Would a job report generator benefit you?

Michael Kowalczyk · Post by **Michael Kowalczyk** » Thu, Jul 26 2007, 3:21PM

To all Thermwood CNC Owners, Managers, and et al,

I asked Jason about having a report generator added to the CNC controller as an \"F\" key or a pull down menu function and he said it can be done and has been for a few special requests but I think it would benefit all of us. Whether we are a 1 man or woman shop or have 10 Thermwoods making wood chips 3 shifts a day we may all have different criteria. Here are some of the thoughts I had and I also found some examples as seen in the pictures.

This is what I sent Jason:

\"Hey Jason, I know you are probably in Las Vegas now but I just ran across this and wanted to see if there is any way that we could get a tally of what files have been ran, time to run, time in between or from green button to green button (Chip to Chip) , How many times a file was run that day, week, month,year, during the life of the machine... How many hours the spindle was actually running and any others that may be important. This would give VERY IMPORTANT FEEDBACK for owners or managers. so we can see the efficiency of the machine and operator or if one operator is milking it compared to another.
I know we have the time log screen but if it is not saved by the operator every time it only serves to show how long the machine ran for that one file. I know many others would benefit from this also. If \"#@*&^$#\" company can do it you guys can do it better. Let me know what you
think.\"

So what kind of info would be beneficial to you? Short term (daily or longer term (weekly, monthly, yearly...) This could be very helpful for us Ecabinet user's as well as job shops or manufacturers. Think about it and post what your thoughts are and how it would benefit us all. from what Jason and Ryan said I do not think it would be implemented immediately because they have some other things on the list but the more of us that voice our wants for additional functions like this and enough of us have similar criteria, I think it would help speed things up because it would give them a clear direction.

Thanks,

Mark Hesketh · Post by **Mark Hesketh** » Fri, Jul 27 2007, 8:43AM

this is along the lines of something i have been thinking about for a while. i would love to have the ability to monitor the length of time the machine is running vs sitting idle, what jobs are being run, whether parts have been re-cut, cumulative time on a job (total running time if it is stopped and started multiple times), quantity of material cut, percentage of waste per material (high, low, and average), etc. It would be great to be able to get the information in a daily, weekly, monthly, and maybe even yearly format.

I'm deffinately in for something like that

Michael J Starry · Post by **Michael J Starry** » Fri, Jul 27 2007, 9:26AM

Typically speaking, doesn't your MRP Software do all this? Or at least the vast majority of it?
If not, then I could definitely see the benefit.

Mark Hesketh · Post by **Mark Hesketh** » Fri, Jul 27 2007, 10:02AM

um... maybe a stupid question.. but what is \"MRP Software\"?

Michael J Starry · Post by **Michael J Starry** » Fri, Jul 27 2007, 10:33AM

Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is a software based production planning and inventory control system used to manage manufacturing processes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_r ... s_planning

Paul Ford · Post by **Paul Ford** » Fri, Jul 27 2007, 2:32PM

Hi Guys,
I started a sub program for all of this last year but havent had a chance to finish it off as yet... I will post it for everyone to see when I get it done.
The Thermwood Manual gives the instructions on how to write a sub program, from there you can just have the machine call that sub program at the beginning and end of each sheet cut. and set up in settings to call the sub programs.

FredHirsch · Post by **FredHirsch** » Thu, Feb 07 2008, 4:17PM

Is there any progress on this? Is there any kind of log file written now that I could take into excel and parse through?
Thanks,
Fred

Michael Kowalczyk · Post by **Michael Kowalczyk** » Thu, Feb 07 2008, 8:20PM

Well Fred,
As I understand it unless there are more people asking for this it will only be done on a case by case scenario and a fee. I could be mistaken.

Maybe if more people understood the value behind this maybe, they would ask louder and more frequently.
For those of us that have operators, wouldn't it be nice to see what they have done in an hour, a day, a week, a month... with the press of a few buttons???
Getting an accurate time study of production from "Green to Green" alone would be awesome. So many other benefits and many I do not even know of cause I do not know the FULL capabilities of what the AFL can do.

FredHirsch · Post by **FredHirsch** » Fri, Feb 08 2008, 11:35AM

Michael,
This would be huge for us. We are trying to do some cost evaluation and it would be very nice to have a log file. Even if it was something like a web server log that just wrote each event like date time job file(or first in list of job files) and action so we evaluate later. I notice there is a "log" button on the timer macro and I wonder if that could be rewritten to just automatically append to a log file? I can get the guys outback to use the timer macro with good consistency

Thanks,
Fred

Ryan Hochgesang · Post by **Ryan Hochgesang** » Fri, Feb 08 2008, 1:31PM

Yes, the current subtimer programs can be altered using AFL to write specific information to a text file for later review. This can be setup so that the information is appended to the given log file everytime the End timer sub is exicuted at the end of a program cycle. Various information like Date, Time, Program name and even Cycle # (may involve additional AFL variables in cnc program) can be logged. The txt log file can then be accessed at managements descretion to monitor data related to machine production.

Thermwood Software Support can be contacted and provide customized programming to meet specific needs of individual customers.
Contact for Custom Programming: program@thermwood.com (Subject: "Custom Programming")

Thermwood / eCabinet Systems

Would a job report generator benefit you?

Would a job report generator benefit you?

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