<aside> 🎓 What can I do here?

• Learn tips about how to add documentation to your routings in StartProto.
• Learn how the shop floor can contribute to documentation. </aside>

Building Documentation

The DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) Rule- Operations, Processes, Work Groups

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If you are unfamiliar with Work Groups and Work Centers, we recommend briefly taking a look at the Work Centers & Work Groups article.

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As shown above, operations are the core of every routing. Generally, when someone thinks of an operation that happens at a manufacturer, they may think of an action (mill) that takes place on a type of machine (Vertical CNC Mill). In StartProto, these “types of machines” are called Work Groups. They define, at a high level, a capability that your operation has (or in some cases, that happens externally).

When these operations are scheduled on the priority list, we need a way to link them to the appropriate work group. This drives both which Work Centers are available to complete the work as well as alert the users who should work on this. We establish this link in a nuanced way that makes it easier to maintain documentation.

When building out your routings, there may be some things that you want to remind your shop floor to do every single time they run a machine in a Work Group (i.e. check coolant levels, startup procedures, etc.). Conversely, there may be a couple different types of things that you do on a specific machine (i.e. sometimes you need to whip out a 4th axis for a machine) and the documentation is different even though it is technically the same machine.

You could theoretically attach these documents every time you build a routing, but that’s slow, and what happens if you need to go back and update something? That could be hours of work.

To solve this issue, StartProto took to the DRY Rule to heart- Don’t Repeat Yourself. When building our a routing, you will notice that you have to assign a process to each operation. The process is a place that you can attach documentation that is shared between operations. Processes must be assigned to a specific Work Group.

(this concept is especially useful for the Part Variations case study below)

Documentation in Routings

With the introduction of processes, there are now four specific entities that you can use to show information to the shop floor:

You can attach documentation in two ways:

1. Use the built-in text editor- lets you add images, links, and more. Shows up directly when the user opens the details for that operation.
2. Attach it as a file- attach any file. Share programs, drawings, and more.

Embeds

TB

Documentation on the Floor

• what it looks like for operators
• grab from shop floor section, sync block with this

Expanding Your Documentation

• comments
• theoreticals on how to incentivize this