ShopFloorManager's Manage Machine Tools

Primer - Managing Machines

Managing CNC Machine Tools in ShopFloorManager includes not only setting the Mode(Manual or CNC Machine Tool Remote Request) of operation but includes the ability to Manage DNC Files, Manage Packets and Manage a Machine's Queue. If you are using a Hierarchy in this "View" you can selectively display only the Machine Tools you need to work with or all of them!

From this "View" you to see every single Queue and their States in on place no matter where your Machine Tools are located and you can Manage them by simply selecting a Machine Tool, Right Clicking on the Mouse(or Icons) and choosing the action you want to perform.

ShopFloorManager Runtime

Note: From the above ShopFloorManager Runtime Application you can click on the Manage Machines Icon to access the complete Features and Functions used to Manage all of your Machines. See the following Window for a more detailed View.

Manage Machines Manual Window

After the Manage Machines' Window appears, see above, right click on the Machine Tool of which you want to Manage it's DNC Files, Packets, or to Manage it's CNC Machine Queue of Jobs. Depending on the Queue State you should be able to Abort, Restart, Search(Safe Starts) & Start. See other Web Pages for details on DNC File & Packet Management.

Manage Machines' Modes

ShopDNCTM supports two basic types of Machine Management for controlling the Machine Queues, CNC Machine Tool Remote Requests, Starting points within a CNC Machine Tool File and activating a Stuck CNC Communications Port and more. The Modes of operation are Manual and Remote Request.

Note: Machine Management in the above sense is not CNC Machine Event Monitoring which is used as part of Machine & Production monitoring.

Manual

If your "Shop Model" provides CNC Machine Tool Operators with access to computers at a central location or to Cell Clients that supports small numbers of related CNC Machine Tools or to a dedicated Client at your Machine Tool you would use ShopFloorManager's Manual mode. With this type of configuration your CNC operators have access to the ShopFloorManager: (html) Client so they can perform the following types of tasks: DNC File Downloading, DNC File Uploading, DNC File Editing, Viewing Packets(Associated Documents), etc. as needed to perform their task(s). Access to ShopFloorManager is of course governed by the "Rights" granted by the Administrator.

If you already allow operators to access a Client at or near their CNC Machine Tool or if the operations they are performing require considerable interaction it probably makes sense to use ShopFloorManager'sTM Non-CNC Machines Manual Mode of Managing Machines.

Remote Request

This Mode of Managing CNC Machine Tools makes sense when access to Client DNC Computers is not locally available or you wish to restrict operator's access to Client Computers. In this Mode an Administrator can selectively activate a set of "CNC Machine Tool Remote Commands" for individual Machine Tools allowing operators to uploaded these "Remote Commands" to ShopFloorManager: (html). These "Remote Commands" are then parsed and analyzed by CNCFileRequesterTM so ShopFloorManager: (html) can respond to these "Remote Commands" allowing some of the following: Downloading, Uploading, getting a Help File, getting a List of available DNC Files, etc.

Managing Machine's Queue Manual Window

Accessing the Window above allows you interact with the Queue of non-active(not executing) Jobs for this Machine Tool so you can Delete, Delete All or Rearrange the Queue. Any action here will not delete files from ShopFloorManager: (html) only this Queue!

Manage Machines CNC Remote Request Window

You will notice that the Window above is used both in the "Manual Mode" and the "CNC Machine Tool Remote Request" Mode. The only difference between the two is that the top "Job" displayed in the Queue is really an indicator that ShopFloorManager is in the "Remote Request" state and is waiting for commands to be sent from the Machine Tool or processing the command.

When in this state the operator uploads commands from the machine tool to ShopFloorManager: (html) for processing. Even though the operator usually doesn't have access to this Window an Administrator can use this Window to manipulate the Queue as needed just as in the "Manual Mode".