Implementation Guide: Manufacturing Operations
Flows that Mix Batch Materials
For the EZ-MES system, mixing of material to create new e material is equivalent
to
assembly operations only now the materials are non-discrete
instead of discrete.
Example: Create a flow for making Pickle for Honey Ham
In this example we will show a two step process to make Pickle for Honey Ham.
The Pickle is created by first weighing the Dry Mix; a mix of Salt, Spices, and
Saltpeter. In the second step the Honey and Water is added and everything is mixed
to an homogeneous susbtance.
A schematic presentation is shown in the following flow diagram:
Ingredients and quantities to make the 1 LB Pickle Mix:
- A: Salt (X1 = 0.05 LB)
- B: Spices (X2 = 0.1 LB)
- C: Saltpeter (X3 = 0.05 LB)
- D: Dry Mix
- E: LB Honey (X4 = 0.2 LB)
- F: Water (X5 = 0.6 LB)
And the Steps:
- Step 1: Make Dry Mix
- Step 2: Mix Pickle
Implementation approach for EZ-MES
The following figure shows one of the many possible implementations:
For this implementation the following has to be noted:
- A, B, C, D and E are defined as consumables. These are defined on the Name-Value Pairs Tob of the Step Definition Form.
How to define consumption entries.
- All quantities for the consumables (X1, X2 ... ) are defined (normalized) in reference
to the output quantity.
- For the Dry Mix NOT 'LB' is used as a quantity, but UNIT. 1 UNIT is the quantity
of Dry Mix needed to make 1 LB of Pickle. (This will simplify the implementation,
but it is possible to implement the flow keeping the LB units)
- An
Input-Output combination is defined on the Name-Value Pairs Tob of the Step Definition Form.
In this case it is used to convert the Dry Mix into Pickle. No quantity change is
defined.
- It is probably overkill to have the water consumption defined as a consumable. In
general you should define materials as consumable if you either want to have full traceablity or if you keep track of
the inventory levels
of the specific consumable.
The following figure gives a more detailed picture of the implementation of the
Pickle flow:
Actual Implementation in EZ-MES
We will show a couple of screen-shot on how this flow is implemnted in EZ-MES. The
following figure shows the General Tab of the Flow Definition Form:
