Shop Floor Layout

The Shop Floor Layout is the drawing behind ianaiERP's live Shop Floor map — walls, doors, aisles, cells, lines, work centers, machines and WIP buffers. Someone with layout access draws each floor once and adjusts it as the plant changes. Once work centers and machines on the drawing are linked to real records, the map lights up with live status, queues and work in process.

Overview

• Quick start: lay out every work center of a location automatically, or begin from a ready-made production line, U-shaped cell or job shop.

• Real shapes, real records: work center, machine and WIP buffer shapes link to the actual records, so what you draw is what the live map reports on.

• Nothing is final: every shape can be moved, resized and relinked at any time.

• Saves as you go: there is no save button, and changes from two people never silently overwrite each other.

Where to Access

Open Manufacturing → Shop Floor, choose the floor (location) in Choose a floor, and select Edit layout in the top bar. Edit layout is shown to users with layout editing access, which is granted separately from scheduling access.

Live updates pause while you edit.

Drawing a Floor for the First Time

A floor that has never been drawn reads "This floor has not been drawn yet". With layout access you get Start your floor plan and a choice of starting points:

• From my work centers – Lays every work center of this location out in a grid for you to arrange. The button reads Place N work centers; it is unavailable while the location has no work centers.

• Production line, U-shaped cell, Job shop – Ready-made arrangements to adjust.

• Start from scratch – An empty floor with the walls drawn.

Without layout access, the page asks you to have someone with layout access draw it.

The Shape Toolbar

Shapes are grouped:

Select (V) and Pan (H) sit alongside.

• Rectangles are dragged, points are clicked, and walls and aisles are drawn corner by corner with a double-click to finish.

• The keyboard deletes, nudges (hold Shift for bigger steps), undoes and redoes. Undo and Redo are also in the top bar.

Layers switches the Building, Manufacturing and Warehouse layers on and off. The warehouse layer starts hidden and is view-only here — edit it on the warehouse layout.

Linking Shapes to Real Records

• A Work center shape is linked to a work center — drawing one asks "Which work center is this?".

• A Machine shape is linked to a machine — "Which machine is this?".

• A WIP buffer is linked to a work center plus a side — Input (waiting to start) or Output (waiting to move on) — "Which station buffers here?".

Each work center and machine can be placed only once; ones already on the floor are shown as taken. The linked record must be active and belong to this location. A shape whose record was deleted, or moved to another floor, shows Broken link in its properties.

Not on the map in the toolbar lists the work centers and machines of this location that have no shape yet. Drag one onto the floor, click it to drop it at the next free spot, or use Auto-place all.

Shape Properties

Selecting a shape opens its properties:

• Label, position, Width, Height and Rotation.

• Shape, colour, Opacity and Icon.

• The Link to its work center or machine.

• Lock, Bring forward / Send back, Duplicate and Delete.

With several shapes selected you get alignment, even spacing (three or more shapes) and Delete N.

• A duplicate is always a new, unlinked shape.

• Only work cells, production lines and areas can contain other shapes. Deleting a container leaves its contents loose on the floor, and the page tells you how many.

• A locked shape cannot be deleted.

• Deleting a machine elsewhere in ianaiERP removes its shape from the floor automatically.

Saving and Working Together

Every change saves as you go. If someone else changed or locked the same shape first, your change is not saved: the page shows Layout out of date, reloads the floor, and you make the change again.

Best Practices

• Start with From my work centers — it places every station for you, so you only need to drag them into position and add the building around them.

• Add a WIP buffer on the input and output side of busy stations, so waiting work shows up where it really sits.

• Use Not on the map after adding new work centers or machines to spot anything not yet placed.

• Lock walls and other fixed structure once they are right, so they cannot be deleted by accident.

Troubleshooting

• I can't see Edit layout: editing the layout needs layout editing access, separate from scheduling access.

• The map is blank or says the floor has not been drawn: check the location — the header's location selector decides the floor when it names one.

• My layout change disappeared: someone else changed or locked that shape first. The floor was reloaded — make the change again.

Related Features

• Shop Floor

• Work Centers