Glossary

A

alarm logger

The alarm logger provides the user with a centralized log of alarm information across multiple nodes in a separate standalone utility. The Alarm Logger also provides access to distributed alarms.

alarm on error

Shows an alarm if, at runtime, an object expression is in an error state.

alarm priority

Each configured alarm has a priority value associated with it. This value represents the severity of the alarm and can range from 1 to 999, where 1 being the most severe.

Attribute

An attribute is an additional user defined property for an item, job, entity, and so on, which supplies more information about the item to the users of the MES system.

authorized user

An authorized user is an System Platform IDE user who has the Galaxy permission of "User Configuration/Can Create/Modify/Delete Users."

Automatic Mode

The UCO is in Automatic mode if, when recording utilization events, the Log Utilization Events attribute is True. In Automatic mode, the UCO will log raw reason code transitions as utilization events to the MES database against the entity (that is, the parent object to the UCO). If the Log Utilization Events attribute is False, the UCO is in Manual mode. The object will continue to evaluate raw reason code transitions and update the object attributes, but it will not log utilization events to the MES database.

B

Batch

A batch is an amount of production that is processed simultaneously. Batch is used to modify the standard production time for a given amount of product. Standards are expressed either in time per batch, or batches per time. If the amount of production is not an integral number of batches, the standard production time is rounded up to what it would be for the next whole number of batches. For example, if you bake cookies by the dozen, it takes as long to bake 13 as it does to bake 24, because you must still bake the odd one for (about) as long as you bake a whole dozen.

D

Downtime

Downtime is the time an entity is not being utilized for production but is available to do so. The time an entity spends stopped during a meal break, a weekend, or other time when there is no one intended to be available to operate it is not normally counted as downtime, even though the entity is stopped during those periods.

E

Entity

Plant assets that are used for production of goods. An entity can be a building, a location within a building, a production line, a single machine, and so on. Physical entities are components that users log in to on the shop floor to do work.

Entity Model Builder

The Entity Model Builder is an System Platform IDE extension for creating entities from your System Platform equipment model that use the an MES object for configuring MES functionality, such as utilization, OEE tracking, job production, and quality management support.

G

Galaxy

The entire application. The complete System Platform system that consists of a single logical namespace (defined by the Galaxy Database) and a collection of Platform Objects, Engine Objects, and other Objects. One or more network PCs that constitute an automation system. This is referred to as the Galaxy Namespace.

Galaxy Database

The relational database containing all persistent configuration information like Templates, Instances, Security, and so on in a Galaxy Repository.

Galaxy Database Manager

The Galaxy Database Manager is a utility to manage your Galaxy. It can back up and restore galaxies if they become corrupt or reproduce a galaxy on another computer. The Galaxy Database Manager is part of the Operations Control Management Console.

Galaxy Object

The Object that represents a Galaxy.

Galaxy Repository

The software subsystem consisting of one or more Galaxy Databases.

H

Hierarchical Name

The name of the object in the context of its container object. For example, Tank1.OutletValve, where an object called Tank1 contains the OutletValve object.

Human Machine Interface (HMI)

Tool that allows a person to control equipment remotely.

I

IDE

Integrated development environment.

Instance

An Object, which is a unique representation of a template that exists in run time.

Instantiation

The creation of a new Instance based on a corresponding Template.

Item

The basic unit produced or consumed during production. Items can be referred to as a part, component, piece, and so on in different manufacturing environments.

J

Job

The work order instance of an Operation, scheduled to entities or groups of entities.A user on the plant floor logs into a job to perform work.

L

Log Viewer

A Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that provides a user interface for viewing messages reported to the Operations Control Management Console Logger.

Logger

Application that records all System Platform problems or errors. Log entries can be viewed using the Log Viewer function in Operations Control Management Console.

Lot

Group of consumed or produced items.

M

Manual Mode

The UCO is in Manual mode if, when recording utilization events, the Log Utilization Events attribute is False.

In Automatic mode, the UCO will log raw reason code transitions as utilization events to the MES database against the entity (that is, the parent object to the UCO). In Manual mode, the object will continue to evaluate raw reason code transitions and update the object attributes, but it will not log utilization events to the MES database. These events have to be logged manually.

