If any of your machines employ reusable tooling (such as metal stamping dies or extrusion dies), molds (for die casting or injection molding) or fixtures (for welding or assembly), it is likely that you have maintenance schedules for these items that are based on cycles.   It can be exceptionally difficult to maintain an accurate cycle count on any of these maintainable items if they can be used by multiple machines or processes; especially when the maintenance interval is longer than the average job run.

ShopFloorConnect can do it for you automatically.   To enable tracking, the item must be set up as either the primary or secondary item for the machine type that uses it, and tracking must be enabled for the item.   Theis is done by logging into the Administrator, and selecting the Machine Types tab.

If tracking has not been set up for the machine type, click on the Edit link for the machine type, ensure that the Counting box is checked, and select the item you with to track from the pull-down menu in the Tracking column (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Enabling the Tracking Feature

Once tracking is enabled, you'll need to specify preset values for the tracked items. (In order to make these settings, you will need to be logged in with "Tracking Editor" security settings.

1. Log onto the Factory Viewer.

2. Go to the Tool Tracker tab and select the appropriate Site and Area.

3. Use the Machine Type menu to select the machine that runs the item you are tracking.

The Tracking Summary is a table with rows for each trackable item.   Figure 2 has "Robot Welder" as the selected machine type and "Fixture Number" as the item being tracked.

Figure 1 - Editing a Preset on the Tracking Summary Screen

In addition to the item number, there are fields in each row for an item description, item status (Available, Down, or In Use), Total Cycles, Cycles Preset, and % of Preset.   There is also a separate "lifetime" cycles counter that can be reset only in the list administrator area.   To change/set any of the values, click the "Edit" link.

Once tracking has been set up, ShopFloorConnect will increment the Total Cycles (and Lifetime Cycles) values whenever a machine makes a cycle while the tracked item is in the machine (as either the Primary or Secondary Item).   If the Total Cycles value exceeds the Cycles Preset, SFC will change the background color of those fields in the table to red.   In addition, as an "early warning" feature, SFC will change the background color to yellow when the Total Cycles reaches 90% of the Cycles Preset.

Figure 3 shows a Tracking Summary where cycles are tracked for tools in stamping presses.   The list has been sorted by % of Preset to place the items that are over or approaching the preset at the top of the list.   The sorting can be changed by clicking on the column headings.

Figure 1 - The Tracking Summary Screen Sorted by Percent of Preset