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What's New in 14.1

Version 14.1 comes with several new features that we have been working on over the last few winter months.

Holiday Calendar

The new holiday calendar feature will allow you to set company wide holidays like the 4th of July or Christmas Day. These holidays will be very helpful in identifying days that should not be taken into account when scheduling, looking at late reports or anything else that requires date calculations. A common example is the calculation of the initial estimated shipping date based on a standard lead time, this lead time will use the holiday calendar to ensure that you are not getting penalized for on-time deliveries on days that your shop is not open.

Certificate of Conformance (CoC) Revisions

In DWOS you have always been able to revise a CoC after one has been generated. During a NADCAP audit, the auditor requested that DWOS ensures that the old revision of the CoC is kept in place and users are only allowed to create new revisions of a CoC when edits are made. This way the auditor could see in *incorrect* CoC's created and what was corrected. In addition to the revision feature, through another successful DWOS audit, we were requested to add a VOID watermark to any printed CoC that was not the latest version. Now we have added this capability so if a user prints an old CoC it will always show a VOID watermark and there will be no confusion if this was the latest CoC.

Scheduled Orders / WIP

In addition to showing all of the current work in progress (WIP) on the main screen in DWOS, along with all of the pertinent info for each work order, we have added a new schedule tab. This new schedule tab will allow operators to work through all orders that are scheduled to be completed in their department. This work list will operate similar to a punch or check list, as the operator completes orders the list will get smaller and smaller till the end of their shift and all items should be completed. This tab will be interactive and show additional data about each order to make it easy for operators to determine which orders to rack and work on next based on the schedule and what is in their department.

Paper Processing Mode

A new feature that will help those shops that are weary of using a true paperless processing system ease into it is Paper Processing mode. This new mode allows the definition of your paper based processes and specifications within DWOS, similar to how a paperless process is created, but the sheets will be printed with your traveler automatically. In paperless mode, when an order is created and the work order traveler is printed all processing answers are entered into the system and no other paper is involved in the processing of a part. This new paper mode combines the best of both worlds, it allows you to enter the process into DWOS, defining the constraints and keeping a revision controlled, frozen process. Though in paper mode, the paper process sheets are automatically printed with the work order traveler and floor operators annotate all answers on the paper. DWOS still requires operators to check orders in and out of departments and follow the same workflows and controls in place. This ensures that work orders are not processed differently regardless if they are paper or paperless. From your customers perspective, they will also be able to keep up with where in the system there orders are. In addition, because the only difference between paper and paperless processes is where the answers reside (in DWOS or on paper), paper and paperless processes can be mixed and matched within an order. This may be helpful in transitioning from a paper based system to a fully paperless system.

Part Templates

DWOS now has the ability to create generic part templates that can be stored in a part template manager. These part templates can be used to quickly create new parts for different customers without much effort. A common case would be if you had a part that you did for many different customers. You could easily add this part from your template store to each new customer to get them going quickly. This capability is in addition to the existing capability to copy an existing part from one customer to another existing customer.

Freeze Process

To better support the validation of a paperless process we have added a Freeze process workflow. This workflow allows another person to sign off on a process. A common case might be an NDT process which is required to be signed off by a Level III processor. This allows a quality operator to create the process in DWOS, but final sign off will be delegated to an authorized person, as required by NADCAP, ISO or other quality systems. Once a process is frozen, it cannot be changed unless a revision is created. New revisions will then again required to be signed off on to freeze the process again.

Advanced Scanning

New scanning options have been added to DWOS. Currently you could scan documents in as a multi-page TIFF, but now you can scan them in as PDF's. With this tool you could also import images from a camera or set quality settings such as compression rates among other settings. This scan feature is very handy when creating a new order, just create your new work order, out your customers PO in the scanner and hit the scan button in DWOS when you are ready. Now your customers PO, drawings, masking instructions or other documents and media can quickly be scanned and added to an order or a part as needed, without leaving DWOS.

Import / Export Processes

A handy feature that has been implemented is the ability to Import or Export Processes to the file system. This tool allows you to export your paper or paperless process to a local file, from there you can share the process with other DWOS users. In addition, processes created by DWOS Technical staff can also be easily shared with you. In the future, we hope to set up a sharing repository online that will allow the DWOS community to share processes and best practices.

Field Visibility

Due to different needs of DWOS customers, we have updated our field required and visibility options. This way you can determine what fields are visible or required at the application level or at the individual level. DWOS already has the ability to add custom fields that can be added for each customer, and those custom fields can be individually added to part marking templates, the work order traveler, or the certificate of conformance.

Document Links

We have updated document links to filter to relevant links based on the process or specification currently selected. Document links allow users to map documents in the document manager to processes (As it says in the name, the document manager allows secure, revision controlled, check-in and check-out of documents within DWOS). These links could be mapped to several different locations on a process, whether general links to the overall process or more specific links to an individual step. A good example of these links is linking the process to the actual specification used to create the process as required by some quality systems. To take it a step further, each step could have links to various types of media. If you had a step for cleaning a part, the links could point to work instructions on how to clean the part or maybe a powerpoint or video showing specific step by step instructions. Document links is a great way for ensuring the correct version of the specification or work instructions is mapped to the process and available to operators. Also, links are great for training and other informational links or lessons learned for those processes that are not performed repetitively or new operators.