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Discrete Manufacturing Report

Web Published by XLReporter- click here

Overview 
This report demonstrates the versatility of XLReporter in discrete manufacturing where the reporting period is not predictable and where report naming convention needs to follow the convention used in the  manufacturing process.

The Batch Report provided with XLReporter is an example of a discrete manufacturing report. It consists of two pages, one displaying a profile of batch parameters and the other displaying events.  The information in the report is restricted to the time period of the batch execution and the final report is stored to a worksheet named after a Batch Identifier.  

The example maintains all the batch reports in the same workbook however, with minimal modification, a new workbook or worksheet could be created for each batch.


Batch Profile

Technology
The Batch Report uses the following technology:
Updating Sheet Groups.
Starting reports based on process signal e.g., batch start.
Naming reports from SCADA tags e.g., batch no..
Collecting batch data periodically.
Formula (result) connections.

Report Design
The design is provided in the file BatchSample.xls. It contains two pages namely Batch Profile and Batch Event.  

There is one date connection to cell D8 which is updated at the start of the batch.  This connection is a Direct connection  and in group 1.

All the other connections are column connections that are separated for the Profiling page or the  Events apge.  The Profile connections are in group 2 and use offsets CR018, whereas the events are in group 3 and use CR019.  By using different groups and offsets, each set of connections can be updated independently of the other. 

The report is initialized at the beginning of a batch and then updated with process data every 2 minutes to profile certain batch parameters.  In addition, events and sequence changes are monitored and when one occurs, it is collected, converted to text, time stamped and placed on the appropriate page of  the report. All this is managed by the scheduler.

Formula Connections
On inspection of columns AA and AB, you will note that there is a list of all the possible events that could occur and if so, need to be reported.  Each time a batch event occurs, XLReporter reads the numeric value in the process database for the event code and uses the information in AA and AB to translate the code to text for the report.  This process is performed using expression connections that contain formulae.

The Column connections to cells Q13 and R13 are expression connections of the form
                   =OFFSET(AA2, {ss}, 0).
This connection places the result of the Excel formula OFFSET() in the column starting at Q13. This is a powerful feature.

It is important to note that since the Place Formula checkbox is not checked, we will NOT leave the formula in the cell, only the result!

In addition, the OFFSET function is not hard-coded with parameters but is using {ss}, the current seconds stamp.  We used {ss} for this demonstration but in practice you would replace this by a tag that holds the current event (as a value) for the report.  In other words, you would have
                   =OFFSET(AA2, {BatchEvent}, 0).

x

x

x

Simulation
The report is provided with three pushbuttons so that it can be executed interactively from within Excel; perfect for testing and presentations.  In practice, these buttons would not be provided in automated solutions.

The function of the pushbuttons are:
Start: Press to simulates the start of the batch.
Profile: Press to simulate periodic batch data collection.
Event: Press to simulate the occurrence of an event.

To simulate the report, press Start.  Then press Profile and Event a few times in any order.


Batch Event Profile

Scheduler
To use this example in a 'real' environment, use  the workbook to BatchMaster.xls provided in the XLReporter installation.

A schedule has been provided in the file Batch.sch which can be viewed in the Schedule Designer.  In practice, this would be used to automate the report generation, automatically and in the background.  

The schedule can be tested by using the Execute feature of the Scheduler designer. Load the configuration into the Schedule Designer, select the line to execute, right click and select Execute.

The configuration uses both Time Based and Event Based schedules.

Event Based


Event Based Schedule

The event schedule is controlled by two tags from the process;
BatchStart: Digital that is set when the batch is started.
BatchEvent: Analog that changes on each batch event.

A fourth tag BatchID is read for the batch identifier.
 
At the start of a Batch:
When BatchStart is set,
- copy contents of tag BatchID to the register RG000.
- reset column offset CR018, CR019.
- create a new sheet and name it after the BatchID.
- update group 1 of the new sheet to refresh the date.

When a Batch event occurs:
When a change occurs in BatchEvent, the Event list (group 3) of the new sheet is updated.

Time Based


Time Based Schedule

The time schedule is enabled by the following tag;
BatchInProgress: Digital that is set during the batch.

Note that the BatchInProgress should be set after BatchStart to ensure that the time schedule is enabled after the initialization of the event schedule. 

During the manufacture of the Batch:
When the tag BatchInProgress is set, the Profile (group 2) of the batch report is updated every 2 minutes.  

If it is a requirement to have multiple batches running concurrently is a requirement, then the set of lines in the schedule would be replicated for each batch instance.

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