User Guide
Contents
1. Logging In
2.1 Company Settings
2.2 User Options
3. Left Sidebar
3.1 Company Tree
3.2 Settings
4.1 Right Sidebar Collapse/Expand
4.2 Alarms
4.3 Insights
4.4 Configuration
4.5 Schedule
4.6 Preventive Maintenance (PM) Alarms
4.6.1 PM Alarm Types
4.6.2 PM Alarm Entry
4.6.3 PM Alarm Detail View
4.6.4 PM History Item
4.6.5 Adding a New PM Alarm
4.6.5.1 Cycle Count
4.6.5.2 Runtime
4.6.5.3 Stopwatch
4.7 Devices
5. Time Filter
6.2 Utilization Tab
6.3 Equipment Tab
7.1 General Equipment Information
7.4 Barcode Chart
8. Reports
8.2 Summary Report
8.3 Raw Cycle Data
9. Alarms
10. Configuration
10.1 Building the Company Tree
10.2 Managing Equipment
10.2.1 Assigning a New Device to Equipment
10.2.2 Assigning an Existing Device to Equipment
10.2.3 Retiring/Archiving a Piece of Equipment
10.2.4 Restoring/Unarchiving a Piece of Equipment
10.3 Managing Devices
10.3.1 Devices Table
10.3.2 Unassigned Devices Table
10.4 Managing Tags
10.5 Managing Alarms
10.5.1 Creating an Alarm
10.5.2 Creating an Excessive Downtime Alarm
10.5.3 Creating an Offline Detection Alarm
10.5.4 Creating a Temperature Alarm
10.6 Managing Schedules
10.6.1 Global Company Schedule
10.6.2 Company Children Schedule (Departments and Equipment)
10.8 Managing Personal Settings
10.9 Device Configuration
10.9.1 Network Status Tab
10.9.2 Network Setup Tab
10.9.3 Input Status Tab
1. Logging In
If you are not already logged in, navigating to app.lcm2m.com will present you with a login form.
The login form is based on your email address, and not a username. If you do not have a login for app.lcm2m.com, please contact your company’s LCM2M account administrator. If you are the company admin and do not have an account yet, please contact support to have an account created.
2. Navigation Bar
Once logged in, the navigation bar is at the top of the page. This bar allows you to navigate back to the main page easily and access personal and company-wide settings.
Clicking the company logo on the left will take you back to the top level of the organizational structure, no matter where you are in the navigation tree. This provides a consistent place to return to while using the web interface.
2.1 Company Settings
Clicking on the gears icon in the navigation bar will open your company’s settings in the left sidebar. This is separate from your individual user settings. Company settings will effect all users and equipment within an organization.
Company settings that are covered in detail in section 10.
2.2 User Options
At the far right of the navigation bar is a drop down containing user options.
There are two options in the drop down.
- Settings
- Logout
Clicking on Settings will take you into the personal settings described in section 10. Clicking on Logout will log the current user out of the web interface. The user will then have to log back in as described in section 1.
3. Left Sidebar
The left sidebar of the interface holds a collapsible tree view showing your organization’s hierarchy of departments and equipment. It allows you to add departments and equipment, and to view how schedules are inherited between enclosing departments and equipment. It also provides access your company’s settings.
The left sidebar can be collapsed by clicking on the tab at the top right of the sidebar.
3.1 Company Tree
The Company Tree most often is laid out to reflect the structure of your organization, and is very flexible in how that is accomplished. The company will be at the top with all sites, departments, cells, etc descending from that. Organizational units can be nested as deeply as needed, allowing you to add a sub-department within a department, for example. Figure 3.1.1 shows an example with Demo Co being the company, a Horizontal CNC department under that holding a single machine, CNC #23. It would be very easy to add a work cell below the Horizontal CNC department that holds CNC #23. The depth of the tree should reflect the operations within your company.
Once several departments and pieces of equipment have been added to the company tree, it can become difficult to find what you are looking for quickly. That is what the search box at the top of the company tree is for.
As you are typing in the search box, organizational units matching your search term are automatically expanded and shown. In many cases it is not necessary to type the entire name to get a match. Continue to watch the items displayed in the company tree as you type to see when the desired item appears.
There are two additional controls at the bottom of the left sidebar that influence the structure and display of the company tree.
The “+” button, which is only visible when a piece of equipment is not selected in the tree, displays a popup menu with two options: Add Org Unit and Add Equipment. An “Org Unit” is simply something like a department or work cell. Clicking on Add Org Unit will display a dialog box that prompts you to enter the Parent, or enclosing unit, of the one you are entering. After that you will enter the name of your new organizational unit (Child name).
Just to the right of the “+” button is a button that looks like a calendar. Clicking on that will cause the button to latch green, and highlights the inheritance relationships between parent and child units in the Company Tree. If an organizational unit or piece of equipment has a calendar icon, it defines its own schedule and does not inherit it from its parent. If the icon is instead an arrow pointing upwards, it means that an organization unit or equipment inherits its schedule from the parent. You can follow the trail of arrows to find the root schedule that is inherited. For instance in the figure below, CNC #23 has an arrow indicating that it inherits its schedule from Horizontal CNC, which in turn inherits its schedule from Demo Co, which defines its own schedule.
3.2 Settings
There is a Settings item below the Company Tree item in the left sidebar. When this is clicked, it will expand, revealing settings for your company. Clicking the gears icon in the navigation bar will also expand this item.
The individual company settings are covered in the Configuration section.
4. Right Sidebar
The right sidebar allows you to navigate Alarms, Insights (reports), some Company configuration items, and allows you to view and edit the Schedule for a department or piece of equipment. In some cases it will allow you to view and configure the device(s) attached to a piece of equipment.
4.1 Right Sidebar Collapse/Expand
By default, the right sidebar will be collapsed when starting up the web application.
Clicking on the arrow at the bottom will cause the sidebar to expand, so that the full labels can be read.
Clicking on the arrow again will collapse the sidebar.
4.2 Alarms
The Alarms section holds any alarms which are currently active. If no alarms are active, the alarm area will display text telling you so.
There are two buttons that you will encounter in the Alarms area as well.
- View all – Clicking this will take you to the Alarm configuration page, where you can view, edit and subscribe to all alarms.
- New alarm – When at the equipment level in the Company Tree, this button will appear. It allows you to configure a new alarm for that equipment.
Three settings are displayed with each alarm, and those are Threshold, Threshold Unit, and Restrict To Schedule. The length of time that an alarm has been active is also displayed.
- Threshold – Value at which the alarm is triggered. In the case of a Temperature alarm, the alarm can be triggered when a value goes either above or below a value. All other alarms are triggered only when the current value goes above the threshold.
- Threshold Unit – The unit of measure that the Threshold is defined in. This can be a unit of time (seconds, minutes, hours) or temperature in degrees. No unit is specified for an impact alarm.
- Restrict To Schedule – Whether or not the alarm is only enabled during scheduled time for a piece of equipment. If this option is checked, the alarm will be disabled when the equipment is not scheduled to be running. This prevents employees from getting text and email alerts for the alarm during times when the equipment is not scheduled to be running, such as during a weekend shutdown.
4.3 Insights
The Insights section provides access to reports and additional features like data export. The items in this section can vary depending on what level of the Company Tree you are at. When at the department or company level, two options will be available: Excessive downtimes and Summary report.
- Excessive downtimes – Displays a report of excessive downtime entries in tabular format, with drop downs that allow setting a reason for each of the excessive downtime entries.
- Summary report – Only shown when at a level above equipment. Displays a report showing a summary of the utilization for all equipment within the department, equipment that has not cycled for an extended period of time, the number of hours of excessive downtime associated with each sub-department, and the distribution of reasons for excessive downtime occurrences.
When at the equipment level, the list retains the Excessive downtimes option, but adds Raw cycle data. The Raw cycle data option displays the cycle data for that piece of equipment in tabular form. The data included in the table is set by the time filter just below the navigation bar. An Export button is also provided that allows downloading the data in either JSON or CSV format.
