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Foy's EPICS Events |
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Extrusion
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2007 EPICS Conference Was
Another Success
AEC President Addresses EPICS User Conference
EPICS V8.6 update ready for release
Other new features in EPICS V8.6
New Foy Building almost finished
EPICS On-Line Knowledgebase Continues to Grow
RSS capability added to Foy web site
2007 EPICS Conference Was Another Great Success
Sixty-four EPICS
users representing 32 plants attended another valuable User Conference in
historic Charleston, South Carolina, last month. Over one-half of them stayed for a day of
training on the newest EPICS features which were introduced at the conference.
Including
guests and staff, the conference hosted almost 90 people. It required two busses to transport the group
to the Monday evening dinner cruise on beautiful Charleston harbor.
The Doubletree Guest
Suites served as an ideal location for this conference, according to most
attendees. Located in the middle of Charleston’s
Historic District, the hotel was only steps away from dozens of restaurants,
shops, and carriage rides.
Slides
used at the conference are available on the Foy website at www.foyinc.com. Photos of the conference can also be viewed
there.
Craig
Werner, President of the Aluminum Extruders Council, described to the group how
the wealth of data within EPICS can be used in models to help answer key
questions related to profitability. Over
many years, Craig developed mathematical models that helped Werner Company
become one of the most respected extruders in the world. He has recently formed Werner Extrusion Solutions
to provide this expertise to others in the industry. Craig can be reached at CWernerWES@aol.com.
The
EPICS 8.6 update will be released early next week. Your System Administrator will receive email
when the new version is ready to be downloaded.
The
V8.6 update contains numerous enhancements, including several of the
most-requested items on the 2006 Wishlist.
The major enhancements are described below. Other changes can be found in the Help file
that will be distributed with the update.
Most
extruders nitride dies in order to increase die life. Keeping track of when a die needs to be
nitride can be quite a job, especially since dies vary in the nitriding
frequency required.
The new EPICS Die Nitriding feature allows you to set up die
nitriding schedules on a copy by copy basis.
You have the flexibility to set schedules based on weight extruded or
feet (meters) extruded, based on per hole or in total. So you can, for example, schedule one type
of die to be nitrided after its first 100,000 feet and then after each
subsequent 50,000 feet.
Screens and reports show usage since last nitriding and life
remaining before next nitriding.
More detailed information on this new feature will be in the V8.6
help file. Slides from the conference
presentation can be found at www.foyinc.com.
The Number One item on the 2006 Wishlist was a Physical Inventory
feature. Naturally, we led off the
conference with a description of this new module. The new inventory features will enable EPICS
users to significantly reduce time required for routine physical
inventories.
If you are using Rack Tracking, EPICS knows what is in each
rack. Inventory worksheets can be
printed showing all metal EPICS thinks is in each department and that worksheet
can be used to manually verify or correct piece counts. Optionally, wireless scanners or tablet PCs
can significantly speed up the process.
The Finished Goods inventory consists of packed metal, so the EPICS
tickets can be verified to account for that material. New screens allow quick verification of
existing tickets, but again, scanners can speed up that process.
A complete description of the EPICS Physical Inventory feature can
be found in the help file you will receive with V8.6. The slides used at the conference to describe
the feature can be found at www.foyinc.com.
In addition to the two major features described above, EPICS V8.6
contains a number of features that will benefit your operation – several of
which were 2006 Wishlist items.
- In the Pricing
Module, percentages can now be used in discounts or surcharges. This will be of great use for pricing
elements such as Sales Commissions.
- Departments can
be combined into Department Groups, and these Department Groups can be used
to establish group Scrap, Downtime, and Rework codes. Only the pertinent codes will then be
displayed on the department production posting screen.
- Scrap and Rework
can now be charged to another department.
For example, the paint line can post scrap for Die Lines, and
charge that scrap to Extrusion.
- You can now
choose to add more fields to the Press Schedule screen using the new
“Field Chooser” function.
- CustShip has
been added to the Customer Service Inquiry screen and the SOSummary
screen.
- Attempting to
add a duplicate die number is now halted as soon as the die number is
entered.
The new Foy Inc
offices are almost finished. The walls
are painted, the light fixtures are being hung, and the carpet is on order. We hope to move into these facilities by the
end of the month.
Scott
is especially anxious to use the new training room. This room will easily handle twelve trainees,
and the air conditioner will even cool that size group. The first training class on June 11 is
already booked up, but the class on June 25-28 still has openings. Call Scott if you would like to join this
class.
The
EPICS Knowledgebase continues to expand.
Chris has been adding more and more questions and answers to this
important database. If you cannot find
the answer to your question in the extensive EPICS Help file, you next step
should be to check the Knowledgebase.
You
will find the Knowledgebase at www.foyinc.com
To help you in
keeping track of new information being posted on the Foy website, we have added
RSS capability to the site. You can now
subscribe to feeds regarding such key information as EPICS updates, training
schedules, and new report availability.
To learn more about RSS, www.WhatIsRSS.com offers a one-page
summary of this valuable tool.
On any given day
EPICS is helping over 11,000 people
at
over 80 extrusion plants around the world.