Overview: track and schedule production
What counting parts needs, what scheduling adds, and which of the two you are entitled to.
Production covers two halves, set up separately and answering different questions. Tracking turns a machine's signal into part counts, and every IoTFlows customer has it. Scheduling puts named work on named machines with dates on it, and it is licensed as the Scheduling Engine module.
Both sit under Production in the top navigation, which opens on the Parts List at /production?select=parts_list.
Tracking versus scheduling
Five objects carry this whole section, and the line between tracking and scheduling runs between the second and the third.
A part is a thing you make, named with the number your plant already uses, for example BH-4021. An operation is one step in making it, for example OP20 Turn. The operation carries the detection algorithm and the ideal cycle time that turn a sensor's signal into counts, so it, not the part, is what tracking depends on.
A job is an order for a quantity of a part, for example 250 of BH-4021 due Friday. A task is one operation of that job on one machine. A session is one run of a task: start, stop, parts made, scrap logged.
Job, task, or work order?
A work order is the record behind all three. In Production it is a job or a task, and in Maintain it is a maintenance work order raised against an asset. The two lists never mix.
The dialog that adds a task to the board is headed Create Workorder, and creates the same object.
What tracking needs
Tracking is available to every customer and needs three things in place.
- A machine reporting. A sensor tied to the asset and calibrated. See Quickstart: see your first machine's data.
- A part with at least one operation. Both are created in the Parts List, which needs Organization Owner or Organization Administrator. See Roles and permissions.
- A detection algorithm and an ideal cycle time on the operation. The algorithm decides what counts as one part. The cycle time decides what that count is measured against. See Choose a production tracking algorithm and Set cycle times and downtime filters.
What you get back is the count itself: the live shift board, the daily and monthly history, and the parts gauge on each machine card, defined at Performance.
You do not need the Scheduler to count parts
If your question is "how many did that press make this shift", set up parts and operations and stop there. Shift Production answers it, and nothing on that board needs a job.
Add scheduling when the question changes to who was supposed to run what, on which machine, by when. That is heavier setup: every job needs a quantity, a due date and a routing to fan out across.
What scheduling adds
Scheduling adds the plan and the record of working to it. The scheduler board holds jobs and tasks across five views, the Work Queue is where an operator picks one up, sessions record what actually ran, and Insights prices the result.
Parts and operations are a hard prerequisite, not a recommendation. A task is one operation on one machine, so a part with no operations has nothing to schedule. Create Job builds one task per operation on the part's routing, which means the routing decides the shape of every job you create.
Module entitlement
| Capability | Tracking | Scheduling Engine | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parts, operations and routings | Yes | Yes | Create parts and operations |
| Detection algorithms | Yes | Yes | Choose a production tracking algorithm |
| Cycle times and downtime filters | Yes | Yes | Set cycle times and downtime filters |
| Live shift counts against a goal | Yes | Yes | Track production against shift goals |
| Daily, weekly and monthly output | Yes | Yes | Compare production over weeks and months |
| Scheduler board | No | Yes | Plan jobs on the scheduler board |
| Jobs, tasks and work sessions | No | Yes | Create a production work order |
| Work Queue | No | Yes | Find your next job in the Work Queue |
| ERP schedule import | No | Yes | Import a schedule from your ERP |
| Cost and on-time performance | No | Yes | Analyze cost and on-time performance |
The module is additive: everything in the Tracking column stays as it was.
How do I tell whether we have the module? The Production tabs render for every organization, so seeing Scheduler or Insights in the tab strip is not proof you are licensed for them. Ask IoTFlows if you are not sure, see Contact support and report bugs.
Where to start
Start with one part on one machine. Quickstart: count your first parts takes a single part through an operation, an algorithm and a cycle time, then validates the count against ten parts made by hand.
Once one machine counts correctly, repeat it per machine type. CNC mills and lathes, injection molding and stamping presses are the same setup with the algorithm and the filters already chosen.
If a count is already wrong, go to Troubleshoot inaccurate part counts before adding anything else. A wrong count is a wrong shift goal and a wrong job estimate later.
Come back to Plan jobs on the scheduler board when the routings are in and you want work assigned rather than counted.