4.4 Configuration
The Configuration section of the right sidebar will display different items depending on whether you are at the company, department or equipment level in the Company Tree. When at the company (top) level, the address and main contact of the company administrator are displayed, along with a drop-down menu to set the time zone of the company.
When at the department level, a text box is displayed allowing you to change the name of the department. A drop down menu is also available to allow setting the time zone in case it differs from the company’s time zone. This is helpful when multiple sites within a company are spread across different time zones. If the time zone is inherited from a parent, that will be indicated by an Inherited marker. The Save button must be clicked after changing any of the department settings for the changes to take effect.
At the equipment level, several items are listed that influence the operation of the user interface elements and reporting for that piece of equipment. Those items are listed with descriptions below.
- Name – The equipment name that will be displayed in the Company Tree in the left sidebar.
- Category – A drop down list which allows specifying the type of equipment. If a category for your equipment does not exist in the list, please contact LCM2M support to have it added.
- Manufacturer – A drop down list which allows specifying the manufacturer of the equipment. If the manufacturer of your equipment does not exist in the list, please contact LCM2M support to have it added.
- Model – A drop down list to set the manufacturer’s model designation for the equipment. If the model of your equipment does not exist in the list, please contact LCM2M support to have it added.
- Potential revenue / hour ($) – The revenue per hour that a piece of equipment is capable of generating. If this is filled in, a metric showing revenue made versus revenue lost for the time span set via the time filter will be displayed on the equipment detail page.
- Maximum allowed cycle time (seconds) – The number of seconds before a piece of equipment is considered down. This does not apply if the equipment is configured so that a single signal controls both running and down states. This should be set to the shortest amount of time the machine should be allowed to sit idle before it is considered down. This effects many aspects of reporting, such as utilization and revenue reporting.
- Exclude from utilization – When checked, the equipment will not be included in the utilization calculation for any of its parents in the company tree. This is useful for equipment such as pumps that are supposed to be running continuously, and are only being monitored to alert when they are not running. They would otherwise skew the utilization value for the rest of the company.
- Excessive downtime enabled – When checked, the system will keep track of when the equipment crosses the excessive downtime threshold, including triggering alerts. When unchecked, the equipment will be ignored with regard to excessive downtimes.
- Excessive downtime threshold (seconds) – The number of seconds before downtime becomes “excessive”. What excessive means in this context is that a machine has been down longer than it should be during normal operation. Excessive downtime goes beyond things like product change-over and routine preventative maintenance during operation. Excessive downtime usually indicates a problem that needs to be addressed by a supervisor. This value should be set high enough above the maximum allowed cycle time to avoid false triggers, but low enough that a problem is caught early. Excessive downtime occurrences can have reasons associated with them, and are used for reporting.
- Do not consider downtime less than threshold in utilization calculation – Limits the utilization calculation to only use excessive downtime occurrences as part of the equipment utilization calculations, and ignores any downtime that may be considered normal (stock reload, mold cleaning, etc) that is below the excessive downtime threshold.
4.5 Schedule
The schedule section displays the current operations schedule for a company, department or piece of equipment. It also displays whether or not the current schedule is inherited from an ancestor further up the Company Tree. If text similar to Schedule is inherited from… is displayed, the schedule is inherited from an ancestor. If the schedule is not inherited, this text will say Schedule is not inherited from an ancestor. Clicking the Edit button will take you to the schedule editor, which allows schedule sections to be added, removed, and resized to cover different amounts of time. The configuration section provides more details on changing the schedule.
4.6 Preventive Maintenance
The Preventative Maintenance section is represented by a clock face icon, and displays user-defined preventative maintenance (PM) alarms and their current conditions.
Figure 4.6.1 – Preventative Maintenance Icon
There are two panes that show information about the PM alarms on the right and left. The left-hand pane displays the currently defined PM alarms, and if an entry is outlined in red, it means that a PM operation is due for that alarm. The right-hand pane displays two different sets of information, depending on whether an alarm is selected in the left-hand pane. With no PM alarms selected, the right-hand pane will show the history of all the PM operations that have been performed.
4.6.1 PM Alarm Types
There are 3 types of PM alarms:
- Cycle Count – Triggered once the cycle count on a machine meets or exceeds a user-defined threshold.
- Runtime – Triggered once the amount of time that a machine has been actively running meets or exceeds a user-defined threshold of hours.
- Stopwatch – Triggers after a user-defined amount of time, regardless of a machine’s status. This is useful if the machine does not have an attached device.
4.6.2 PM Alarm Entry
A PM alarm that has not been triggered will have a normal border. Each PM alarm entry can have up to 4 sections in it. The description (#2) may be blank if it is omitted by the user.
- Title – Created based on the equipment name and alarm type.
- Description – This is entered by the user who created the alarm.
- Notification Indicator – This bell icon hows whether or not your user is set up to receive notifications for the PM alarm. A slash through the bell indicates that your user will not receive notifications when the alarm is triggered.
- Progress – Shows an X/Y indication the difference between the current amount (X) and the alarm trigger threshold (Y). Once the progress meets or exceeds the threshold, the outline of the alarm entry will turn red and alarm notifications will be sent.
4.6.3 PM Alarm Detail View
The PM alarm detail view shows extra information and allows editing of a PM alarm.
The sections are as follows.
- Equipment Name – Based on the equipment the PM alarm was created for.
- Alarm Type – Shows which type of PM alarm the entry is (see subsection 4.6.1).
- Notes – A description of the process that needs to be completed to complete the PM. If this information was not entered by the user, this section may not be visible.
- Active since – Shows and indication of when the PM alarm was created, and provides an edit button (pencil icon) and delete button (trash can) for the PM alarm entry. When the edit button is clicked, an Edit alarm dialog will appear, and the entries are the same as those specified in section 4.6.5.
- My alerts – Any subscription that your individual user has to this PM alarm. Can be either SMS or Email. A user can subscribe by using the Subscribe button (#6).
- Subscribe – When mousing over the button, the user is presented with a small popup that allows them to subscribe to the PM alarm via SMS, Email, or both. The green Subscribe button at the bottom of the popup must be clicked to save the subscription settings.
- Other alerts – This entry will be visible when viewed by an administrator, and shows any users who have been subscribed to the PM alarm. It also shows whether they are subscribed via SMS or Email. The Edit other subscriptions button (#8) will allow an administrator to edit these subscriptions.
- Edit other subscriptions – Button that allows an administrator to subscribe other users to the current PM alarm, via both SMS and email. Clicking this button will bring up the advanced user selection dialog.
- Progress – Shows an X/Y indication of the difference between the current amount (X) and the alarm trigger threshold (Y). Once the progress meets or exceeds the threshold, alarm notifications will be sent.
- Complete Maintenance (Early) – Button that when clicked, displays a simple dialog allowing a user to enter a note about what was done to address the PM need, and then click Complete to reset the PM alarm.
- Maintenance History – Shows each entry where the alarm was marked as completed, which resets the alarm so that it can track new progress to the threshold. Each entry shows when the maintenance was completed, and user comments about what work was done can be viewed by mousing over the speech bubble icon.
4.6.4 PM History Item
Each Equipment Maintenance History item has multiple pieces of information, which are outlined below.
- Title – Created automatically by combining the equipment name and the alarm type.
- Description – Explains the process that needs to be completed to address the PM alarm.
- Completion information – Provides the date and time that the PM alarm was addressed, along with the number of cycles or hours, depending on the type of alarm. Clicking on the speech bubble icon at the end displays any notes that the user entered when marking the PM task as complete.
- User – Displays the user who completed the PM task.
4.6.5 Adding a New PM Alarm
New PM alarms can be added by clicking the Add New button at the top of the Current PM Alarms column.
This will display the Add alarm dialog, which contains the following items.
1. Equipment – The piece of equipment that this alarm is being added for.
2. Alarm Type – One of the alarm types outlined in section 4.6.1.
Selecting an alarm type after selecting the equipment will display additional options. These options are different for each type of alarm. The next sections outline the options available for each type.
4.6.5.1 Cycle Count
Cycle Count PM alarms are based on the number of cycles an equipment has seen since the alarm was last Completed (reset).
