Hi All,
We’re very new to all things Epicor. We have gone live last week, and the dust is still very much settling.
I work in IT and have been tasked with setting up a dedicated MES machine for the workshop so people can clock in/out and start production activities.
Can anyone share what their set ups look like and what technologies they’ve used? We have looked at Windows Kiosk mode but unsure if this is the best way to approach it.
Any tips and tricks most welcome.
TIA!
We have MES setup in Kiosk mode for a few shared stations and others as a browser tab for MES stations near machines. So depends on your need in how you want to set it up.
Welcome to the world of Epicor and congrats on going live! This site is great for finding all sorts of help with whatever you need.
We have a setup pretty similar to what Randy said. By most production machines there is a PC that is setup to open the browser MES client. There is just one ‘MES’ user for easy sign in with auto filling passwords, but each employee has their own employee number that they enter into the MES screen.
The MES PC does not have to be powerful at all, a computer with just 4gb of ram will work just fine, but 8gb is probably better for future proofing. Right now we are using some really old AIO touchscreen PCs, but those are going to be upgraded to Dell micro desktops and a barebones monitor, or a ViewSonic touchscreen monitor for the areas without a desk.
Same…tablets with Chrome browsers at each workstation, Bluetooth scanner etc…separate user accounts set up for each shift (supervisors log in/out at start/end) and operators have their own employee number.
May I ask how you’ve got autofill of password to work? Also, what sort of access do the MES user have in the system?
Really appreciate your help!
Do you have a central MES account to allow for sign in?
One account for each shift - ShiftA, ShiftB. One-to-many link between UserID/shift and the employees/operators.
For the autofill I am just using the MES browser site in edge or chrome. Once you enter in a username/password you should have a popup from the browser asking if you want to save it.
The central MES user just has access to the ‘production staff’ group. I am not sure what your environment looks like so YMMV.
Thanks for that info. Just need to figure out how to actual enact that in reality 
Do you have any instructions? Thank you.
User Account: one user account per shift (or one for a master MES) - depends how your company needs to structure things
Under Employees: select that user account in the Username dropdown - this is also where you’d assign shift, labor rate, etc.
Thank you @JMPCONJ - will have a play in our Pilot system.
Just make sure you don’t set them up anywhere there may be metal shavings flying around. My old job had a PC right next to a grinding station in steel prep. That thing got toasted a few times.
Thankfully our machine room is isolated so no metal swarf etc
I love watching the blue smoke come out.
Fair warning, you can’t put it back in.
If there’s any reason at all for doubt, fanless PC’s are cheap insurance. Also, just plain cheap. And often small enough to velcro to the back of a monitor. Makes user kiosks really easy to set up.
At my previous company, we created an edge app that was installed on all desktop terminals, allowing users to launch it directly instead of using a browser. This eliminated the search bar and made it appear as if it wasn’t just a website. We customized it with the Epicor icon for consistency. Due to the size of the shop floor, we had 12 terminals, each with a unique user login. Production workers clocked in using their individual employee numbers, and barcode scanners were used for efficiency. We also customized MES to display only the screens relevant to our shop’s workflow. I can’t answer what we will do at my current company as I changed jobs to a company implementing Epicor currently, which had nothing to do with why I chose them. Note to others going through 2 implementations in a 3-year window is an experience.
Sounds ideal!
When the workers clocked in, did they have to authenticate their own User accounts?
No, employee number doesn’t require a password or pin, as of 2024.2.x anyway!
That’s strange - when we’ve signed in with our MES general account, we try to log in with MES with Employee ID and then it brings up a slide out panel with the User authentication - we use Epicor IdP and/or Entra ID.. still a pain for each worker.
Am I approaching this wrong? Thanks.
Have you linked the Employee ID to a User ID or vice versa? That might be why.
We have a similar setup, but ours are just left standalone - no link set up between the generic user ID or any employee.
Does mean they have to log in as the generic User ID, but then multiple employees can then log in/out of the terminal to report their production activities (for example, we use a generic user ID to cover 5 machines).
PS I think a fair number of our expert users are based in the USA, so you may well get more useful advice once their working day kicks off!