Material Traceability

What is Material Traceability?

For the majority of system-level production analysis, understanding the impact of one process on another is critical to driving productivity improvements.  For example,  understanding how increasing the amount of water used upstream impacts a downstream drying process.  Will that require a higher drying temperature? Increased drying time?  Material traceability enables the analysis of a production system by linking each process step and tracking the flow of material.

Accessing the Material Traceability Configuration

This guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough on setting up material traceability in your development workspace.

Start by accessing the lines model in the workspace. 

Step 1: Select the LINES object in your development workspace. 

If managing multiple facilities, choose the specific one for traceability configuration.

Step 2: Select the desired facility. 

After accessing the facility, it's time to navigate to the machine offset.

Step 3: Navigate from the overview to the machine offset. 

The machine offset is where two types of material traceability are configured: 

1. Utilizing a static time offset

2. Employing a key identifier for dynamic traceability.

Time Offsets

This guide explains how to define machine offsets for each equipment connection based on time. 

Machine offsets represent the time taken for material processing and transit between equipment. By default, the offset type is time, which includes both the average processing time and transit time. 

total time= processing time + transit time

Processing time is the duration required to process the material in a piece of equipment

Transit time is the duration it takes for the material to move from one piece of equipment to another. 

Total time is the sum of the processing and transit times.

Time is a great option when the production process is relatively constant in terms of speed and linear in terms of flow.

Follow the steps below to define time offsets:

Step 1: Select the connection point between two machines to define the machine offset.

Step 2: The default offset type is Time. This time comprises the average processing time and transit time. The processing time is the duration required to process the material in a piece of equipment. The transit time is the duration it takes for the material to move from one piece of equipment to another. The total time is the sum of the processing and transit times.

Step 3: Modify the processing and transit times as needed. For example, set the processing time to five minutes and the transit time to one minute. The total offset between this equipment will be six minutes.

Step 4: After defining the time offsets, select save.

Dynamic Offsets

This guide explains how to change the offset type to a global key identifier, which connects each piece of equipment for dynamic tracking of material flow. This is especially useful for manufacturing processes where steps in the production process are batched and processing time differs dramatically across equipment and throughout the manufacturing process.

Step 1: Change the offset type to a global key identifier. Note that this action removes any time offset configuration and applies the change globally. Ensure each piece of equipment has the same key identifier. 

Step 2: Click on Proceed.

Be aware that proceeding with this action overwrites any previously configured time offsets. However, it's possible to revert to time offsets and maintain them later. 

Step 3: Select the key identifier that's present on each piece of equipment intended for tracking material flow. 

Step 4: Save the changes. This updates the batch ID globally for each connection point, enabling the tracking of material from raw material to finished good.