- Cycle Count – Number of cycles that occur before the alarm is triggered.
- Notes – The description of what process should be followed to address the alarm.
- Subscribe? – Allows the user creating the PM alarm to set whether they want to be subscribed via Text message, Email, both or neither.
4.6.5.2 Runtime
Runtime PM alarms are based on the number of hours of runtime on a piece of equipment has seen since the alarm was last completed (reset).
- Runtime Hours – Number of hours that the machine can run without this PM being performed before the alarm is triggered.
- Notes – The description of what process should be followed to address the alarm.
- Subscribe? – Allows the user creating the PM alarm to set whether they want to be subscribed via Text message, Email or neither.
4.6.5.3 Stopwatch
Stopwatch PM alarms are based on a simple timer that triggers the alarm when it expires.
- Duration – Amount of time that has to elapse before the alarm is triggered. This is a simple timer, and its units are set by the next item.
- Duration unit – Unit of time for the timer, can be Minute(s), Hour(s), Day(s), Week(s), and Month(s).
- Notes – The description of what process should be followed to address the alarm.
- Subscribe? – Allows the user creating the PM alarm to set whether they want to be subscribed via Text message, Email, or neither.
4.7 Devices
The Devices section of the right sidebar will only appear when at the equipment level of the Company Tree. At least one device must be attached to a piece of equipment in order for data to be collected. If no device is attached, the text in the Devices section will be No attached devices. The Add device button can be used to attach a device to a piece of equipment.
If the equipment does have one or more devices attached, they will be listed below the Add device button. Each device has a unique identifier, and a portion of that ID will be displayed for each device, followed by an ellipsis. Two other device attributes which may be displayed are Primary and active. Each piece of equipment must have a primary device, and if only one device is present it will be Primary be default. Devices can be disabled so that they do not collect data, and this is reflected via the active setting. If there is only one device, it should show both Primary and active so that data will be collected. Clicking on the blue wrench next to a device entry will open the configuration screen for that device.
5. Time Filter
The time filter is visible at every level of the company hierarchy, and controls the time span for the data that is displayed. It allows you to set a span relative to the current time, or to set a time range in the past. These settings determine the data that is displayed in the web interface, such as utilization and cycle data.
The current time filter selection will be highlighted in white. There are two main types of time filters, relative and absolute. A relative time filter is based from the current time. For example, a 1 hour (1h) relative time filter would start at the current time and go back 1 hour into the past. An absolute time filter has a configurable start and end time for any time span in the past. You need to set a start date/time and end date/time for the absolute filter.
All of the filters up to the Custom item are “quick access” filters. The following table explains each of the quick access relative filters.
Filter Setting | Meaning |
---|---|
this month | From 12:00am on the first day of the current month to within 15 minutes of the current time. |
this week | From 12:00am on Sunday of the current week to within 15 minutes of the current time. |
today | From 12:00am today to within 15 minutes of the current time. |
3h | From the nearest 15 minute increment to 3 hours ago. |
12h | From the nearest 15 minute increment to 12 hours ago. |
1d | From the nearest 15 minute increment to 1 day (24 hours) ago. |
5d | From the nearest 15 minute increment to 5 days ago. |
1w | From the nearest 15 minute increment to 1 week (7 days) ago. |
4w | From the nearest 15 minute increment to 4 weeks (1 month) ago. |
3m | From the nearest 15 minute increment to 3 months ago. |
In addition to the quick access filters, there is a Custom drop down that gives more options.
Each of the rows (Hours, Days, Weeks, Months) are similar to the quick access filters such as 3h, 1d, 1w and 3m. Each of these rows holds more options for the relative time spans you can set. By clicking the Absolute button at the top of the Custom drop down, you can manually set a start and end time.
The first date that you click will be set as the start date of the custom absolute time span. Once that date has been selected, the second date that you click on will be the end date for the custom absolute time span. After clicking the end date, clicking the Ok button will cause the web interface to load data for the selected time span. All time filter options will disappear as well. The Custom button will be replaced by an indicator showing the start and end dates selected. By clicking this drop down and selecting a Relative time filter option, you can clear the absolute selection.
6. Company Overview
After logging into app.lcm2m.com, the view you will be presented with is the company overview.
This is the top-level view for the entire organization. Depending on how the company tree is configured, at this level you might see things like departments, facilities and workcells represented by the circular indicators at the bottom. The view is designed to provide quick, high-level insight into how the organization is running as a whole, and how each top level group is doing. From here you can drill down into the areas of interest to analyze how the different parts of your organization are performing.
6.1 Overall Utilization
In the top right-hand corner of the company overview, there is a Current Overall Utilization percentage and status bar, showing the combined score for the entire organization.
The color coding on this display is the same throughout the web interface.
Color | Utilization Threshold |
---|---|
Red | < 34% |
Blue | ≥ 34% and < 67% |
Green | ≥ 67% |
A Note About Overall Utilization: The overall utilization is calculated based on time scheduled versus time run. The schedule can vary at different levels of the company tree, and utilization can be calculated for just a piece of equipment, or combined for a group that holds the equipment. For detailed information about how the combined utilization value is calculated, see the info-graphic here.
6.2 Utilization Tab
The Utilization tab displays a bar chart of how utilization has been trending over time. Using the time filters it may be possible to identify trends based on the day of the week, a certain week each month, or to see if initiatives to maximize equipment capacity are having an impact. The slice of time each bar represents depends on what the time filter is set to. The following table shows what increments apply to certain time filters.
Filter Setting | Bar Time Increment |
---|---|
*h (Any hour filter) | 15 minutes |
1d (1 day) or 2d (2 days) | 1 hour |
3d (3 days) through 6d (6 days) | 1 day |
1w (1 week) through 4w (4 weeks) | 1 day |
6w (6 weeks) | 1 week |
*m (Any month filter) | 1 week |
6.3 Equipment Tab
The Equipment tab displays a general information table about each piece of equipment, starting from the level you are at and down the company tree hierarchy.
The table columns and their meanings are listed below.
Column | Meaning |
---|---|
Status | Whether a machine is running or down: = Down, = Running, = Offline, = No Device |
Machine | Name of the equipment set when the piece of equipment was created in the system. |
Tag(s) | Data currently being collected can have text tags associated with it. They are displayed here. |
Latest temp | The last temperature data point that was recorded for the equipment. |
Latest cycle | A timestamp showing when the last cycle occurred. |
Util % | The current utilization percentage for the equipment. This value varies based on what time filter is set. |
There are also two buttons in the table.
- Show chart opens an inline chart directly below the equipment entry in the table. This chart shows trend lines for cycle time and temperature.
The time scale on this chart depends on the time filter that is set. Once clicked, the button changes color from blue to red and the text changes to Hide chart. - Show detail links to the equipment detail view.
7. Equipment Detail View
The equipment detail view shows the relevant information for a single piece of equipment, which is at the lowest level of the company tree hierarchy.
7.1 General Equipment Information
In the top left there is information that includes the equipment name, the ID of the LCM2M device on the equipment, and whether or not there are any tags being associated with the data currently being collected.
- Equipment Name
- Status
- Attached LCM2M Device ID
- Connection Status Button
- Active Tag Listing
Clicking on the connection status button shows a thin bar just above the status barcode chart. The bar is green for time periods when the device is connected, and amber if the device has lost connection because of a loss of power or network connection.
When the device attached to a piece of equipment is offline, an amber lightning bolt icon will appear to the right side of the device ID as well.
7.2 Last Cycle Information
The top middle of the view shows information from the last cycle that was recorded for the current piece of equipment. This information includes when the last cycle occurred, what the last cycle time was, and the last temperature recorded, assuming there was a thermocouple hooked to the device. The final item in this list is the number of cycles that have occurred within the timespan defined by the time filter.
7.3 Utilization Information
The top right of the interface holds information about the current utilization of the equipment. The information that is displayed here is influenced by the time filter setting.
