Imports

An import describes a cargo of material arriving and being unloaded at a plant. Imports contain information such as the arrival feed, the laycan period, and the amount and type of material transported. A single import can include more than one type of material.

The Imports page shows all the imports registered in the current schedule.

You can select three predefined views from the Views drop-down menu:

• Standard: shows default information for the imports, including the ship names, arrival and departure times, along with the constituent cargoes and their amounts.

• Cargo: for each feedstock type, this shows the cargo parcel and the amount being received. The feedstock types shown in this view are selected in the Material Columns dialog, which you can open by clicking the Cargo Columns button in the Show group of the Home ribbon tab.

• Metadata: shows metadata values for each import and cargo parcel. Of particular interest is the Integration ID column. This metadata field is used by the Reconciliation Environment to match data on imports and exports.

You can also look at imports in the Transports pane of the Display page. This is part of the New imports/exports view (preview) optional feature, which is enabled by default.

To open the pane, click Transports in the Panes group of the Home ribbon tab.

Click the plus icon in the first column to show information about the parcels of the corresponding import or export. Click the bigger plus icon or minus icon near the top left corner of the window to show or hide information about all parcels, respectively.

In the Alerts column, a combination of amber and red discs tells you whether a transport has one or more warnings and errors. In the Activities column, a circle icon means that there is an activity associated with the transport. Two concentric circles mean that there are multiple activities. For both columns, hover the mouse pointer over a cell to show a tooltip with additional information on alerts or activities.

You can sort, search, filter and group the table contents like in other advanced grids of the scheduling environment. For example, you can group entries according to the Transport Type column to show imports and exports separately.

You can edit values in cells with a white background. Your edits are immediately reflected in other parts of the scheduling environment, such as the Imports and Exports pages.

Another way to perform actions on imports and exports is via the toolbar buttons:

• Add Import: adds a new row of type Import to the top of the table. You can then edit values in the cells and copy and paste from other rows or from external applications.

• Add Export: adds a new row of type Export to the top of the table. You can then edit values in the cells and copy and paste from other rows or from external applications.

• Delete Selected Row(s): deletes the selected rows, whether whole transports or individual parcels. You can select a mix of transports and parcels.

• Add Feedstock to: adds a parcel to the selected import or export. The new parcel is initially assigned an amount of zero and the grade that has the highest amount among the other parcels in the transport. If the transport has no previous parcels, the first available grade is used. You can of course edit the amount and grade after the parcel has been added.

  For example, in the following image a new parcel created for the Dark Stallion import will have Mars as grade, since Mars is the grade with the highest amount in the existing parcel.

Add, edit and delete imports

To add a new import, click Add in the Imports group of the Home ribbon tab. The Import Editor opens, where you can enter the details of the new import. The Import Editor contains the same tabs and panes as the Import Inspector.

To add a copy of the selected import, click the arrow to the right of the Add button in the Imports group of the Home ribbon tab, then choose Add Copy from the menu. The Import Editor opens, filled with the data of the selected import.

To edit an import, select it in the grid and click Edit in the Imports group of the Home ribbon tab.

To delete one or more imports, select them in the grid and click Delete in the Imports group of the Home ribbon tab.

Add imports using the Gantt pane

1. Select Add Import from the context menu

   

   To add an import from the Gantt view, right-click the view on a feed row at the required time and select Add import... from the context menu.

2. Enter import details

   

   In the Import Editor dialog enter the details for the import. The main items of information you must enter are the following:

   • A Name identifying the import.

   • The Asset where the export will be unloaded.

   • The Start and End date and time.

   • All the feedstocks in the cargo and their amounts.

   • Any delay in the discharge of the material, and any rules associated with the import.

Add imports using the Tabular pane

You can enter imports and exports from the Tabular pane. To do this:

3. Enter import or export name

   Enter the Name by typing, or pasting, a value into the Name column in the row corresponding to the cargo arrival or departure time.

   When entering a new arrival or departure, an Import or Export activity is created with a default length of 24 hours.

