XL Release Notes

Overview

These are software release notes for the XL Productivity Appliance™. For information about new features please refer to the What’s New With XL? web page.

Version 2.20

Version 2.20 is in preview release.

Critical Notes

Update One, Update All

Once you update any XL device to version 2.20 it is very important to update all XL devices to that version. The reason for this is the new count-based factor for OEE Performance necessitated a change to how devices query data related to OEE Performance, and the calculation will only roll up data correctly across work centers if all XL devices are updated to the new software version.

Other Changes

Event List Widget Colors

We removed the option to "Tint header backgrounds to heat map colors" from the Event List widget so the other color status indicators “pop” more. The left hand vertical stripe shows the same heat map information, so it is still easy to quickly scan for outliers.

Harmonized Permissions

We replaced Comment permissions with more generalized Add and Modify permissions, making it easy to apply consistent data modification permissions across different types of data such as Comments, Reasons, and Production State.

• Previously configured Add Comment permissions will be migrated to the new Add permission.
• The least permissive of the previously configured Edit Comment / Delete Comment permissions will be migrated to the new Modify permission.

Data Retrieval Optimizations

We made changes to how XL retrieves data from other devices in order to load data faster in the event a device is not responding. XL now uses “ping” as a quick way to test the network connectivity of other devices, and if it takes over five seconds to get a response, XL assumes the device is not available and data from that device will not be shown. If data from a device is not showing, please let Vorne support know and we’ll be happy to help you troubleshoot.

Improved “Unknown” Teams Behavior

If you don't use Teams, XL will now use the “No Team“ dimension value instead of “Unknown Team”. This means that more events can be modified because XL knows that labor data does not need to be updated. If you do use Teams, “Unknown Team” is only used when XL detects that the process is Definitely Running.

One Second Event Boundaries:

XL now rounds all non-production monitor event boundaries (e.g., part runs and shifts) to the nearest whole second to lay the groundwork for ongoing improvements and enhancements to the production monitor. This does not impact performance metrics in any meaningful way, but it does create a cleaner data foundation.

Version 2.19

Version 2.19.3 is in production release. Updating XL is recommended.

Critical Notes

XL memory horizons are being reduced from 300,000 production records to 200,000 production records, so any historical data beyond that horizon will be trimmed as part of the update. Typically, this will only affect data that is several years in the past.

It is normal for XL to reboot in the middle of the update process. On occasion XL can get stuck on reboot, which you can tell by the scoreboard remaining blank for more than 3 minutes. This will not be evident in the web page interface, so simply check the scoreboard if you suspect the update may be stuck. If it is blank for more than 3 minutes, merely cycle power and the update will complete.

Other Changes

This update includes updates to the operating system, and as a result, the update process may take a little bit longer than usual.

Version 2.18

Critical Notes

There are no critical release notes.

Other Changes

API Documentation for Reading Comments

There is now documentation on how to retrieve comments along with your production data via the XL API, so you can access comments programatically.

Create, Update, and Delete Comments in the XL API

There is also now documentation on how to create, update, and delete comments via the XL API, so you can fully support comments programmatically.

Tagging Part Runs API Support

You can now expose the ability to tag part runs with a Job ID via the API the same way you can via an unrecognized barcode scan, so that you have greater flexibility in how you tag your part runs.

Version 2.17

Critical Notes

Update One, Update All

When you update to XL 2.17, we recommend updating all XL devices at around the same time. The reason for this is that changes to Shift navigation (described in the Time Range Selector note), will only work correctly across multiple work centers if they all have the new Ordinal Shift feature.

Time Range Selector

Navigating by “Shift” has been changed to make it easier to align shifts across work centers. When navigating beyond “3 Shifts Ago”, the time range is no longer defined by a number of “Shifts Ago”, but rather a number of Production Days and a specific Ordinal Shift within that day. For example, instead of seeing “56 Shifts Ago” you might see “18 Days Ago 2nd Shift of Day.”

Ordinal Shift

If you have a page saved with a Shift selection farther back then “3 Shifts Ago” the selection will be changed to “3 Shifts Ago” (see the Time Range Selector note).

Version 2.16

Critical Notes

There are no critical release notes.

Other Changes

Duplicate Widget

XL dashboards now include a duplicate widget live control.