The current overall utilization is shown on top, and just below that is a breakdown of how that value was calculated. On the left side of the slash is a XX.XXh value representing the number of hours the equipment has run. On the right side is a XX.XXh value (green) representing the number of hours that was scheduled for the equipment. The run hours divided by the scheduled hours times 100 (run / scheduled * 100) yields the utilization value. At the bottom of the area is a bar that graphically represents the utilization percentage.
7.4 Barcode Chart
The barcode chart is so named by the way it can resemble a product barcode when looking at longer time spans. The color coding in the barcode chart is consistent with the status colors throughout the web interface. Red means the equipment was down and green means that it was running. Putting your mouse cursor over a section in the barcode chart will display relevant information such as what the status was, when the status started, when it ended, and how long the duration was.
7.5 Utilization Detail Chart
Directly below the barcode chart is the utilization detail chart. This chart breaks the components of the utilization calculation down into smaller time spans, and shows how many cycles occurred in each span.
The orange bars represent the amount of time the equipment actually ran during the given time span, one bar per span. The green line represents the time that the piece of equipment was scheduled to run. During breaks and on days when production is shut down, this line should drop down to 0. The purple line represents how many cycles occurred in each time span. Hovering over one of the bars with your mouse cursor will give you a popup specifying the data for that span.
7.6 Cycle Data Charts
At the bottom of the equipment detail view are cycle data charts. The number of charts in this area varies depending on the number of cycle data tags being collected by a device, but include cycle time and temperature charts at the very least. The data in these charts is influenced by the time filter setting.
Above the charts to the right are averages for the cycle time and thermocouple (temperature) values being recorded on the equipment. If other data tags are being collected for the equipment (i.e. from the analog input), the average for that tag will be shown here as well.
Above the charts and to the left are scale settings for the y axis on each chart, as well as a checkbox to combine the charts. Whether or not to combine the charts is usually a matter of personal preference, but may make it easier to correlate data trends. The data itself does not change when the charts are combined as it does with the time filters, just the y-axis scale (discussed next).
There are several settings for the y-axis scaling, including None for no scaling, and the default is 3. The scaling is based on the standard deviation. The standard deviation and the mean are calculated based on all of the data in the chart, and then the scaling is set at the mean +/- scaling * standard deviation. This creates a window around the mean, and no data points outside that window will be displayed. Note that this setting only changes the y-axis chart scaling, and not the averages above the charts.
8. Reports
Reports are designed to provide actionable data for production meetings, initiatives and analysis. There are three reports available currently, and more may be added in the future.
8.1 Excessive Downtime Report
The Excessive downtime report shows each instance where a piece of equipment was down for longer than expected. These entries include the start and end times when the event occurred, and provides a duration for how long the downtime event was.
In addition, the report allows users to set why the machine was down for that long. The possible reasons are as follows.
- Man (i.e. there was no operator)
- Machine (i.e. the equipment was in need of repair)
- Method (i.e. an operator cannot keep a piece of equipment running due to not having the proper tools)
- Material (i.e. no material was available to run the part)
- Schedule (i.e. the equipment was not scheduled to run, or was scheduled incorrectly)
- Prev. Maintenance (preventative maintenance was being done on the equipment)
Once a reason is set in the drop down box, the downtime entry in the report will disappear.
Downtime entries that have already had a reason assigned can be shown again by checking the Show previously marked checkbox. If no additional entries appear after setting the checkbox, it may be that there have not been any entries that have had their reason set yet based on the time filter you have set.
As downtime reasons are set in the report, the bar chart at the top of the report will begin to populate. There are two bars for each reason. The purple, left-most bar is the number of occurrences of the reason. The green line is the number of total hours the equipment was down for that reason. This chart can be hidden at any time by un-checking the Show chart checkbox.
The Configuration section explains how to define the excessive downtime threshold on a piece of equipment so that this report is meaningful for your organization.
8.2 Summary Report
The Summary Report option is only available above the equipment level in the company tree hierarchy, and reports on data from the current level down to the bottom of the company tree. The sections of the Summary Report are outlined below. Utilization color coding follows the pattern outlined in the Overall Utilization section.
- Takes the utilization metrics from all equipment below the current level in the company tree, and combines them into one value.
Below the overall percentage value is an indicator showing the hours run versus the hours scheduled. - Shows a breakdown of each group (department, facility, etc) directly below the current level in the company tree.
This makes it easy to determine how departments and facilities are performing compared to each other. - Equipment Exceptions: When the No recent cycles(>=2d) tab is selected, devices on equipment that have not reported in for at least the last 2 days are listed.
Reasons for this can vary. Equipment can be powered down for maintenance, thus shutting off power to a device, or a device might have a network connection issue.
This list can be used to help a maintenance department triage devices that need attention.
When the Underutilized(<80%) tab is selected, pieces of equipment that are showing less than 80% utilization are listed. - Excessive Downtimes: Shows the number of hours associated with excessive downtime in each department/facility below the current level in the company hierarchy.
The threshold defining what constitutes excessive downtime can be set in the equipment management section of this guide.
This information can be used to determine which facilities, departments, workcells, etc to focus on, but is very dependent on the type of equipment in a facility.
For instance, a CNC machine shop will typically have a smaller number of excessive downtimes than a molding operation that involves several manual steps by an operator.
Therefore, groups of equipment cannot always be directly compared. Hovering your mouse cursor over each bar in this chart will show a tool tip with the hour values. - Downtime Reasons: Pie chart showing the distribution of reasons why equipment was down. This chart depends on information provided by users in the Excessive Downtime report.
A legend is provided on the right, showing the reasons that users are allowed to enter. Hovering your mouse cursor over each slice in the pie chart will display the number of times that a reason was selected as being the cause of the excessive downtime.
8.3 Raw Cycle Data
The raw cycle data report is only available when at the equipment (lowest) level in the company hierarchy.
The table includes individual cycle information including when the cycle occurred, what the cycle time was, what the temperature (measured via thermocouple) was and what tags (if any) are associated with the cycle. The data in this table is set based on the time filters. There is also an Export button that allows the data from the table to be downloaded for further analysis in applications such as Excel and Minitab. When the Export button is clicked, two new buttons will appear. The first is JSON, and the second is CSV. If in doubt, choose CSV because it can be directly used with Excel or Minitab. Clicking the CSV or JSON buttons will present you with a save-as or open dialog in your web browser. The file name of the downloaded file is encoded with the start and end timestamps of the data.
9. Alarms
Three different types of alarms are available for use:
- Threshold Violation
- Excessive Downtime
- Offline Detection
You can choose to be alerted either by email or by text. If choosing text notification, you must enter your mobile phone number under personal settings as outlined in the Managing Personal Settings section. Information on creating and configuring alarms is available in the Managing Alarms section, and a description of each alarm type is listed below.
9.1 Threshold Violation
Threshold alarms can be set for the temperature being monitored from any Caddis device through the thermocouple port. Both low and high threshold alarms are available. To set a window for acceptable temperatures, low threshold and high threshold alarms can be set separately. See the Creating a Temperature Alarm section for an example.
9.2 Excessive Downtime
When setting up equipment (see the Building the Company Tree section), an Excessive downtime threshold can be set in seconds. Once this is set, downtimes that are longer than the threshold amount are reported in the Excessive Downtime Report, but can also trigger alarms. Using these alarms can help address equipment capacity issues by allowing organizations to be proactive in investigating excessive downtime occurrences as they happen, rather than after the fact. See the Creating an Excessive Downtime Alarm section for details on setting excessive downtime alarms.
9.3 Offline Detection
LCM2M devices usually go offline for one of two reasons: power failure and network issues. Power failure can result from things like tripped circuit breakers, but can also be the result of power being disconnected from a piece of equipment during planned maintenance. Network issues take many forms including, but not limited to, the following.
- Poor wireless network signal
- Cut or damaged Ethernet cable
- Firewall blocking access to the Internet
- Switches or routers that are offline
For a list of the firewall ports that must be open for LCM2M devices to function properly, see our guide on getting a device online.
If LCM2M devices are not online, they cannot report the data they are collecting to the LCM2M servers, which prevents you from viewing the data. Offline detection alarms can be set for equipment so that a user can be alerted whenever there is a connection issue. This ensures that any issues in your monitoring infrastructure can be dealt with quickly. See the Creating an Offline Detection Alarm section for details on setting offline detection alarms.
