The report generation portion of the CPS requires minimal operator intervention to generate several classes of reports. The reports range from an in-depth view (textual or graphical) of a coil profile, to a summary of length and thickness statistics for a specified time period and product line.

Accel's CPS will help you make sense of the immense amount of data currently available from your existing CPMS.

Customer Profile

Accel provides the CPS to clients that are concerned about the gage quality of the coils they receive for processing and who no longer want to pay for the excess steel on coils that are above specification. These clients are typically frustrated by:

• Having to pay for scrap and out-of-spec steel
• The data necessary to evaluate specified gage of coil is not easily accessible.
• Poor gage quality
• Instruments indicate out-of-gage problems, but there is no hard data collected to present to suppliers.
• Poor gage quality reflects poorly on your final product
• High Quality Control Costs
• Gathering, correlating, and manual entry of data is a very time consuming process.
• Analysis is typically performed using "custom spreadsheets" on an as-needed basis.
• Reactive crisis management takes precedence over proactive process monitoring and improvement

Data Collection and Management

The data collection portion of the CPS is stand-alone, unattended, and completely integrated with your existing CPMS. The CPS collects coil data, organizes it, and stores it in time-based DBF formatted files. When business information becomes available, the CPS integrates the time-based data with the business data.

The archival portion of the CPS automatically archives and catalogs the coil-based data. Minimal operator interaction is required to retrieve data to generate reports.

Report Generation

The report generation portion of the CPS requires minimal operator interaction to generate 2 classes of reports:

• Coil Profile Summary Report
• Coil Profile Graphical Report

Coil Profile Summary Report

A textual, form-based report summarizing coil characteristics for specified product lines for a user-defined time period, typically one month. This report is customized by Accel for your product lines, is generated on demand, and displays the following information:

• Vendor, selected at report time (single vendor or all vendors)
• Four-column by seven-row report matrix using four predetermined but reselectable (at report time) strip width specs and seven predetermined gage ranges.
• Each matrix element contains summary data for the set of coils meeting the specified criteria:
• Number of coils and product tonnage.
• Average gage and standard deviation.
• Coil lengths determined by gage measurement
• Coil lengths determined by scrap cuts
• Weight of each coil region, and head and tail scrap
  
  

Coil Profile Graphical Report

A color-coded graphical report depicting the coil gage profile for a single coil or a selected set of coils, where the colors give an instantly-readable view of coil gage (similar to the figure on the front of this sheet).

This is a two-dimensional graph useful for determining scrap and the quality of the coil gage along the length of the coil.

Benefits

• Higher Quality Product - CPS will help you analyze the characteristics or your coils and provide a basis for improving the overall quality of your product.
• Lower Quality Control Costs - Reports are available on-line for an indefinite period of time; data is available in real-time.
• Minimal Interaction - No operator interaction is required during data collection, minimal operator interaction is required to generate reports and access archival capabilities.
• Easy to Use - Windows-based graphical user interface with point-and-click menus, scrollable lists, and buttons customized for your organization and product line.

System Requirements

Hardware

• 486-style IBM PC, 16MB RAM
• 17 inch color monitor
• Color printer
• Business System Communications Hardware/Software (Ethernet card or modems)
• CPMS Datalink Hardware (RS-232 or RS-422)
• Start-and-end-of-Coil Detection Datalink Hardware (RS-232 or RS-422)
  
  

Software

• MS-DOS 6.2 & Windows 3.1
• BASIC compiler
• Microsoft FoxPro2.6 for Windows on applicable machines
• Microsoft Excel 5.0 for Windows w/ Visual Basic
• TAL Enterprises Software Wedge for Windows
  
  

Data/Information

• Start-and-end-of-coil detection signal.
• Continuous availability of thickness and length measurements.
• Software access to coil-based business data to support business data merger.
• Information to support Accel's customization of the CPS:
• vendor list
• strip gauge ranges
• strip width ranges
• ordered gauges and thicknesses
• sample hardcopy of coil report generated by current CPMS