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Showing posts from August, 2026

Your OEE Is Lying to You: Fix Your Downtime Reason Codes

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Back in June, we walked through Plex's three Production Monitoring views: the Control Panel for the operator at the machine, Production Statuses for the supervisor across the line, and the Visual Plant Floor for the manager who needs the whole building at a glance. Every one of those views has a quiet dependency nobody talks about. They are only as honest as the downtime data underneath them. And the downtime data is only as honest as the reason codes your operators enter. Here is the uncomfortable version: if your operators are stamping "Other," "Misc," or "Downtime" on two-thirds of your stoppages, or entering everything from memory at the end of the shift, then your OEE number is a work of fiction. A nicely formatted, color-coded work of fiction - but fiction all the same. Listen to this post: The gap hiding in your dashboards Production Monitoring is excellent at one thing: telling you when a workcenter stopped and for how long. The...
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Unleashing the Power of the Plex DCS: From Digital File Storage to Compliance Engine

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  For many manufacturers, the Document Control System (DCS) in Plex is hiding in plain sight. Every day, shop floor operators and managers click the familiar paperclip icon to attach drawings, work instructions, inspection forms, certificates, and other important files. Yet many organizations use only a fraction of what Plex DCS can do. When treated as a simple storage location, the DCS becomes little more than a digital file cabinet. But in a high-stakes manufacturing environment, document control should do much more than store files. It should ensure that the right people have access to the right revision, that approvals happen on time, and that obsolete documents do not remain in circulation. That is where Plex DCS becomes a powerful compliance and quality-management engine. Three capabilities in particular can significantly improve document-control matu...
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Why IAM Certificates and Plex ERP Work Better Together (and How to Set Them Up Right)

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  If your organization relies on shared machines—kiosks, control panels, time and attendance terminals, or other “always-on” endpoints—you’ve probably run into the same problem: password sharing breaks security fast and creates operational headaches . Every time a password is reused, emailed around, or stored in a sticky-note workaround, you increase the risk of unauthorized access and make troubleshooting harder. That’s where IAM certificates come in. Pair them with a streamlined identity and access approach around your Plex ERP ecosystem , and you get fewer credential leaks, more consistent logins, and a stronger security posture—without forcing every shared device to manage unique user credentials. In short: IAM certificates help generic accounts authenticate safely and consistently , and Plex ERP’s integrated workflows make it easier to keep access aligned wi...
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