Getting started with Shop Floor

Getting started with Shop Floor

Set up a plant in order: credentials, site, data sources, workcenter types, lines, then a readiness check.

Every setup screen lives under Shop Floor and shares one Setup menu, grouped into Plant, Screens & displays, Data, Machines, Fleet and Alerts. Almost every screen works on one site at a time, so the site comes first.

Permissions: Setup needs the DataMagik - Builder role and the Shop Floor licence. Viewers can open Data Source Enablement and Plant Readiness to read the results, but only a Builder can run a check or an assessment.

Before you start

• A Plex data source credential. This is a basic-auth credential for the Plex API user that boards use to call data sources.
• An ODBC credential for the Plant Readiness report, which reads Plex's reporting replica.
• For machine data only: the OT connectivity licence and a connector agent installed on the plant network, set up under Connectors → Connector Agents.

If a credential does not exist yet, the Create one link beside each credential field on the Sites page takes you to Credentials.

1. Add a site

A site is one Plex PCN. Open Setup menu → Sites (/shop-floor/settings/sites) and press Add a site.

1. Enter a Name, for example "Main plant".
2. Enter the Plex PCN. The field suggests PCNs your company already uses. A known PCN is marked Seen before for this company. A new one is marked Not seen before, so check that it is the plant's PCN.
3. Choose the Company code. For a known PCN it is filled in for you. For a new PCN, pick a code your company uses or choose New code (PCN not seen before).
4. Pick the Data source credential (basic_auth) and the ODBC credential.
5. Choose the Plant timezone (IANA), for example America/Chicago. Boards read the plant's hours in this timezone, and reports close each day at local midnight. If it is left as Not set, reports close on a conservative 12-hour margin and run a day behind, so set it.
6. If the plant reads PLCs, choose its Connector site (for OT capture). Until this is set, OPC-UA tag capture cannot reach an agent.
7. Choose the Environment (production or test), leave Enabled ticked and press Add site.

The Live Plex reads switch on each site fetches current workcenter status, the running job and its rate from Plex, and evaluates shop-floor conditions. It saves as soon as you change it. With it off, the site costs no live Plex calls, and blocks, history and OEE are unaffected.

A site card shows a warning chip such as Data source credential missing or ODBC credential missing when a credential it names is no longer active.

2. Check data source enablement

Boards read specific Plex data sources, and your Plex API user must be granted each one. Open Data Source Enablement (/shop-floor/settings/enablement) and press Check site name. Each data source shows one of:

• ✓ Enabled: reachable, with the shape the screens expect.
• ✗ Not granted: grant this data source to the Plex API user used by this site, then check again.
• △ Shape mismatch: granted, but its fields differ from what the screen expects. The differences are listed under the row.
• ? Unknown: the check itself failed, so try again. If it keeps failing, the credential or connection is the problem.

The Blocks: line on a row names the screens that need that source.

3. Classify workcenters with guided setup

Workcenters come from Plex. You do not create them by hand. Open Workcenter types (/shop-floor/settings/classify). This page holds the guided setup.

1. Press See what Plex suggests. Guided setup works out each machine's type from its name and its Plex workcenter group.
2. Tick the types you want and press Apply the ticked types. This creates the types, classifies the machines and registers the built-in boards.
3. If suggestions remain, press Accept all to accept them. Machines you pinned by hand are never changed.
4. Assign any machine guided setup could not classify by choosing its type in the list.

Why it matters: an unclassified machine is not measured, and an app that asks for a role cannot read it. If the page says No workcenters have been pulled for this site yet, workcenters have not been brought in from Plex for this site. Contact DataMagik support to run the pull.

4. Group machines into areas and lines

On Areas and lines, add an area, add a line to it, and move machines onto the line. Boards filtered by a line only show machines on that line. See The plant model.

5. Bind the Floor Console's panels

On Console Settings, choose which Plex data source fills each panel of the Floor Console and which of the source's inputs receive the console's date range and workcenter. Optionally choose an AI assistant for the console. Bindings are set per site.

6. Run a plant readiness assessment

Open Plant Readiness (/shop-floor/readiness) and press Assess site name. The report reads only, so nothing is written to Plex. It grades each capability (pacing and hour-by-hour, downtime Pareto, live OEE, line mapping, shifts and others) as Ready, Partial or Blocked, and explains What it would take to improve it. Only completed days are counted, because Plex's reporting replica runs behind live data. Run it again after you fix something to see what changed.

7. Optional next steps

• Draw a Plant map so the Plant Overview shows machines in place.
• Put boards on TVs with Displays.
• With OT connectivity, bind machine signals on the OPC-UA Tag Map.