Replace Device Tools

Working with our partner Vetii | TECH, there is now explicit support for replacing XL devices connected to the Vetii | TECH Data Collector. This feature provides tools that enable data collection to continue seamlessly without record conflicts after an XL device is replaced.

Fractional Target Cycles

Target Cycles and Target Counts are now distributed proportionally across events, which enables the target counter to be used more effectively for applications with longer cycle times. These metrics can also now be displayed on the scoreboard with a fractional digit.

Reclaim eMMC Storage

XL now uses less eMMC storage for features such as diagnostics (core dumps, log files) and upgrades (deleting files after a successful upgrade) so it is less likely that XL will run out of storage during updates. We also added tools to the technical support page for manually clearing these types of files.

XL Enterprise Support Tools

XL Enterprise now includes a technical support dashboard so our CSMs can assist if you want to change the role of a user or if you need to delete a user.

Version 2.15

Critical Notes

XL Devices Linked to XL Enterprise: All XL devices linked to XL Enterprise should be upgraded to version 2.15. The XL 2.15 release eliminates a memory leak that causes XL devices linked to XL Enterprise to run out of memory and reboot after approximately one month of operation with no power cycles.

Duplicating Dashboard Widgets: Duplicating dashboard widgets was removed as a feature in XL 2.15. We plan to restore this feature in a future release.

Other Changes

Top Losses is Enterprise-Aware

The Top Losses page now includes an Enterprise control that enables you to include multiple work centers in the report, with an option to combine work centers or show each work center separately.

Improved Guidance for Network Connectivity

XL now provides improved help text when it is unable to connect to external networks, such as communicating to XL Enterprise or checking for software updates.

Restore Time Source and Proxy Server Settings

XL now restores Time Source and Proxy Server settings when configuration is restored since these settings rarely change within a site.

Additional Patent in Mexico

XL has a very innovative data model which has been awarded a second patent in Mexico (patent 381115).

Work Centers in Print View

Printed reports in XL now list all work centers whose data is included in the report.

Version 2.14

Critical Notes

There are no critical release notes.

Other Changes

Internet Explorer 11 Support

Microsoft has started discontinuing support for Internet Explorer 11 across a wide range of platforms and applications. XL is also discontinuing support for Internet Explorer 11 in April 2021. In this release, if you access XL devices with IE 11 you will receive a deprecation notification.

Start New Down Event Barcode

Scanning this barcode is the equivalent to Start Production. It disables higher-priority production states, sets the production state to Down, and restarts auto run/down detection. This feature deprecates the Split Down Event barcode, which still functions for barcode sheets that are already printed. It is no longer possible to add Split Down Event to new barcode sheets, and it has been replaced by Start New Down Event in any configured barcode pages in XL.

Element renamed Widget

Starting with this release, Elements have been renamed to Widgets.

Network Access to XL Devices

It is important to remember that each XL device has its own IP address and web-based user interface. Therefore, if you want to restrict access to XL devices your IT department should restrict access to those IP addresses on your network.

Version 2.13

Critical Notes

Changes to Enterprise Hierarchy: This release aligns the enterprise hierarchy used by XL to the ANSI/ISA-95 standard, which includes four levels of hierarchy: Enterprise, Site, Area, and Work Center.

The Division level is no longer supported as it is not included in the standard. Existing Divisions will be removed, and their underlying sites will be directly connected to the Enterprise level.

There is a feature on our roadmap to support custom hierarchies – which will allow additional levels of hierarchy.

When an XL device is linked to XL Enterprise it is automatically added to the standard enterprise hierarchy and from that point forward automatically receives its hierarchy from XL Enterprise.

Update All XL Devices: All XL devices need to be updated to version 2.13 in order for XL to aggregate data from all monitored work centers. Otherwise, data from some devices will not be included in reports such as from the All Production and Timeline pages.

Other Changes

Network Access to XL Devices

It is important to remember that each XL device has its own IP address and web-based user interface. Therefore, if you want to restrict access to XL devices your IT department should restrict access to those IP addresses on your network.

Internet Explorer 11 Support

Microsoft has started discontinuing support for Internet Explorer 11 across a wide range of platforms and applications. XL is also discontinuing support for Internet Explorer 11 in April 2021. In this release, if you access XL devices with IE 11 you will receive a deprecation notification.

Version 2.12

Critical Notes

There are no critical release notes.

Other Changes

Discontiguous Events

If a changeover, down, or maintenance event (i.e., production) is split by a meal/break or meeting (i.e., no production) the two production events are now automatically treated as a single event.

