Detail Views on ColorPoint Manager

 

Main

The main panel of the detail view allows you to view and edit the identity of the item. The entries available will vary by the entity type being edited. If an error is detected, the entry area for that field will be highlighted in red. If you move your mouse over the highlight, and an error message or hint will be displayed. In the example below, the code for every material must be unique, and the code M1 has already been assigned to another material.

The other sections of the main panel are described in full in Categories, and Attributes

Items (Formulas/Designs/Jobs)

Items shows the components that go together to make an entity. In the case of a formula, it is the raw materials. In the case of a design or job it is a collection of formulas.

Files

You may attach various files to any entity. For instance materials may have MSDS documentation associated with them. Formulas may have colour specifications or mixing instructions. Designs may have images or PDF specifications for reference. Jobs may have job specific instructions

Make Obsolete

When an entity is no longer required on the system, e.g. a material will no longer be used; the entity may be made obsolete to keep it from being displayed in the main list view. The entity must not be referenced in any other active items. If a material is used in a formula, and you wish to make the material obsolete, there are two choices:

1. Replace the material with another,
2. Make the formula obsolete.

Jobs cannot be made obsolete. To remove a job, finish the job.

Notes

Notes allow you to attach sticky notes to entities. These are useful for recording the reason for a change to a formula, a query about the quality of a material etc.

Related Formulas/Designs

To find which formulas a material is used in, or which designs a formula is used in.

Suppliers (Materials Only)

Materials may be assigned to one or more suppliers. This enables filtering materials by their.

Customers (Designs/Jobs)

Designs and Jobs may be assigned to one or more customers. This enables filtering designs and jobs by customer.

Substrates

A design or job may be associated with a substrate. If a cost is associated with the substrate, this will be used when producing the job costing report based on the run length of the job.

Machines

A design or job may be associated with a machine. If the machine has been assigned a starter weight, this weight will be added to the total ink estimation for each screen in the job.

Formula Specific Actions

Formulas have two actions that other entities do not have.

Formula Sheet

The formula sheet allows you to specify a dispense weight and see the actual quantities of materials required to produce that formula. This is useful when making up formulas in a lab environment or for backups.

Returns

The returns action displays a list of all returns matching the current formula. This can be used to gauge what the current returns status is for any given formula.

Job Specific Actions

Jobs have more actions associated with them to handle all of the accounting tasks required.

Design

The design action links a job back to its originating design.

Dispenses

Displays a dispense history and issues associated with this job.

Release

Mark this job as released at the current date. Once release the job will become available on CPC for dispensing.

Issue to Job

Book ad hoc materials, formulas and returns to be booked against this job code without having to dispense them.

Job Costing

Display a report detailing all costed items booked against this job.

Job Sheet

Display a report of items to be dispensed on this job. This may optionally include a breakdown of the raw materials to be used in formulas and any returns matching the formula codes.

List Views on ColorPoint Manager

 

The most common view of your system in ColorPoint Manager (CPM) is the List View. Typically you will see Name, Code, Colour (on materials and formulas) and date last modified for the current selection of items. The list view can display all of the entity of your choice, e.g. all materials, or a subset of all entities as filtered (see Filtering and the Filter Panel) by the filter panel, e.g. materials starting with “AB1”. All lists are displayed in pages sized to fit your current window size.

The list view has two main actions:

1. Materials – all materials on the system.
2. Orphaned Materials – materials that are not used in any formulation.

Navigating a list of items

The navigation bar is common to all lists and provides the following functions:

1. Navigate to the first item.
2. Navigate to the previous item.
3. The current page number. Type in a new page number to navigate directly to that page.
4. The total number of pages.
5. The total number of items in the list.
6. Navigate to the next item.
7. Navigate to the last item

Customising a list

Lists may be customised in a number of ways.

1. Changing the columns that are displayed. To do this right-click on a column header and change the selection. Column names with ticks will be displayed. Column names without ticks will not be displayed.
2. Change the order of the displayed columns. Click and drag a column header to a new position, releasing the mouse button when the column is in its new position. To cancel press the ‘Esc’ key before releasing the mouse button.
3. Change the sort order of the data in a column. Click on the header of any column to sort the data by that column. Clicking the header again will reverse the sort order, e.g. 1, 2, 3 will become 3, 2, 1.

Issue returns, materials and formulas on ColorPoint Manager

 

Returns are usually used at CPC by reworking into other formulas or issuing them directly to press. For convenience the returns may also be issued to press, booked against a job.

There are two ways of issuing items to a job. The first is job centric; find the job you are looking for, open it and use the ‘Issue to Job’ action. The second is better if you need to issue items across a number of jobs; open Tools | Issues | Issue to Job from the menu bar.

In the second option the job is selected from a drop down list allowing any job to be selected, in the first option the job selector is hidden as the job number is taken from the currently selected job.

The following details need to be selected or filed in to complete the issue:

1. Screen: the screen on the press that the item is being issued to.
2. Weight: the weight to be issued.
3. Date: the date and time of the issue, defaults to the current time.
4. Only show items that are part of this job: restricts the selection of items that may be issued to those that are already on the job items list. Un-ticking this option will allow you to book and formula to any screen and is not recommended unless you are certain it is required.
5. The item type that is being booked to the job:
1. Material: select a material and the material batch of the pack/barrel being used to supply it.
2. Formula: Select the formula code that is being issued. This is used with pre-made formulas, or formulas that are already held in stock.
3. Return: Select the required return from the list. The return stock will be debited with the weight issued.

Clicking ‘Reset’ will reset the form, clicking ‘Issue’ issue the selection and resets the form.

