Connecting printers and post-processing machines to the MES via Machine Connectivity gives you access to a number of additional functionality.
Smarter Job Management
Detecting started jobs
When a job is already scheduled, i.e. the job has a start and end time, then the MES can automatically detect if that job is started on the connected machine.
The following algorithm matches a scheduled job with a job that is detected on a connected machine:
When the actual start time of a detected job lies within +/- 1h of the scheduled start time of a job in the MES, then match those two jobs.
Otherwise, create a new job in the MES.
As a result of matching a detected job, the scheduled start time is adjusted to the actual start time. Likewise, the end time and duration of a job are adjusted to the actual values once the connected machine sends the job finished signal via Machine Connectivity.
Creating jobs automatically
When a job is detected via Machine Connectivity that cannot be matched with any scheduled job, or if no scheduled jobs exist, then a new job will automatically be created in the MES with the data provided by the machine.