Manufacturing Execution System (MES)

Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is a complete set of functional capabilities for consistent and effective execution of operational activities.

MES Middleware

The MES middleware enables communication between the MES client components, including MES objects, and the MES database.

MES Middleware Proxy

The MES middleware proxy enables communication between an MES client component, including MES objects, and the MES middleware server.

O

Object

Any template or instance found in a Galaxy Database. All objects are stored as separate components in the Galaxy Repository.

Object Model Attributes

Defines the details of the interface content between manufacturing control functions and other enterprise functions.

Object Name

Describes the name of the System Platform object instance that triggered the event.

Object Type

Describes the type of the System Platform object instance that triggered the event. These are the names of the PEM.

Operation

Defines a task used in the production of an item and the items consumed and produced as a result of the task. Includes the entities used to complete the task and labor / machine time estimates.

Operations Control Management Console (OCMC) Log Viewer

The Operations Control Management Console Log Viewer is used to view messages posted by the Logger.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness

The efficiency calculation implemented in the MES is based on the industry standard OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) efficiency methodology.

OEE is determined as follows: OEE = Availability x Quality x Performance

P

Package File (.aaPKG)

The standard description file that contains the configuration data and implementation code for one or more object instances or Templates. The file extension is .aaPKG.

Process

Defines the method of producing an item. A process definition will link the item to be produced with operations, steps, specifications, physical entities, and routings that determine the flow of material between entities and operations.

Process Control

The use of the computer to control industrial processes, such as oil refining and steel production.

Production

The quantity or amount of an item that was produced or processed as the result of the work that was done on the shop floor.

Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)

Programmable Logic Controller.

Properties

Data common to all attributes of objects, such as name, value, quality, and data type.

R

Raw Reason Code

Machine utilization raw reason codes can be sent directly from an entity to MES via a UCO. Depending on how the raw reason code is configured in the UCO or in MES Client, it will create a new utilization event in the MES database, using the utilization reason to which the raw reason code was mapped.

One and only one raw reason code can be active at a time. If more than one raw reason code expression

evaluates to True simultaneously, the active raw reason code is the one with the highest priority. The priority is determined by their order in the raw reason code list and the Minimum Time Before Activation setting in the UCO instance.

If a raw reason code that is not configured for the entity is received, the Unknown Reason utilization reason, which is configurable for each entity or UCO instance, is used.

Rejected Messages

Rejected messages are object messages that are rejected by the MES middleware when the object is in Without Response mode. The rejected messages are stored in the MES database and can be viewed in MES Client, through the hosting object, or through LMX-based read/write sources, such as System Platform Object Viewer.

The middleware can reject messages due to errors, such as network errors or invalid inputs.

Run Time

The time during which data is fetched by the control unit and actual processing is performed in the arithmeticlogic unit.

S

Shift

Defines breaks and work timings for different entities. You can define different shifts and breaks for different entities.

Sublot

Subordinate group of consumed or produced items.

System Platform

The distributed architecture for supervisory control and manufacturing information systems. It is an open and extensible technology based on a distributed object-based design.

T

Tagname

The name assigned to a variable defined in the Tagname dictionary.

Template

An object containing configuration information and software templates used to create a Derived Template and/or Instance.

Trigger Input

When a Trigger Input is used, the input status is checked at every scan.

Triggering

An event trigger associates the object with a Boolean attribute that acts as the object trigger.

U

Units Of Measure

The measure used for items in MES.

User Defined Object

An Automation Object created from the User Defined Template. This template does not have any application specific attributes or logic. You must define these attributes and associated logic.

Utilization Event

A utilization event indicates the current operational state of the entity. An entity is always considered to be in a utilization event. The events that are typically of interest are those that indicate that the entity is down or when it is idle when it should be running.

If so configured, the system can set an entity’s event automatically based on changes in the operational state of the entity.

