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Components
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Features
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Details
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Benefits
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- EA! Multi-line item Shop Orders
(Click here for sample)
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- Multiple parts of the same profile but different cut lengths, fabrications and/or
finishes can be scheduled as a single extrusion job
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- Eliminate redundant data
- Reduce paperwork
- Simplify scheduling
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- Can be e-mailed to customer and outside-processing vendor contacts on demand
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- Reduce manual effort
- Improve accountability
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- Planning can be done using the actual wt/foot for a specific die (copy) or a profile’s
nominal/print wt/foot
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- Improve planning accuracy
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- Computes optimum billet lengths and quantities for small and large orders
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- Avoid overruns
- Reduce stock
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- Alloy-specific billet lengths
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- Helps control the number of different billet lengths that need to be ordered from
suppliers
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- Lead times for each process or department can be specified globally and overridden
at the part or order level
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- Improve on-time delivery
- Improve coordination with vendors
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- EA! Accurately projects press utilization on a weekly basis using the estimated
extrusion date for each order and the most recent production rates of scheduled profiles,
resulting in a highly accurate schedule
- Schedule for each press can be adjusted independently and customized for any week
to accommodate holidays, extra shifts, scheduled maintenance, etc.
- Press time can be reserved for important customers
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- Improve on-time delivery
- Adjust production to accommodate changing product mix
- Ensure that there is room to give priority to important customers
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- Drag & drop daily scheduling tool
(Click here for screen shot)
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- Intuitive interface
- Alerts operators to billet shortages and late orders
- Identifies when multiple orders for the same profile are in the schedule so they
can be run together
- Large orders can be split into multiple runs that are scheduled independently
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- Ease scheduling
- Reduce setups
- Minimize the number of dies needed for large jobs
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- Value-added process and packing scheduling
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- Group processes into logical Schedule Groups by the process to be done, the press
the order was run on and/or the machine to be used to perform a process
- Drag & drop scheduling tool makes prioritizing jobs easy
- Line up is automatically pushed to operators in the plant
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- Balance labor resources
- Prioritize hot orders in value-added and packing processes as well as extrusion
- Communicate priorities to production personnel
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- Tracks inventory by size and attributes
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- Summarizes billet and log requirements for future weeks and computes order quantities
based on a user-designated order window
- Shows billet and log requirements by weight or quantity
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- Know alloys, sizes and quantities needed most urgently
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- Product and Tool Database
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- Stores length, tolerances, alloy, temper, cooling specifications, production and
finishing processes, notes and PDF files containing fabrication and packing diagrams/instructions
for each part
- Supports assemblies and kits with a single-level bill of materials, including purchased
items
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- Ensure a consistent and correct product
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- Stores profile drawings and packing prints in PDF form
- EA! Includes built-in PDF viewer for every user at no extra cost
- EA! Stores billet temperatures, extrusion speeds and notes specific to each press,
alloy and temper
- Maintains a history of changes to production parameters as well as approved Extrusion
Data Change Requests
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- Up-to-date information and drawings are available to all plant personnel on demand
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- Identifies attributes of individual dies (copies), including hole count, vendor,
coating, location, actual wt/foot and EA! support tool matrix
- Tracks production history by die (copy), including updating actual wt/foot from values
recorded with production data and updating die status after each use based on disposition
and comments entered after each use by the press operator
- Maintains a history of notes entered by die repair for each copy as well as changes
to die-specific production parameters and approved Extrusion Data Change Requests
- Instantly computes cumulative statistics for a die, including number of billets and
lifetime gross and net weight per hour
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- Detailed history is available for each die
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- Allows any number of user-defined tool types
- Tracks multiple copies of any tool
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- Track all tools needed for production
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- EA! Extrusion Data Change Requests
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- Allows press operators or others to request changes to profile-specific production
parameters (i.e. extrusion recipes) such as billet temperatures, cooling type, extrusion
speed, butt length, etc.
