How OPTIMATE™ Works

OPTIMATE’s Order Maintenance provides a complete order entry system for the flat glass industry.  It allows you to enter orders directly into OPTIMATE™ or enter them from your business system and then bridge them into OPTIMATE™.   Order Maintenance may then be used to edit orders before they are processed for cutting. 

Once orders have been entered and are ready for processing, the Glass Component Report is printed.  It lists all glass components not yet scheduled for optimization, sorted by glass color, glass thickness, and/or date range.  OPTIMATE™ also provides the Glass Unit Report, similar to the Glass Component Report, but listing all insulated units not yet scheduled for optimization. Each of these reports assigns sequence numbers, used during Cutlist Preparation, to the lites or units to be processed. 

Cutlist Preparation allows cutlists to be prepared manually, automatically, or selectively. 

Manual Cutlist Preparation is used when you wish to process only a portion of your orders, include only a portion of inventory, change parameters, or make other changes.  You select items for inclusion in the cutlist by either sequence number, derived from the Component Reports, or order-item number.

Automatic Cutlist Preparation instructs OPTIMATE™ to include all unscheduled orders and, as the name implies, prepares the cutlists automatically.  You choose whether to prepare them using the Glass Component Report or Glass Unit Report.

Selective Automatic Cutlist Preparation works similarly to Automatic Cutlist Preparation, but allows you to prepare cutlists for specific a glass thickness, color, or due date.  

Regardless of the method used to prepare cutlists, all cutlists may be modified using OPTIMATE’s Modify Cutlist routine, where you may modify any of the following:

• Cutlist Title
• Table for which the cutlist was specified
• Components within the cutlist
• Inventory used

The Component Adjustment screen, shown below, allows you to change the items to be cut.  You may include more order-items to the cutlist, delete order-items, change the priority of an item, or change the quantity of the item to be cut.

Once cutlists have been prepared you are ready to optimize.  You select those cutlists to optimize from a list of all current cutlists.  During optimization, the system displays the progress by indicating the layout it is currently processing, listing the inventory used and yield.  

OPTIMATE’s Optimization Reports

OPTIMATE™ offers the following reports as part of the optimization process.

The Parameter Report lists those parameters that were set during the last phase of Cutlist Preparation.  They are printed here because of their importance in influencing the results of an optimization.  An asterisk (*) at the end of a parameter description line indicates that the value being used is the default established when OPTIMATE™ was installed.  Items without an asterisk indicate changes made for this particular cutlist.

If the optimized results include scrap pieces, which meet or exceed the minimum size requirements specified by Output Parameters 1 and 2 (see Parameter Report, above), then an Offal Report is produced, listing the size and quantity of offal produced and the layout in which they can be found. 

The Order/Layout Cross-Reference Report displays order numbers, dimensions, quantity needed, quantity produced, and the layout from which this order is cut.

The Inventory Usage and Yield Summary contains inventory information entered during Cutlist Preparation and includes the number of sheets of inventory used to produce an optimization solution, square footage of stock used, square footage of the order-items cut, square footage of offal pieces produced, and square footage of glass loss, per inventory element; those pieces that could not be re-used, such as trims to square the glass or sizes too small to be classified as offal. 

Cutting Layouts can be printed showing the locations of all scores on the selected inventory sheet.  Areas marked with slashes (//) are to be discarded.  Offal is marked with asterisks (**). 

OPTIMATE™ produces Cut Piece Labels for each lite of glass cut, in the sequence in which items appear in the layout.   As the operator breaks out the lites, no sorting of glass is required to match labels with lites.

OPTIMATE™ Utilities

OPTIMATE™ is parameter driven.  Layout and Output Parameters allow you to significantly customize the system to meet your plant’s operational needs.

Maintenance utilities within OPTIMATE™ allow you to maintain data regarding your glass inventory, glass, spacer, or innerlayer abbreviations, edgework processes, and product codes.

We see the following business benefits as a direct outcome from implementing PMC's products and services.

Optimal Yields

By taking advantage of computerized optimization, you can experience significant glass usage reductions.  This generates much less offal than manual layout methods, and to further reduce waste, offal can be considered as inventory.  The system can run tests to calculate the best inventory sizes to stock and will determine if an order should be bought cut-to-size or cut in house from sheet stock.

Optimization of all glass process requirements

All of your glass process requirements are handled by computerized optimization.  Double and triple insulating and offset units are handled even if each lite is a different color or thickness.  Spacer thickness, color, and sealing process entry maximize flexibility when defining an insulated unit.  "Unit optimization" reduces sorting time by processing units together, or you may explode them into their various components.  The system also handles laminated glass, edgework and fabrication.

Total scheduling flexibility

You have the flexibility of creating production schedules in the volume and sequence that best suits your operations.  Configurable rules allow further customization for your plant’s unique operations. 

Maximum efficiency

The system generates Numerical Control (NC) instructions for both rectangular and shape cutting, interfacing with a wide range of automated cutting machines.  A variety of formats allow you to transfer cutting requirements from your existing order entry system.  This "Bridge" eliminates the re-keying of cutting requirements and the possibility of typing errors.

A wide range of real time reports increase control by providing invaluable information about such things as current inventory levels, optimization results, and cutting instruc­tions. Reports and layouts are available both in printed and on-screen formats.

Reduced labor costs

An automated system frees employees of routine, time-consuming tasks.  To expedite sorting, each lite or IG unit is assigned rack/slot locations based upon your facility’s rack and cart configurations.