At Technetics, we had an in-house Machine Shop to manufacture components for certain jobs more quickly and cheaply. Our Machine Shop would utilize setup sheets to track setups on our lathes, mills, and MTMs.

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Previously, these setup sheets were in Excel, separate from one another. Since they were in Excel, they were always open to manipulation, and there was little to no revision tracking. In addition, it made it easy for formatting to differ greatly from one setup sheet to another.

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I implemented an Access database to store and track all setup sheet changes. This way, all setup sheet data would be stored and formatted properly.

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Each setup sheet was a form for data entry, with buttons for printing to different page sizes so the operator could view it at their machine. Each printout also showed the current date so that out-of-date prints were easy to spot.

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Revisions of setup sheets were controlled, and archived sheets were viewable. Any operator was able to submit setup sheet changes as well as notes describing the reason for the change. However, admins utilized a unique code to approve or reject these changes.

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Reports could be generated to view historical tool usage and images could be linked to a given setup sheet, subject to admin approval.

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The database also had the capability to track inspection tool usage. Operators would enter their tool ID, and the database would communicate with the calibrated tools database to pull its description and expiration date. It would alert the operator if their tool was out of date and require them to enter a valid one.

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Historical inspection tool usage was searchable through reports. Allowing tracking of tool usage by job, part number, machine, etc.