personnel.

End of the recommendation.

The system offers the following Work Center PODs that you can use:

Default Work Center POD
POD - Work Center (WORK_CENTER_DEF) activity is associated with this POD.
Touch Work Center POD
POD - Work Center Touch (TOUCH_WC_POD) activity is associated with this POD.
Default Shop Workbench POD
POD - Shop Workbench (SHOP_WORKBENCH_DEF) activity is associated with this POD.

This POD allows you to view the operations, buyoffs, components, data collection groups, tool lists, and work instructions for an SFC number in a configurable tree-like structure. As a production operator or mechanic starts work, shop workbench is used with the POD Work List and POD Selection to select an SFC number, view information about the SFC number, select operations, view information related to the operations, and then begin production activities. As a production operator or mechanic performs production activities, shop workbench is used to quickly access other POD functionality such as Work Instruction Display, buyoffs, Tool List, Data Collection List, and Component List. When shop floor supervision monitors the status of work on the shop floor, shop workbench is used to view status, nonconformance, and other information about SFC numbers. When quality personnel review production results and perform buyoffs, shop workbench is used with Work Instruction Viewer, NC Log Report, and Log Buyoff to efficiently complete the quality inspection and record keeping tasks. When a manufacturing engineer analyzes production data, shop workbench is used to provide a summary of information about an SFC number and access to related details such as tooling, collected data, components, and nonconformances.

For more information, see Shop Workbench.
Supervisor Work Assignment POD
Supervisor Work Assignment (SUPV_WK_ASSIGN) activity is associated with this POD.

This POD allows supervisors to assign one or more users to specific shop orders and routing steps for the shop order.

The predefined work center PODs display different buttons and have different POD button activities associated with these buttons. For more information, see POD Button Activities.

Structure

If you are going to modify the predefined Work Center PODs, you need your POD to include at least the following plug-ins:

An NC client to log NCs against SFC numbers: at least Log NC Reject
A Work List to display the SFC numbers and their current status (see POD Work List)
An Operation List (see Operation List)
Plug-ins to collect data (see Data Collection Entry and DC Group List)
Plug-ins to perform assembly (see Component List and Assembly Point)
POD Selection plug-in (see POD Selection Work Center Plug-In)

You can also include the following plug-ins:

Tooling plug-ins (see Tool Group List and Log Tool Entry)
Reports (see Reporting)
Additional activities (see POD Button Activities)