   

4. Select feedstock

   Imports: Click the arrow in the Cargo column on the same row to choose the feedstock being received. This feedstock type must be included in the supply chain model Purchases page, and therefore in a Feedstock Group of the case on which the scheduling case is based.

   Exports: Click the arrow in the Cargo column on the same row to choose the product being shipped. This product type must be included in the supply chain model Sales page of the case on which the scheduling case is based.

   

5. Enter amount

   Imports: Enter the amount of feedstock being received by typing or pasting the value in the Cargo Total Amount column. The amount will automatically be added to the inventory of the receiving asset.

   Exports: Enter the amount of product being shipped by typing or pasting the value in the Cargo Total Amount column. The amount will automatically be added to the list of cargo components in the Export Inspector.

   

6. Fine tune import or export

   Fine tune the import or export properties using the Import Inspector or the Export Inspector, respectively.

Import routings

To allow material to be received, imports must be created and allocated to an arrival asset. Arrival assets are represented on the flowsheet using Feed items.

Arrival feeds have to be connected to tanks, into which the received materials will be stored. You can create these connections in the Topology page.

If you change the feed connected to an import, the corresponding discharging activity is automatically updated and preserved in most cases. The activity is deleted in these cases:

• The activity was a generated activity.

• There is no route between the new feed and the destination tank.

Even when an activity is deleted, the import feed is still changed. If an activity is deleted, you are notified with a dialog box.

Manage integration IDs

When creating an import, a unique integration ID is automatically generated. You can also manually add and edit integration IDs.

Integration IDs are used to uniquely identify imports when publishing scheduling data to external systems, such as AVEVA Offsites.

The generated IDs are combinations of upper and lower case letters, digits, dashes and underscore characters. The maximum length of an integration ID is 128 characters.

You can add and edit integration IDs as part of adding and editing imports. An Integration ID field is available in the Import Inspector in the Display page, and in the Import Editor in the Imports page.

In the Imports page, the Integration ID column is visible in the Standard and Metadata views.

Note the following with regard to integration IDs:

• Integration IDs are not mandatory. They are not added automatically to existing imports.

• When you create a copy of an import via the Add Copy ribbon button, the copy is assigned a new unique integration ID. It does not have the same ID as the original.

• The uniqueness of integration IDs is not enforced. Newly created IDs are unique, but when you edit an ID or manually add a new one, you must make sure it is unique.

Manage metadata

You can view and edit metadata for imports in two places:

• In the Imports page, when you select Metadata from the View drop-down menu.

• In the Metadata tab of the Import Inspector.

  

There are metadata fields that apply to an import as a whole, and fields that apply to each parcel of the cargo.

In addition to predefined metadata values, you can add and delete custom metadata fields. You can do so in the Imports page, but the custom metadata fields will appear also in the Metadata tab of the Import Inspector.

To add a custom metadata field:

7. Go to the Imports page.

8. Select Metadata from the View drop-down menu. The Metadata group appears in the Home ribbon tab.

9. Select one import by clicking a cell in the table. Do not select more than one import.

10. In the Metadata group of the Home ribbon tab, click either Add Import Metadata or Add Parcel Metadata, depending on the kind of field you want to add. The Add new metadata dialog box opens.

11. Enter a unique Name for the new metadata field.

12. Enter a Value for the new field. This value for the new metadata field will be assigned to the import you have selected in the table.

13. If you are creating a parcel metadata field, choose the Parcel to which to assign the metadata value you entered. Note that the import you selected may have a single parcel.

14. Click Add. The metadata field is added to the table, and the value is assigned to the selected import or parcel.

To delete a custom metadata field:

15. Go to the Imports page.

16. Select Metadata from the View drop-down menu. The Metadata group appears in the Home ribbon tab.

17. Click the header of the column corresponding to the metadata field you want to delete.

18. In the Metadata group of the Home ribbon tab, click Delete. The field and the corresponding column are deleted.

Note: Metadata fields you add for imports become available to exports as well. Similarly, deleting a metadata field in the Imports page will remove it from exports as well.