PSI gives you a platform to create and share Visual Work Instructions, gather information from your operators about the results of inspections, and track the quality and efficiency of your production.

At PSI, we believe information is power. We’re here to help you share, gather, and evaluate information about your company so you can increase your productivity.

 

Getting Started

Setting up and rolling out a new app within your company can seem like a daunting task—we’re here to make this set-up as simple as possible. This guide will help walk you through the main steps of getting started, so you can get right down to business.

This guide is designed to help new users learn the basics of the software. If you ever need a refresher on a certain step, individual tutorials are also available for each of these topics (and more).

The Basics

1. Set up a Machine.
   
2. Set up a Job.
   
3. Run Production.
   

We’ll walk you through each of these steps and explain how they function, so you can get up and running in no time.

 

Step One: Set Up a Machine

The Machines section is where you will store information about the machines in your shop. This allows us to track and provide you with real-time stats about which machines are running which job(s), which machines are in down-time, and efficiency and part counts coming out of each machine.

 

To start, click the Machines button. 

This will bring you to where you will manage your machines. Since you don’t have any machines created yet, this section will be empty.

Click Create New Machine.

This will bring you to a page where you can enter information about your machine.

Enter in the Facility/Department where the machine is located (for example: Plant 1).  Enter in the Machine Number.  Enter in the Machine Name.

Click the Create button.

Your new machine will be added to the list. 

 

CONGRATULATIONS! Step one is now complete!

Click the Home button to return to the Main Menu.

 

Step Two: Set Up a Job

The Jobs Section is where you will store information about the jobs, operations, and inspections that will be run in your shop. This allows us to create target goals to use when calculating efficiency. This is also where you can create visual work instructions for your operators to follow when performing inspections, and define how often inspections should be performed.

 

Click the Jobs button.

This will bring you to where you will manage your jobs. Since you don’t have any jobs created yet, this section will be empty.

Click the Create New Job button. 

This will bring you to the form for creating a new Job.

Enter a Job Name for your job. This should be your in-house name for this particular Job. Enter a Job Number. This will be the number you will type in when searching for this job in the future. Enter the Customer Part Name and Customer Part Number. This is how your customer refers to this part, in case your in-house job name and number refers to it differently. Enter a more detailed Part Description.

Click the Create button.

This will bring you to where you can edit this job and view current operations that are attached. Since you don’t have any operations created yet, this section will be empty.

Click the Add Operation button.

This will bring you to the form for creating an operation for this Job.

Enter an Operation Name. We will suggest commonly used names for you, as you type the first few letters of the name. Enter an Operation Number to identify this job. Enter the number of parts per machine cycle. (Minimum of 1)

The rest of the information is optional.  

Target Rate is the number of parts that should be made within the Target Time. (Example: 100 parts per hour. This would be a Rate of 100 and a Time of 1 hour.)  

Inspection Frequency is how often you want your operators to be prompted to perform an inspection.

Required Training Hours is how many hours you feel is necessary to be considered trained for this job/operation.

Once you have completed the form, click the Create button.

This will bring you to where you can add an inspection to this job and view current inspections that are attached. Since you don’t have any inspections created yet, this section will be empty.

This is where you will create your first Inspection that belongs to this operation.

Enter the Characteristic that will be inspected.

Enter the Inspection Description, which will appear when operators are performing this inspection. Here, you can put as much detail as you need, to help the operator do the inspection correctly. 

 

Next you will select an Inspection Type.

The Inspection Type can be one of three options:

Attribute - A gauge will be attached to the inspection and the gauge will determine pass/fail(Go/No Go).

Visual - Operators will visually inspect and determine if it passes or fails.

Variable - There will be Operator Input Involved.

Select one of the options from the drop-down list.

Note about Variable Types: If you select a Variable type, additional fields will appear for you to fill out.

The Min and Max will create a range of acceptable values that the operator can enter during the inspection that will pass. The Unit of Measure will display next to the min and max. (Example: If a hole needs to be between 1.2 and 2.2 CM to pass an inspection enter 1.2 as the Min, 2.2 as the Max, and CM as the Unit of Measure)

The rest of the information is optional.

The first check box is to indicate whether you would like the trends graph to be displayed on the production page.

The Upper and Lower Control Limits are optional and are designed to create a tighter range than the Min and Max for indicating that action needs to be taken before bad parts are made.

The Display Control Limits check box is to indicate whether the control limits will be displayed to the operator or not.

The Inspection Occurrence determines whether this inspection will be included on the First, Production, and Last Inspections. Example: If you want this inspection to only appear on the last inspection of the shift, you would leave the Last box checked and uncheck the boxes for First and Production.

For now, leave these in their default checked state.

Next you can choose to Add Images/Files.

Click on the Choose Files button. This will bring up the file explorer on your computer to search for files.

File Types supported: Video(.mp4), Image(.jpg, .jpeg, .png), Document(.pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx)

Lastly, you have the option to attach Add Gages to this inspection. Check out our other tutorials to learn more about how to set-up Gages.

After you are satisfied with the inspection information click the Add button.

Your new inspection will be added to the list.

 

CONGRATULATIONS! Step two is now complete!

Click the Home button to return to the Main Menu.

 

Step Three: Run Production

The Production section is where operators will go to run inspections on jobs, view visual work instructions, and input inspection results. This is also where they will be able to view their personal efficiency graph, efficiency gage, inspection countdown timer, and (if applied on this job, for variable inspections) their trends graph.

 

Click the Production button.

This will bring you to where you will select which type of Job you would like to run.

Click the Single Job button. You can learn more about running a Job Group, by checking out our Job Groups tutorial.

Enter your Job Number.

Note: As you begin to type your job number, a list of jobs will be displayed to you.

Click the Select button, for the job you wish to run. 

This will bring you to a list of available operations for this job.  Click the Select button, for the operation you would like to run.

This will bring you to a list of available machines for this operation.

Click the Select button, for the machine you would like to run.

Review your job information has been entered correctly.

Click the Confirm button.

This will bring you to the Production page.

Click the Conduct Inspection button.

This will change the buttons on the page to allow you to select which type of inspection you would like to run or to cancel.

 

Click the Production Inspection button.

 

Enter your piece count, then click the Submit button.

Complete your inspection using the instructions you created in the last step.

You will be returned to the Production page, now with updates made to your graphs, gages, and countdown timer.

 

CONGRATULATIONS! Step three is now complete!

 

Get more!

We hope you found this guide helpful in getting you started! When you’re ready to learn more about the other features that you can use to track and control your jobs, be sure to check out the other tutorials in our Help Center.