Branching process function in Asprova allows you to branch a process in the middle of the production process. Some samples of this function are as follows:
- For by-products that are produced in the chemical reaction of raw materials separately from the production process of the final item.
- For car parts that are produced together up to a certain process and then branched into separate processes in the final stage.
Branching operations will be assigned when you enter a branch process in the Integrated Master Editor of an item.
The first step to branching a process is to enter an output instruction at the process where branching will take place. Let’s do this in the Reacting/Extracting process of item “P”. The instruction code of an output instruction is set as “Out” by default. However, you can also use another arbitrary code.
Make sure when entering a branch process to specify a different instruction code for each output.
Set Instruction code to Out2 and Item/Resource to P-10-Sub. Set the Previous process numbers to the appropriate output instructions and input instructions so that the Reacting/Extracting process will create a branch into two processes. For the previous process numbers, register the process numbers of the branch destinations that input the items specified by the output instructions.
If an output item is an item that is an input to the following process, the previous process number doesn’t need be entered. Next, enter the branch destination process Preparation by-product. Enter an Input instruction, Use instruction, and Output instruction as shown in the table below.
If there are items in a branched process that are not loaded into another process, specify -1 in the previous process number.
You can also enter the Time constraint method and Time constraint MIN in the input instruction of branch processes.
Run the reschedule button to see that the operation of each process will be assigned.
By looking at the operations assigned to resource Reactor, you will see that the process has been branched into two: PreparationMachine and MoldingMachine.
In this way, you will be able to easily create production schedules that branch in the middle of the production of a given item, by entering output instructions.
To learn more about Asprova specific to this sample demonstration, you may visit Asprova’s online help and its e-Learning videos at http://lib.asprova.com/ (see 24. Scheduling Logic).