For the EZ-MES system, mixing of material to create new e material is equivalent to assembly operations only now the materials are non-discrete instead of discrete.

Example: Create a flow for making Pickle for Honey Ham

In this example we will show a two step process to make Pickle for Honey Ham.

The Pickle is created by first weighing the Dry Mix; a mix of Salt, Spices, and Saltpeter. In the second step the Honey and Water is added and everything is mixed to an homogeneous susbtance.

A schematic presentation is shown in the following flow diagram:

Schematic presentation of how the ingredients for pickle mix are combined

Ingredients and quantities to make the 1 LB Pickle Mix:

  • A: Salt (X1 = 0.05 LB)
  • B: Spices (X2 = 0.1 LB)
  • C: Saltpeter (X3 = 0.05 LB)
  • D: Dry Mix
  • E: LB Honey (X4 = 0.2 LB)
  • F: Water (X5 = 0.6 LB)

And the Steps:

  • Step 1: Make Dry Mix
  • Step 2: Mix Pickle

Implementation approach for EZ-MES

The following figure shows one of the many possible implementations:

Schematic presentation of how the ingredients for pickle mix are combined

For this implementation the following has to be noted:

  • A, B, C, D and E are defined as consumables. These are defined on the Name-Value Pairs Tob of the Step Definition Form. How to define consumption entries.
  • All quantities for the consumables (X1, X2 ... ) are defined (normalized) in reference to the output quantity.
  • For the Dry Mix NOT 'LB' is used as a quantity, but UNIT. 1 UNIT is the quantity of Dry Mix needed to make 1 LB of Pickle. (This will simplify the implementation, but it is possible to implement the flow keeping the LB units)
  • An Input-Output combination is defined on the Name-Value Pairs Tob of the Step Definition Form. In this case it is used to convert the Dry Mix into Pickle. No quantity change is defined.
  • It is probably overkill to have the water consumption defined as a consumable. In general you should define materials as consumable if you either want to have full traceablity or if you keep track of the inventory levels of the specific consumable.

The following figure gives a more detailed picture of the implementation of the Pickle flow:

Schematic presentation of how the ingredients for pickle mix are combined

Actual Implementation in EZ-MES

We will show a couple of screen-shot on how this flow is implemnted in EZ-MES. The following figure shows the General Tab of the Flow Definition Form:

general Tab for the Flow Definition Form for a Flow that is mixing spices to pickle