Elipse Software

In the manufacturing business, it’s very common to run into situations where available resources are not optimized for use, which in turn may cause delays and shrink profits.

Many times, this happens due to unexpected events, such as inputs shortage or machine breakdown, and a fast decision on what to do next is required in this situation. However, without the proper tools, management is faced with a series of obstacles:

• No real-time overview of the production line’s performance.
• Uncertainties on which sequence of production to follow, based on the available resources.
• No signaling of delivery deadline delays, even during the planing stages.
• Struggles to act quickly in the event of unprogrammed stops in workstations.

Features

• Production resources modeler (workstations).
• Product modeler.
• Production monitoring and traceability in real time.
• Optimized production order sequencing, in order to increase line efficiency by comparing both the original and the optimized sequence (faster, shorter delay time, fewer late orders).
• Uses priority field to increase or decrease the importance of a certain production order.
• Different factory timeframes can be used for simulating different production sequencing optimizations.
• Production analysis in Gantt chart model per machine and per product.
• Efficiency analysis via OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)

Benefits

• Estimated deadlines that signal potential delays, even before the order is sent to the line.
• Optimized tasks schedule in order to obtain shorter delivery time.
• Optimized usage time of production resources (operators and machines), considering their effective availability (less idle time).
• Reduced intermediate supply (Work in Progress – WIP) and unfinished products.
• Guaranteed fewer process setups during production.
• Reduced PCP costs.
• Improved integration between the company’s internal sectors.

Flow

Elipse F4 starts by directly adding or importing production orders from the ERP system. From these orders, all independent tasks required to manufacture each product are verified, processed, and distributed to each workstation in an optimized manner, in order to obtain shorter delivery deadlines and less idle time of production resources.

After scheduling these tasks (production schedule), they are sent directly to the workstation (operator and/or equipment) by Elipse F4. Then, the software monitors not only the workstations’ individual performances but also the execution of tasks, rescheduling them in case of unforeseen events such as: equipment’s maintenance shutdown, continued quality failure, or lack of inputs due to logistics missteps, among others.

Architecture

Elipse F4 was designed to work as the factory’s core, providing a continuous, steady production flow, and ensuring production resources are used properly. It can be installed in remote computers, in order to take full advantage of all the flexibility offered by current cloud computing platforms. Communication between Elipse F4 and the equipment is performed in a simple, safe manner via Elipse E3, Elipse Software’s supervisory. The solution can also be integrated to other Elipse products, such as Elipse Plant Manager and Elipse Mobile, for example.

Components

F4 Server

Main module, where production line optimization algorithms are executed. The factory’s complete modeling is controlled and stored by the Server, which displays an API Rest available for consumption by other systems.

F4 Portal

Web interface that communicates with the Server and assists with the system’s modeling. It comprises two parts: a configuration module and a planing module.

F4 Workstation

Web interface designed for plant floor operators. It provides buttons for production pointers, as well as operating instructions that can be displayed to the operator depending on the product being manufactured.

F4 ETL

Tool for assisting with work routines for extracting, transforming, and loading data from external sources, such as ERP systems.