The balances are used by various different workers across two production shifts. The Production Engineer and his deputy are administrators on the balance; they have full access rights to the balances and the setting up of the connected devices. He sets up a Quality Managers group that has access to balance settings, calibration functions, and target weights and tolerances.
The Quality Manager is assigned to the Quality Managers group and is required to use a password. Calibration is carried out on each balance once per month. The Operator group is given access only to the Simple Weighing and the Check-Weighing application with the pre-defined target weights and tolerances. Each operator assigned to the group has his own username and password, which is the same for other systems within the company for consistency. This enables the Quality Manager to check which operator performed each quality control check.
When the operator logs in, the Check-Weighing application starts directly. He doesn't need to manually enter his User ID, the sample ID is read in via barcode, and the date and time are recorded automatically. Having weighed the assembly, if it is within tolerance, the balance screen turns green to clearly indicate that it has passed or it turns red to indicate that the assembly requires further processing and re-checking. All results are recorded and transferred to the PC.
Using the balance is very simple for the operators, substantially reducing the risk of errors which is crucial in the manufacture of this safety-critical product.
