OnTakt User Guide

Getting Started

1. Set an administrator password
2. Set the time zone
3. Define the shop's shift times
4. Create the first machine

Machines

After global options, machines are the largest unit of organization, meaning that any other items (programs, parts, events) and their data collected belongs to a machine.

Adding a machine

1. Navigate to the Machines page by clicking the link in the top navigation bar.
2. Right-click in the empty space at the bottom of the page and click"Add machine".
3. Enter a unique name for the new machine and click Create.
4. Click the name of the machine in the cards view and then click Edit.
5. Scroll down to the Setup section.
6. The most important setup step is the NC URL. This is the IP address and port that OnTakt will use to get machine status and part production data. See Network Setup below for more information.
7. If the machine is equipped with a TMAC unit from Caron Engineering, also enter the IP address of the TMAC unit so that OnTakt can track events generated by TMAC. If the machine is also equipped with AutoComp from Caron Engineering, check the box labeled AutoComp Support.
8. Click Save Changes.

Network Setup

Machine Setup tells OnTakt where to connect to retrieve information from machine controls and TMAC units.

NC URL: this is the protocol, IP address, and port of the machine control that is serving MTConnect XML data. For Okuma machines, the protocol is usually HTTP (OnTakt also supports HTTPS) and the port is usually 5000. If the machine's IP address is 10.245.24.7, this should be entered as http://10.245.24.7:5000.

TMAC URL: this is the protocol, IP address, and port of the Caron MTConnect Adapter that is serving MTConnect XML data. The format is the same as the NC URL.

Colors

Machine cards on the main machines page have a color indicator that makes it easy to see the status of the shop at a glance. Clicking on a machine card to expand it will show text describing the color's meaning on top of the colored area.

Production charts

Each machine in the list has a chart preview showing an outline of its activity on the current day. To open the full-size chart for a machine, click this preview.

Time navigation

The full-size chart page opens to today's data, but it also allows you to view historical data. To change the day that is displayed, use the previous and next day navigation buttons. You can also click the date that is displayed in the center to open a calendar and choose any date.

Chart interactivity

The chart has two modes: normal mode and compare mode. In normal mode, clicking on an item in the chart will open a menu with more information and actions you can take. In compare mode, clicking on an item will select it for comparison with others. In normal mode, the chart allows you to edit the parts and events that are displayed.

To edit a part:

1. Click on the part point on the chart
2. In the menu that opens, click Edit/Manage Part
3. Make any changes and click Save

To edit an event:

1. Click on the event line on the chart
2. In the menu that opens, click Edit/Manage Event
3. Make any changes and click Save

In compare mode, clicking parts and events shows the time that passed between them, how many parts were made in that time, and the average time per part. To use compare mode:

1. Change the mode selector to Compare Mode
2. Click on the points you want to compare
3. Selected nodes will be outlined in black
4. Once multiple points have been selected, lines will be drawn and annotated between them
5. Click nodes again to remove them from the selection

To clear the chart of all tooltips and selections, right-click on it and then click Clear Annotations.

Zoom

To zoom in, click and drag on an area of the chart while in either mode to make a selection, then right-click on the chart and click Zoom to Selection.

To zoom out, right-click on the chart again and click Reset Zoom.

Zooming and date navigation will be animated unless your operating system's setting for reduced motion is enabled.

Highlights

Important information about the currently-displayed day is shown below the chart.

Clicking on the links shown will open tables with more information about each type of data.

Machine notifications

OnTakt can send notifications to a Slack channel or Microsoft Teams chat when machine or TMAC events occur, as well as a daily report of part production and TMAC activity.

Slack Webhook URL and Microsoft Teams Webhook URL must be set up by an administrator in your workspace. This URL points to one specific channel, so different channels can be created for different machines, but the same URL can be used by multiple machines to collect their notifications in one channel.

TMAC alarm grouping tells OnTakt to wait to send a message until this many alarms have been reported since the last message. Setting this to 1 will send a message for every alarm as soon as TMAC reports it to OnTakt.

Shift time overrides

Individual machines can have their own shift times defined, and these times will be used instead of the application-wide times for calculating production goals. Each machine can override both the start and stop times or just the start or stop time. The application-wide time will be used for any time not overridden.

