Expanding upon the Templates feature, the Production Workflow is a powerful tool to speed up order preparation and job planning while maintaining process quality and consistency on your production floor. Production Workflow enables you to create lists of standard and customized production processes, each with its own individual steps and work instructions. Utilizing Production Workflow will ensure every step in your production process is scheduled and tracked. For help with managing your pre-production steps, check out our Prep Workflows!
Creating a new production workflow
To create a new Production Workflow, navigate to “Manage” > “Workflows”. Click on the Add Workflow button. Give your production workflow a Name and select its Type.
Production Workflow Types:
Additive Manufacturing: low-to-high volume, production-grade, functional, or prototype parts.
Specimen: Specimen parts are generally produced for quality assurance, testing, or one-offs.
Note: Workflow Type can not be changed once the Workflow is saved.
Adding Workflow Steps:
To add a workflow step, click the Add Steps button. Printer and Post Processor types will only be shown on this page if an instance or that type exists in your bureau's Inventory. Note: Our Production Workflows are currently limited in length to 64 steps. If you need more steps, we would love to hear from you at support@authentise.com.
Once workflow steps have been added, continue editing the workflow by using drag and drop to rearrange the steps in the Workflow (if needed). This applies to the workflow page, editing a line item workflow, and changing a workflow for a piece that is in production.
Adding steps is a two-part process:
Select a Printer Type from the list of Available Printers Types.
Once selected,
Select 1 (or more) Post-Processing and/or Shipping steps.
Click Save to continue.
Adding Workflow Specific Work Instructions:
To create a specific checklist of Work Instructions for this workflow, click the plus icon next to the specific Workflow step.
Note: the order of Workflow steps and Work Instructions can be changed by clicking the arrows in the Position column.
You will be presented with the Create Work Instructions window that will allow you to specify work instructions that are specific to the Workflow you are creating. You can edit the description of the process step as well as add a URL to access any Additional Instructions or Specification documentation that is accessible via the web.
For more guidance on creating individual work instructions, please read here.
Adding a Specimen to the Workflow
A specimen (testing coupon) and workflow may be an additional requirement in some additive processes. To add a Specimen to the Workflow, click the “Add Specimen” button. Select a CAD model from the model library, indicate the quantity, and select from the list of available specimen workflows. Click Add to continue.
Click Save to return to the Workflows page. The Workflow is now available to use.
Using a Workflow
To assign a Workflow to a Line Item, select the appropriate “Workflow” while adding a new CAD file to your Order.
Note: The "Workflow" may be changed as long no runs have been scheduled for a line item.
When you create your first Run using the selected Workflow, each process step will be automatically scheduled too. These runs are now visible on your Queues Gannt chart and on the Runs page.
Do you have specific workflow requirements in your Additive Manufacturing processes? We would like to hear from you. Contact us today at support@authentise.zendesk.com.
Comments