Part Barcode Duplicate Scans

Scanning the barcode for a running part will now start a new part run for the same part. This enables running the same part twice in a row. It also enables changing part settings and having the new settings immediately take effect.

Reject Reason API Support

You can now submit reject reasons with count quantities through the XL API to enable easy integration with other systems and applications.

Scoreboard Format Options

You can now set the number of decimal places for cycle times (as well as percentages) displayed on the scoreboard, which is particularly useful for long cycle time applications.

Scoreboard Time of Day

There is now an option to display time of day on the scoreboard.

Input Prescalers

Input Prescalers are restricted to between 0.000000001 and 1. Any prescalers that fall outside this range will be changed to the default, which is 1. If you are using a prescaler that's greater than 1, instead use the Count Multipliers on the Parts table.

Updated API

Published updated API documentation. The XL API has been updated to add the Alternate Part ID field, and the ability to trigger inputs. Updated documentation is available from [email protected].

Security Updates

Review of the National Vulnerabilities Database and implementation of updates as appropriate.

Version 2.11

Critical Notes

Installation Guides: We have updated our XL installation guides with this release. Download using the links below:

• Meet XL: Fully re-written for 2.11. This is an essential read for anyone managing XL.
• Configure XL: Added new XL Enterprise instructions.
• Install XL: Added Relay Output wiring.
• IT Brief: Fully re-written for 2.11.

XL Enterprise: This release expands the functionality of XL Enterprise by adding an automated shift report and production text alerts. Currently the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use that are associated with the XL Enterprise application are not published. These policies will be published as part of a future release.

Other Changes

XL Enterprise Menu

This release aligns the menu layout in XL Enterprise with the menu layout in the XL device. There are now two menus in XL Enterprise:

• Main Menu: Choose Assets, Alerts and Reports to be sent to your account.
• Settings (user): Manage your account details and enter SMS alert settings.
• Settings (admin): Manage your account settings, define alerts, manage assets, and add users.

XL Enterprise Email Validation

This release also includes a new email validation process when adding users to XL Enterprise. Every new user will receive an automated email requiring them to validate their email access before obtaining access to XL Enterprise. Existing users do not need to re-validate their email address unless they subsequently modify their stored address.

Currently the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use that are associated with XL Enterprise are not published. These policies will be updated soon.

Scoreboard Reasons

During Planned Stop and Not Scheduled time, the Scoreboard will now show the configured reason (e.g. “CIP”), not the Process State name (e.g. “Changeover”).

Time Schedule Late Start

If the process is not detected as running at shift start, XL will either (a) carry over the production state that was active when the shift started OR (b) start the shift in the production state selected in the Time Schedule.

Relay Outputs

XL includes a single relay output intended to prompt operators to respond to down time. The relay can be enabled either because (a) the process is stopped and no reason has been scanned, or (b) the process has restarted after a down event and no reason has been scanned. Wiring instructions for the relay have been added to the Install XL 2.11 guide.

Updated TPT Tooltip

The TPT Tooltip now includes the In Count metric and Event End Time to provide a more-complete summary of each event.

Chart Tooltips

Added additional contextual information to chart tooltips to help users better understand the data being viewed.

Updated API

Published updated API documentation. The XL API has been updated to add the Alternate Part ID field, and the ability to trigger inputs. Updated documentation is available from [email protected].

Security Updates

Review of the National Vulnerabilities Database and implementation of updates as appropriate.

Version 2.10

Critical Notes

XL Enterprise: This release includes an early release of our XL Enterprise cloud-based software application. Currently the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use that are associated with this application are not published. These policies will be published as part of a future release.

Unknown Part/Job/Shift/Team: This release significantly changes how XL handles the dimensions of “part”, “job”, “shift”, “team”. When analyzing these dimensions, if:

• There’s no associated cycle information, the dimension is labelled as “No [dimension]”. E.g. No Part. This record is then hidden from any built-in reports.
• There’s cycle information, the dimension is labelled as “Unknown [dimension]”. E.g. Unknown Shift. You can then choose to keep this record or to use the Modify Data controls to clear the record.

In a future release we plan to provide historical data modification options so users can take data from an unknown dimension and add it to a known dimension.

When you upgrade to XL 2.10, the upgrader will review existing records and relabel them as “no” and “unknown” as appropriate. This will create new events for each dimension.