1. Navigate to the Machines page
2. Click the name of the machine to configure times for in the cards view and then click Edit.
3. In the Shift Time Overrides section, enter times to override. The application-wide times are displayed below the entry fields.
4. Click Save Changes

Sorting the machine list

The order in which the machines are listed on the Machines page can be changed. Note that the machines list is ordered such that the left column is filled with the first half of the list, then the right column is filled with the second half of the list. On smaller screens, the list appears as one column in this same order.

To rearrange machines:

1. Drag a machine on the Machines page.
2. After picking up a machine, drop areas will appear at the beginning and end of each column and between machines.
3. Drop the machine onto one of these targets.
4. The page will refresh, and the machine should appear in the new position.

Machine systems

OnTakt can provide more detailed information about machine alarms when the machine is configured with its control type.

In OnTakt, a "system" refers to the software running on a machine's control.

Setting a machine's system

1. Navigate to the Machines page
2. Click the name of the machine to configure times for in the cards view and then click Edit
3. Scroll down to the Setup section
4. Choose a system form the dropdown list. If the correct system is not listed, choose the option to leave it blank.
5. Click Save Changes

Customizing the system definition

If your machine is configured with additional alarms or your machine system was not available in the list, you can define your own alarms.

• Navigate to the Machines page
• Click the name of the machine to configure times for in the cards view and then click Edit
• Scroll down to the Setup section.
• Click Customize
• In the window that appears, click Add Row to create a row in the alarm definitions table.
• Enter how the machine control reports the alarm (the text that OnTakt currently shows for the alarm) in the Reported alarm text column and the detailed message you would like to see instead in the Custom alarm message column.
• If you have multiple alarms to add, insert more rows and add each one. Use the delete button to remove rows.
• When you are done, click OK, then scroll down and click Save Changes

Customization import/export

To copy alarm definitions from an external source or between machines, you can download the alarm definition table as a TSV (tab-separated value) file and import that file into another table.

Importing will add new entries and replace the messages of entries where the alarm text matches, but will not delete existing entries.

To import from another source, make sure you have a TSV file formatted like this:

ReportedAlarmText1\tCustomAlarmMessage1\n
ReportedAlarmText2\tCustomAlarmMessage2\n
...

(where \t is a tab character and \n is a newline character)

Click Import at the bottom of the alarm definition edit window, choose the file, click OK, then scroll down and click Save Changes.

To export the alarm definition table to a file on your computer, click Export at the bottom of the alarm definition edit window. This file can then be imported to another machine or saved as a backup.

OEE

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) is a standard for measuring manufacturing productivity.

For more information, visit the OEE website.

Wolfram Manufacturing does not endorse OEE as an accurate measurement of manufacturing productivity.

How OnTakt calculates OEE

OEE is the product of three components, each scored as a percentage. This means that a zero for any component score will result in a 0% overall score, and components that score 100% do not affect the overall score.

For example, if the component scores are 50%, 100%, and 75%, the overall score is 0.5 × 1 × 0.75, which is 0.375 or 37.5%.

Component scores that are reported as N/A do not affect the overall score. If all component scores are reported as N/A, the overall score will also be reported as N/A.

1. Availability

Availability is the ratio of "unavailable time" to the total length of the shift. Unavailable time is the sum of all times in a day when a machine takes longer than twice the expected cycle time to produce a part, as shown below:

For example, an availability of 100% means the machine did not stop producing parts for a significant amount of time all day, and an availability of 50% means the machine spent half of the shift not running.

The availability score only counts parts from programs with a cycle time specified.

If shift times are not set, the availability score may be reported as N/A.

2. Performance

Performance is the ratio of expected cycle time to actual cycle time, averaged for all parts in a day.

For example, assume a part has a cycle time of 60 minutes. If it takes 20 minutes to produce, the performance score for that part would be 300%. On the other hand, if it takes 120 minutes to produce, its performance score would be 50%. If a machine did both of these in the same day, the total performance score would be averaged to 175%, which would be capped at 100%.

The performance score only counts parts from programs with a cycle time specified.

If no such parts have been produced, the performance score will be reported as N/A.

3. Quality

Quality is simply the ratio of good to scrapped parts.

For example, if a machine has produced 10 total parts in a day, 2 of which were scrapped, the machine's quality score would be 80% for the day because 8 of 10 parts were good.

If no parts have been produced, the quality score will be reported as N/A.

Processes

Processes allow you to connect machines and programs to tools and inventory tracking. A process is the combination of a machine, a set of program from that machine, a set of tool assemblies that are used for the process, and settings that define the behavior of OnTakt while that process is running.

Creating a process

• Go to the Processes page
• Click Create Process
• Enter a name for the new process and click Create.

Adding programs to a process

• Right-click the program in the list and click Edit
• Choose the process to add the program to from the Processes menu
• Click Save Changes

Aggregating data

To view all the parts produced by a process on any given day, click the group's name in the list of program groups in the Groups section of the Programs page. This chart can then be navigated like an individual machine chart. Note that goals and events are not shown because they can vary between machines.

Part counting

Some looping programs do not enter a completed state, so they can't increment the part count reported by the control. In these cases, it is possible for OnTakt to read the part count from a common variable (also known as a macro variable) that the program can increment each time it loops, producing an accurate part count in OnTakt.

To use this mode, set the part count variable option of the program in OnTakt to the number of the variable on the control that you will be writing to.

A note about common variables on FANUC controls: only variables #500 through #549 are read by OnTakt. Attempting to use a variable outside that range for part counting or value reporting will not work. This is because these are the only common variables that persist across machine restarts on FANUC Series 30i/31i/32i, 0i-D/F, and PMi-A controls.

Variables

OnTakt can read the values of common variables (also called macro variables) from the machine control when it saves a part and add these values to the part record. You can also set up notifications to be alerted as soon as the machine reports a variable that is above, below, or at a threshold you set.

Because the indices of these variable may change between programs, OnTakt allows you to assign names to variable numbers on a per-program basis. This process is called variable mapping:

1. Go to the Programs page
2. Right-click on the program you want to assign variables for
3. Click Edit
4. To add a variable mapping, click Add Row in the "Variable mapping" section of the program editor
5. In the text fields that appear, enter the name of the variable and the index that this program uses to store it. When entering the name, all of the names that are already used appear as suggestions. This allows you to click one and use it so that names can be consistent between users and programs.
6. For notifications, choose a comparison and a threshold. For example, to be notified when a variable is greater than 5, choose ">" for the comparison and enter 5 for the threshold. To turn off notifications, choose "Never" for the comparison (and the threshold will be saved, but ignored).
7. Add as many mappings as you need. You can remove a mapping by clicking Delete Row in the row of the mapping you want to remove.
8. When you are done, click Save

The next time a cycle running this program completes, the part record will contain the values of these variables under the names you specified. To view this information, you can open the part editor from a machine chart page, or go to the Parts page, right-click on the part, and then click Edit.

If a machine does not report a named variable when the part is created, a warning will appear on the dashboard until it shows up for a future part.

Serial numbers

OnTakt has a special mapped variable name for serial numbers. If you enter SERIAL as the data name, OnTakt will treat this variable as containing the serial number of the part. This will appear as a suggested name even if you have not used it before.

Example use case: When running parts from bar stock of a known length, a common variable can count the number of parts made from the current bar. When it is a couple parts away from the number of parts you know you can make from one bar, send a notification to prepare to replace it soon instead of waiting for a machine alarm to reduce downtime.

Programs

Each machine has a set of programs that it has reported. OnTakt creates a new program item for each filename the machine reports having loaded even if no parts or events are recorded.

Tools

A tool is a physical tool present in a machine. Tools have a defined number of parts it can produce before requiring replacement, and they track how many parts have been produced between replacements.

Adding tools

1. Open the Tools page.
2. Click the Add Tool button.
3. Enter the name of the tool you are adding into the window that opens.
4. Click Create
5. The new tool will now be listed in the tools table.

Customizing tools

To get the most out of tool tracking, it is necessary to configure the life expectancy of each tool.

Additionally, setting a warning threshold will provide notification before a tool is fully used.

1. Open the Tools page.
2. Click the Edit button next to the tool you want to edit.
3. The following information is available for editing in the window that opens:
   • Part Life
     • Total life expectancy is the number of parts the tool will make before needing to be replaced.
     • The warning threshold will show an alert on the dashboard, highlight the tool in the table, and send a notification to the Slack channel assigned to the last machine to use the tool when it is expected to need replacement after this many more parts.
     • The current part count shows how many parts the tool has produced since it was last replaced.
   • Info
     • Name/Description determines how the tool will be labeled in the list of tools.
     • Location/Slot/Pot is the location of the tool in the machine and can make it easier to identify which tool needs replacement.
     • Type sets the icon displayed in the tool list and can make identifying tools easier.
   • Notes is a notepad for saving information about tools for future reference.
4. Click Save
5. The new tool will now be listed in the tools table.

