Processes ​

Processes define the work required to be performed on a material.

Data Collection ​

To record data at the time the process is performed, add Data Elements to the Data Collection table.

• Add an element by double clicking the top row and provide values for each cell
• Data elements names can always be edited, but their type is locked once they are added
• You can delete a collection Data Element, unless the process has been saved.

Material Marriage ​

Processes are performed on materials. You can make materials become "married" to other materials by defining a collection Data Element with the "Material" kind. This kind of Data Element stores a Material ID. When the process is completed for a Material, it will become "married" to every material that was in that Data Element.

Specifications ​

Process allow for variations in their parameter values and validations. For example, a Visual Inspection Process might verify one wheel for Material Model Widget A, but might need to verify 2 wheels for Material Model Widget B. In this case, a single Process should be configured with 2 different specifications.

These are implemented by creating Specifications (or "Specs"). At least one Default Specification is required.

When a process is assigned to a Material, one of the Specs will be chosen. Each spec can have conditions and a time range for when they're in effect. Each Spec in the list will be evaluated until a Spec is found which:

• all conditions of the Spec are satisfied
• the Start and End timestamps contain the current timestamp.

To ensure a Spec is always chosen, Default specs cannot have conditions and there must be a Default spec without an end date.

Add conditions as columns to the Spec table, and set how the conditions affect the Spec being appled. You can say that the condition must be true (✔ Yes), false (✘ No), or does not affect the Spec being selected either way (N/A)

Also, you can reorder the non-default Specs to control the order they are evaluated.

Required Count ​

The required count is how many times the process should be performed on a material before it is considered complete. If you don't specify a value for a required count on a Spec, it will be inherited from the Default spec.

Locking ​

Specifications can be edited until they get a material solved to them. After which they will have a "locked" icon. If you want to modify the Spec, you must create a new one. This can be done easily by right clicking on the Spec name and selecting "Replace with Editable Copy". This will setup a new Spec that will activate as soon as the process is saved, and the old Spec will be deactivated by updating the "End" timestamp of the old Spec.

Parameters ​

Processes can provide parameter Data Elements. The parameters are defined on the process, but the values for these are determined by the chosen Spec, and can be a hardcoded value, or a value sourced from an Attribute. This is the fundamental principle of what allows Specifications to be behave differently while remaining consistent within a Process.

If a Spec doesn't provide a value for a Parameter, it will be inherited from the Default Spec. Because of this, default Specs must provide values for each Parameter.

You can make a Parameter value for a spec be sourced from an Attribute by right clicking a cell and selecting "Source value from Attribute", then double clicking on "Select an Attribute". You can revert back to a hardcoded value by right clicking on the cell and selecting "Provide a fixed value instead of from an Attribute".

Validations ​

Validations are defined in the top table, and assigned to Specs in the bottom table.

Defining a validation ​

• Click the plus button in the corner
• Enter a name for the validation
• (Optional) Set a timing for the validation, whether it should happen on each data collection, or at the end of the process
  • "After Process Completions" validations can be thought of as having "high severity". If they fail, the whole process becomes failed.
• Select an Operator - You can only pick operands that match the type of the operator. For example, if you choose a Numeric operator, you will only be able to use numeric data elements as the operands.
• Select Operands
  • Choose either a fixed value, or a data element
  • (Optional) If picking a data element, choose an aggregation type
• (Optional) set a "failure message", which will be the message shown when this validation fails

Assigning a validation ​

For each Spec you want to apply the validation to, select Yes or No in the corresponding cell. If you don't specify, it will be inherited from the Default spec.

Media ​

You can define media to show with a process, and even set it up to show specific images per step in the process. (A step is a data collection counter that increments until the Required Count is met).

Media must be added to a Spec before it can be assigned individual steps. Expand the Spec row, and click "Add New Media". You will be prompted for a URL to an image.

After adding Spec media, you can click one of the boxes under the "Step Media" column, and then choose from one of the images in the Spec Media.