The Standard Timeline application page shows the operating status over time for a machine and allows users to view, analyze and categorize downtime events. This article explains how to access and use the functions and capabilities of the Standard Timeline application for a machine.  

Article Topics

This article contains the following topics:

• Accessing the Standard Timeline
  • From the Current Shift Dashboard
  • From the Timelines Dashboard
  • From the All Machines Page
  • From the Individual Machine Page
• Standard Timeline Information Layout and Functions
  • Page View Functions
    • Setting the Timeline Date/Time Range
  • Status Timeline
  • Downtime Table
• Using the Status Timeline to Analyze Downtime
  • Identifying Machine Operating Status 
  • Viewing Status Time and Duration
  • Identifying Fault Events
  • Adjusting the Timeline Time Scale
    • Procedure
• Using the Downtime Table to Analyze Downtime
  • Viewing Long Downtime Events
  • Searching and Filtering by Downtime Reason
  • Viewing Downtime by Planned/Unplanned Event Type
• Categorizing Machine Downtime
  • Procedure

Accessing the Standard Timeline

There are several ways to access the Standard Timeline for a machine, including from the following:

• Current Shift Dashboard
• Timelines Dashboard
• All Machines page
• Individual machine page
• Diagnostic Timeline

The following sections explain how to access the Standard Timeline for a machine from each of these locations, assuming you are already logged in to MachineMetrics.

From the Current Shift Dashboard

To access the Standard Timeline from any Current Shift Dashboard view, do the following:

1. Click on the tile for the machine that you want to view. The machine tile will change to display several icons.
2. To open the Standard Timeline for the machine, click the Timeline icon in the center of the tile as highlighted below:

From the Timelines Dashboard

To access the Standard Timeline from the Timelines Dashboard, do the following:

1. 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.
   
    
   
   
2. In the Machine Timelines area of the Timelines dashboard, click the machine timeline you want to view:
   
   

From the All Machines Page

To access the Standard Timeline from the All Machines page, do the following:

1. From the Current Shift Dashboard page, click Machines  from the main application menu to open the All Machines page.
   
   
   
   
2. Click the "ellipse" menu (---) associated with the machine you want to view, and select Standard Timeline as highlighted below. 
   
   

From the Individual Machine Page

To access the Standard Timeline from an individual machine page, do the following:

1. Open the All Machines page as described in the preceding section.
2. Click on the desired machine to view the Overview page for that machine.
3. From the Overview page, click the application menu and select Standard Timeline as highlighted below.
   
   

From the Diagnostic Timeline Page

The Diagnostic Timeline page for each machine contains a Go To Standard Timeline link as highlighted below. 

Standard Timeline Information Layout and Functions

The following figure shows the information layout of the Standard Timeline application page with the functional areas identified and highlighted.

The Standard Timeline application page is divided into the following sections:

• Page view functions
• Timeline area
• Downtime events table

The following sections present the information layout and functions provided in each of these application page sections.

Page View Functions

The page view functions include:

• Machine Menu: Click this menu to select and view the Standard Timeline for a different machine.
• Application Menu: Click this menu to access a different Machines application for the current machine.
• Timeline Date Range: Click this area to open the calendar tool used to set the date and time range for the timeline to display. See Setting the Timeline Date/Time Range.
  • Apply Button: Click this button to apply any changes made to the timeline date range.
• Go to Diagnostic Timeline: Click this link to open the Diagnostic Timeline application page for the current machine.

Setting the Timeline Date/Time Range

To change the date and time range displayed by the timeline, click on the date fields below the main menu at the top of the page. Select 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 timeline.

Status Timeline

The Timeline area of the Standard Timeline application provides the following information and functions:

• Utilization: The top right of the Timeline area shows the percentage that the machine was in-cycle (Utilization) for the selected date and time range.
• Status Timeline: Interactive timeline in the Operation section of the Timeline area showing changes in machine cycle status during the selected date and time range. See Using the Status Timeline to Analyze Downtime.
• Job Run: The Job name and timeline bar for any and all Job Runs that ran during the selected date/time range display in the Operation section of the Timeline area below the status timeline. Clicking the Job Run bar associated with a Job name opens the Job Runs report page.
• Faults: This section of the Timeline area shows machine faults and other events associated with changes in cycle status at the location in the timeline when they occurred. See Using the Status Timeline to Analyze Downtime.
• Current Time: Vertical line that indicates the position of the current time relative to the status timeline view.
• Time Scale: This area at the bottom of the Timeline area shows the time increments being displayed for the machine cycle status. The time scale can be adjusted to see more granular detail of machine cycle status events as described in Adjusting the Timeline Time Scale. 
• Status Summary: This area below the time scale shows the total amount of time a machine was in each operating cycle status during the selected date and time range. See Identifying Machine Operating Status for definitions of each machine cycle status. 

