Supercharge Data Flow and Accessibility With VKS 6.8

By: Ben Baldwin

April 10, 2024

VKS 6.8

For any operation to be efficient, it needs to be insightful. To be insightful, data needs to flow quickly and be accessible. If people are making decisions without receiving the proper insight and data, there is a significant amount of optimization being left on the table.

Our latest version, VKS 6.8, seeks to provide businesses with an enhanced level of traceability and configuration with 5 new innovative updates.

From adjusting text in multiple languages at once to empowering you to push and pull the data you need at the moment you need it, VKS 6.8 enhances the capabilities of modern manufacturing.

Update 1: Intelligent Multilingual Text Box Resizing

Our first update of VKS 6.8 allows users to manually resize text box annotations within the guidebook editor. But even more excitingly, this new feature also enables guidebook authors to instantly see how resizing text boxes affects the size of any translated text.

How does this work?

Authors simply click and drag the corner of the text box and resize it as desired. The text automatically conforms to the new size of the text box, enabling authors to adjust how their annotations appear in each step with greater speed and accuracy.

While this new update enables companies to add and edit textual annotations faster, the text box resizing feature also packs a powerful benefit for manufacturers that create, share, and use instructions in different languages.

As a world leader in accessible multilingual work instructions, VKS empowers manufacturers to instantly translate their guidebooks into 30+ languages using AI. This capability is thanks to our Instant Translation feature.

However, texts in different languages often have different lengths, meaning text boxes may need to be larger depending on the other languages selected.

For this reason, we’ve empowered authors to ensure all translated text doesn’t cover crucial visual elements within the guidebook, regardless of the language.

As authors begin resizing the text box in their native language, VKS leverages the translation AI to automatically show the length of the longest translated text. The length of the longest text is represented by bars that appear behind the text that the author is editing.

Text box resizing with translation

This new capability provides authors with 3 major benefits.

  1. Greater Control: Authors can adjust the size of the text box and enact greater control over how text annotations appear within the guidebook.
  2. Refine text size and placement in multiple languages at once: Authors can now ensure that text is never in the way of any visual elements, no matter the language.
  3. Faster work instruction creation: With a simultaneous view of translated text length and enhanced control of the text box window, authors can create textual annotations faster without the need for revisions.

Use Case: Intelligent Resizing in Multiple Languages

Imagine you are developing a new assembly process that will be used in three separate locations: the USA, France, and Germany.

In your guidebook steps, you have pictures of the assembly alongside textual annotations to further highlight key parts of the assembly process.

In this case, you write the English instructions and VKS automatically translates the text into French and German. However, the German text is about twice as long as the English version, causing the German text to cover a crucial area of the assembly image.

This is not a problem. Simply resize the English text box and VKS will automatically show you the length and position of the German text. Authors can then dynamically watch how the German text changes as they adjust the English text box.

This responsive feature ensures that all annotations meet the spacing needs of every selected language, providing the best user experience for everyone.

text box resizing example

This new capability allows guidebook authors to create and refine instructions in multiple languages simultaneously, ensuring that every annotation and image work together in harmony, regardless of language.

Update 2: Real-Time Notifications Through Push API

Our second update of VKS 6.8 is the expansion of our API to include Push API Notifications which provide real-time alerts to external systems when a specific event occurs in VKS.

For many years, VKS has enabled companies to integrate their work instructions with external systems through a powerful REST API, providing companies with the ability to:

Powerful API

In our never-ending pursuit to help you achieve higher levels of traceability, we’ve expanded the capabilities of our API with our new Push API Notifications.

Push API Notifications enable VKS to immediately communicate with your other systems when a specific action occurs in the VKS Guidebook Viewer. In turn, this empowers your other systems to track production events as soon as they happen on the shop floor using unique data that can only be generated by your users within VKS.

Users will still be able to experience the benefits of our REST API while also benefiting from a faster and more efficient Push API Notification system.

Read More: In our last update, VKS 6.7, we enhanced our API to send more data with every API call.

Push API vs REST API - What’s the Difference?

While APIs are powerful pieces of modern software, not all APIs perform the same duties.

    Think of it like ordering a pizza. When you order a pizza, you could call the restaurant every five minutes to see if your pizza is ready. Or, to be more productive, the restaurant could call you when the pizza is ready for pick-up. This would streamline the process, require fewer calls, and allow you to do other activities while waiting for your pizza.

With VKS 6.8, our API now gives you the best of both worlds. Our REST API transfers data at specific intervals while the Push API notifies your connector to fetch data when a specific action occurs.

In the first phase of the new VKS Push API, the following events will be supported.

The incredible capability of Push API notifications is that they allow your external systems to receive a notification at the exact moment an event occurs within your work instructions.