- Requests are either approved or rejected by production management, engineering or
quality control personnel
- Press operators are informed of newly-approved and pending changes to production
parameters
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- Maintains a detailed history of changes that could affect productivity and/or quality
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- Shop floor production information presentation and collection
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- EA! Designed for use at the extrusion press as well as any value-added process or
packing station
- EA! Optimized for use with a touchscreen to allow easy selection of jobs and recording
of production data
- Captures all job-related production data, including production time, downtime, billets
extruded, piece quantities, actual weight/foot and scrapped pieces and reasons
- Interfaces with press process control systems such as Parijat’s EPOS and SMS Meer’s
PICOS for two-way exchange of order and production information
- Generates bar coded packing tickets
- Tracks in-process material using either shop tags printed after each process or rack
IDs permanently assigned to racks, carts or bins
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- Enable real-time production reporting
- Updated order status is available instantly
- Enforce traceability
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- EA! Billet and Log Queue
(Click here for screen shot)
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- Log and billet added to queue when delivered to the press
- Queue is relieved and billet/log attributes are automatically copied to orders as
they are extruded
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- Avoid extruding job with wrong billet/log
- Reduce scrap
- Reduce entry and improve accuracy of production data
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- Real-Time Plant Monitoring
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- Shows the status of all press, value-added, QA and packing jobs currently in process
anywhere in the plant, including whether they’re running past their expected finish
time, have a Quality Check due, are down or are affected by a non-conforming product
Alert
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- Monitor status and progress of all operations in real-time
- Be instantly informed of quality, mechanical or other issues
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- Operational & Management Reporting
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- Computes production rate (weight/hour) and recovery/backstock by press, date, shift,
profile, die, alloy and customer, for any date range
- EA! Shows production rates including production-related downtime for a truer picture
of productivity
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- Compare current recovery to established targets
- Easily compare current to historical production
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- EA! Show detailed progress of each order through both internal and outside processes
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- Know the status of each order for any customer
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- Computes contribution and profit by press, customer and profile for any period of
time (requires Quoting and Automatic Pricing module)
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- See how orders impact the bottom line
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- BIRT business intelligence reporting tool
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- Create custom reports based on a number of predefined data cubes for a variety of
subject areas
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- Quickly develop and customize reports
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- Die/Tooling Purchase Orders
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- Generates and tracks purchase orders for new dies and support tools or rework/re-coating
of existing dies/tools
- Can be generated directly from an accepted quote (requires Quoting and Automatic
Pricing module)
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- Provides visibility of die availability to schedulers
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- Billet/Log Purchase Orders
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- Blanket orders indicate a target volume from a given vendor over a period of time
- Releases identify specific billet/log types and quantities to be delivered in a particular
week or on a particular day
- Reports compare scheduled orders to on-hand inventory and scheduled receipts
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- Identify where additional billets/logs are needed
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- Issue and track purchase orders for purchased items, such as those combined with
extrusions to produce a kit or assembly
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- Keep an accurate inventory of purchased items
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- Document chemical analysis and pull test results for orders
- Automatically generated for customers/parts that require them
- Multiple pull tests can be recorded on a single certificate
- Warns operators if any material is out of specification before shipping paperwork
is generated
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- Avoid shipping material that does not meet specifications
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- Reduce manual data entry
- Improve accuracy
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- Alerts/Quality Concern Reports
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- Production personnel can create an alert for material with a potential quality or
other issue
- Alerts can include a photo and be given a warning disposition to instruct operators
in downstream processes to check or sort suspect parts
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- Alert quality assurance and supervisors to non-conforming product
- Avoid shipping non-conforming product
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- EA! User-defined Quality Checks (Click here for screen shot)
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- Define custom quality checks for profiles and/or parts
- Each quality check can consist of an unlimited number of data points to be entered,
which can be decimal, integer, pass/fail or string values
- Users can be prompted to enter a quality check reading with a user-defined frequency,
in any specified process
- Data points can be specified with a tolerance; if user enters an out-of-tolerance
value, they will be prompted to create an Alert
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- Validate that material meets specifications
- Help achieve ISO quality standard certification
- Document quality check readings, including when they were taken and by whom
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- Corrective/Preventive Actions
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- Document steps to be taken to solve or avoid a quality- or production-related issue
issue
- Automatically generate Alerts for upcoming jobs to prompt production personnel to
implement corrective action steps
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- Document and control the correction of issues
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- EA! Engineering Change Notices
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- Require approvals from affected departments when specifications for a profile or
part change
- Profiles and parts are prevented from being added to a shop order or scheduled for
production while approvals are pending
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- Ensure that all stakeholders are aware of specification changes and affirm that changes
are feasible and documented
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- Return Material Authorizations (RMA)
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- Includes receiving and approval functions to track the progress of an RMA
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- Document material to be returned and the reason
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- Stock availability alerts
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- Operators entering new or updating existing orders are alerted to the availability
of material in stock that can be used to fulfill part or all of the order
- EA! Stock material in long lengths can be reserved for orders that require a shorter
length
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- Utilize material already available
- Keep stock inventory to a minimum
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- User-defined scrap reasons
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- Scrap reasons can be configured to permit the entry of an additional detailed description
of a problem
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- Encourage reporting of scrap
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- BIRT report template can be easily and quickly configured to report scrap by any
of several dimensions
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- Identify primary sources of scrap so they can be addressed
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- Shop orders, packing tickets and shipping documents all include 2D bar codes that
provide a variety of information about the order and items
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- Quickly pull up information about an order by simply scanning a document
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- Both ExtSTAR Desktop and ShopStation support scanning of bar codes to identify orders,
parts, packing tickets, shipping documents, etc.
