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Foy's EPICS Events |
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Extrusion Production Information and Control Systems |
September 2007 * Volume 11, Issue 4
EPICS V8.7 update includes key wishlist items
Packing at the Press facilitated in EPICS update
Other enhancements in EPICS V8.7 Update
EPICS Database Diagnostics Report released
2008 User Conference Plans Progressing
Open House Held for New Foy Office Building
ChemComp Program grows in popularity
The EPICS V8.7 update will be available for download next week. All EPICS System Administrators will receive an email notice as soon as the update is ready.
The #1 item on the 2007 Wishlist was the ability to search by a date range on the various QBE screens. That capability has been added in the EPICS V8.7 update. To search, for example, for all SOItems with a ReqDt of this week, you can now enter “8/26/2007..9/01/2007” in the ReqDt field. Note the two dots between the dates – that tells EPICS that the two dates are a range.
This feature works so well with dates that we decided to expand it to virtually all fields on most screens. So if you want to see all Tickets shipped on Manifests 14117 thru 14120, you can just enter “14117..14120” on the Manifest field under Maintain Tickets.
The #11 Wishlist item was to record the date and time that a production posting was made. This has been done with the addition of a date/time field, along with a field for the user name, to the ShiftProd table.
Item #12 on the Wishlist was to indicate that notes are present when using the Print Workorder screen. The Notes button on this screen now acts like the Notes button on some other screens – the label changes from “Note..” to “Note..”.
Wishlist #13 was to move PartNum to the Basic Info section of the QBE Items screen. We did this, and also moved the PartNum Customer, ReqDt, Routing, and Status to this part of the screen.
Until now, printing a packing ticket at the press has
involved numerous non-standard EPICS workarounds. But for extruders who have
the capability of aging a packed, ready-to-ship bundle, this process can be a very
cost-effective time saver. The EPICS V8.7 update implements this capability.
Instead of printing a racktag at the press, you can now print a packing ticket (although the record in EPICS remains a racktag record.) When the department prior to Packing is completed, EPICS “automagically” converts the racktag record to a Ticket record and posts it under PACK.
If you need this capability, you should examine the EPICS Help file description of the process.
In addition to the improvements described earlier, the EPICS V8.7 update includes several minor bug fixes, as well as the following enhancements:
· When printing workorders, a new warning is displayed if the selected die copy is for a different press
· Advanced Data Collection:
o Specified press scrap is now subtracted from unspecified scrap
o Improved logic on setting Complete checkboxes
o Alloy and Temper are shown for the SOItem
o A “Next Dept” column has been added to the Good Pieces & Scrap grid, allowing redirecting metal to any REWORK department or to any department in the routing.
· Added compatibility with registry settings used in Fastlook V12 and higher
· A customer record with a CustNum of “HOME” has been added if it did not already exist. You should edit this record to include your company’s name and address. Future EPICS standard reports will include this info in report headings.
· When receiving logs, you can now enter the actual log length for verification purposes.
A new diagnostics report is now available from www.foyinc.com. This report examines your EPICS database and identifies possible problem areas. It looks at potential problems involving bad routings, missing die copies, bad billet records, missing permissions, and many other possible problem areas.
It’s a good idea to run this report every few months. Most importantly, you should run it anytime you are having unexplained problems with EPICS.
EPICS System Administrators should download this report, diagnostics.rpt, from the foyinc.com website.
We
are proud to have Silver City Aluminum as the newest EPICS customer. Silver
City is located in Taunton, Mass, where they have been producing aluminum
products since 1952. In addition to their extrusion operation, they have
extensive fabrication facilities, along with a 20ft paint line.
Silver City has the Basic edition of EPICS running under Microsoft SQL Server.
The 2008 EPICS User Conference promises to be another in a long string of valuable, challenging, and enjoyable gatherings.
The conference will take place April 20-23, 2008, at the Argonaut Hotel, located in the historic Cannery building at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The conference will start with a Registration Reception on Sunday evening, and continue with two days of intensive EPICS topics. The popular optional Training Day will wrap up the conference on Wednesday.
For
the Monday evening activity, we are planning a dinner at Events
Ondine. This dining
room is located in Sausalito, across the bay from San Francisco. We will have
a spectacular view as the sun sets over San Francisco Bay.
Conference sessions will run from 8:00AM through 2:00PM, leaving time for participants to enjoy the sights in The City By The Bay.
We have been in our new offices for a couple of months now, and are enjoying the added space and new furnishings. An open house on July 27th drew a crowd of 75 (that’s most of Farmersville) and the Chamber of Commerce conducted a ribbon cutting to make it official.
The office is located at 111 Farmersville Parkway, one block south of the old office. We hope you will stop and visit anytime you are in the Dallas area.
There are now ten billet supplier plants signed up with Foy’s ChemComp program:
Matalco Inc
Ormet Primary Aluminum Corp
Dubal America, Inc
Metal Exchange Corp
Indalloy Toronto Division
Alcan Shawinigan Works
Alcan Arvida Works
Alcan Kitimat Works
Alcan Sebree Works
Alcan ABI Works
Registration by these companies allows them to email chemical composition data to any EPICS user using a standard format. EPICS users can load this data into EPICS with a couple of mouse clicks, and then print the info on test certification forms as extrusions are shipped.
If you are not yet using this powerful feature, check out the program description on the Foy web site under “Resources/ChemComp”. And if your billet suppliers are not on the above list, direct them to the supplier information on the web site. Tell them that registering as a ChemComp supplier is quick, easy, and free.
EPICS is helping over 11,000 people
at over 80 extrusion plants around the world.