Material reallocation Module

Screen shots from the module graphical interface

This is a sequence of screen shots from the Material Reallocation Module. Here I explain several functionalities that I created, coordinated the implementation and made modifications and maintenances.

Pictures list
Miniature Description

The first action to be done when using the Material Reallocation Module is to request the menu option "Carregar Dados." The Graphical User Interface will connect to the server part of the module and load the production orders and the existent coils in the cold rolling area. The interface is divided in two parts. The superior part was designed to show the selection of coils or of production orders depending on the selected tab. The inferior part was designed to show the possible relationship. In other words, which coil can be allocated the each production order or which production orders can be allocated for the selected coil

The loading stage is the reading of the production orders. Specific criteria exist to identify which production orders should be considered. Some of the selection criteria are: the coils plan, the time need to deliver the coils (due-date), the existence of some coil already allocated to the order, among others

The second stage is the reading the coils that should be processed in the cold rolling area. Besides the information of the physical characteristics of the coil they are information of superficial defects. The list of the defects of a coil composes the inspection map. This map possesses information of the position of each defect in the width, length and face, A or B. The map has information of the intensity of each defect

The fourth stage is to logically connect the coils with the production orders. The Material Reallocation Module works with the final thickness of coils and production orders. As some coils are still in intermediate production stages, the module accomplishes a projection of the map simulating the cold rolling of the coil to it's final stage. A coil is connected to a production order if it can be allocated to the customer. This implies in having enough space to alocate, have no defects that is unaccepted by the customer, to be possible to cut the coil for the customer, among other criteria

The fifth stage allows to the operator to select which coils he wants to work with in the module and which he wants to leave out. There are situations where allocations are done because of special reasons. In these cases it is not desired to allow the module to modify these allocations already existent

When the data are loaded the operator can select a production order in the superior part of the window, The module will show the coils that can be allocated to the order selected. This means that there is at leas one area , no necessarily without allocation, that cam be assigned to the customer

This example shows a selection in the superior part of the window of a coil in a intermediate stage of production. Notice that the selected tab is the coils one, which contains the available coils. The selected coil has a thickness of 2,96 millimeters. However, it can be cold rolled to 1 millimeter. Therefore, the production orders presented in the inferior part are of products orders for 1 millimeter of thickness

The operator can request the module to show the latest inspection map. The system will present the last inspection map collected to the moment. It is possible to request the system to show the projected map. The system will show the map that was calculated by the module as being the most probable of happening after the coil passes through all the production stages. This implicates in the decrease of thickness and the reduction of defects that can happen in each equipment

This is the window that shows the inspection map. The superior part shows the two faces of the coil and the defects that were observed in the last inspection. In the inferior left part it shows the list of the defects with the information of it's positioning and also the quality. In the right part it shows information of the coil and the allocations of production orders

The module presents the defects in decreasing order of area, in other words, the defects that are larger area tend to be underneath. However, to have a warranty that one can see all of the defects, the module allows defects to be sent forward and back

This illustration above shows that the selected defect was sent back and was overlap by another one that is larger. Every time that a defect is selected in the map the respective line in the list of the defects is enhanced by the interface. The inverse is also true, if the operator selects a defect in the list of defects, the graphic representation will be visible

The operator can request the system to show the projected map of a coil. This is the map that the system uses to accomplish the automatic allocations. The Material Reallocation Module provides a series of functions that allows the operator to accomplish a manual allocation and modification as well of an allocation

When the operator selects a projected map, the interface brings the last production order that was selected in the previous window. This production order can be used to accomplish a manual allocations on the projected map. The indication in blue informs to the operator that the presented map is of a projected created by the system

It is possible to request to the module to makes an automatic allocation of a coil to a specific production order. To do that, the operator selects a coil in the superior part of the window, the system will present the compatible production orders and then the operator can request the system allocates the coil to the production order. The module will take into consideration the allocations existent, the defects that is no accepted by the customer and it will calculate the cutting sequence automatically

Before finishing the allocations, the module presents a window that allows to the operator to enter the desired amount of material he would like to allocate.

The module will present an indication of the production order allocated in the coil. The operator can observe in the inferior part the total weight that was allocated. In the example the module allocated 2336 kilograms

When opening the map with allocations, the exact location of each production order can be observed. In this case, the allocation was made right after the defect in blue and that happens to be in both faces. The module identified that this defect is not accepted by the customer and this part of the coil cannot be used for him

The module allows the operator to accomplish alterations whenever are necessary. An example is the possibility to modify the area allocated the customer. The operator can select the allocated area and to ask to increase it

The module will show two small squares one to the right and other to the left. The operator can drag these squared. During this process of increasing the area the system shows the amount of material that corresponds the current area being increased. This allows a greater precision in the manual allocations

Every time that the operator wants to do a manual intervention , the module accomplishes a series of verifications. Some of these verifications are: the restriction of maximum and minimum weight accepts by the customer, the existence of some defect that is not accepted by the customer, the possibility to cut the coil in the shears of the cutting area, among other verifications

A confirmation message is presented to the operator in case the allocation is disobeying some restriction

Each coil can receive different allocations of different customer at the same time. To distinguish which area belongs which customer, the operator can select the area allocated on the map. Then, the system will show the allocation information in the window

