Recipe Monitoring

In manufacturing, it is crucial to ensure that the actual production values align with the recipe values, both when the recipe is initially downloaded and throughout the production run, especially if changes are made externally. Recipe values are set once the recipe is selected, and it is essential to verify that these values are accurately configured. In the Settings & Changeover Module, when a recipe is chosen, the values are written to the Ignition tags. While this process should occur without issues, complications such as expressions or scripts can sometimes hinder the correct writing of values. This becomes more critical when the Ignition tag is configured as an OPC item connected to a PLC or another device. Identifying communication errors during the writing of new recipe values to the PLC or device is vital to prevent potential issues before machinery is put into operation.

It is very common to have operator interface terminals (OIT) or a standalone human machine interface (HMI) local to a machine that settings can be changed locally. Settings can also be changed from other sources besides the local OIT, and it is important to detect and log when any setting varies from the recipe value.

There are situations where it is normal for a live production value to fluctuate after the initial recipe value has been written to the Ignition tag. In some cases, it may be acceptable for the live production value to vary within a certain range. Recipe values can be set up to either not monitor variances or to have a specific variance window within which the live production value must stay to avoid triggering a variance log. By default, variance monitoring is enabled for each recipe value, but it can be disabled on a per-value basis in the designer. This feature allows for a combination of recipe values where some variances are monitored and others are not, thus preventing irrelevant variances from being logged.

OPC Production Recipe Tags

The Settings & Changeover Module creates a number of OPC Production tags that provide real-time recipe status that can be used in your application. The following table provides a list of the recipe specific tags that are created for the line, cell group, cell and location production items.

Tag Name	Description	Data Type	R/W
Active Recipe Name	If a recipe is active for this production cell, then this is the name of the recipe. If a recipe is not active, then this is blank.	String	Read Only
Active Recipe State	If a recipe is active for this production area, then this is the state of the recipe. If a recipe is not active, then this is blank.	String	Read Only	Recipe
Active Recipe Group	If a recipe is active for this production line, then this is the group of the recipe. If a recipe is not active, then this is blank.	String	Read Only	Recipe
Enable Recipe
Inherit Values Mode	Used with the Settings & Changeover Module to define if equipment items should inherit the recipe values from their parents. There's 2 possible values, 0 and 1. 0 = Equipment Default and 1 = Parent Recipe	Int4	Read/Write
Licensed
Product Code Mask
Recipe Active	Indicates if a recipe is currently active.	boolean	Read Only
Recipe Loading	True if a recipe is currently being loaded for the production cell.	boolean	Read Only
Recipe Scale	Set this to the amount to scale a recipe prior to selecting a recipe for the production cell.	Double	Read/Write
Recipe Tracking UUID	This is a unique value used for tracking initial recipe values and variances while a recipe is selected. It can be used when looking up data directly from the database.	String	Read Only
Recipe Variance Exists	If true, then Ignition tags associated with at least one recipe value for this production item have changed.	boolean	Read Only
Recipe Write Error	If true, then at least one recipe value did not write to the associated Ignition tags when the recipe was first selected.	boolean	Read Only
Value Monitor Enabled

Recipe Monitoring

Monitoring Machine Recipes

OPC Production Recipe Tags