10. Configuration
When the gears icon in the navigation bar is clicked, or the Settings header in the left sidebar is clicked, the Settings section of the left sidebar expands.
The Settings pane in the left sidebar is used to cycle through company-wide settings, including the following. Clicking on an item in this list will take you to the corresponding configuration section.
- Alarms
- Devices
- Tags
- (Team) Members
- Add a Team Member (Organization superuser only)
The center pane of the user interface is context sensitive, and will change based on the selection in the Settings section.
There are a two other configuration items that are available in the right sidebar, and are context sensitive. Those are Configuration and Schedule.
Clicking Configuration will display contact information for your company and if you are an administrator, and the top company level is selected in the left sidebar, an option to set the company’s timezone will be visible. This settings effects scheduling and utilization numbers and should be set appropriately.
If an organizational unit is selected in the left sidebar, clicking Configuration will display controls which allow you change the name of the unit.
If a piece of equipment is selected in the left sidebar when Configuration is clicked, settings related to equipment will be displayed. See the Managing Equipment section for details on those settings.
The other configuration option in the right sidebar is Schedule. At the company level, this allows you to view and edit the global schedule that all departments and equipment will inherit. Schedules can be edited at each level of the company hierarchy, allowing departments and equipment to have individual schedules. See the Managing Schedules section for more details.
10.1 Building the Company Tree
In most cases, the company tree should be built so that it reflects your organization’s structure. If your organization has multiple facilities spread across the country, you might put each facility as a separate group directly under the top level company entry. After that departments, groups and workcells might be added below each facility. Units that go under a company in the tree are referred to as a “child” or “organizational unit” of the company. An organization with a single facility might start at the department level, and then add things like groups and workcells below those departments. It is completely up to you how you want to structure the company tree, and it is best to give the layout some thought before starting this process.
To begin building the company tree, click on the company name, which should be the top (and initially the only) item in the tree.
Clicking on the company should ensure that the company is selected for the rest of this process. At the bottom of the left sidebar is a “+” button that will bring up a menu. That menu has two options: Add Org Unit and Add Equipment.
Clicking the Add Org Unit button will bring up a dialog where you can enter the Child name of the group you want to add to the company. Click the Save changes button once the name has been entered.
The child that you created should now be visible in the company tree.
Additional direct children of the company entry can be added by making sure the company is selected, and then clicking the Add Org Unit option again. To add a sub-child to the new child entry, click on that entry to select it and then use the add button (“+”) to add new entries.
You can now click the Add Org Unit button and add a sub-child. Children can be nested this way down to any level that reflects your organization’s structure. Once you are at a level where it is appropriate to start adding equipment, you can click the Add Equipment button in the left sidebar. Doing so displays the Add equipment dialog. In this dialog you can enter the Equipment name and click the Save changes button.
The equipment should now show up under the appropriate child in the company tree.
There is another tab on the Add equipment dialog called Existing equipment, and that exists to move equipment from on part of an organization to another. If you needed to move a piece of equipment between two facilities or departments, this is what you would use. The Parent field will always be filled in with the child you have selected in the company tree when you open the Add equipment dialog. You then select the equipment that you want to move into this child using the Equipment dropdown, and click the Save changes button.
10.2 Managing Equipment
Settings for an individual piece of equipment can be accessed by clicking on the equipment entry in the company tree. Once the equipment has been selected, the equipment settings can be shown by clicking on Configuration in the right-hand sidebar.
Here is a list of each setting along with a short description.
- Name: Enter a name for the equipment that would be recognized by employees.
- Category: What type of equipment this is, whether that is a CNC machine, furnace, etc. If you do not see your equipment type listed, feel free to contact support to have it added.
- Manufacturer: The name of the company that built the equipment. If you do not see your equipment’s manufacturer listed, feel free to contact support to have it added.
- Model: The model designation assigned by the manufacturer. If the model of your equipment does not appear in the list, you can type it in as you would with any other text field. Please try to match the manufacturer’s format for the model designation as closely as possible.
- Potential revenue / hour ($): When this is populated with the revenue a piece of equipment is expected to make per hour, a ratio of dollars made versus dollars lost (to downtime) will be displayed on the machine detail view.
- Maximum allowed cycle time (seconds): The length of cycle time that will never be exceeded for this equipment. Default is 300 seconds (5 minutes).
- Excessive downtime threshold (seconds): The length of time before an excessive downtime entry is logged in the excessive downtime report. Defaults to 2100 seconds (35 minutes).
- Save: Be sure to click this button after changes have been made to the equipment settings. Otherwise changes will not be permanent.
10.2.1 Assigning A New Device to Equipment
A device can be attached to a piece of equipment by selecting the equipment in the Company Tree, then expanding the Devices item in the right sidebar.
Clicking the Add device button opens the Add device dialog which allows users to attach devices to equipment. This is required to begin collecting data on a piece of equipment. Please be sure to match the device to the equipment it is actually installed on.
An explanation of each field in the dialog is below.
- Parent: This field cannot be changed because it is determined by the equipment that was selected when the Add device button was clicked.
- Device UUID: A device ID matching the device that was installed on the piece of equipment. The full ID can be copied from the Unassigned devices list on the Devices configuration page. See the Managing Devices section for more details.
- Input Config: This is the type of signal the LCM2M device is setting from the equipment. There are two main types of input signals, pulsed and sustained. A pulsed signal is on momentarily one or more times per cycle, and a sustained signal stays on throughout the entire cycle and goes off when the cycle is complete (or the equipment transitions to being idle). Editing this field is described below.
- Edit Input Config: Clicking this button will allow alteration of the Input Config (see below).
- Primary: It is not a standard configuration, but a piece of equipment can have multiple LCM2M devices on it. This check box allows you to set whether this device is the primary or secondary device. The default is Primary.
- Active: If a device is not currently being used, this box can be unchecked. Cycle data will not be collected for inactive devices. The default is Active.
- Save changes: This button must be clicked before device configuration changes are made permanent.
- Cancel: This button prevents the current set of changes form being made permanent, and closes the dialog.
Clicking the edit button with the pencil icon (#4 in the list above) will open the Edit Input Config dialog. This dialog allows a user to select which inputs to monitor, how those inputs are interpreted by the system, and whether or not to ignore short signal pulses (i.e. if a stack light flashes while the equipment is in change-over). The purpose of each of the items in this dialog are described below.
- This drop down allows for copying the input configuration from an existing piece of equipment. If there is a known piece of equipment that already has its device (the Primary, Active one) set up to work for the current equipment, the input configuration can be copied from that equipment to save time. The Copy button (item #2) must be clicked for the operation to complete.
- This button must be clicked to copy the input configuration from another piece of equipment to the current device. This button will not be enabled until a piece of equipment has been selected from the Copy From Equipment drop down (item #1).
- Selects between Sustained and Pulsed. A pulsed signal is on momentarily one time per cycle, and a sustained signal stays on throughout the entire cycle and goes off when the cycle is complete (or the equipment transitions to being idle).
- Selects the first of the physical inputs on a Caddis device that will be used to define a cycle. Typically only one signal is needed to define a cycle, but there is the option to define more complex input schemes.
- Selects whether a high signal means that the equipment is running, or that a low signal means that the equipment is running. This implies that the opposite signal state means that the equipment is down.
- When checked, ignores signals that are less than a certain duration. This is useful for filtering out signals that may fluctuate while the machine is running (i.e. a flashing stack light). This is used in conjunction with the Seconds setting (item #7).
- Used with the checkbox (item #6), this specifies the length threshold for a signal to be on before it will be recognized by the system. The default is 5 seconds.
- For more complex signalling schemes, this plus button can be clicked to add another input section. It also adds a logic operator (and/or) that defines how the second input’s signal should be interpreted in relation to the first’s. For instance, it could be required that both of the 24 volt inputs on the Caddis device see high signals before the equipment can be considered running.
- Provides a human-readable text explanation of the resulting input configuration.
