Problem

Magna-Power products are make-to-order products and each unit is built up special for its customers. In addition, Magna-Power has the lowest lead time in the industry, two weeks. This makes for a fast pace work environment, where having the latest data about the order is our key to success. Magna-Power shares this data through printed reports and labels that follow the order through the factory. Soon after printing it difficult (and time consuming) to make changes to the order since that requires finding and recalling the original paper work.

Solution

MagnaDASH is custom software for collecting, analyzing, and displaying information from our company database. The the backend was written in Python using the CherryPy and hosted on an Ubuntu virtual machine. The clients are Intel Compute Sticks, which was found was the most compact solution for driving the 4K resolution televisions. The front end was programmed using Node.js, Bootstrap and Sass. The project integrates with our continuous integration so that changes in SVN automatically triggers updates to the server, rebuilding of the frontend, and resetting the many clients at the company.

Problem

Magna-Power voltage and current ranges extend well beyond our competitors. With products at 10,0000 V, 6,000 A, 2,000 kW, requires a plethora of test equipment, many of it of our own design as nobody else goes this high! In addition to power supplies we make electronic loads which adds to the diversity of equipment and test routines needed. Its has become challenging to accommodate testing this diversity of products, within a limited space, and uphold our high-safety standards.

Solution

Test department needed to be optimized by going vertical! Testing equipment were moved into a tall racks on wheels. This increased the density of measurement equipment per testing cell and could be rearrangement as needed. Mock ups and studies were made to ensure we could test the entire product line. We had daily communication with the Testing Department to gather feedback. Bill of materials, mechanical drawings, and electrical wiring diagrams were created so that production could build them. We leveraged our sheet metal fabrication capability to punched out custom panels for emergency stops and AC input control. Test carts were overhauled for front access, further improving Magna-Power's commitment to safety.

Problem

Magna-Power offers among the widest selection of programmable DC power supplies in the world: 10,000+ configurations. Without intimate knowledge of Magna-Power's product offering, it can be difficult to determine which product configuration best fits the known customer requirement. In addition, there are many exceptions to the product offering, such as water cooling, is available only on certain product series and voltage ranges, which need to be followed when quoting a product.

Solution

The Magna-Power Product Configurator was designed as a way document and present the various options, constraints, and ranges in voltage, current, and power. During the build process, a Python script grabs all the active model information from the Postgres database and exports it as a dictionary. Another python function was created to filter these results. The filter contains the various rules imposed by engineering and sales. The filter was written in Python, as that is the company's preferred language, and can be read by across teams. Transcrypt was used to convert this code into JavaScript functions. File based storage greatly simplified website integration and improved speed, as no database connection is required.

User interface was programmed using JavaScript that injected DOM elements onto the page. The fronted contains Bootstrap and CSS. Final software was also built into a Craft Module so that it could be integrated on the company website. Try out the Magna-Power Product Configurator.

Problem

Magna-Power is a vertically integrated manufacturer which requires maintaining large inventories, kitting, and stocking pre-built assemblies. Deductions and additions to inventory were being made on a desktop PC using an open-source ERP system. The long time delay between physically issuing/stocking material and when database records were updated on the desktop was causing confusion and inventory variances.

Solution

Real-time inventory tracking and kitting. Material gets deducted as soon as it leaves the shelf during kitting. Material gets added as soon as it enters stockroom. Required hardware that made data entry fast, simple, less error prone, and portable.

A rugged Android handheld computer was selected with numeric keypad and laser bar-code scanner. A Python shell utility was created using npyscreen, terminal application framework, and hosed on an Ubuntu virtual machine. Users log into the application using SSH. This implementation allows simultaneous picking and usage, easy to program maintain, quick to navigate (hot-keys), and is cross platform.