Replacing tools

When a tool is replaced in the machine, its part count should be reset in OnTakt.

1. Open the Tools page.
2. Click ⇆ Replace next to the tool you want to replace.

When a tool is replaced, a history entry is created that stores when the replacement occurred and how many parts had been produced before replacement. To view this data:

1. Open the Tools page.
2. Expand the ⇆ Replace dropdown next to the tool you want to view the replacement history of.
3. Click Replacement History

Tool Assemblies

A tool assembly is a group of tools that are located in the same tool slot in a machine. This is usually a combination of tool holders, drives, inserts, etc. Tools must be placed into an assembly, and then that assembly must be added to a process, to have their part counts updated when parts are produced.

Inventory

Inventory items are types of tools that are ordered. For example, a certain type of tool insert may be used for many different tools. This insert would be an inventory item, and each tool using it would be linked so that they subtract from the total stock when the tools are replaced.

Maintenance

Maintenance Items

Maintenance items are regular tasks that are performed for the shop as a whole or on a single machine. They can be scheduled to show up as alerts in OnTakt on an interval measured in hours, days, or weeks, with instructions for completing the maintenance item.

Creating maintenance items

Only administrators and planners can create maintenance items

1. Navigate to the Maintenance page
2. At the top right of the Items table, click the "New item" button.
3. Select a type (task or measurement). The available form fields change based on the type.
4. Enter an identifiable name for the item.
5. Machine selection is optional. If no machine is selected, the item is considered to be "shop-wide".
6. Enter instructions to display when completing the item
7. To send reminders when regular maintenance items must be completed, switch to the Reminders tab at the top of the editor window and enter an interval. Once an interval is set (zero disables reminders), another option will appear that offers a list of notification channels to send messages to when the reminder comes up. Regardless of this option, an in-app alert will appear in the alerts pane.

For measurements, the following additional fields are available in the Info tab:

1. Enter the measurement unit to guide entry and analysis. For example, "%" or "mm".
2. Enter the acceptable range of the measured values. One or both ends of the range can be specified. If either or both ends is entered, another option will appear that offers a list of notification channels to send messages to when a measurement exceeds the range. Regardless of this option, an in-app alert will appear in the alerts pane.

Completing maintenance items

1. Click the green plus button in the Actions column of an item.
2. Follow the item's instructions (if shown). For tasks, check whether the task was completed successfully. For measurements, enter the measured value.
3. Enter any relevant notes

This window can also be accessed from the entry viewer (described below) by clicking "New entry" at the top.

Viewing collected data

Click the table row of a measurement item. A new column appears that contains the log of entries.

For measurements, a chart will be displayed above the table.

Maintenance Tasks

Maintenance tasks are maintenance items that record the date and time last performed, whether the task was successful, and user-supplied notes.

Maintenance Measurements

Maintenance measurements are numeric measurements that are taken on an interval and can be charted over time. They can define an acceptable range and notify when a value falls outside this range.

Maintenance Issues

Maintenance issues are occasional maintenance items that can optionally be scheduled.

One-time maintenance issues are instantaneous, for example, machine crashes.

Ongoing maintenance issues define a start and optionally an end date, such as scheduled downtime.

Creating maintenance issues

1. Navigate to the Maintenance page
2. At the top right of the Issues table, click the "New issue" button.
3. Select a type (one-time or ongoing). The available form fields change based on the type.
4. Enter an identifiable name for the item. As you type, names of previous issues will be suggested to make it easier to link recurring issues. Most browsers will allow you to press the down arrow on the keyboard from the empty name field to show all previous names.
5. For one-time issues, the current timestamp will be recorded. For ongoing issues, enter the start and/or end times. If left empty, the start time will be set to the current time, and the end time will stay empty. An issue with an empty end time is considered "unresolved".
6. Enter a helpful, detailed description.

Reports

Report options

OnTakt can collect a lot of data very quickly, and the report options allow you to pick out the data you need without downloading everything.

Machines

Generating a report requires that you select at least one machine.

The parts, programs, or events from selected machines will be included.

Date range

If you frequently export data, you may wish to only include data that was created after the last export. To do this, set the "From" date to the previous export date and the "To" date to the latest day you want to include.

Only parts and events created inside this range will be included in their export files.

Options

Defining shift times

Shift times are used to calculate daily goals for part production. If they are not set up correctly, daily goal lines will not be drawn or they will be drawn inaccurately. Shift times can also be overridden on a per-machine basis.

