Scheduling Periodic Changeovers
Purpose
To schedule periodic changeovers fulfilling specific business requirements.
Prerequisites
Periodic changeover rule(s) created on top of all scheduling prerequisites. For more information, see Maintain Changeovers.
Periodic changeovers are not related to the product change on the line, but rather to regular maintenance procedures to be performed on the line after a certain period of time. If such rules are created, Phenix scheduler will create periodic changeovers inside the schedule with the given periods. Examples of periodic changeovers are:
Regular Inspection, cleaning and lubrication.
Periodic thorough cleaning/washout regardless of the products being produced.
Steps
Once a periodic changeover rule is defined on the Setup>Changeovers page, the Phenix Scheduler will create them automatically as part of the scheduling algorithm.
Run scheduling process as per the standard procedure. Periodic changeovers will be automatically created and inserted in the schedule, starting from the time of scheduling and ending after the first Planned Cycle end (dark blue line) after the last scheduled order. This means that the first Periodic changeover will be created to start at the date/time of the scheduling run even if there are no orders for this day. After that Periodic changeovers will follow the default time specified in the changeover rule.
EX: This is the end of the last scheduling period with orders. There is one Periodic changeover between the last scheduled order and Planned Cycle end and one more after the Planned Cycle end:
Carefully review all Periodic changeovers created during the scheduling run, starting at the top of the orders list. If needed, change their position in the orders list to provide the best compliance with manufacturing requirements and, if possible, make them coincide with one of the bigger changeovers. This can be done either by editing changeover using the pencil button to the right of the changeover entry, or by using drag-and-drop method (see details below).
If moving the changeover creates too much time between it and the next periodic changeover, you can tell Phenix to regenerate and slot in all subsequent periodic changeovers. On the schedule, go to the next periodic changeover after the one moved, click on Recreate to the right of that changeover’s entry. Phenix will delete the changeover and all subsequent ones, and recreate new ones that follow the time between changeovers.
Note: Be sure to not click Recreate on the changeover manually moved, as this will reset the move and return it to it’s previous position.
Once all Periodic changeovers were reviewed and placed in the desired way, export orders together with Periodic changeovers for sharing with manufacturing.
If it is necessary to clean up the changeovers and restart:
Unschedule all orders. Only the periodic changeovers will still be on the schedule.
Click Recreate on the first periodic changeover in the list. This will delete all of the periodic changeovers and recreate them at the proper intervals.
Summary of changeovers properties
Periodic changeovers have the following layout:
Layout element | Purpose |
|---|---|
Move Icon | Click this to move the changeover by drag-and-drop. |
Name and Duration | Shows changeover name and duration in minutes. |
Time to Next and Previous Changeover | Shows the time between this changeover and the previous one, and then the time between this changeover and the next one. Red numbers indicate the time between is longer than the maximum time allowed by the Changeover Rule. Click on the arrows next to the times to jump to previous or following Periodic changeover. |
Start and End time | Shows on what date and at which time changeover starts and ends. |
Changeover Duration | The length of the changeover, in hours and minutes. |
Pencil button | Pressing on this button opens a window for editing the changeover start date and time. |
Recreate | Clicking on this link will recreate changeovers started from the one on which the link is clicked |
Complete | This only appears if the changeover’s start and end time have passed. Deletes respective changeover from the list of orders and timeline. |
Periodic Changeover Actions
Action | Explanation | Hints and tips |
|---|---|---|
Edit Periodic changeover | Press the pencil button. A new form will open, which shows changeover start date/time, length in minutes, and end date/time. Only the start date and time can be changed. Use this action to indicate precise date/time of changeover start. | This is the most precise way to move changeover to a specific place in the schedule. Using drag-and-drop in the schedule can move changeover to a different place, but does not allow to start it at a specific time. Using drag-and-drop on the timeline allows to change as well exact start and end times (but not duration), but it can be difficult to achieve full precision. |
Recreate Periodic changeovers. |
| Manual adjustments to Periodic changeovers must be used to find the optimal place for them in the schedule in line with the site operating strategy. Recreate function will help to adjust timings of the rest of Periodic changeovers after manual changes to the schedule to reduce amount of manual work. |
Complete Periodic changeover. | Press on Complete action in order to delete Periodic changeover in the past. | This action is only available for Periodic changeover in the past. This is a simple way to delete few changeovers in the past, rather than unscheduling all orders, deleting all Periodic changeovers and scheduling again. |
Drag-and-drop Periodic changeover in the orders list. | Use the mouse to drag-and-drop Periodic changeover up or down the orders list in the schedule to find the optimal place for it. | If Periodic changeover is dropped between two consecutive orders, it will be inserted between them without any time gaps and the schedule between new and old positions of Periodic changeovers will be respectively adjusted. However, if it will be placed within the downtime, which exceeds changeover duration, it will be dropped within the downtime at some point, which cannot be changed using this drag-and-drop method. |
Drag-and-Drop Periodic changeovers on the timeline. | Select Periodic changeover which has to be rescheduled in the orders list. It will be then selected on the timeline as well: Use the mouse to move left or right on the timeline to put it into the desired place. | Contrary to the previous method, this will allow selecting any time for changeover start. Of course, it could be difficult to select time very precisely, so it can be changed eventually by using Edit Periodic changeover action. |