My day job got some pretty substantial new business. We had an old scanner system that we used at our sister plant. We wanted to implement this in our facility. Unfortunately it just wouldn’t work. Things were hard coded for one specific plant. The original person who wrote the code passed away, and the source files could not be located.
I Dusted off my old coding skills and set out to re-create it. That soon surpassed what was ever in that old software. Including a system to scan Single parts & generate internal labels. A second system was implemented to scan 2 matching parts (and validate they go together), then generate a master label for that kit.
Visual basic and the .NET framework as used to write this project. Each remote location in the plant uses a shared network location to access a shared CSV file (Generated from an excel spreadsheet) to read all the parts it could ever possibly scan.
Adding new parts to the system is as simple as updating the spreadsheet. and it can roll out new parts in seconds.
Other features that are note worthy
- Each remote computer can use a different config file to load a different scanning screen based on Single part, or kit matching requirements.
- If other facilities need to use this software, they can easily have it up and running within minutes by populating their own spreadsheet and updating the configuration files to link to their shared resource.
- password protected administration panel so only supervisors and team leaders can access certain features.
- Data logging to a CSV file (readable in excel) for both parts produced & team leader label reprints. Providing full traceability back in case of label error
- used Intermec Printer Language (IPL) as templates for the labels.
- Fully documented code for future readers to easily figure out whats going on.
- Full Documentation on how the software works and any bugs / workarounds / updated I’ve done through the life span so far.
- Self updating (from admin panel) if I put new software on our shared server for one click updates in seconds. This makes downtime while upgrading near 0% since it can be done within seconds between parts
- Maintained by myself and in use in our facility since 2016.
Check out the code on Github : https://github.com/kennyquast/352ShippingLabelMaker