FACTIVITY Newsletter

Topics:

• Staying in Touch with Customers
• FACTIVITY gets a grip on Eaton Products Division
• New Functionality
• The Time & Attendance Module

Staying in Touch with Customers

Innovative companies select the FACTIVITY product over a myriad of good competitors because of its unique, innovative and visual approach to factory floor communications, data collection and control.

FACTIVITY Gets A Grip on Eaton General Products Division

CLEVELAND, OH – FACTIVITY, the Cleveland-based provider of package software for manufacturing environments, will install a factory floor program for Eaton’s General Products Division, based in North Carolina, makers of 75 percent of the world’s golf grips under the Golf Pride and many other well-known brand names. FACTIVITY will also provide the factory floor software for Eaton’s Airflex plant, Cleveland, which manufacturers turning and braking systems for large-diameter shafts such as those found on oil rigs and mixing equipment.

FACTIVITY is helping the company move forward with is ‘lean manufacturing’ plan by installing touch-screen computers to monitor the minute-by-minute operations on its factory floor, easily collecting labor and production data in a “visual” system that automatically alerts management to problems when they arise in the dynamic atmosphere of a factory floor.

Called FACTIVITY, the proprietary software is an extension of Eaton’s QAD/ERP system – tying planning systems directly to activity on the factory floor for continuous process improvement. Factivity is a new generation of factory floor systems that go beyond classic data collection to offer complete visibility of factory floor activities. A time and attendance module will also be installed. This module electronically collects and automatically adjusts employee’s clock-in and clock-out times. Because the information is contained onsite with touch-screen computers, information is available “real-time” to supervisors at their stations.

A benefit of the time and attendance module is ease in handling and enables daily editing and then providing drill down data viewing of employee data to process the an entire pay period

New Functionality

All the FACTIVITY program functions are a "passive" control that means you will see very few changes to the floor screen on the next release unless you invoke them. This allows our customers the freedom to upgrade without the concern of new functionality immediately appearing on floor screens.

• Machine Interface software to read production directly off machines, scales, etc. Included in this functionality are the Program Controls to select several different style of displays to record counts and the ability to separate different counters for"good" and "scrap" counts and deduct scrap from good production…a basic requirement in direct machine updating.
• A major enhancement is the fact that a lot of material can be allocated at any operation to eliminate errors and avoid large material variances.
• Interfacing to bar code label printing software to allow labels to be printed on demand during production runs with specific bar coded information that is printed on user definable labels. The label fields can be selected from a pre-defined list and can include the specific operation "package/container" quantity, serial identification unique to that package/container, etc. and a process to pass this information to a shipping system.
• Paperless Dispatch settings to allow you to put from 1 to 5 (default) different jobs on the dispatch. Also included is a powerful search feature to allow you to enter or bar code scan a part number, job or other I.D. to select from the list the appropriate next part to produce.
• A new separate Clock-in and Clock-out screen for bar code card swiping to help with ease and speed of clock "punches." This new screen also permits the creation of employee number prefixes for improving security and accuracy.
• Biometrics readers can now be used to "scan" into the factory and jobs.
• New Labor Audit reports that allow supervisors to check for discrepancy in shift data in order to provide easier identification of unusual amounts of "clocked-in" time, time not "on-the-job", operations started prior to the previous operation, etc. This will improve the reliability of the floor data and allow more visibility of labor time and control for supervisors during the shift.

The Time & Attendance Module

Module Objectives

The FACTIVITY Time & Attendance software module is designed to process clock and job card records for export to an external payroll system. Review, editing and authorization of employee records are accomplished by date, shift, plant and optionally by work center or department.

Operation Overview

Once clock “punch-in” and “punch-out” data is recorded (and optionally, if job card information has been imported), the Employee Shift Edit Screen is used to review and verify the information. The employees shown on the screen are limited to a specified date and shift and optionally may be further filtered by plant, work center and department to facilitate segmenting time card approval by foreman, supervisor, etc. This screen highlights any discrepancies between time clock and job card hours, shift schedule and clock card, etc. The summary screen provides for approval by shift or individual employee and drill down to detail job and clock data for editing.

Time & Attendance information is directly tied to employees’ activities during the work day. The employee is assigned a specific attendance schedule to which actual time clock information is verified. The employees’ production and indirect activities during the shift are compared to the clock card times and any discrepancies noted for supervisor verification. Approved time card and job card information is processed for export by employee to external payroll and job costing systems.

To learn more about FACTIVITY, Contact Us.

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