Material Objects

Sepasoft MES Module Suite

Resource Object | Material Objects

For manufacturing tasks involving materials, the system represents material resources with material objects.  The material may be raw material that goes into finished goods, or it may be a consumable or by-product that is not directly related to the finished good. 

Material Examples:

  • raw material
  • consumable
  • by-product

There are two types of Material Objects: MaterialClass  and  MaterialDef. They inherit from the AbstractMESObject. Material Objects do not extend the AbstractMESObject.


Versioning

Every time a MaterialDef or MaterialClass Object is modified, i.e. adding custom properties, changing a setting etc., the version number of that resource object is updated in the background. When an operation is scheduled, it checks for a corresponding responseMaterialClass or responseMaterialDef object version.

If one does not exist, it automatically create one. This versioning is not part of ISA-95, however, without it, analysis of historical data would lose the original configuration of equipment, personnel and materials.

Material Class 

This object is used to group material into a category. It can have MaterialDef or other MaterialClass objects as children. Defining production tasks for each specific material, is very tedious. A better method is to organize the material into categories (or classes using ISA-95 terms).

Consider receiving raw materials at a dock. Defining a task to receive each type of material would be painful and difficult to maintain. Instead all materials that maybe received can be added to a 'Raw Materials' class. Now when an operator receives material, the operation will prompt them for the specific material that must belong to the 'Raw Materials' class. Only one receive operation has to be defined which is much easier.

Load Objects

To load MaterialClass and MaterialDef objects, use:

The MaterialClass object inherits the AbstractMESObject properties and methods, but does not extend them.

Material Def

Material Definition objects are used to define materials that may be consumed or created throughout the manufacturing process. This can include raw materials, sub-assemblies, finished goods, scrap material and consumables.  The MaterialDef object inherits the AbstractMESObject properties and methods, but does not extend them.

Object Creation

Material Definition and Material Class objects are created using MES Object Editor component and OEE Material Manager - Vision component.

See:

ResponseMaterialDef and ResponseMaterialClass objects are automatically created by operations and are used for traceability analysis.

The following script function is used to create these objects.

Script Example
Code Snippet
Copy Code
Python
# Create Material Class - Bulk Nuts
mat_class = system.mes.createMESObject('MaterialClass')
mat_class.setPropertyValue('Name','Bulk Nuts')
system.mes.saveMESObject(mat_class)
mat_class = system.mes.loadMESObject('Bulk Nuts','MaterialClass')
 
print "Created Material Class Name: %s" % mat_class.getName()
 
mat_list = ["Bulk Peanuts", "Bulk Walnuts", "Bulk Almonds"]
 
# Create Material Definitions under Material Class
# Bulk Nuts
# Bulk Almonds, Bulk Walnuts, Bulk Peanuts
for mat in mat_list:
    # Create Material Definition
    mat_def = system.mes.createMESObject('MaterialDef')
    mat_def.setPropertyValue('Name', mat)
    system.mes.saveMESObject(mat_def)
    mat_def = system.mes.loadMESObject(mat, 'MaterialDef')
     
    # Add Material Definition to Material Class
    mat_class.addChild(mat_def)
     
    print "Created Material Definition %s under %s" % (mat_def.getName(),mat_class.getName())
 
# Save off Material Class with it's new Material Definition Descendants
system.mes.saveMESObject(mat_class)
 
# New Material Class - Bulk Nuts
# With children Material Definitons - Bulk Almonds, Bulk Peanuts, and Bulk Walnuts
mat_class = system.mes.loadMESObject('Bulk Nuts','MaterialClass')

Output
Copy Code
Python
>>>
True
Created Material Class Name: Bulk Nuts
True
Created Material Definition Bulk Peanuts under Bulk Nuts
True
Created Material Definition Bulk Walnuts under Bulk Nuts
True
Created Material Definition Bulk Almonds under Bulk Nuts
>>>

Object Properties

This object inherits the AbstractMESObject properties.

Object Functions

This object inherits the AbstractMESObject functions.

Object Events

This object inherits the AbstractMESObject events.


Sepasoft MES Module Suite