Understand utilization events

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.

For information about how to split events, see Split an event.

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.

For information about how to merge events, see Merge an event with an adjacent event.