Sequencing
Employees may have a number of Tasks Assigned to them, that they cannot begin work on because some other work has yet to be completed.
As an example, when making a table the sequence of Tasks may be
- Cut
- Assemble
- Paint.
Painting cannot be carried out until assemble is underway.
Assemble cannot be carried out until cut is underway.
Cut is a preceding task to assemble, and assemble is a preceding task to paint.
Assembly is a succeeding task to cut, and paint is a succeeding task to assemble.
Within Empower this is called a Sequence.
Empower uses Sequencing to allow for
- Various ways to hide succeeding Tasks, and
- To set up following Tasks for Scheduling Auto Move.
To set up a Sequence,
- From the Main Management Menu go to Product > Edit.
You should see a page similar to
Select a Product.
You should see a page similar to
- Click on the highlighted Sequence button.
- And select the preceding Process from the drop down box – in this case we will select Make Top.
- And click on Add and that’s it you have created a Sequence, from Make Top to Assembly.
- And click on Add and that’s it you have created a Sequence, from Make Top to Assembly.
Note that you can have more than one Preceding Process.
If you make a mistake just click on delete to delete that sequence.
Note that you cannot set up a Circular Sequence, or a complete loop. An example of a Circular sequence would be in the above example if the Sequence Cut à Assemble à Paint is added to by making Paint be a Preceding Process of Cut – i.e. the sequence loops around in a circle.
- To alter what Employees see in the Task Start Stop and Work Center pages in the Factory version, from the Main Management Menu go to Tools > Settings and select the General tab (highlighted below).
Under Show Sequenced Tasks (see highlighted above) are there are three options
-
Always show all Tasks - all Tasks will be visible. This is the default setting
-
Show Tasks where Task has started - all Tasks that have a preceding Process will be invisible until at least one Task in the Order has started
-
Show Tasks once Predecessor has started - Tasks that have a preceding Process will be invisible until the preceding one has started.