Create a job on ColorPoint Manager

 

Designs are templates for new jobs. To create a job open the designs list and choose a design, right-click and select ‘Create Job’. This opens a new job, prefilled with the details of the chosen design and ready to be given a unique job number and run length. Once created the values provided by the design may be overridden if required

Create a design on ColorPoint Manager

Open the designs list. The ‘Add New’ button is below the list on the left. This will open a new blank detail view for the design. If you are creating a design that is similar to or a variation of an existing design it may be quicker to open the existing design and clone it using the ‘Clone Design’ button.

Fill in the details for the design as follows:

1. Code: a unique code to identify this design, up to 25 characters long. If you try to enter a code that has already been used or that is too long, you will see an error outline in red around the text box.
2. Name: a description of your design, up to 50 characters long.
3. Attributes may be used if estimations are enabled.
1. Run Length: The total length of the print run in m (on metric systems). This attribute is not required, but may be added to provide a default value to any job using this design as a template.
2. Web Width: The width of the print web in mm (on metric systems). This attribute is used as a default for any job using this design as a template and is required for estimations to work.
4. Items: The most important part of the design.
1. Select formulas to add to the design from the drop down list. Typing into the list will filter the list if you have a large number of formulas.
2. Click ‘Add Formula’ to add the selected formula to the design. It is quickest to add all the formulas required and then enter the usage factors and coverage values once they are all in the list together.
3. Select a formula and click ‘Remove Formula’ to remove the formula from the design.
4. Usage factor is prefilled by the selected cylinder (if a cylinder has been configured with a default usage factor). This value may be overridden if required.
5. Coverage is the percentage of the surface area of this design that the formula will cover.
6. Cylinder is the option cylinder to be used on press.
5. Categories: assign any categories you need.
6. Files: add any files for supporting information e.g. a .pdf document showing the design.
7. Notes: it may be a good idea to make a note of why the design was added to the system or changed for future reference.
8. Substrate: The default substrate for this design. This may be overridden in a job if required.

Save the design.

Receive and track stock on ColorPoint Manager

Once you have the raw materials defined on the system, the next step is to receive stock of these materials. The cost of a batch is set from the cost of the raw material at the time of the stock receipt. It is essential to do this before any dispensing takes place to ensure that all dispenses are automatically allocated to the correct batches. If this is not done, reconciling dispenses with material batches can become complicated.

Open the Stock receipt view:

1. Select the material to receive from the drop down list. Typing the first letter of the material will move the selection down the list to save scrolling on long lists.

2. Enter the number of packs or barrels to receive.

3. Enter the size of the packs or barrels. If you are receiving the same material in a number of different sized packs, enter the size of the most common pack here. You will be able to change it later.

4. Enter the supplier’s batch number for the materials. If more than one batch number is present in the delivery, enter the most commonly used on here. You will be able to change it later.

5. The date of the receipt will default to the current date and time. Change this if required. If you need to split a receipt across different dates, create a new receipt for each date required.

6. One batch per pack should be left ticked. If you really require all packs to be treated as a single pack please contact the support team to discuss this. This feature will be removed in a future version of CPM.

7. Consignment Stock assigns the consignment stock category to all of these packs if ticked. This is used in the stock valuation report to separate stock that is owned by the supplier from stock that is owned by the end user.

8. Create new batches is the default setting. Under this option you have the ability to adjust the batch numbers and weights of individual packs if required.

9. Add to existing batch will be removed in a future version of CPM. Use stock adjustments to increase the amount of stock received in and existing batch.

Save the batch. The form will be reset to receive the next batch.

As soon as stock batches are received they are available for selection on CPC. When refilling a tank, the batch can be selected from the material batches list.

All dispensed formulas take their traceability data from the stock batch that they were allocated to. This includes costing for use in the Job Costing Report. It is therefore essential that proper stock management is implemented if traceability or costing of product is important.

Create a new formula on ColorPoint Manager

Open the formulas list. The ‘Add New’ button is below the list on the left. This will open a new blank detail view for the formula. If you are creating a formula that is similar to or a variation of an existing formula it may be quicker to open the existing formula and clone it using the ‘Clone Formula’ button.

Fill in the details for the formula as follows:

1. Code: a unique code to identify this formula, up to 25 characters long. If you try to enter a code that has already been used or that is too long, you will see an error outline in red around the text box.

2. Name: a description of your formula, up to 50 characters long.

3. Colour: choose a colour closest to the colour of your formula. This provides a visual clue when working with lists of formula and does not need to be an exact match.

4. Items: are the most important part of a formula

a. Select materials to add to the formula from the drop down list. Typing into the list will filter the selection if you have a large number of materials.

b. Click ‘Add Material’ to add the selected material to the formula. It is quickest to add all of the materials you need and then enter the parts required once they are all in the list together.

c. If you need to remove a material from the formula, select it in the list and click ‘Remove Material’.

d. Double click on the values in the ‘Parts’ column to edit them. Once you are editing parts, you can move up and down the list using the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard.

e. Manual add materials are indicated by a ☼ symbol. These materials are not attached to a dispense valve and are instead added manually by the operator when required.

f. Clicking on a material and dragging it up or down the list will change the dispense order. It is recommended that you place manual add materials either at the start of the list or the end. This causes the least disruption for the operator. A benefit of placing the manual additions at the beginning of the list is that any accidental over dispensing of manual can be corrected easily by the dispenser.

g. It is recommended that you save the formula at this point to validate the items. If the sum of the parts does not add up to 100, you will be given the option to reapportion the formula. In most cases this is the correct thing to do, but in some cases you may have a formula that makes more sense as 1 part of A, 1 part of B and 1 part of C. Choosing no will allow you to keep the formula in this format.

5. Categories: assign any categories you need.

6. Attributes: add any attributes required.

7. Files: add any files for supporting information e.g. a colour specification document.

8. Notes: it may be a good idea to make a note of why the formula was added to the system or changed for future reference.