Shop Floor Workspace

This workspace is part of TIPP CORE. It shows production (shop floor) orders from your back-office system, either as one row per order or as one row per operation, so you can follow what is in production, what is due and how far each order has progressed. The page title on screen is “Production”. Production planners and supervisors use it daily to check due dates, quantities completed and costs.

Before you start

• TIPP needs a working connection to the back-office database of the selected division. If it fails, the page shows an error and hides the search, the list and the button bar.
• The TIPP workspace objects must have been deployed to that division, or the page shows a message saying so.
• The page must pass the TIPP page security check.
• Production orders must exist in the back-office system. The page only reads them.

How to see all production orders (Header Information)

1. Open the Shop Floor Workspace.
2. In Division, choose the division.
3. In Show, choose “Header Information”. The department, work center and current-operation filters disappear.
4. Optionally set Due Date, Item and Status.
5. Press Refresh. One row per production order is shown.

How to see operations (Detail Information)

1. In Show, choose “Detail Information”. This is the default.
2. Optionally choose Department, and for Macola divisions Work Center.
3. For Macola divisions, set “Only show current operation?” to Yes to see only the first unfinished operation of each order, or No to see all operations. The default is Yes.
4. Press Refresh. One row per operation is shown.

How to find an order or an item

1. Type part of the item code in Item. It matches anywhere in the code.
2. Optionally set Due Date and Status.
3. Press Refresh. In either view, click an Order number to open a menu of actions for that order, or an Item code to open the item menu. In the Detail view, click an Operation to open the menu for that operation.

How to spot orders over budget

1. Set Show to Header Information.
2. Look at Cost Variance and Variance %. They are planned cost minus actual cost.
3. A row with a negative Variance % has an exclamation mark icon at the end of the row. That means the actual cost is higher than the planned cost.
4. Click a column heading such as Variance % to sort.

Screen guide

Selection criteria

• Division: the division to show. Only active divisions are listed. It cannot be empty. If the requested division cannot be connected, another one may be selected and an information message explains it.
• Show: “Header Information” (one row per order) or “Detail Information” (one row per operation). Default is Detail Information.
• Due Date: date range with quick select, filters on the due date.
• Item: part of the item code.
• Department: pick a department. Shown in the Detail view only. For Exact Globe divisions it lists operations as code and description.
• Work Center: Detail view and Macola only. Not shown for Exact Globe divisions.
• Only show current operation?: Detail view and Macola only. No or Yes, default Yes.
• Status: check boxes, see below.

Status values for Exact Globe divisions

• Not Authorized
• Authorized
• Rejected
• Printed
• Completed
• Extra Completed

In the Header view for Exact Globe, the order status shown can also be Open, Released, Finished or unknown. Open means not yet authorized, Authorized means approved, Released means released for production, Printed means the production documents were printed, Finished and Completed mean the order is done, and Rejected means it was rejected. The exact mapping is made from the stored authorization flags, so check unusual values in Exact Globe.

Status values for Macola divisions

• Unreleased
• Released
• Started
• Ended
• Closed

Columns in Header Information

• Order: the production order number. Click for the order menu.
• Entered: the date the order was created.
• Due Date
• Status
• Item: click for the item menu.
• Description
• Qty: planned quantity.
• Qty Complete: quantity finished so far.
• Qty Remaining: quantity still to produce. It is never below zero.
• Planned Cost and Actual Cost
• Cost Variance: planned cost minus actual cost.
• Variance %: the variance as a percentage of planned cost. The last column shows an exclamation mark when the percentage is negative.

All Header columns can be sorted by clicking their heading.

Columns in Detail Information

• Department
• WorkCenter
• Order: click for the order menu.
• Status
• Loc: order location.
• Due Date
• Item: click for the item menu.
• Description
• Operation: click for the operation menu.
• Qty, Qty Complete, Qty Remaining
• Start Date

Buttons

• Refresh: reloads with the current criteria.
• Find, Create, Reports: open menus of related actions for the Shop Floor Workspace.
• Navigate icon before the title: opens the navigation menu.
• Close.
• Header icons: Favorite, Excel export, Printable.
• AI buttons are added to the header when the connection works. The AI features of this workspace work on the whole filtered list, not only on the rows of the page you are looking at: every row that matches your Division, Show, Due Date, Item, Department, Status and similar filters is passed on, however many pages the list has. What you see in the list does not change.

Messages and what to do

• “No data found.” Nothing matches. Clear Due Date, Item or Status, or change Show.
• “Please verify your back-office connection settings via [Modules, TIPP, Setup, Backoffice Connection].” Have the connection corrected.
• “Please verify the SQL user name & password via [Modules, TIPP, Setup, Backoffice Connection].” The database login failed. Correct the user and password.
• “Error making a connection to your back-office system. Please verify your TIPP license is valid via [Modules, TIPP, Setup, License].” Check the license and the connection.
• A message that the workspace objects were not deployed to the division: ask your TIPP administrator.

What you cannot do here

• You cannot create, release, change or close production orders on this page. It is read-only. Use the Find, Create and Reports menus or Exact Globe.
• You cannot filter by work center or by current operation in Exact Globe divisions.
• In the Detail view for Exact Globe, the list order is fixed by order number and operation, and the column headings do not change the sorting. The Detail view sorting also depends on the back-office type, so check it on screen.

Related pages

• Backoffice Connection setup and License setup, where the connection and license are checked.
• The shop floor order, operation and item pages opened from the click menus.

Common questions

What is the Shop Floor Workspace for?

It shows production orders and their operations with due dates, quantities and costs.

What is the difference between Header Information and Detail Information?

Header Information has one row per production order with costs. Detail Information has one row per operation with department and work center.

Why can I not see Work Center?

Work Center only appears in the Detail view and not for Exact Globe divisions.

What does Only show current operation mean?

With Yes, each order shows only its first operation that is not yet complete. It is available for Macola divisions only.

Why is there an exclamation mark at the end of a row?

The Variance % is negative, meaning actual cost is above planned cost.

How is Qty Remaining calculated?

Qty minus Qty Complete, and never less than zero.

Why is my list empty?

Check the Status ticks and Due Date range, then press Refresh.

How do I find all orders for one item?

Type part of the item code in Item and press Refresh.

What happens when I click an order number?

A menu opens with actions for that order.

The page shows a connection error. What now?

Ask a TIPP administrator to check Backoffice Connection and the license.

Does the AI only see the rows on my current page?

No. The query for the filtered list is saved before paging, so the AI works with all rows that match your filters.