Operations

Operations are the core element of the AI Scheduling system and allow Manufacturers to model any task, product, function, job or process that may require Scheduling.

Operations draw heavily from the ANSI ISA-95 Standard for Enterprise and Automation Control by the International Society of Automation. They represent a standardised way to define system attributes that can be read and understood by both Enterprise Systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, and Execution/Control systems such as Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES).

An Operation can be anything from a definition about how to make a Product with an associated Bill of Materials, to the definition of how to carry out a process or work task.

Operations consist of the following components:

• Operations Definition - the Name and Description of the Operation

• Routes - the unique sequence of steps (or segments) that are used to manufacture your product or define your task

• Segments - the individual tasks or discrete steps in a Route that are used to make a product or define a work/task process

• Requirements - the required resources such as Equipment, Material and Personnel to fulfil the Segment

• Duration - the time or rate that the Segment uses to calculate Start Time and End Time for the Scheduled Order.

For a brief overview of Operations, watch the video below then follow the steps in this guide.

Steps to Define an Operation:

1. Name and Description - the name and associated description usually refers to the Product, SKU or Task defined in manufacturing operations processes. Once in the Operations area of the Configuration screen select Add to create a new Operation:

2. Create a New Route by clicking on the + icon:

An Operation can have multiple Routes defined. If a product has a range of options that can be utilised to create the product, or the Operations runs at different speeds or takes different Durations depending on different Resource Requirements, these can be defined as Routes. The system will then utilise the Routes when scheduling manually or when Optimising.

3. Create a New Segment by clicking on the + icon:

A Segment is a step in a Production Process that requires specific Resource Requirements.

For example, a segment to create a specific part or product may require:

• Equipment - individual pieces or multiple pieces of Equipment may be required for the Segment. The use can select from all Equipment modelled in the application (or an Equipment Class) and can also select the utilisation of that Equipment for that Segment process.

• Personnel - as with Equipment, specific Personnel belonging to a particular Class may be required to undertake the Segment. Users can select from all available Personnel of a particular Class and can also select the Utilisation of that Person when involved in the segment process.

• Material - specific Materials are Consumed or Produced as a result of the Segment Process. Multiple Materials can be consumed to produce a Unit of a specific output Material.

• Duration - either a rate (Throughput) or Fixed Duration (Time) can be configured to inform the system how long or how fast the Segment Process takes on a per/unit basis.

3. Input Segment Details:

Double click on the created Segment Circle then enter Segment details:

When selecting Equipment, the user nominates the Class or Instance of Equipment required to fulfil the Segment Requirement and also selects the number of resources and the utilisation of that resource for that segment.

Personnel can also be selected, where the user selects the number, Class and Utilisation of each Personnel Resource required for that Segment.

The example below requires a single instance of the Personnel Resource Class - Operator utilised at 100%.

For Materials, the user will need to select which Materials are Consumed and which materials are Produced as a result of the Segment.

*It is important that for Consumed Materials, the system requires the user to nominate how much of a single unit is used to create 1 Produced Unit. All Consumed Materials will need to be modelled i a similar way. The example below shows that to produce 1 item of a Moulded Part, it requires 0.05 Units (in this case Kilograms) of Plastic Beads.

The Completed Segment Requirement definition will look like the above with all Equipment, Materials and Personnel defined against each Segment process.

Now that the resource requirements are set, the user will need to define the Duration for the Segment using either a Throughout (Rate) or a Fixed Duration (Time) definition.

The example above uses the Throughput duration definition, where the rate is 1 unit per second.

The Date Range defines the time period that the rate applies. This is important for situations where rates may vary over time. A machine rate may improve, the set point for the process may be altered to increase the speed of the equipment or continuous improvement may drive a future uplift in the production rate.

This calendarisation allows operations to maintain accurate Scheduling Models and not lose historic schedule information maintained in the system.

Repeat this step for all required Operations, or visit the Configuration and Data Templates sections for a faster way to configure the system.