The Material Reallocation Module also allows the operator to visualize and accomplish modification in the cutting sequence of each coil. For this, the operator selects a coil and then he selects the option to visualizing the sequence of cuts

The Material Reallocation Module analyzes the cutting possibilities and it presents the sequence that makes less use of the shears. This reduces the chance of introducing new superficial defects and makes a better use of the equipments of the cutting area

In the middle of the window the module shows the shears used to cut the coil. In this example the cuts will be made by longitudinal shears

The cutting sequence found by the system obeys the allocations done previously and the restrictions of the cutting equipments. Every time that a coil the is sent to a shears to cut the lateral part, the borders are lost. Usually the minimum width that can be removed is of more or less two centimeters. In the center of the window the following information is presented. The coil length, the approximated coil weight and the type of the map: if it is a real type or a projected one

Other information are also presented as the date when the map was collected and which equipment stock the coil is. The allocations can be consulted by selecting the allocations existent on the map

The Material Reallocation Module identifies the possibility to accomplish more than a cut type at the same time in the same shear. In this example above the coil number 130068 possesses a drawing of a scissor in front of the number indicating that it will be cut. In the cut sequence number 5, a green sign "X" exists indicating that the traverse cut will also be made in the same shear. In the superior part of the map the positions of each cut are presented

The Material Reallocation Module allows the operator to edit or enter manually with the cut sequence. For this the operator selects the wanted coil and it requests the manual edition of cut

The operator can request a cut longitudinal or traverse. In both cases the module some restriction is verified is violated. In case this happens the module requests a confirmation of the operator is wanted to continue with the cut or not

The module allows that the formless user which cuts wants to use to accomplish the manual cut. An existent easiness for the user is to allow the system to supply a cut suggestion. For this the module verifies which cut can execute the type of requested cut and also their positions

In case the operator requests some cut type that violates some of the restrictions of some shears the module supplies the list of the restrictions that were violated

In this example the operator selected a coil above with four allocations. When requesting that the module makes a suggestion of the cut positions the module generates four cuts in: 108, 215, 323 and to 430 meters

When the operator selects a specific cut, the module draws in the inferior part the corresponding part of the coil that the cut will generate. In the example the module drew the portion of the coil that is between 108 and 215 meters

The operator can request the module to make a suggestion of longitudinal cuts. In the example the operator selected the first part of the cut and he is requesting the module to suggestion a longitudinal cut for the first part

When the operator request a longitudinal cut, like this example, the module identify that the requested cut can be executed in the same shears as the traverse ones. This can be observed by the green "X" in the cut number 1

In this example the operator is selecting the second part of the coil and requesting to the module that make a suggestion for the longitudinal cuts in this part of the coil

This is the result of the module suggestion for the longitudinal cuts in the second part of the coil. The result of these cuts is two losses of lateral 130068_2_1 and 130068_2_3. The drawing of a garbage can in front of these two numbers indicates that these parts will be discarded. The other part will be delivered to the customer

In this example the operator selected the last part of the coil and the module shows a graphical representation of this part on the map

The cuts are presented in the right part of the window. In the superior part they module shows the existent allocations in the coil

After operator enters the modifications in the cut sequence, the information should be saved. An indication of progress of writing is presents to the operator

To each manual allocation the system updates the total weight allocated

This illustration shows that a coil that has 3 millimeters of thickness the can be allocated an production order of 1 millimeter of thickness. That is possible because the module projects the coil map to the production order specifications

The table columns can be sorted in ascending and descending way

The rows that have the same column values can be grouped together to facilitate the visualization

Besides the union of the rows, the content can be summed

This example shows the result of a requested sum

The Material Reallocation Module uses a series of information on defects to decide if a coil can or not be allocated to a production order. During the map projection the module do some defect verification to see if it can be removed or lessened by a certain equipment. This information can be altered by the operator

In the defect records, there are information of the strength reduction that each equipment can do in each defect. It indicates the reduction level that varies from not having any effect in the intensity change of the defect and to the level of totally defect removal.

The operator can modify the quality restriction of a production order

The operator can modify information for each defect regarding which levels are accepted in each face of the coil. The defects are graduate in three intensity levels and the operator indicates which levels are accepted

The production orders have an indication of which destiny the customer will do to the coils. Depending on the use the they will do, there are different defects restrictions. If the coils will be used for elevators then only one face of the coil will have great quality demand and the other no, because that one is not visible. The operator can alter the restriction of quality records for each type of use

The operator can select the type of use and indicate the intensity that can be accepted of each defect in each face

The operator can alter the restrictions of each shears

The operator can alter the dimensions accept by each shears

The operator can alter the maximum and minimum limits of cuts for each shears

The operator can alter the information if a certain shear has the capability of applying a plastic protection over a face of a coil. The Material Reallocation Module is able to indicate automatically when a plastic protection should be applied over a certain face of a coil and also addresses which equipment is most appropriate for that

The Material Reallocation Module evaluates the priorities levels when accomplishing the allocations

The priority levels considered are lateness, amount of loss and allocated weight

The coils tables and the production order tables can be maximized for better visualization. To each selection of a coil or of a production order, the module indicates it's selection on the upper right corner of the window. This makes it easy to make manual allocations