The Benefits of REST & Push APIs Working Together

REST & Push API

This collaboration of both APIs has exciting benefits for VKS users.

  1. Real-time communication between systems: As soon as a specific action has been performed, the VKS Push API sends a notification to an external system detailing the action and the exact data.

  2. More efficient API processing: Since VKS will send a notification the moment a specific action is completed, the process becomes incredibly efficient. Instead of the API checking the whole database for updates at solely timed intervals, the Push API enables VKS to grab specific data when notified.

  3. Faster communication of data: This new capability gives users access to information the moment it occurs on the shop floor, facilitating instant awareness of specific actions on the shop floor.

5 Use Cases with the VKS Push API

With this enhanced capability in mind, let’s explore 5 use cases where manufacturers can achieve real-time traceability through API Push Notifications.

Push API Use Case 1: Work Order Complete

Imagine you are a mixed-model manufacturer where you receive contracts for a variety of computer components. This type of manufacturing environment requires a high level of coordination between multiple departments, people, work orders, and instructions.

The work orders originating in your ERP are then sent to VKS, which guides workers with detailed instructions. With the advancements of VKS 6.8 and Push API Notifications, VKS will immediately communicate with the ERP once the work order is completed.

Instead of solely relying on timed intervals for each API call, this feature enables you and your ERP to monitor work order status in real time. As soon as a work order is completed in VKS, your ERP receives the information.

This access to real-time work order status provides your business with actionable data and real-time insight, enabling you to optimize more efficiently.

Push API Use Case 2: Operation Complete

Our Push API notification feature also enables you to communicate the finer details of the work order and track when each operation is complete. Imagine you run a manufacturing company that produces LED billboard signs. The manufacturing process is vertically integrated where LED lights and the structures are manufactured in the same facility.

Currently, while there are a number of billboards that need to be assembled, there are not enough LED lights to complete the final assembly. If the assembly department starts the work now, they will likely be waiting for components soon after beginning.

To mitigate waiting, you don’t want to send the assembly operations to the final assembly department until a certain threshold of required pieces is available.

Although, you don’t want to waste any time either.

With VKS 6.8, your ERP will receive live updates as soon as an operation is completed. This means that you can keep a close eye on the status of all individual operations and activate the assembly operations at the right moment.

With this real-time insight and actionable data, you can respond and activate later manufacturing stages at the precise time you need to.

Read More: Did you know that Watchfire Signs, a leader in the digital billboard market, uses VKS to enhance employee training and streamline work instruction creation?

Push API Use Case 3: Cycle Complete

We can take this live traceability to an even finer level of detail and see when each product’s cycle is complete.

Take for instance our LED billboard manufacturing example. Now that all necessary LEDs have been completed, you want to monitor the assembly of each billboard.

Using our Push API notification feature, VKS can send a notification to your ERP, MES, and/or BI software the moment a cycle is completed. Tracking when each cycle is complete in real time enables you to monitor the speed of your production lines as well as observe the speed and efficiency of each user on an incredibly granular level.

Additionally, once a cycle is complete, VKS can push information to other databases and tools to automatically perform specific actions. For instance, once an operator finishes performing a machine set-up guidebook, VKS can notify the machine monitoring software to capture the setup time and other data.

Push API Use Case 4: Quantity Complete

Let’s take this capability to another level of granularity by tracking the live quantities of completed units.

Within VKS, when a user stops their session, they will be prompted with a Units Completed Form. The operator identifies how many units were completed and VKS tracks how many units are left in the session.

quantity complete

Now, with VKS 6.8, once a user completes this form, the completed quantities information can be immediately pushed to your other systems, providing your ERP and/or BI software with direct insight from the shop floor.

In this case, you can track completed quantities at the precise moment any user stops their session, providing you and your other systems with up-to-the-minute performance insight from your shop floor.

Push API Use Case 5: Non-Conformance Report

This new feature also enables you to immediately know when a non-conformance occurs on your shop floor.

According to lean methodology, when a defect is discovered, the best course of action is to set the piece aside and let the operator continue building. This guarantees that there are minimal interruptions to the production line.

To ensure the part is accurately identified and tracked, VKS enables operators to record the part’s serial number, descriptions, and other crucial non-conformance data within a smart form so that someone can address the issue at a later time.

But what if you wanted to know about a non-conformance as soon as it happened?

You could use this data to help managers and supervisors respond faster to defects and/or problems within production. This data would also be instrumental to track within BI software where you monitor other metrics in real time.

VKS users can now use the new Push API Notifications feature to empower their other systems with crucial shop floor events like non-conformance issues. When the non-conformance report is completed, VKS immediately notifies the connector to grab the data and send it to the BI software. This capability allows leaders to have a real-time perspective of issues and problems as they occur.

