Touch Screen Monitors/MES

We are on 8.03.409c and are using touchscreens for our MES locations (total of 7). The units we have are actually manufactured by us so its a good selling point. The units run xp embedded (or Win 7) and the MES screen has been customized and includes the onboard keyboard from windows, which has not caused any problems. The guys that use the units are very happy with them and we have not had any issues with them since they were setup around 16 months ago. The units are all mounted at the end of the benches and we have a mix or wireless and cabled network connections. We are not currently using Bar Coding but this may become a project for me later in the year if the Production Director gets his funded sorted out next month.
If anyone wants more info about our units just Google OTC-50.

Cheers
Steve

--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, Aaron Hoyt <aaron.hoyt@...> wrote:
>
> Doug,
> Vantagte Plastics is on Ver. 8.03.407x
> We have been using the touch screens since ver. 6.0 and find them invaluable. The work great with most of the shopfloor screens right off, but if needed you can always customize the screens to make them more friendly. We heavily customized the screens and took out most everything they don't "need" to use on the shopfloor. This left us lots of room to expand any buttons we want to encourage them to use. We use Barcode also, but that still does not have much buy-in from the shop guys after 7 years of availability. They still prefer to type a job number over scan it.
> The biggest problem we have with touchscreens is where they aren't. If the material movers are at one of the NON-touch computers they find themselves (and I have done it myself once or twice) poking at the screen in vain trying to get the "ok" button to accept the input. This has created minor frustrations. I have yet to hear one complaint from the floor about the touch screens.
> From my point of view, the only frustration is the lack of on screen keyboards as part of the interface anymore. Why Epicor took that away I will never understand. We still need Keyboards because of that little issue, but otherwise, there is a huge positive vote from us on Touch Screens.
> We like EloTouch screens best, touch directly on glass, don't cheap out and get something with an overlay (resistive technology) as I have had many frustrations with those. It's very hard to wear out glass by touching it.
> Best of luck,
>
>
>
>
> Aaron Hoyt
> IT/IS Admin
> Vantage Plastics
> aaron.hoyt@...
> Phone: 989-846-1029 Fax: 989-846-0939
> http://www.vantageplastics.com/
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Doug Oswald" <dougo@...>
> Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 9:04:40 AM
> Subject: [Vantage] Touch Screen Monitors/MES
>
>
>
>
>
> Anyone here using touch screens for MES? What are your opinions on the
> value of these screens?
>
> Are you using barcodes and touch screen? It seems like the main screen
> is easy enough for a touch screen, but I worry about the screens
> involving a search or the selection of a job from the Work Queue. It
> almost seems like you would want a stylus for some of those screens.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Doug
>
> Doug Oswald
>
> Manager of Information Systems and Facilities
>
> FLEETWOOD
>
> www.fleetwoodfixtures.com < http://www.fleetwoodfixtures.com >
>
> Visit for an introduction to our extraordinary global capabilities
>
> Corporate Office
>
> Service Locations
>
> 225 Peach Street Leesport Pennsylvania 19533
>
> USA - Illinois * New York * Pennsylvania
>
> P. 610 916 9999 F. 610 916 9900
>
> International - China * India
>
> Green Plus Certified < http://gogreenplus.org > * We Reclaim, Recycle and
> Respect the Environment
>
> This transmission is confidential and intended solely for the use of the
> person or organization to whom it is addressed.
> It may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not
> the intended recipient, you should not copy,
> distribute or take any action on it. Please return any such mail to the
> originator.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Anyone here using touch screens for MES? What are your opinions on the
value of these screens?



Are you using barcodes and touch screen? It seems like the main screen
is easy enough for a touch screen, but I worry about the screens
involving a search or the selection of a job from the Work Queue. It
almost seems like you would want a stylus for some of those screens.



Thanks,



Doug



Doug Oswald

Manager of Information Systems and Facilities

FLEETWOOD

www.fleetwoodfixtures.com <http://www.fleetwoodfixtures.com>

Visit for an introduction to our extraordinary global capabilities

Corporate Office

Service Locations

225 Peach Street Leesport Pennsylvania 19533

USA - Illinois * New York * Pennsylvania

P. 610 916 9999 F. 610 916 9900

International - China * India

Green Plus Certified <http://gogreenplus.org> * We Reclaim, Recycle and
Respect the Environment

This transmission is confidential and intended solely for the use of the
person or organization to whom it is addressed.
It may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not
the intended recipient, you should not copy,
distribute or take any action on it. Please return any such mail to the
originator.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
We went with all touch screens about three years ago, and now are transitioning away from those to thin clients on an rdp farm.. As good as they sound, theyre incredibly expensive to maintain and replace (esp depending on your environment), and the more autonomous you want your production staff to be the more they will struggle without a mouse and keyboard. That's just been our experience.. a decent TC and a large monitor can be had for around 400 - 450... as compared to three zeros for a touch screen with any amount of horse power..

