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May 2023 - New Features

Nick Kelly
  • Updated

                                           
Thank you all for trusting us to solve some of your most challenging manufacturing data problems. And thank you also for the effort you’ve taken to provide us detailed product feedback. With your support, we’ve built and delivered many new features and product enhancements over the last four months. 
 
The most important changes are listed below. We will also be hosting a webinar to walk you through these changes and answer your questions. 
Webinar Date, Time and Link:
Date: May 23, 2023.
Time (USA): 2:00 pm ET, 1:00 pm CT, 11:00 am PT
Registration Link: https//us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hbZ16KaaROC-zWGpyVuX3A
 
1. Incorporate Multiple Drawings into a Single Plan
Many of you requested the ability to include and manage multiple drawings within a single plan. These drawings could include customer drawings, customer spec sheets, manufacturing process or operations sketches, and industry standards.

You can now start a plan with a single drawing (typically a customer drawing), and then load additional drawings under the Files slide-out on the Drawings tab.

 
2. Enhancements to the Spec Library Feature
We’ve enhanced the Spec Library feature with the following new features:
  1. The ability to load and balloon one or more drawings in a Spec Library
  2. The ability to version-control a Spec Library
  3. The ability to import the Spec Library and Ballooned Spec Library Drawings into a Plan
  4. The ability to find all the plans that use a spec library
  5. The ability to quickly update the plans that use that spec library
 
3. Alpha-Numeric Balloons
We have enhanced our ballooning capabilities to include alpha-numeric or named balloons. For example, you can have two balloons #16A and #16B or #16TOP and #16BOTTOM with the same balloon number but different suffixes.


These balloons show up as two separate rows in the Plan and in the Inspection.

 
4. Record Multiple Gage IDs for a Singe Feature in an Inspection
There are multiple scenarios in which you may need to record more than one gage for a single parameter:
1. As an example, you may need two gages (a compound gage) to make a single measurement. You can now specify “Method A + Method B” in the Plan and then record two Gage IDs in the Inspection Gage slide-out.
2. You may also need to record multiple gages for a single parameter when lots are split between two inspectors or two different CMMs. You can specify a single Method in the Plan but record multiple Gage IDs in the Inspection Gage slide-out.
 
5. Powerful New Supply Chain Quality Control capabilities
Many years ago, we launched 1factory with the goal to simplify quality control within the factory and across the supply chain. Our latest supply-chain quality control enhancements have resulted in the most powerful supply chain quality control solution on the market.
Buyers of parts can now connect with their suppliers, and:
  1. Receive, review and approve Quality Control Plans to ensure alignment on critical features, inspection methods, and sampling rules
  2. Receive, review, and approve First Article Inspections with measurement data and all necessary certs.
  3. Receive, review, and approve Production Inspection data before parts are shipped by suppliers.
  4. Receive notifications for High-Risk shipments and quickly analyze and align on data with suppliers
  5. Collaborate with built-in Messaging to ensure critical communication is always associated and can be found with the Plan, First Article or Inspection record instead of being lost in people’s email.
A customer (buyer of parts) can access data shared by their suppliers (maker of parts) under the “Supplier” tab.
In addition, buyers of parts can now connect with suppliers, and:
  1. Create and assign Supplier Corrective Action Reports (SCARs) to suppliers and receive, review and approve the supplier’s response within 1factory
  2. Create and share Quality Control Plans and Receiving inspection data with suppliers
  3. Collaborate with built-in Messaging to ensure alignment.
A supplier can access data shared by their customers (buyers of parts) under the “Customers” tab.

Case Study: A large equipment maker, recently deployed 1factory’s supply chain quality control solution and was able to work through over 200 First Articles with their first supplier in the first month of deployment. 
 
6. Tabulated Drawings with Independent Revisions 
Many companies use tabulated drawings to simplify the effort to manage specifications and drawings for many variants (table entries) of the same part. For example, parts may be produced in combinations of different sizes and colors. Typically, these parts share the same revision as the tabulated drawing itself.
However, in many cases, the part variants may have revisions that are completely independent of the tabulated drawings. 1factory now supports tabulated drawings with variant parts that have revisions independent of the tabulated drawing itself.
 
7. Preventing Duplicate Inspection Records 
Some of you highlighted how easy it was to accidentally create multiple inspection records for a single lot.
We’ve now changed the workflow to ensure that an inspector is taken to the existing inspection record by default. This workflow change prevents accidental duplication.
 
8. Calculate Cp, Cpk for Specs with MMC or LMC (i.e., with a Bonus Tolerance) 
1factory now automatically calculates Cp and Cpk for True Positions with a Max Material Condition (MMC) or Least Material Condition (LMC)
 
9. PCDMIS Import for Multiple Features per Block
We have updated the PCDMIS CMM data importer to read and parse multiple features by axis where customers do not have the ability to insert a unique balloon number per feature.

For example, 1factory can now identify and import the hole diameter, the true position, and the related Y and Z basic dimensions even if all four lines of data have the same set of identifiers. We do this by using a combination of balloon number and axis as shown below:

In the example below, all four rows of data have the same name #1(DF)#2(TP)_. 1factory maps the data from Axis DF to the diameter (balloon #1) and from axis TP to the true position (balloon #2).


 
10. Enhanced Encryption with Unique Encryption Keys for Each File
1factory has always used encrypted block storage for files (drawings), and an encrypted database for data (specs, measurement data).

We’ve now further strengthened security with OPTIONAL file-level encryption for sensitive / ITAR / export-controlled drawings. With this setting, each file is encrypted with a randomly generated unique key managed by the AWS Key Management System.
 
11. Tolerance Expressions for Tabulated Features
The table of sizes was previously restricted to only a few types of characteristics. We’ve enhanced the table of sizes to accept nearly every characteristic type:
  1. Nom +/- Tol
  2. Nom +Tol -Tol
  3. Nom +Tol + Tol
  4. Nom -Tol -Tol
  5. Min, Max
  6. Min Only
  7. Max Only
  8. GD&T
  9. Basic
 
12. Ballooning 3D Models
We’ve built the first version of our 3D Model ballooning tool. In this version, we can read a STEP file, automatically generate views from the model, and then auto-balloon the views and populate the list of features and specifications (i.e. populate the bill of characteristics) in the plan.
From here, our customers can use our existing powerful functionality to create plans and first articles and collect and analyze on-going production data.
 
And, as always, we are available to answer any questions. We also welcome any feedback related to these or other features. You can reach us at the email or number below.
1factory, Inc.
email: support@1factory.com
phone: +1-855-693-6836

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