Nova Track Training
A step-by-step guide for the two ways people use this app: entering data on the shop floor, and reading the results as a manager. Pick your section below.
This section covers Operator Entry — how to log a shift's production and stoppages, from login to finishing the report.
Log in
Go to Operator Entry in the top menu. Log in with the username and password your Admin created for you — there's no more typing your name by hand, it's attached to your login automatically.
Operator Login
Enter your username and password
Select Line, Date & Shift
Pick your Line, the Date, and your Shift, then click Load / Start Run. If a run already exists for that combination, it opens it instead of starting a new one — safe to click even if you're not sure.
1. Select Line, Date & Shift
Fill in Order Details
Material, Occupied Time, and Planned Order Quantity come from the order/schedule for this run. Nominal Speed and Standard Crew Size fill in automatically once you pick the Material — you only type your Actual Crew Size.
2. Order Details
Enter Output, then Save
Enter the total (gross) quantity produced and how much was waste/rework, then click Save.
3. Output
Log Events (Stoppages)
Click + Add Event for every stoppage. Pick the machine first, then walk the 3-step picker: Loss Class → Reason Group → Specific Reason. If the same reason happened several times in the shift, log it once with a Frequency — don't add it repeatedly.
4. Events (Stoppages)
- * Pick the machine first.
- * Only events on the bottleneck machine (or marked "Affects Line Performance") change the line's OEE.
- * If the same reason happened more than once, log it once with a Frequency instead of adding it repeatedly.
The Add Event form walks you through these fields, in order:
Check the Live Summary as you go
This updates instantly as you add events, so you can sanity-check your entries before finishing — no need to wait until the end.
Live Summary
| Occupied | Good Prod. Time | Planned | Unplanned | Waste & Rework |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 480 | 376 | 30 | 45 | 7 |
Finish the report
When the shift is fully entered, click Finish Report. Starting a new shift record uses + New Record; Delete Record removes a run entirely (only if it was entered by mistake).
Common mistakes to avoid
- Skipping the Output Save before logging events — save Output first, then add events.
- Repeating the same reason instead of using Frequency — log it once and set how many times it happened.
- Adding an event without picking the machine first — the reason list depends on which machine you picked.
- Leaving a run without clicking Finish Report — it stays open and can look incomplete on the dashboard.
- Waiting more than 24 hours to fix a mistake — the run locks after that; ask your Admin to correct it.
This section covers Reports & Dashboard — no login required. Anyone with the link can open it to see how the factory is performing.
Set your filters
Choose a Technology Type (or leave it on "All"), pick which Line(s) to include, and set your date range and trend granularity. Click Apply Filters to refresh everything below. Both Export Runs CSV and Export Events CSV open directly in Excel for deeper analysis.
Filters
Read the KPI Summary
The headline numbers for the period and lines you selected. OEE is the single overall health number; the rest break down where the losses are coming from.
KPI Summary
Capacity Utilization & Equipment Reliability
Time Base CU% is how much of the available time the line was actually occupied; Volume Base CU% is how much output came out versus the theoretical max. MTBF/MTBS show how often equipment fails or stops between incidents — higher is better.
Capacity Utilization
Equipment Reliability
OEE Trend vs. Target
The chart shows OEE over time against a dashed target line (the weighted average of each run's Standard). The table below it colors each period green when at/above target and red when below — a quick way to scan for problem weeks without reading every number.
OEE Trend
| Period | OEE | eUPS % |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 15-21 | 77.8% | 13.1% |
| Jun 22-28 | 68.4% | 19.6% |
| Jun 29-Jul 4 | 76.1% | 15.2% |
Loss Breakdown by Line & Top Stoppage Reasons
Use the stacked chart to spot which line is losing the most time, then the Pareto chart to see which specific reasons are driving it — usually a small handful of reasons account for most of the loss (the 80/20 rule), so start there.