Update 3: Form Data Retrieval via API

Form Data Retrieval via API

Our third update of VKS 6.8 further enhances the level of traceability and the efficiency of data collection you can achieve on the shop floor through our API and Smart Forms.

Before 6.8, our API would bundle smart form data alongside work order and operations data, meaning that every API call gave you a complete picture of operations alongside product history.

But what if you didn’t want all the data and you only wanted a specific set of information?

Our Form Data Retrieval via API gives users the ability to only extract the desired smart form data from an API call. This new capability means that companies can choose to extract smart form data without going through any operations data, allowing them to track product history and eDHR (electronic Device History Record) data more efficiently.

This update provides flexibility for manufacturers with varying needs. Companies with demanding product traceability standards can pull and compile specific data faster. At the same time, companies can gain the complete set of data as normal through regular API calls.

Form Data Retrieval via API Use Case 1: Product Traceability & Device History Records (eDHR)

Imagine you are a medical device manufacturer. To comply with industry and government standards, your products require a great deal of traceability. You need to track and capture data like

All of the above data can be captured using VKS smart forms. The data is automatically or manually captured at key points of the production process so that no event is overlooked. The data is then stored within VKS and can be exported manually when needed.

However, you also want to share the data with your other systems so that you can compile the data into comprehensive product history reports that will be shared with customers and regulating organizations. Often when sharing data with customers or governing bodies, there is a specific set of information that is required as well as a strict format that needs to be followed

Our new Form Data Retrieval via API allows you to automatically pull the specific data you need and easily compile the data into the predetermined format.

Form Data Retrieval via API Use Case 2: Non-Conformance Data

Our Form Data Retrieval via API feature also enables users to pull non-conformance data and track quality performance with greater efficiency.

Imagine you are a light bulb manufacturer and your employees have been sending Non-Conformance Reports (NCR) through their VKS Smart Forms. This has enabled your business to capture and resolve non-conformance issues easily and effectively.

But now you want to amalgamate the NCRs, find the source of the problem, and prevent them from occurring.

The first step is to compile all non-conformance data. Using the Form Data Retrieval via API, you are able to solely pull all non-conformance data, such as

Using the data you’ve gathered, you can find trends and causes that have developed over the course of each non-conformance. This level of data accessibility empowers you to develop a plan to mitigate any further non-conformance events.

Update 4: New Operation Selector Interface

VKS 6.8 also sees an improvement of the operation selector panel. We’ve made it easier to search and launch operations when starting a work instruction while providing users with more information about each job available.

Let’s explore the new features.

Operations selector

Up top, VKS enterprise users can cycle between the In Progress tab and the Upcoming tab to see all associated operations connected to the guidebook. This provides users with information directly from their ERP and/or MES within their work instructions.

At the same time, users can also filter the operations selector panel with both the work order and the work order start date, giving workers more ways to find the jobs they are looking for.

The New Operation button has moved to the top of the box, enabling users to launch a new operation quickly. When VKS Pro users select New Operation, they can simply scan a traveler or routing in their Product Information Form (PIF). At that moment, VKS will begin tracking data under the work order number.

In the second half, the interface has been outfitted with icons for faster recognition of key information while maintaining adequate space on the screen.

operations selector

Update 5: Streamlined Guidebook Activation

Our final update of VKS 6.8 allows organizations to initiate guidebooks as soon as they are opened. This new feature is yet another method that helps companies choose how they will automate the delivery of process knowledge, reduce interaction, and streamline work instruction activation on the shop floor.

Here’s how it works.

When opening a guidebook, users often need to press ‘Start’ to initiate the process along with any other traceability metrics. But now with VKS 6.8, company admins can choose to let their workers skip this step, meaning that as soon as the guidebook is opened, the user begins their work without delay.

Since some processes may require a delay between opening and activating the guidebook, companies have the freedom to select this feature or not based on their specific operational requirements.

This process is even further streamlined when using a barcode scanner. The user simply scans a barcode and the work instruction is activated immediately, providing a virtually hands-free method of initiating work orders and guidebooks.

Let the Data Flow!

operations selector

Within the manufacturing environment, the ability to share knowledge and data is no longer a luxury, it's a responsibility.

At VKS, we are constantly enhancing our software’s ability to share information, data, and insight. With accurate and up-to-date data flowing between people, tools, and systems, your manufacturing operation gains an incredible boost, empowering you to make progressively smarter decisions, act faster than ever before, and seize opportunities based on real-time knowledge.

Read More: VKS 6.7: Mathematics in Smart Forms & Enhanced Efficiency