Introduction

Optifacts can now automatically calculate and store an estimated production delivery date for all active jobs in the system. The calculation is based on any tray track stages the job qualifies for that have not been completed yet. If there are four stations that a job must pass through to complete, we add up the time assigned to each step that has not yet been completed. Based on the calendar days and working hours entered in the Estimated Delivery Date calendar, Optifacts determines which day that the job is estimated to be completed. If breakage occurs for the job, Optifacts assumes all steps need to be reprocessed. The production delivery date is stored in the job_data table as “PRODUCTION EDD.” Suppose we recalculate the production delivery date, and it is different from the current stored “PRODUCTION EDD.” In that case, we move the previous “PRODUCTION EDD” record to “OLD PRODUCTION EDD” and store the newly recalculated date as “PRODUCTION EDD.” The only trays that won’t be calculated are mailed-out jobs, canceled jobs, credits, bulk stock orders, Tray-Up orders with no job information yet, and jobs actively in the queue to getting processed by the ofdemon.

Procedure

The following information needs to be added to Optifacts to calculate and store an estimated production delivery date.

Job Status Set-up

From the Optifacts main menu:

Select Option 11 – Retail Transfer and press Enter.

Select Option 7 - Editor: Job Status Set-up and press Enter.

The TNT E-mail Options screen displays.

Press "A" to add a new record.
Add a record for account 'PRDEDD" similar to what is shown below.

The record above tells the jstatus program to calculate every 4 hours (240 minutes) the production delivery date for all active jobs in the system. It is recommended that the Minutes Between Transfers is not less than 60 minutes as we are recalculating all jobs every time.

Track Stages Set-Up

From the Optifacts main menu:

Select Option 7 – Tray Track and press Enter.

Select Option 12 - Tray Track Configuration and press Enter.

Select Option 11 - Track Stages Editor and press Enter.

Ensure that all stages/steps you wish to be included in he time calculation have a time assigned here. The units are in hours. (Refer to the Track Stop Stages document for full instructions)

Optifacts will use the Stage time unless a Step time is defined. In the below example, Optifacts will use 3 hours when adding this time to its calculations.

If more than one record exists for the same stage and step (i.e., more than one tray track station qualifies to complete that stage/step), Optifacts uses the most considerable time value in its calculation.

In the following example, Stage 2/Step 1 has two possible stations: 2011, which takes 6 hours, and 2013 which takes 2 hours. In this case, Optifacts uses 6 hours in its calculations.