PartTake™
Setup

Initial Physical Setup

Every parts bag will have a different barcode number on it, containing the bag's LotID from within TotalFBO. Using the barcode printer utility supplied with PartTake, it's easy to print off the barcodes of every lot that still has a quantity:

1. Uncheck the "limit" option
2. sort by "# remaining"
3. select all those with stock remaining (click the first one and then shift-click the last one)
4. click the "crop to selection" button
5. sort by location
6. print

Once your reams of labels begin printing, just stick them on the right bags.

Receiving Shipments

Whenever you receive a shipment in TotalFBO, all you need to do is launch the barcode printer utility. It defaults to limiting to parts received in the past four days, sorted by time. Select the top ones that just came in, crop, and print.

PartTake Configuration

PartTake has a number of options that we've created to accomodate our operations.

In the database connection info subscreen, you need to choose the server, enter the login information as you use it for TotalFBO, click Options, then choose the database. The other three options should not matter. Click OK and if everything is well, you should see "Database selected:" in yellow. Then you can configure the options. Please note that everything in the utility is running live. For example, if you type a new machine or user name rather than choosing a preexisting one, for example, it will add what you type to the database. If you toggle an option and then close the window, your change is always saved to the .ini file without asking.

• Identification
  • Machine: A name for the computer itself. This will show up on the "Who's On" report in TotalFBO.
  • User: A name with which this installation of PartTake will create batches. Also shows up on "Who's On" and is the name used to lock the batches.
• Redundant Data Dumping: You can enter two paths here. What happens is, every database change is dumped into a separate text file in case anything goes wrong. Text files are automatically purged after a week, so make sure you create a new directory for this. (To be honest, this was created out of paranoia, from bad data loss experiences in the pre-SQL DOS days.)
• Clock-In Options
  • Don't ask to clock in on counter sales SOs: If enabled and you have exactly one department with the word 'counter' in its name somewhere, then shop orders opened under that department will skip the discrepancy and clock in stages, letting you scan more quickly when customers are waiting for you to process their sales.
  • Post time clock entries directly, no batches: If enabled, time clock entries will show directly on a shop order rather than needing to scan and post within TotalFBO. Note that you probably do NOT want to use this option, since there is no way to edit time clock entries in TotalFBO once they are on a shop order, and PartTake does not provide a way to edit the time you're clocking in or out (it's always simply "now".) (This was created for us because use something else in-house that lets us edit them, but it's not currently for sale.)
• Show These Non-Scannable Items:
  • Fuel: If checked and you have inventory with the type set to "Fuel", there will be a special button on the scanning screen that lets you pick fuel instead. This is here because normally fuel amounts are just called in from the truck. It saves having to keep an up-to-date fuel barcode lying around near the scanning station.
  • Service Fees: If you have an inventory department with "service fees" in its name, you can check this box to have a way of charging these items the same way you charge fuel, without a barcode. The difference is, these are charged as "misc" items, and no stock is taken out of inventory when you post the batch, because these are not supposed to be physical items.
  • Sheet Metal: Similar to the above two items, the department must have "sheet metal" in its name, and you get a choice of POs. Because it gets cut up as you use it, we found it easier to use a sticker gun to cover each sheet with PO stickers rather than print a hundred barcodes. Also, when taking sheet metal out, it asks you for the width and height of the piece you're taking, and calculates the area for you automatically.
• Colours: Allows you to set the colour for buttons of each department, as well as various UI elements. Colour component values must be between 15 and 255, the 15 being a buffer for alternating with darker-shaded entries.
• Automatic Crash Reporting: Input your ISP's outgoing e-mail server address and either your e-mail address or mine to tell PartTake who to e-mail when the program crashes. In as many cases as possible, the program will ask the user to type in a comment to be sent along with the crash log. These are very helpful for debugging.
• Automatic Unlocking: If checked, is the equivalent of somebody restarting the program at the specified time each day. It unlocks the current batch, starts a new one, and locks that instead. This way if you post all parts batches daily you can make sure they're ready to go when you are.

  Multiple Stations

  PartTake can easily be run at more than one workstation. At Brant Aero we have one in the stock room and one near the sheet metal in the shop. Since each station has a different set of options that make sense for it, we run each one with a different .ini file. Also, when we're training or testing, we have another .ini file that connects to our training database rather than our production one.

  Now that you've seen how to use the configuration utility above, setting up a second workstation is as easy as copying the .ini file, renaming it, and dragging the new file onto the configuration utility:

  

  To have PartTake use a particular .ini file, create a shortcut to PartTake, then right-click the shortcut, choose Properties, and add the name of the .ini file after "PartTake.exe":

  

  That's all there is to it.