Guidelines

What are they?

Guidelines are a set of statements used to ensure repeatability and sustainability during production. They suggest changes in behavior before and during production that will ensure a more successful production outcome. Guidelines are built through a no-code IF-this THEN-that platform in the Administration Menu.

The Guidelines accept IF condition inputs from the engineering and production stages, and can suggest THEN executions throughout the entire product life cycle.

How are they set up?

Guidelines can be found in your Administration Menu > Guidelines Engine. Simply click on the "Add Guideline" button at the top right corner of the page. The page is split into four sections.

Name and Description

Simply enter a short name and description of your Guideline. The name will appear when the Guideline is suggested to you, for example, at Line Item Level.

IF (condition)

The IF condition will determine your input. What needs to happen, in order for the Guideline to be triggered? Each IF condition requires 3 or 4 different fields:

Field Type: This is the group in which the field is located. For example, selecting "Line Item" will allow you to select any fields that appear at Line Item Level.

Field: This is the actual Field itself you wish to select as your IF condition. Examples of this at the Line Item Level could be Part Number, Printing Cost, Layer Thickness etc. The dropdown of Fields will depend on the Field Type you selected.

Comparator: Use the Comparator to decide whether your value should be "Equal To" "Greater Than" "Less than", and more, than your final value, selection or text. The comparator will depend on the Field you selected.

Input: The input itself can be a number, text, or workflow step, depending on the Field that you selected. Once an order, line item, or piece before or during production reaches this defined input, the THEN execution statement suggestion will be triggered.

Using the plus and minus buttons on the right, you can add more than one IF statement. Please choose whether these statements should interact as AND or OR. AND being both (or all) statements need to be reached before suggesting the execution, whereas when selecting the OR checkbox, only one of the inputs needs to be reached before the execution statement is suggested.

THEN (execution)

The THEN execution statement is the action that will be suggested if the IF condition is met. This can be done in the form of a Workflow step that will be added into the workflow, or a Work Instruction that will be added into a Workflow Step. Please note that in order to add a work instruction in the execution section, you will have to have selected a workflow step as an IF condition in the previous section.

Summary

The Summary is automatically filled out based on the IF and THEN statements you have built. It is not editable by the user. This Summary will appear when the Guideline is suggested at Line Item level, through the use of a tooltip.

Lastly, Click on Save to save the Guideline. Please note you will not be able to edit Guidelines at this time.

How are they executed?

Guidelines can be executed on various different stages in the platform, depending on the IF and THEN conditions that were selected.

Line Item Level

Given the IF statement includes input such as a workflow step, order fields, or line item fields, the Guideline will appear as a suggestion at the Line Item level. The prompt will appear by the "View and Edit Work Instructions" button as a purple notification bubble. The white number indicates how many Guidelines are applied to this Line Item. By opening the "View and Edit Work Instructions" modal, the suggestions will be visible.

The Workflow Step suggestions will appear at the top of the modal. If you choose to accept that Guideline, click on the green plus button, and choose where in the Workflow you would like that step to be added.

The Work Instruction suggestions will be nested under the related Workflow Steps. Follow the flow to add the work instruction Guideline!