Utilization reasons and reason groups

You can use the Utilization module to define a utilization reason and associate a utilization state to the reason. Utilization reasons and utilization states are used to monitor and report performance activities of each entity.

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 set by the Utilization Capability Object (UCO) from a PLC or I/O, set by code through an API call, or set by a user through MES Operator, MES Web Portal, or a .NET control.

The reasons are grouped by reason groups. Initially, you must create a utilization reason group before creating the first utilization reason.

By default, the Utilization module is in the Performance Management group in the Navigation Bar. For more information on groups and modules, see Groups and modules.

When you open the Utilization workspace tab, a list of the reason groups and their reasons are shown.

The order of the reason groups in the reason tree, and the order of the reasons within each group, is used in the MES Operator application when a user selects a utilization reason.

Utilization reason groups and reasons can also be configured in MES Web Portal. For more information about configuring and using utilization reason groups and reasons in MES Web Portal, see the MES Web Portal User Guide or help.

System parameters that control the behavior of utilization functions are configured in MES Client. See the "Operator" section of the table in System parameters reference.