To set shift times:

1. Navigate to the Options page by clicking the link in the top navigation bar.
2. Enter the start and stop times for the shop.
3. Click Save Changes.

Be sure the time zone (also available from the Options page) is set correctly before defining shift times. Once the time zone is set, click Save Changes before defining shift times.

Cost savings estimation

How much is TMAC saving you?

Use the Calculator button to determine the values for these fields.

In the calculator window, enter how much each event listed would cost you, as well as how frequently it happens. Click "Save calculations" to save your work for later and automatically copy the calculated totals into the alarm value fields.

For frequency, 1 means it always happens, 0 means it never happens, 0.5 means it happens in half of cycles, etc.

These values will be shown in reports based on how frequently TMAC alarms occur.

User management

To manage users: click on the user menu at the top right of OnTakt, open Options, and then switch to the Users tab on the left.

To change a user's password: click the Edit button next to that user and enter a new password.

To prevent a user from logging in without deleting their account: switch off the Active option in the user editor.

Access levels

	Administrator	Planner	Shop Team	Auditor
Alerts (Certain alert actions may not be available to all users)
View alerts	✓	✓	✓	✓
Perform system check	✓	✓	✓	✓
Dismiss alerts	✓	✓	✓
Clear all alerts	✓	✓
Machines
View/chart machines	✓	✓	✓	✓
Modify basic machine options	✓	✓
Create machines	✓
Modify machine system options	✓
Programs
View/chart programs and processes	✓	✓	✓	✓
Edit/delete programs and processes	✓	✓
Tools
View tools	✓	✓	✓	✓
View tool assignments	✓	✓	✓	✓
Replace tools	✓	✓	✓
Create tools	✓	✓
Edit tools	✓	✓
Delete tools	✓	✓
Add tools to tool assemblies	✓	✓
Assign tool assemblies to processes	✓	✓
Parts
View/chart parts	✓	✓	✓	✓
Edit parts	✓	✓	✓
Delete parts	✓	✓	✓
Edit events	✓	✓	✓
Delete events	✓	✓
Quality
View/chart AutoComp data	✓	✓	✓	✓
Reports
Generate reports	✓	✓	✓	✓
Download CSV data exports	✓	✓	✓	✓
Options
Modify options	✓	✓
Change passwords	✓

Time zone

Changing the time zone will change how times are displayed on all pages for all users.

Times are stored in the database using UTC, so changing the time zone will not change any other database entries, such as part or event times.

This also means that you may need to adjust the shift times. If your shift is currently 9:00am–6:00pm and the time zone is set to central time, changing the time zone to Eastern time will change the shift to 10:00am–6:00pm.

Notification setup

Slack Setup

This must be done by a workspace administrator.

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps
2. If prompted, sign in to the correct workspace
3. Click the Create New App button at the top right
4. Enter an app name ("OnTakt" works just fine) and choose the correct workspace, then click Create App
5. Under "Add features and functionality", click Incoming Webhooks
6. Turn on the switch at the top right to activate incoming webhooks
7. For each channel you want OnTakt to post to:
   1. Click the Add New Webhook to Workspace button at the bottom
   2. In the page that opens, choose the channel you want to post to and click Allow
   3. Copy the Webhook URL from the list (make sure it's for the right channel)
   4. Paste this URL into the Slack Webhook URL field in the OnTakt machine settings page

To add or remove webhooks in the future:

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps
2. Click the name of the OnTakt app from the list
3. Click Incoming Webhooks under Features in the left sidebar

If you would like the app to add an icon to the bot that posts messages:

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps
2. Click the name of the OnTakt app from the list
3. Scroll down to Display Information
4. You can choose any icon, but here is the OnTakt logo
5. Click + Add App Icon under "App icon & preview" and choose the file

Microsoft Teams Setup

This must be done by a team administrator.

1. Go to https://teams.microsoft.com/l/app/203a1e2c-26cc-47ca-83ae-be98f960b6b2
2. Click the "Add to a team" button
3. Search for the channel you want to send notifications to
4. Click the "Set up a connector" button
5. When the configuration page opens, enter any name, such as "OnTakt"
6. You can choose any icon, but here is the OnTakt logo
7. Click the "Create" button
8. After the page reloads, scroll to the bottom and copy the URL it provides
9. Click "Done"
10. Paste this URL into the machine's Microsoft Teams Webhook URL field in OnTakt