10.2.2 Assigning An Existing Device to Equipment
There is a Existing Device (second) tab on the Add device dialog for adding existing devices to a piece of equipment.
An explanation of each field is below:
- Parent: This field cannot be changed because it is determined by the equipment that was selected when the Add device button was clicked.
- Device: A dropdown list showing all the devices in the company that can be assigned to this equipment. If the dialog shows No existing devices to reassign, then at least once device will need to be added to the company.
- Make primary: This checkbox sets whether this device is the primary device if multiple devices are assigned to a single piece of equipment. Checking this box will make any existing primary devices on the equipment non-primary. The primary device is the one that determines when a cycle happens for the piece of equipment.
- Make active: This checkbox sets whether the device being attached to the equipment will be active or not. If the device is not active, it will not record cycle data.
- Save changes: This button must be clicked before device configuration changes are made permanent.
- Cancel: This button prevents the current set of changes form being made permanent, and closes the dialog.
10.2.3 Retiring/Archiving a Piece of Equipment
When a piece of equipment is removed from use, it can be removed from the company tree by archiving it. When equipment is archived, its device is removed, but the historical data is still associated with the device. To archive a piece of equipment, select it in the company tree and then click the Archive Equipment button at the bottom of the tree pane.
The equipment will be removed from the company tree, but is not completely removed from the Caddis system in case it needs to be unarchived in the future.
10.2.4 Restoring/Unarchiving a Piece of Equipment
Unarchiving a piece of equipment makes it active again within the company tree, but does not re-activate its previously attached device, or set it to primary. Those steps must be done manually. Archived equipment can be displayed by selecting the company level in the tree or a department, and then clicking the Show archived equipment button. This button will be highlighted in green when archived equipment is being shown.
Having the Show Archived Equipment button active will display all of the previously archived equipment with a cancel icon next to them.
To restore (unarchive) a piece of equipment, make sure the equipment is selected in the company tree and then click the Restore (unarchive) Equipment button.
The equipment should now be visible in the company tree. The last step is to set the equipment’s device back to active and primary. To access these settings, make sure the equipment is selected in the company tree and then click the Devices item in the right sidebar. The device that was previously attached to the equipment should now be visible.
The Edit device button can now be clicked to show the Edit device dialog.
To make the device active and primary again, click the Primary and Active checkboxes and then click the Save Changes button. The device should now be ready to collect data, and the equipment should be restored to operation.
10.3 Managing Devices
Devices can be viewed and configured by clicking on Settings -> Devices in the left sidebar. There are two tables in the device management view. The first is labeled Devices, and the second is below the first and is labeled Unassigned Devices.
10.3.1 Devices Table
The Devices table shows all active devices within your organization by default. There is a Show inactive devices checkbox which will also include devices that have had their Active checkboxes unchecked, meaning that that will not record cycle data.
The Devices table columns and their meanings are listed below.
- UUID: The ID of the device, which is assigned by LCM2M and is used to associate a device to a piece of equipment.
- Attached to: The piece of equipment that the device is assigned to. If the device is not assigned to any equipment, it will be in the Unassigned devices table.
- Device type: Reserved for later use. Will always display Caddis for now.
- Input setup: How the device is configured to respond to the electrical inputs from the machine (outputs from the machine’s perspective). There is a table in the section on adding a new device to equipment that explains what each of the input type designations mean.
- Latest IP: Shows the latest known IP (network) address of the device. This address can be helpful when troubleshooting network connection issues.
- Date added: The date the device was entered into the system. This date is never updated, and always reflects the first time the device was set up.
- Primary: Whether the device is the primary data collection device or not. The primary device determines when a cycle happens, and a secondary device is simply for extra data collection (temperatures, analog inputs, etc).
- Edit: There is an Edit button for each row in the table which opens the Edit device dialog. This dialog allows a user to change the Input type, Device type, and whether the device is Primary and Active (collecting data or not). The Edit device dialog is covered in section 10.3.3.
10.3.2 Unassigned Devices Table
The Unassigned devices table displays just the device IDs (UUID) of any devices which have been entered for your company, but have not been assigned to equipment. The UUID text can be copied directly out of this table, and used to add the device to a piece of equipment.
10.3.3 Edit device Dialog
When the Edit button is clicked in the Devices table, the Edit device dialog is displayed. The diagram below shows each setting of this dialog, followed by a description of each.
- Device UUID – The unique identifier of the device. This UUID is set by Caddis Systems and cannot be edited.
- Input Config – This displays the current input configuration for the device. The input config determines how the device will interpret signals coming from the equipment it is monitoring. This is best set in collaboration with Caddis Systems support.
- Input Config Edit Button – Clicking this button will allow an administrator to alter the input configuration. This is best set in collaboration with Caddis Systems support.
- Device Type – Reserved for use by Caddis Systems.
- Telemetry Data Rate – Telemetry data is gathered at a set rate in addition to the normal cycle data that the device collects. This can be useful for tracking and alarming on metrics such as temperature, even when the equipment is not actively cycling (i.e. a furnace). The minimum this value can be set to is 30 seconds and collecting telemetry will influence how some data charts look and operate. This control will not be visible on a device that has not been updated to support telemetry. If telemetry is needed and this control is not visible, please contact Caddis Systems support. Device data fees apply on devices even when telemetry data is used without an active cycle signal.
- Information Button – Hovering the mouse cursor over this icon will provide additional information about telemetry.
- Primary – Whether or not this is the primary data collection device on the equipment.
- Active – Whether or not this device is set to actively capture data. When unchecked the device will not collect data, even when its input signal(s) from the equipment change.
- Remove from equipment – Clicking this button will remove the device being edited from its associated equipment. Doing this will cause the device to stop collecting data, and could result in data loss. However, this button is useful when replacing a device.
10.4 Managing Tags
Tags allow you to attach extra information to cycles. That information can be things like part numbers and workorder numbers. Tracking information using tags allows you to correlate data from production items across runs. This can be helpful in discovering trends relevant to an item, even when it has been a long time since you ran it. Tags are exported with raw cycle data which can aid in data analysis with third-party tools. Instructions on how to export that data can be found in the Raw Cycle Data reports section.
To begin defining tags, first click on Settings -> Tags in the left sidebar. That will display Manage Tags table (described below) with a New tag button at the top right.
This will open the New tag dialog, which will allow you to set the information below.
- Group: Tags can be grouped by subject, such as part numbers, workorder numbers, a customer name, etc. This provides a level of organization to the tag system. This control is a dropdown list, but also allows input. If there are tags available for your company, they will be displayed in the dropdown. If the tag you wish to use is not available, you can enter it directly in the text box at the top of the dropdown list, and then click the light blue Create group bar that appears. The Group field can be left blank as well if you do not want to group the new tag.
- Tag name: Give the tag a descriptive name that will be intuitive to other users within your company. For example, if entering a tag for a part number, try to follow the standard format for that part number as closely as possible.
Once groups and tags have been defined, they will be displayed in the Manage Tags table.
The names of the groups appear in the top left of each table section, and if there are tags without a group, that table section will be tagged with the text No group. The date each tag was created is also displayed. In the Modify column, there is a red Deactivate link. When this is clicked, the text changes to a green Activate link, and the tag moves down to an Inactive Tags table section. If that tag was the last one in a group, that group’s table section will disappear, but the group information is retained in the Inactive Tags section.
By clicking the Activate link, the tag will be restored to its original group. If the tag is the only one in a group, the group will be restored as well. Inactive tags are not available to be attached to cycle data.
After tags have been defined, they can be attached to cycles at the equipment level in the main web interface by clicking the tags icon below the device ID.
Clicking the tags icon opens the Edit active cycle tags dialog.
This dialog allows you to set which tag is active for the cycle data currently being collected. The selection is made through the Tags dropdown list. The # of effective cycles field allows you to set a number of cycles the tag will be active for. If you know the number of cycles for a given production run, this can be a good way to ensure that the tag does not stay active longer than it should. Make sure to click the Save changes button to save your selection.
Once an active tag has been set, it will be displayed next to the tags icon. If no tags are selected for the cycle data currently being collected, the text will read No active tags – click to set. This is what is shown in Figure 10.4.6.
