Timelines provides an interactive timeline for each machine that shows the changes in machine cycle status during a specified time range. The Standard Timeline for each machine is accessible from the dashboard where users can view details on machine faults and other events associated with changes in cycle status, view a table listing all downtime events, and analyze and categorize the reasons for downtime.  

Article Topics

This article contains the following topics:

• Accessing Timelines
• Timelines Information Layout
  • Machine Timelines
  • Status Timeline Bars
    •  Timeline Bar Color Code
• Changing the Machine Timeline View
  • Selecting a Machine Group 
  • Setting the Timeline Date Range
• Accessing the Standard Timeline View for Individual Machines
  • Categorizing Machine Downtime

Accessing the Timelines Dashboard

When you initially login to MachineMetrics, one of the Current Shift Dashboard views will automatically display. To access Timelines from the Current Shift Dashboard page, click Current Shift Dashboard (in the top left of the window) to display the dashboard pull-down menu, and then click Timelines.

Timelines  Information Layout

Timelines presents interactive machine cycle timelines for all machines in the environment along with the capability to open the Standard Timeline to see the detailed view of individual machine timelines.

Machine Timelines

The Machine Timelines area provides the following information and functionality:

• Machine name and percentage that the machine has been Active (in-cycle) for the displayed time period
• Machine cycle status timeline bars for each machine in the environment.
• "Arrow" buttons to scroll the timeline view forward to the next day or back to the previous day, and a Today button that returns the timeline view to the current day view.
• Date and time scale for the timeline

The following figure highlights the information and capabilities that Timelines  offers.

Status Timeline Bars

The Machine Timelines area contains interactive, graphical bars that are the machine cycle status timelines for each machine in the environment. Clicking on a timeline bar opens the Standard Timeline for that machine. 

Timeline Bar Color Code

The machine cycle status timeline bar indicates machine cycle status over time using the following color code:

The definitions of each status seen in the machine cycle timeline are as follows:

• Active: Machine is in-cycle (up) and processing parts at this time.
• Inactive: Machine is out-of-cycle (down) and not processing parts at this time.
• Disconnected: Machine is not communicating with MachineMetrics at this time.
• Setup: Machine is in Setup stage in MachineMetrics at this time.

Changing the Machine Timeline View

The following sections explain the information and functionality offered to change the machine timeline view.

Selecting a Machine Group 

By default, the Machine Timelines tool shows the cycle timelines for all machines in the environment. You can click on the associated pull-down menu to select an existing machine group, and click the Apply button to see only the machine timelines for that group. 

Setting the Timeline Date Range

You can change the date range displayed Timelines by clicking on the date fields and selecting your desired date range as well as the from/to times on each date. Click the Apply button to apply the new date and time range to the timelines.

Accessing the Standard Timeline View for Individual Machines

In the Machine Timelines area, clicking on the timeline bar associated with a machine opens the Standard Timeline view for that machine in the Machines application module. The Standard Timeline view can be used to identify and categorize downtime for an individual machine as described in Using the Standard Timeline for Machine Cycle Status. 

Categorizing Machine Downtime

Being able to categorize machine downtime is one of the most important and valuable features of MachineMetrics. Categorizing machine downtime in MachineMetrics helps companies understand the main reasons why their machines go down, which is the critical first step in being able to analyze and minimize the costly disruptions to manufacturing processes caused by unplanned downtime. In most cases, machine downtime should be categorized at the time it occurs by the machine operator using the tablet interface.

Manager and Executive users can use Timelines to access the Standard Timeline application for an individual machine, where they can categorize machine downtime that was not initially categorized (or was incorrectly categorized) by the operator. See Using the Standard Timeline for Machine Cycle Status for more information.