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- Save time
- Avoid mistakes in identifying parts and orders
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- Avoid missing the generation of custom labels
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- Can build a shipment including all necessary packing lists by simply scanning a group
of packing tickets to be shipped together on a truck
- After or as a truck is loaded, the packing tickets can be scanned a second time to
verify the load
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- Avoid having a truck leave with missing or extra packages
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- Marking a packing list shipped automatically records production data for the Shipping
process associated with each order
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- Positively affirm that the items on a packing list/invoice have shipped
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- EA! Web-based outside processing application (optional)
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- Optional module permits vendors who provide value-added or finishing services to
report material processed via a web application
- Supports assemblies and kits
- Supports multi-vendor routing
- Coordinates shipments from vendor sites
- Supports stocking a vendor with lineals that can be cut back to any length finished
part
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- Provide timely and detailed records of material processed by vendors
- Provide full traceability through outside processes
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- Automatic pricing (optional)
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- Rule-based tool generates all extrusion, setup, fabrication, material certificate
and other charges for every order for any customer
- EA! All prices have a starting and an optional ending effective date, which lets
you generate pricing for any effective date at any time
- EA! Generates customer price lists that can be automatically distributed to customers
via e-mail (Click here for sample)
- EA! Contract prices can be specified that apply to a particular volume or period
of time and a select group of products; contract fulfillment can be computed at any
time and included on customer price lists
- EA! Pricing can be based on either order date or ship date with the ability to override
the global setting for particular customers
- Automatically generate charges for orders at time of shipping
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- Eliminate many manual pricing activities
- Configure and confirm pricing changes before they take effect
- Maintain a complete history of pricing
- Easily manage and apply contract pricing
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- Automatically generate invoices from shipped packing lists
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- Order acknowledgements, outside-processed orders, invoices, shipping documents, custom
price lists and other documents can be e-mailed or faxed to customer and vendor contacts
automatically
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- Ensure consistent distribution of documents
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- Users can request reports to be run on a schedule and automatically e-mailed to one
or more recipients
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- Automate distribution of important reports
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- EA! Web-based quoting application (optional)
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- User-defined workflows route quotes to all personnel whose input is needed
- E-mails sub-quotes to vendors and finished quotes to customers/prospects
- Includes widget that estimates recovery and wt/hour for a quoted profile
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- Track all details related to a quote
- Prevent quotes from falling “off the radar”
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- Supports country- and language-specific text and formats for numbers, dates and currency
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- Customize application for a region
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- English and metric units of measure
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- Lengths and weights can be specified in any of several English and metric units of
measure; a built-in conversion tool is also available to convert from one unit of
measure to another
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- Accommodate local units of measure
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- Custom PDF documents containing fillable fields or BIRT reports can be stored in
ExtSTAR and automatically generated for selected customers and/or vendors, with fields
populated by values from an invoice, packing list or shop order
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- Provide important customers with information in a format they desire
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- User-defined notifications can automatically e-mail selected personnel when certain
events occur, such as the ship date changing on a shop order for a certain customer
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- Ensure that the appropriate people are notified of occurrences that may require additional
action
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- EA! Platform-independence
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- ExtSTAR is written in Java™, allowing it to run on virtually any platform, including
Windows® and Linux®
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