10.5 Managing Alarms
Alarms can be configured to alert users when certain events happen. Examples of events are:
- A piece of equipment has been down for too long (excessive downtime)
- An LCM2M device has gone offline (lost network connection or power)
- A cycle data value has gone above or below a threshold
Alarms can be configured by clicking Settings -> Alarms in the left sidebar. The Alarms view is then displayed, which holds any alarms that have already been defined, as well as a button to create new alarms.
- New alarm: Button which launches a dialog to create a new alarm. Be sure to check existing alarms first to see if one has already been created that will fit your needs. Creating an alarm is covered in the next section.
- Equipment: Table column showing which piece of equipment the alarm is set for.
- Alarm type: What type of alarm is set. Examples include Excessive downtime, Offline detection and Temperature.
- Settings: Holds attributes of the alarm such as the threshold value, the units the threshold are in, and whether or not the alarm is active outside of scheduled production time.
- Device Outputs: If an alarm is tied to a specific physical output of the device, that output will be listed in this column.
- Subscribers: After an alarm is created, it can be subscribed to by other users within your company. This field shows which users are subscribed and whether they are subscribed via email, text or both.
- My subscriptions: Shows an envelope icon if you are subscribed to an alarm via email, and a mobile phone icon if subscribed via text. Nothing will be displayed if you are not subscribed to the alarm, and you can be subscribed via both email and text at the same time.
- Actions: When there are alarms in the table, this column will hold buttons to Subscribe and Unsubscribe.
- Edit: Allows a user to change the settings for an alarm.
When any configured alarms are triggered, they will appear in the right sidebar in the alarms section.
10.5.1 Creating an Alarm
Clicking the New alarm button opens the Add alarm dialog. A description of each of the settings is below.
- Equipment: Selects the piece of equipment that this alarm will be active for. The equipment has to already exist in the system.
- Alarm Type: What type of alarm is set. Examples include Excessive downtime, Offline detection and Temperature.
- Subscribe?: How you want to receive notifications about the alarm. The boxes can be checked for email, text or both. If there is a red information icon next to the text checkbox, it means that a textable mobile number needs to be set for your account. See the section on managing personal settings for instructions on how to do that.
When an alarm type is selected, the dialog will expand to cover other options. Examples of the additional settings used to create 3 types of alarms are outlined in the following sections.
10.5.2 Creating an Excessive Downtime Alarm
An excessive downtime alarm will warn a user if a piece of equipment has shown down for more than the specified threshold. This is not the same as the Excessive downtime threshold set in the equipment configuration. There are three settings added when you select Excessive downtime as the Alarm type.
- Threshold: The amount of time before a piece of equipment can show down before the alarm is triggered. What you set this value at is influenced by the Threshold unit setting just below it.
- Threshold unit: Whether the Threshold you set is interpreted as Seconds, Minutes or Hours.
- Restrict to schedule?: Determines if alarm notifications are only sent during scheduled production time. If checked, only alarms triggered during scheduled production time will be sent.
10.5.3 Creating an Offline Detection Alarm
An offline detection alarm will alert a user if the device attached to a piece of equipment has lost power or network connection. This type of alarm can be very important, especially on equipment where it is critical to ensure that data is being collected consistently. There are two settings added when you select Offline detection as the Alarm type.
- Threshold: The amount of time a device can be offline before the alarm is triggered. What you set this value at is influenced by the Threshold unit setting just below it.
- Threshold unit: Whether the Threshold you set is interpreted as Seconds, Minutes or Hours.
10.5.4 Creating a Temperature Alarm
A temperature alarm can be triggered either when a temperature goes above or below a threshold. To set a window of acceptable temperatures, two separate alarms need to be configured, one above the window and one below. There are two settings added when you select Temperature as the Alarm type.
- Operator: The options are Greater than and Less than. These are the same as the common mathematical operators and correspond to when a value goes above and below the threshold.
- Value: The threshold value that is to be used with the operator. If the Greater than operator is set, and this field is set to 400, it establishes that the alarm will be triggered if the value goes above 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
10.6 Managing Schedules
Schedules are very important for ensuring accurate utilization calculations. Utilization is calculated based on the number of hours that a piece of equipment actually runs versus the number of hours that it was supposed to run. The schedule helps determine that second part. A schedule can be inherited at lower levels of the company tree, meaning that you can set a master schedule at the company level, and then override it as needed at the department and equipment level. The schedule is influenced by the timezone setting in the company configuration. That must be set properly before the schedule is configured.
10.6.1 Global Company Schedule
To set the global schedule for your company, first select your company in the Company Tree. When the company is properly selected, its item in the company tree will be highlighted.
Selecting the company and clicking Schedule in the right sidebar will populate the right sidebar with a view of the schedule, including an Edit button.
Clicking on the Edit button brings up the Edit schedule dialog.
Notice that for each schedule entry there is a drop down that allows you to select the shift it is associated with. This is very important for shift-based metrics.
If there are days that the company never runs, such as Sunday, the schedule for that day can be removed by hovering your mouse cursor over the time range at the end of the bar and clicking the trash can icon.
The schedule for a day can always be added back by clicking the plus icon next to the day.
Once the schedule has been cleared of off-days, begin defining the rest of the schedule by starting at the first day of the week. Each day will start with a single horizontal bar control next to it, which is based on a 24 hour clock. There are open control point circles on each end of the bar. You can drag these to change the time range.
Starting at the beginning of the schedule for the work day, drag the control circle on the left (schedule start) to the start of the day. The control circle moves in 5 minute increments, and displays the time above in a tooltip. There are 3 other points along the schedule bar for reference, and those are at 6:00 am, 12:00 pm, and 6:00 pm (18:00). Clicking on any of these points will move the start circle control (the left-most one) to that time. Once the start of the schedule has been set, you can drag the right control (schedule end) to the left to the end time. With the right control you will want to target the beginning of the first break of the day, whether that is a small break or lunch. You can add other segments to the schedule as needed later.
NOTE: This procedure assumes that equipment does not run during operator breaks.
If equipment runs unattended in your situation, breaks may not be relevant. In that case just set one schedule segment for the start and end times for the day. Once a schedule segment has been created for the first part of the day up to the first break, the plus button can be clicked to add the next segment.
After clicking the button, a new schedule segment bar will be added below the original one. The left (start) circle will be set automatically to the end of the last schedule segment, and the right (end) circle will be set to the end of the day.
Adjust the start circle to the end of the first break, and the end circle to the beginning of the next break. Continue this process until the entire day is filled out, and then repeat for the rest of the days of the week.
10.6.2 Company Children Schedule (Departments and Equipment)
The process for setting up the schedule for a department or piece of equipment is the same as the one for the company schedule. However, a child will inherit its schedule from its parent further up the company tree. For example, if you have the hierarchy Company -> Department -> Equipment and the department’s schedule has not been modified, the equipment will inherit the company’s global schedule. If the department’s schedule has been modified, the equipment will inherit that. When you click on a child unit in the Company Tree and then click Schedule in the right sidebar, the Schedule section will have a note if the schedule is being inherited.
The inherited schedule can then be edited and customized if a facility, department or specific equipment runs on a different schedule.
10.7 Managing Team Members
Members can be viewed and, if you are an superuser, added by clicking on Settings -> Members button in left sidebar.
This will open the Manage Team Members table in the center pane of the configuration view.
If you are a Superuser, you will see two additional controls. There will be a Add a Team Member button under Members in the left side bar, and an New Team Member button above the Manage Team Members table.
Clicking the Add a Team Member item in the left sidebar will open the Add a new team member form, where a user’s information can be entered.
Once the user’s information has been added, the Submit button can be clicked to save the user. A user should be able to log in immediately after their information has been submitted.
10.8 Managing Personal Settings
Personal Settings can be accessed via the user menu at the top right of the web interface.
Clicking the Settings item opens the Edit Personal Settings view. The fields in the view are explained below.
- Weekly report enabled: LCM2M sends out a weekly summary report for your organization, allowing you to see how things went during the week. If you do not wish to receive these emails, you can un-check this box.