Rob Bucek
Production Control Manager
PH: (715) 284-5376 ext 311
Mobile: (715)896-0590
FAX: (715)284-4084
[Description: cid:1.234354861@...]<http://www.dsmfg.com/>
(Click the logo to view our site)<http://www.dsmfg.com/>

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Doug Oswald
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 8:05 AM
Subject: [Vantage] Touch Screen Monitors/MES



Anyone here using touch screens for MES? What are your opinions on the
value of these screens?

Are you using barcodes and touch screen? It seems like the main screen
is easy enough for a touch screen, but I worry about the screens
involving a search or the selection of a job from the Work Queue. It
almost seems like you would want a stylus for some of those screens.

Thanks,

Doug

Doug Oswald

Manager of Information Systems and Facilities

FLEETWOOD

www.fleetwoodfixtures.com <http://www.fleetwoodfixtures.com>

Visit for an introduction to our extraordinary global capabilities

Corporate Office

Service Locations

225 Peach Street Leesport Pennsylvania 19533

USA - Illinois * New York * Pennsylvania

P. 610 916 9999 F. 610 916 9900

International - China * India

Green Plus Certified <http://gogreenplus.org> * We Reclaim, Recycle and
Respect the Environment

This transmission is confidential and intended solely for the use of the
person or organization to whom it is addressed.
It may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not
the intended recipient, you should not copy,
distribute or take any action on it. Please return any such mail to the
originator.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Given the price point has almost reached a saturation point, we too are looking at a touch screens.

Currently thin clients account for the 8 data collection in use. Up until this point , a second older (single point) Kronos system was used for payroll time collection. The thought is to give DL employees a touchscreen as a trade off for the simplicity of a single swipe the Kronos system offers.

Ideally, a recommendation for the HP T5510 thin clients would be greatly appreciated. Either way, I would be interested in hearing any recommendations for a TS to stay away from or that have worked well.

Thank you,

Bruce Butler, IS Manager

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Rob Bucek
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 8:15 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] RE: Touch Screen Monitors/MES



We went with all touch screens about three years ago, and now are transitioning away from those to thin clients on an rdp farm.. As good as they sound, theyre incredibly expensive to maintain and replace (esp depending on your environment), and the more autonomous you want your production staff to be the more they will struggle without a mouse and keyboard. That's just been our experience.. a decent TC and a large monitor can be had for around 400 - 450... as compared to three zeros for a touch screen with any amount of horse power..

Rob Bucek
Production Control Manager
PH: (715) 284-5376 ext 311
Mobile: (715)896-0590
FAX: (715)284-4084
[Description: cid:1.234354861@...<mailto:1.234354861%40web65412.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>]<http://www.dsmfg.com/>
(Click the logo to view our site)<http://www.dsmfg.com/>

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>] On Behalf Of Doug Oswald
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 8:05 AM
Subject: [Vantage] Touch Screen Monitors/MES

Anyone here using touch screens for MES? What are your opinions on the
value of these screens?

Are you using barcodes and touch screen? It seems like the main screen
is easy enough for a touch screen, but I worry about the screens
involving a search or the selection of a job from the Work Queue. It
almost seems like you would want a stylus for some of those screens.

Thanks,

Doug

Doug Oswald

Manager of Information Systems and Facilities

FLEETWOOD

www.fleetwoodfixtures.com<http://www.fleetwoodfixtures.com> <http://www.fleetwoodfixtures.com>

Visit for an introduction to our extraordinary global capabilities

Corporate Office

Service Locations

225 Peach Street Leesport Pennsylvania 19533

USA - Illinois * New York * Pennsylvania

P. 610 916 9999 F. 610 916 9900

International - China * India

Green Plus Certified <http://gogreenplus.org> * We Reclaim, Recycle and
Respect the Environment

