Triggered Actions
A newer deliverable of ERS (available as of 4.1) is triggered actions. Simply put, triggered actions are incredibly flexible triggers that you set up to watch part files as records arrive. Upon arrival of a set number of parts, criteria can be checked. A resulting list of actions can then be performed based on whether or not the criteria was met. A simple example would be creating a trigger for a particular part file every time 10 records are collected. The trigger can be set to run a report and send an email each time the 10 records arrive or only if at least one of the records is out of spec.
Triggered actions take you beyond simple automatic reporting in QC-CALC Real-Time and allow you to monitor multiple files for various trends and then perform different sets of actions based on the result.
Monitor Lists of Part Files
The list of part files monitored for each trigger can be specifically chosen or found dynamically based on a characteristic filter, dynamic part file list, etc. The same part files can also be a part of more than one trigger allowing for different sets of criteria and different trigger points (number of records arriving).
In addition, traceability filters allow you to skip the trigger unless the record arriving has a particular trace value. For instance, triggers can be set to only fire for certain lines or machines within the part files using trace filters.
Flexible Conditions
A wide range of conditions (including all trend types) can be checked before executing the list of actions when the trigger is fired.
Each condition has its own optional set of criteria for characteristic filtering allowing the trigger to, for example, execute the actions if a critical characteristic's Cpk goes below 1.33 or if a non-critical characteristic's Cpk goes below 1.00. This allows the user to use the same condition multiple times for different sets of characteristics.
Growing List of Action Types
The action list that executes once a trigger fires and conditions are met continues to grow with new additions every month. This allows more complex reactions to events on the shop floor. Actions can be combined and used more than once. For instance, the first two action types could be to run two separate reports based on the data that was just collected. The third action could be to send an email attaching the two reports that were just created.
Most action types also support execution conditions allowing them to execute if at least one of the trend conditions (above) was found to be true or it NONE of the conditions were found to be true. A simple example of this would be to flash the stacklight purple when a trend occurred and set it back to solid green if no trend were to occur.
Current Action Types:
- Send an email
- Run a report
- Execute an executable/batch file
- Trigger a stacklight (using Patlite LA6 POE stacklights)
- Create a task - Allows for assignable cause assignment from QC-Mobile
- Move/Copy a file