Downtime Events Table

The Downtime table below the timeline lists the date and time of all downtime events during the selected date/time range.

The Downtime table provides the following information on each downtime event that occurred:

• Start: Time the downtime started
• Duration: Length of the downtime
• Reason: Category assigned to the downtime
• Message: Explanatory message that was entered with the reason.
• Planned: Whether the downtime was planned, unplanned, or a downtime event that was planned but exceeded the planned downtime limit.

Clicking on any entry in the Downtime table opens the Categorize Downtime dialog for that downtime event. See Using the Downtime Table to Analyze Downtime and Categorizing Machine Downtime for more information on the functions and capabilities of the Downtime table.

Using the Status Timeline to Analyze Downtime

The status timeline bar is interactive and provides the capability to easily identify machine operating status time, duration and changes, to adjust the time scale and see more granular detail of status change events, and to categorize the reasons for downtime.

Identifying Machine Operating Status 

The status timeline bar is segmented by color to indicate machine cycle operating status over time using the following color code:

• 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.

Viewing Status Time and Duration

When you hover your mouse cursor over any segment in the status timeline, hover text will display the time range and duration of the operating status represented by that segment. The figure below shows the hover text for a downtime (Cycle Status=Inactive) event segment (mouse cursor not shown).

Identifying Fault Events

When you hover your mouse cursor over any fault event below the status timeline, hover text will display the machine adapter message identifying the fault and the duration of the fault event. 

Adjusting the Timeline Time Scale

When you first access the Standard Timeline application page, the Timeline area will show the machine cycle status timeline for the current day with the time scale in one-hour time increments.

This time scale can sometimes make identifying downtime and fault events difficult. You can expand the timeline to increase the time scale granularity. As you expand the timeline further, you will see more detail about the machine cycle operations. For example, the timeline will show when each part was produced, how long the part production cycle took, and the text associated with faults or other machine adapter messages associated with other downtime conditions.

The timeline bar can be expanded all the way until the time scale shows time in one-second increments. The following figure shows an example of a Standard Timeline expanded to 15-second time scale granularity:

Procedure

To adjust the time scale of a machine cycle timeline, do the following:

1. Hover over any area of the timeline.
2. Spread out the timeline to the desired granularity. This will be done in different ways depending on the system you are using to view the timeline:
   • PC Mouse: Roll the scroll wheel up to expand the timeline, and back to compress it.
   • Touch Pad/Screen or Mac Mouse: Use the two-finger spread method to expand the timeline, and the pinch method to compress it.
3. To view a section of time that is off-screen after the timeline is expanded, click on the timeline and and drag left or right to the desired time.

Using the Downtime Table to Analyze Downtime

 The Downtime table contains interactive fields and headings that allow you to search, filter, and categorize downtime events.

Viewing Long Downtime Events

MachineMetrics categorizes downtime as either Long or Micro in reporting based on the Microstop Duration value entered in the Downtime section of the System Settings page. The Duration field heading in the Downtime table contains a pull-down menu that can be used to filter the Downtime table to only show downtime events that meet the MachineMetrics criteria for Long downtime. 

Searching and Filtering by Downtime Reason

The Reason field heading in the Downtime table contains a text search field. Text entered in this field will automatically search and filter the Downtime table to only show downtime events that contain the entered text in the downtime category name.

Viewing Downtime by Planned/Unplanned Event Type

The Planned field heading in the Downtime table contains a pull-down menu that can be used to filter the Downtime table to only show downtime events that were planned, unplanned, or planned but exceeded the planned downtime limit.

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.

Procedure

Using the Standard Timeline application, Manager and Executive users can categorize machine downtime that was not initially categorized (or was incorrectly categorized) by the operator as follows:

1. Do one of the following:
   
   
   • In the Status Timeline, click on the Inactive segment of the timeline bar that contains the downtime you want to categorize. 
   • In the Downtime Events Table, click on the time entry that corresponds to the downtime event you want to categorize. 
     
     
2. The Categorize Downtime dialog will open as shown below:
   
   
   
   
3. Click the Reason pull-down menu and select the category you want to assign to the downtime.
   
   
   
   You can also do the following in this dialog:
   
   • Select the Planned checkbox to indicate that the downtime was planned
   • Add a message to further explain the reason for the downtime
   • Uncategorize downtime that is already categorized
   • Split the downtime period into different categories
   • Merge two downtime periods into the same downtime category
     
     
4. When you have completed your entries, click the Save Changes button.
   
   
   
   
5. The time period will now appear as categorized downtime in the Downtime table and in MachineMetrics reporting.