Note: If you have a lot of historical data, the upgrade process might take several minutes to complete.

Version 2.9

Critical Notes

This release includes substantial simplifications and improvements to how XL analyzes and presents cycle time and cycle time loss. This includes:

• Simplifying 27 cycle metrics to 15 cycle metrics.
• Adding Run Cycle Time and Run Cycle Lost Time metrics to make it easier to analyze the cycle time of your process while it was running along with any associated losses.
• Adding an Equipment Cycles metric to assist with cycle-based asset care programs. Unlike other cycle metrics, which are tracked exclusively during run-based production states, Equipment Cycles is tracked across all production states.

If you have created personalized dashboards, views, or scoreboard configuration that uses one of the removed metrics, this metric will automatically be updated to refer to the closest corresponding simplified metric. In some cases, this may result in the same metric being repeated. We recommend reviewing any personalized pages that include cycle metrics in case you would like to make further changes.

Other Changes

XL also now includes support for scanning reasons to tag Running Slowly events.

Version 2.8

Critical Notes

Vorne support should verify that older upgrade packages have been removed from your device before upgrading to version 2.8.

Other Changes

Disable Notifications

XL now has an option to disable notifications for individual XL units for a given browser. The main purpose of this feature is to turn off notifications when an XL web page, such as the new Andon page, is shown on an unattended flat screen. You may also use this feature if you simply don’t want to see notifications for a given XL device. Click on the navigation bar notification (bell) icon in the XL web page interface to access this feature.

Version 2.7

Critical Notes

Update All XL Devices

All XL devices must be updated to version 2.7 in order for XL Plant features (i.e., multi-asset aware pages and elements) to show data correctly.

Historical All Production Merged Into All Production

With the enhanced time range selector, the functionality of All Production and Historical All Production have been merged into one page. This makes it possible to seamlessly travel between real-time and historical data. As part of this update, saved Historical All Production views will be deleted.

Daylight Saving Time

This release fixes a defect with Daylight Saving Time that occurs if XL is not configured for Automatic Time Updates. If time is being set manually, it will be off by one hour when the device is first powered up after DST ends. If possible, update XL devices to version 2.7 prior to DST ending (November 4 in the USA).

Other Changes

Run Variant Options

XL now has an option to disable run variants (running slowly, running poor quality, and running poorly) accessible by navigating to Settings > Metrics and Dimensions > Run States. Run variants are designed for fast production processes and should be disabled for manufacturing processes with cycle times greater than 15 seconds.

Version 2.6

Critical Notes

Updating to XL 2.6 requires loading new software from a Flash card as the operating system is being changed. Refer to the XL 2.6 Software Update tech note for complete instructions.

Other Changes

Operating System

The operating system of XL has been upgraded to Yocto, a very powerful OS that is fine-tuned and optimized for embedded applications (including IoT devices like XL).

Ubiquitous Language

Ubiquitous language is a process where terms are defined to create a clear, consistent and rigorous language with the ultimate goal of creating a product that is intuitive and easy to understand. In this release, a number of terms have been redefined, including:

• Process State is now Production State
• Process State Reason is now Reason
• Performance Impact is now Impact
• Category is now Dimension
• Completed Count is now End of Line Count
• Capacity Loss is now Schedule Loss
• View (as a menu) is now Monitor
• Configure (gear icon) is now Settings
• Page (as a command) is now View
• Widget is now Element

The Administer and Configure (now Settings) menus have also been reorganized to better match how they are typically used.

Roles

The Supervisor role has been expanded to include a number of day-to-day functions, including Parts, Time Schedule, Print Barcodes, and Modify Data. The Operator role has been removed since it is infrequently used and is more or less identical to the “guest” role.

Relay Operation

The relay is used to connect audible and visual devices that remind operators to scan down reasons. In this release, the operation of the relay has been changed to track “Scan Reason” on the scoreboard (on during Down and Run; off during Planned Stop and Not Scheduled).

Definitely Running

XL tracks “Definitely Running” as an indicator that there is a very high confidence that production is running. One of the most common applications is to automatically exit changeovers when production is “Definitely Running”. In this release, XL restarts the Definitely Running algorithm any time it uses it to make a decision. For example, if a part is scanned and a changeover begins, XL restarts the Definitely Running algorithm. This will prevent XL from immediately exiting the changeover if production had just stopped.