- Weekly report subject: This dropdown is only visible when Weekly report enabled is checked. It allows you to select whether you want to get a weekly report for the company, or one of its child units. For example, supervisors of departments may only want to get the summary email for their department, and not the other departments within the company.
- Textable phone #: In order to receive text notifications for alarms, this field must be filled in, and the phone number provided must be able to receive texts.
- Only alert during these hours: If All hours is checked, any alerts that you are subscribed to will be sent, regardless of what time of day it is. If hours have been entered (i.e. your normal work hours) in Enabled at and Disabled at, alerts will only be sent during those hours.
- Submit: Click this button after all changes have been made to make them permanent.
10.9 Device Config
Clicking on the wrench icon of a device entry in the right sidebar, or connecting to the device directly using a web browser, will display the Device Config page. The Device Config has 3 tabs, and the NETWORK STATUS tab is selected by default when the page is first loaded. Each of the tabs is covered in the following sections, starting with NETWORK STATUS.
10.9.1 NETWORK STATUS Tab
The NETWORK STATUS tab shows the current state of the Caddis device’s connection to its host network, and also to the Caddis Systems Cloud servers. The following diagram highlights each item of interest on the tab, followed by a description of each below.
- UUID of the selected device, including a button to COPY the UUID to the system clipboard.
- Mode – The mode determines how the device behaves, separating initial setup, standard running, and troubleshooting modes. Each mode is outlined below.
- Setup – When a device is initially received from Caddis Systems, it will be in Setup mode. This mode causes a Caddis device to broadcast its own wifi network, which can be connected to in order to bring the device online.
- Run – When a device is in Run mode, it will attempt to connect to the Caddis Systems servers to begin sending data. Once initial Setup is complete, the device should switch to this mode automatically. If the device is unsuccessful in its attempts to connect to the servers, it will fall back to Setup mode. The device’s own wifi network is shut down when in this mode to keep from polluting the local area with extra wifi access points.
- Watch – When in this mode, the device will attempt to connect to the Caddis Systems servers to begin sending data, but will also broadcast its own wifi network. This mode can be very helpful when trying to troubleshoot a device using the indicators outlined below.
- The active tab will be highlighted in blue. In this case NETWORK STATUS is highlighted.
- Wifi Status – When the device is able to connect to your local wireless network, it will show CONNECTED here. Otherwise it will show DISCONNECTED. The first step when troubleshooting a device’s connection to the Caddis Systems servers is to make sure that this indicator shows that the device is connected to a wifi network.
- Wifi IP Address – The IP address that has been assigned to the device by the wireless network via DHCP, or the IP address that the user set statically. This IP address must be configured correctly for the device to connect to its data collection servers.
- Wifi Signal Strength – A percentage that shows how strong the device’s wireless connection to the network is. If this percentage is too low, the Caddis device may have difficulty maintaining a connection to its servers. Below are some rules of thumb on signal strength percentages.
- Below 50% – The signal strength needs to be improved. Make sure that the device’s antenna is outside of any equipment cabinets, and ensure that the device has a proper antenna connected. Proximity to a wireless access point can greatly influence the signal strength as well.
- Between 50% and 70% – Ideally this would be improved for increased stability, but the device should be able to maintain a connection to its servers within this range.
- Over 70% – Signal strength is good, and the device should not have problems staying connected to its servers.
- Cloud LCM2M IoT Connection Status – Even once a device has a good connection to its wireless network, it still has to be able to connect the Caddis Systems IoT servers in the Cloud to be able to send data. This indicator will say CONNECTED if the device can reach the Cloud servers, and DISCONNECTED if it cannot. The most likely cause of the device not being able to reach the Cloud servers is that a firewall is blocking its Internet traffic. If the device says DISCONNECTED, please contact your IT service provider for help.
- Cloud SNTP Status – Each Caddis device must have accurate time stamps to attach to its data. The device’s clock is kept synchronized via SNTP servers in the Cloud. Without this connection, the device will not send data since the time stamps could be incorrect. This indicator will say CONNECTED if the device can reach the Cloud servers, and DISCONNECTED if it cannot. The most likely cause of the device not being able to reach the Cloud servers is that a firewall is blocking its traffic. If the device says DISCONNECTED, please contact your IT service provider for help.
- Firmware Version – This shows what version of the Caddis Systems software the device is running. This information may be requested by the Caddis Systems support team in order to better diagnose problems.
10.9.2 NETWORK SETUP Tab
The NETWORK SETUP tab allows network settings to be changed, and is used mainly during intitial device setup. The following diagram highlights each item of interest on the tab, with a description of each to follow below.
- The active tab will be highlighted in blue, which in this case is NETWORK SETUP.
- DHCP – Clicking this button will set the Caddis device to automatically request its IP address from the host wifi network. The host network must have a properly configured DHCP server in order for this option to work.
- STATIC – Clicking this button will reveal additional controls for IP Address, Netmask, Gateway, and DNS Server. Please contact your IT service provider for instructions on what to enter into these fields for your network if you require a static IP adress.
- SCAN – Clicking this button will cause the Caddis device to search for available wireless networks in the vicinity. If the Wifi Networks drop down contains no network entries when the tab loads, you may need to click this button.
- Wifi Networks – This is a drop down list of all the wifi networks that the Caddis device can see, along with the signal strength for each network. If signal strength of the desired network is at or below 50%, please verify proper placement of the Caddis device’s antenna, and ensure it is close enough to a wireless access point. Even if this drop down is blank when first setting up a device, you can still click it to get the listing of available networks. Click on the network the Caddis device should be joined to in order to select it.
- Password – The password for the wireless network the Caddis device is to join.
- SAVE AND RUN – Click this button when all settings have been entered. The device will save the settings and then enter Run mode where it tries to connect to the wireless network and contact the Caddis Systems servers.
10.9.3 INPUT STATUS Tab
The INPUT STATUS tab displays the values of all the inputs to the Caddis device, and what they are currently reading. The diagram below outlines the items of interest, followed by a description of each.
- The active tab is highlighted in blue, which in this case is INPUT STATUS.
- POLLING – Clicking this button causes the device’s input information to be updated automatically at a set rate, which is every 5 seconds. When connected directly to a Caddis device this will be the default mode, otherwise MANUAL (#3) will be the default to save network traffic.
- MANUAL – Button which will be selected by default when the tab loads through app.lcm2m.com, and requires the user to click the REFRESH button to update the input states from the device.
- REFRESH – Button which pulls the latest input state information from the Caddis Device. If MANUAL (#3) is selected when the tab first loads, the current time and input states from the device will be displayed, but will not be continually updated. Clicking the REFRESH button will update the clock and input values, as long as the device has maintained a stable network connection since the last refresh. Clicking the POLLING (#2) button automatically refreshes this data, and does not require a user to click the REFRESH button.
- 24v – 1 – Indicator that will show LOW when there is no input signal coming into the Caddis device, and HIGH if there is. This can be very helpful when first wiring up a machine to make sure the machine output is changing, and that it is changing at the appropriate time.
- 24v – 2 – Indicator that will show LOW when there is no input signal coming into the Caddis device, and HIGH if there is. This can be very helpful when first wiring up a machine to make sure the machine output is changing, and that it is changing at the appropriate time.
- 120v – 1 – Indicator that will show LOW when there is no input signal coming into the Caddis device, and HIGH if there is. This can be very helpful when first wiring up a machine to make sure the machine output is changing, and that it is changing at the appropriate time.
- 120V – 2 – Indicator that will show LOW when there is no input signal coming into the Caddis device, and HIGH if there is. This can be very helpful when first wiring up a machine to make sure the machine output is changing, and that it is changing at the appropriate time.
- Temperature (°f) – Indicates the current temperature being read by the Caddis device, if there is a thermocouple connected. If no thermocouple is connected the value will float high, well above the 1300 °f maximum value that the device can read.
- Analog (0 – 10v) – Indicates the current voltage that the analog input port of the Caddis device is reading. The input port is only capable of reading voltage, not current. The value will read 0 if nothing is hooked up to the analog input port.