FLEXMATE™

Lineal Production Line Balancing

Flexibility, balanced production lines and the ability to quickly react to equipment downtime... To achieve this maximum flexibility in vinyl processing without complication, a plant's production staff needs the ability to reassign entire cutting schedules to alternate cutting lines or to selectively reassign the needs for a particular saw or welder.  PMC Software has listened to customer's needs and expanded its LINEALMATET's functionality to include this optional add-on for handling of schedule/device reassignments to welders as well as saws.

PMC Software's FLEXMATE™ offers a manufacturer the ability to balance production between lines or prevent downtime due to equipment malfunction.   If one production line is tremendously busy and the other is sitting idle, you may switch over either a single schedule or multiple schedules to the slower line.  If a saw or welder is down, you may easily switch production to a line with functioning equipment.

A cross-reference matrix allows you to define all the devices (i.e. saws and welders) associated with one line and cross-reference them to the corresponding devices of another line.  Directional indicators are used to identify how lines may be switched.  A double arrow (<>) indicates that the lines may be shifted either way, while a one-direction arrow (< or >) indicates a one-way only switch.

On the production floor, supervisors may choose to make any of the following changes.  For each type of change, the system provides a list of possible reassignments, based on the data contained within the cross reference matrix. 

• Change an Entire Line Select the schedule(s) to be reassigned from one line to another.   Once verified, LINEALMATE™ will remove the existing schedule along with all of the saw/welder files and then recreate the information using the appropriate new saw/welder assignments for the production line chosen.  An automatic Bridge In then commences. 
• Change a Saw To quickly address a mechanical problem with a saw, particular runs within a schedule may be reassigned. The saw files are re-optimized for the new saw, taking into account trims, kerfs, formatting requirements and machine codes. 
• Change a Welder As with saws, a mechanical problem with a welder can quickly be addressed by changing the welder assignment for a particular schedule.  Welder records are processed for the new welder, replacing the old numerical control (NC) files. 

A Stand Alone Processor (SAP) PC processes change requests as they are made, handling the LINEALMATE™ processing required for the changes.