Loss Breakdown by Line
Top Stoppage Reasons (Pareto)
Loss Contribution by Line
Two views of the same problem: eUPS% shows which line has the worst loss rate, while Capacity Lost by Line (Cases) shows which line is costing the most actual output, broken into Planned Stoppages, Unplanned Stoppages, and Idle (calendar time never staffed) — a line can rank high on one and low on the other if it runs a lot fewer hours.
Loss Contribution (eUPS %)
Capacity Lost by Line (Cases)
Drill down: Stoppages by Line & Machine, and the Run Log
These two tables are the raw detail underneath everything above — use them when a KPI or chart raises a question and you need to see exactly which shift, machine, or event caused it.
Stoppages by Line & Machine
| Line | Machine | Events | Total Min | Unplanned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Line 3 | Filler | 6 | 210 | 135 |
Run Log
| Date | Line | Shift | OEE % | MSA % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-04 | Line 3 | A | 78.4% | 96.8% |
Suggested use in a daily/weekly review
A step-by-step plan for taking Nova Track live, starting with one pilot line before rolling out further.
Where to host it (the Microsoft 365 / OneDrive trap)
One important thing first, if your company runs on Microsoft 365 / OneDrive: OneDrive syncing a live SQLite database file (production.db) while the app is writing to it is a known corruption risk — OneDrive can lock the file mid-write or create "conflicted copy" duplicates. So the single most important rule for going live is don't run Nova Track from inside a OneDrive-synced folder (Desktop, Documents, or any "OneDrive - CompanyName" path — Windows 11 often auto-backs these up via OneDrive Known Folder Move, so check Desktop/Documents specifically). Use a plain local folder like C:\NovaTrack\ instead. You still get cloud backup safely — just schedule a nightly copy of production.db into OneDrive, never run the live app from inside it.
OneDrive-synced folders — Desktop, Documents, or any "OneDrive - CompanyName" path. OneDrive syncing a live database file corrupts it.
A plain local folder, e.g.
C:\NovaTrack\ — not synced by OneDrive at all.
production.db into a OneDrive folder — a copy, not the live file, so nothing gets corrupted while the app is running.
Pilot rollout timeline (1 line)
Prep & install
Pick which PC hosts the app — ideally one that stays powered on near the pilot line, or a shared office PC. Copy the production_tracker folder to C:\NovaTrack\ (not OneDrive) on that PC, with Python 3.10+ installed. Double-click start_production.bat — first run installs everything automatically. Find that PC's IP address (ipconfig), ask IT to reserve it as static (DHCP reservation) so it doesn't change, and open Windows Firewall for port 5000 if other PCs can't reach it. Change the admin password from the default 241877 immediately.
Configure the line in Admin
Log into /admin and check just the pilot line's setup: the Line itself (hours available per day), its Machines (with the bottleneck flagged correctly), the Materials it runs with Standards set (nominal speed, unit weight, expected KPIs), and that the relevant Stoppage Reason Codes make sense for its machines. Then create Operator Users for that line's team — including at least one account with Line Manager checked (their supervisor), so someone local can unlock old runs without needing you or the admin password.
Train the team
Point everyone at this Training tab — shopfloor/operators read the "For Shopfloor & Line Managers" section, the supervisor reads "For Leadership Team." A short 15-20 minute walk-through on shift, live on the actual screen, works well alongside it.
Shadow week
Run for about a week with operators entering real data. If practical, keep whatever method you use today (paper/Excel) running in parallel just for this week, so you can cross-check a few shifts for accuracy. Check the Reports & Dashboard daily for Over-logged warnings (usually a data-entry mistake worth a quick correction) and any pending unlock requests.
Review results
Compare Nova Track's numbers against your parallel record for a handful of shifts. Ask the operators what was confusing or slow — the 3-step event picker, the Output section, whatever. Fix any gaps in Standards/Reason Codes you find.
Go / expand
Once the pilot line's data looks trustworthy and the team's comfortable, repeat step 2 (Admin setup) for the next line(s) and roll out the same way — the server and everything else already stays the same, you're just adding lines.