Adding Cycle Time And Handling Fields To NC-Base

Open CIMCO Edit, Click Database, Setup and highlight Database Settings on the left.


Most NC-Base databases already have a Cycle Time field so we have to add an extra Handling Time field. In the example above the Cycle Time was already an active field. The Handling Time field was added later. DO NOT change the field order on an existing database as this will leave all existing data fields with the incorrect data in them. Add an extra field at the end of the existing database fields to avoid corruption. Click OK to save the changes. Keep a note of which database field the Cycle time and Handling time are saved in - you will need them in the next stage.

Configuring MDC-Max To Use NC-Base Fields

We now need to configure MDC-Max to look at these fields. Open the MDC- Max client, click Setup, System Setup and click Job Setup on the left.


Click MSG[JOBSTART] in the list (this is the barcode start job message we setup previously). Now click into DBVAR section on the right - these variables will be used to read the correct database fields in NC-Base. Set DBVAR(1) to be the Cycle Time (Database Field 4 in our example) and DBVAR(2) to the Handling time (Database Field 8 in our example). Note you can now use DBVAR(1) on any live screen to display the expected cycle time.

Click MSG[SENDSTART] and make the same changes to it. This ensures that the database variables are read whether using a barcode reader or sending a file from DNC-Max.


Entering Cycle And Handling Times In NC-Base

The performance figure will only be calculated if the relevant fields were filled in for the job in the database. Open CIMCO Edit, click the database icon to see a list of files and double click a filename to display the Job stats:-


The Cycle Time and Handling Time fields should be entered either as a number of seconds or in the form 3M 40S for 3 minutes 40 seconds. The Data in these fields is read by MDC-Max as each new job starts, so retrospectively adding the Cycle Times will have no effect on the OEE figures until the job is run again.