This transmission is confidential and intended solely for the use of the
person or organization to whom it is addressed.
It may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not
the intended recipient, you should not copy,
distribute or take any action on it. Please return any such mail to the
originator.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Doug,
Vantagte Plastics is on Ver. 8.03.407x
We have been using the touch screens since ver. 6.0 and find them invaluable. The work great with most of the shopfloor screens right off, but if needed you can always customize the screens to make them more friendly. We heavily customized the screens and took out most everything they don't "need" to use on the shopfloor. This left us lots of room to expand any buttons we want to encourage them to use. We use Barcode also, but that still does not have much buy-in from the shop guys after 7 years of availability. They still prefer to type a job number over scan it.
The biggest problem we have with touchscreens is where they aren't. If the material movers are at one of the NON-touch computers they find themselves (and I have done it myself once or twice) poking at the screen in vain trying to get the "ok" button to accept the input. This has created minor frustrations. I have yet to hear one complaint from the floor about the touch screens.
From my point of view, the only frustration is the lack of on screen keyboards as part of the interface anymore. Why Epicor took that away I will never understand. We still need Keyboards because of that little issue, but otherwise, there is a huge positive vote from us on Touch Screens.
We like EloTouch screens best, touch directly on glass, don't cheap out and get something with an overlay (resistive technology) as I have had many frustrations with those. It's very hard to wear out glass by touching it.
Best of luck,




Aaron Hoyt
IT/IS Admin
Vantage Plastics
aaron.hoyt@...
Phone: 989-846-1029 Fax: 989-846-0939
http://www.vantageplastics.com/
----- Original Message -----

From: "Doug Oswald" <dougo@...>
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 9:04:40 AM
Subject: [Vantage] Touch Screen Monitors/MES





Anyone here using touch screens for MES? What are your opinions on the
value of these screens?

Are you using barcodes and touch screen? It seems like the main screen
is easy enough for a touch screen, but I worry about the screens
involving a search or the selection of a job from the Work Queue. It
almost seems like you would want a stylus for some of those screens.

Thanks,

Doug

Doug Oswald

Manager of Information Systems and Facilities

FLEETWOOD

www.fleetwoodfixtures.com < http://www.fleetwoodfixtures.com >

Visit for an introduction to our extraordinary global capabilities

Corporate Office

Service Locations

225 Peach Street Leesport Pennsylvania 19533

USA - Illinois * New York * Pennsylvania

P. 610 916 9999 F. 610 916 9900

International - China * India

Green Plus Certified < http://gogreenplus.org > * We Reclaim, Recycle and
Respect the Environment

This transmission is confidential and intended solely for the use of the
person or organization to whom it is addressed.
It may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not
the intended recipient, you should not copy,
distribute or take any action on it. Please return any such mail to the
originator.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Rob,
We used Touch Screen Monitors (EloTouch) for well under $1000 (I have found them for as little as $400 for a 19" LCD on sale) with USB or serial connections that act just like a mouse, designed to connect to a PC or I would expect a Thin Client as a monitor and mouse. They have been wonderful for us (granted we leave the keyboard and mouse available). It's not all in one, but I have only had to calibrate 2 monitors, one time each, they use their finger, glove, pencil eraser or elbow for that matter. Have not had one die yet, though we did have an airline connector go flying and take out one LCD, but the screen still works, just the glass touchscreen is gone so I moved it to a non-touch PC and moved on with life.




Aaron Hoyt
IT/IS Admin
Vantage Plastics
aaron.hoyt@...
Phone: 989-846-1029 Fax: 989-846-0939
http://www.vantageplastics.com/
----- Original Message -----

From: "Rob Bucek" <rbucek@...>
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 9:14:57 AM
Subject: [Vantage] RE: Touch Screen Monitors/MES





We went with all touch screens about three years ago, and now are transitioning away from those to thin clients on an rdp farm.. As good as they sound, theyre incredibly expensive to maintain and replace (esp depending on your environment), and the more autonomous you want your production staff to be the more they will struggle without a mouse and keyboard. That's just been our experience.. a decent TC and a large monitor can be had for around 400 - 450... as compared to three zeros for a touch screen with any amount of horse power..

Rob Bucek
Production Control Manager
PH: (715) 284-5376 ext 311
Mobile: (715)896-0590
FAX: (715)284-4084
[Description: cid: 1.234354861@... ]< http://www.dsmfg.com/ >
(Click the logo to view our site)< http://www.dsmfg.com/ >

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto: vantage@yahoogroups.com ] On Behalf Of Doug Oswald
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 8:05 AM
Subject: [Vantage] Touch Screen Monitors/MES

Anyone here using touch screens for MES? What are your opinions on the
value of these screens?

Are you using barcodes and touch screen? It seems like the main screen
is easy enough for a touch screen, but I worry about the screens
involving a search or the selection of a job from the Work Queue. It
almost seems like you would want a stylus for some of those screens.

Thanks,

Doug

Doug Oswald

Manager of Information Systems and Facilities

FLEETWOOD

www.fleetwoodfixtures.com < http://www.fleetwoodfixtures.com >

Visit for an introduction to our extraordinary global capabilities

Corporate Office

Service Locations

225 Peach Street Leesport Pennsylvania 19533

USA - Illinois * New York * Pennsylvania

P. 610 916 9999 F. 610 916 9900

International - China * India

Green Plus Certified < http://gogreenplus.org > * We Reclaim, Recycle and
Respect the Environment

This transmission is confidential and intended solely for the use of the
person or organization to whom it is addressed.
It may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not
the intended recipient, you should not copy,
distribute or take any action on it. Please return any such mail to the
originator.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Yeah..you may be right, I was zoned in on the fact that we had POS (point of use – not piece of…) touch screens. I completely spaced that you could get just a touch screen monitor and hook it to a thin client..course if you were into one of those and an HP5510 or better you’d still be into it for a lot more… I think our welders and fabricators when faced with durable gorilla glass would just upgrade to a carbide scribing tool to get the thing done right…

Rob Bucek
Production Control Manager
PH: (715) 284-5376 ext 311
Mobile: (715)896-0590
FAX: (715)284-4084
[Description: cid:1.234354861@...]<http://www.dsmfg.com/>
(Click the logo to view our site)<http://www.dsmfg.com/>

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Aaron Hoyt
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 2:19 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] RE: Touch Screen Monitors/MES



Rob,
We used Touch Screen Monitors (EloTouch) for well under $1000 (I have found them for as little as $400 for a 19" LCD on sale) with USB or serial connections that act just like a mouse, designed to connect to a PC or I would expect a Thin Client as a monitor and mouse. They have been wonderful for us (granted we leave the keyboard and mouse available). It's not all in one, but I have only had to calibrate 2 monitors, one time each, they use their finger, glove, pencil eraser or elbow for that matter. Have not had one die yet, though we did have an airline connector go flying and take out one LCD, but the screen still works, just the glass touchscreen is gone so I moved it to a non-touch PC and moved on with life.

Aaron Hoyt
IT/IS Admin
Vantage Plastics
aaron.hoyt@...<mailto:aaron.hoyt%40vantageplastics.com>
Phone: 989-846-1029 Fax: 989-846-0939
http://www.vantageplastics.com/
----- Original Message -----

From: "Rob Bucek" <rbucek@...<mailto:rbucek%40dsmfg.com>>
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 9:14:57 AM
Subject: [Vantage] RE: Touch Screen Monitors/MES

We went with all touch screens about three years ago, and now are transitioning away from those to thin clients on an rdp farm.. As good as they sound, theyre incredibly expensive to maintain and replace (esp depending on your environment), and the more autonomous you want your production staff to be the more they will struggle without a mouse and keyboard. That's just been our experience.. a decent TC and a large monitor can be had for around 400 - 450... as compared to three zeros for a touch screen with any amount of horse power..

Rob Bucek
Production Control Manager
PH: (715) 284-5376 ext 311
Mobile: (715)896-0590
FAX: (715)284-4084
[Description: cid: 1.234354861@...<mailto:1.234354861%40web65412.mail.ac4.yahoo.com> ]< http://www.dsmfg.com/ >
(Click the logo to view our site)< http://www.dsmfg.com/ >

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> [mailto: vantage@yahoogroups.com<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On Behalf Of Doug Oswald
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 8:05 AM
Subject: [Vantage] Touch Screen Monitors/MES

Anyone here using touch screens for MES? What are your opinions on the
value of these screens?

Are you using barcodes and touch screen? It seems like the main screen
is easy enough for a touch screen, but I worry about the screens
involving a search or the selection of a job from the Work Queue. It
almost seems like you would want a stylus for some of those screens.

Thanks,

Doug

Doug Oswald

Manager of Information Systems and Facilities

FLEETWOOD

www.fleetwoodfixtures.com < http://www.fleetwoodfixtures.com >

Visit for an introduction to our extraordinary global capabilities

Corporate Office

Service Locations

225 Peach Street Leesport Pennsylvania 19533

USA - Illinois * New York * Pennsylvania

P. 610 916 9999 F. 610 916 9900

International - China * India

Green Plus Certified < http://gogreenplus.org > * We Reclaim, Recycle and
Respect the Environment

This transmission is confidential and intended solely for the use of the
person or organization to whom it is addressed.
It may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not
the intended recipient, you should not copy,
distribute or take any action on it. Please return any such mail to the
originator.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]