Production operators can also manually change the event that an entity is in when the condition or state of the entity changes. When changing to a new event, the operator assigns a utilization reason to the new event. The reason specifies the entity’s utilization state and the reason for that state. For example, the utilization reasons Running - Normal Speed, Running - High Speed, and Running - Low Speed all indicate a utilization state of Running. However, each reason indicates a running speed.

Utilization reason time

When configuring a utilization reason, the Standard, Minimum, and Maximum Times can be specified for it.

These times can be displayed in MES Web Portal and in utilization reports to indicate expected times that an entity can be in the utilization reason.

Maximum duration

When configuring a utilization reason, a Maximum Duration can be specified for a utilization reason. This value can be used to do one of the following:

• Specify how long an entity can be in the utilization reason before the condition is considered Severe.

  For example, a plant might consider an entity that is undergoing maintenance for longer than 2 hours to be in a Severe condition. If so, the Maintenance utilization reason would have its Maximum Duration set for 2 hours. The state of the Severe flag for an entity event is shown in the Event History grid.

• Specify how long an entity can be in the utilization reason before it is changed to a new reason. For example, you might want a machine that is in the Jammed utilization reason for more than 5 minutes to automatically switch to the Requires Mechanic Assistance reason.

  Split events

  An event can be split into two events, so that one of them can be assigned a different utilization reason. For example, if it was discovered that an entity had actually been down for a portion of a Running event, the Running event can be split.

  Merge events

  Adjacent utilization events for the same entity can be merged if it is determined that the events actually represent one event.

  To merge two events for an entity, all of the following conditions must be true:

• The events are contiguous. This is, no other events have occurred between the two events.

• The events have the same utilization reason.

• The raw reason codes for the events are the same.

  or

  The raw reason codes for the events are different but one of the options for the How to handle raw reason codes when merging utilization events system parameter that allows events with different raw reason codes to be merged has been selected.

• The comments for the events are the same and the Do not merge if comments differ is selected for How to handle comments when merging utilization events system parameter.

  If this option is selected, you must edit an event's comment so that it matches the comment of the other event prior to merging events. In addition, you can only apply new comments after merging existing events.

  or

  The comments for the events are different but either Merge using the comment from the earlier event or Merge using the comment from the later event setting is selected for How to handle comments when merging utilization events system parameter.

  The system parameters for How to handle comments when merging utilization events and How to handle raw reason codes are configured in MES Client, in the Operator group of the General Parameters module. For more information, refer to the MES Client documentation.

Utilization Reason

Utilization reasons describe the current condition of an entity and associate each reason with a utilization state.

A reason group is a category of reasons. For example, the reason Bottle Jam can belong to the reason group Bottle Descrambler Down, and results in a Downtime utilization state. On the production floor, a reason can be selected by a PLC, an input/output (I/O) connection to a device, or an operator.

The utilization reasons that operators can assign to events during production are created during system configuration.

Utilization Reason Group

To help production operators navigate a large list of utilization reasons, reasons can be assigned to utilization reason groups during system configuration.

In the MES applications or application objects, the reason groups are displayed as expandable nodes in the reason list.

It is helpful to understand the difference between utilization states and utilization reason groups. While both terms represent an aggregation of utilization reasons, states are sets of reasons that imply something about the

physical situation of the entity, with respect to the way it is operating or not operating. Utilization reason groups are strictly a navigational aid for lists of utilization reasons in the user interface.

Utilization State

To support utilization tracking, entities are considered to be in utilization states, such as Running, Idle, Down, or Maintenance. It is the utilization state that determines if the event duration is classified as Performance, Utilization, or Neither.

During system configuration, utilization states are assigned to utilization reasons. Therefore, an entity’s state is defined when a utilization reason is assigned to an entity’s event.

W

Without Response Mode

Without Response mode indicates to the object to execute all transactions through Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) so that the utilization events are properly resolved and recorded.

In Without Response mode, the object does not receive the notifications about the delivery status of messages for its calls. The MES middleware pulls the event logs from the queue and records them in the MES database.

Work Order

A work order is a requirement to produce a certain amount of an item, comprising one or more jobs. A work order may also be generated in house to restock inventory for an item that your company produces and later uses as a component for another item.