Workflows 101: Triggers

Workflows offer a powerful way to add automation to your factory floor. By configuring triggers and actions, you can make sure the right people or systems have the right information at the right time to take action and optimize production. 

Learn more about Workflows here. 

What are Workflows? 

Workflows include a trigger that drives a specific action. This article will focus on the different Triggers that you can choose from in MachineMetrics. To learn more about Actions, check out this article: Workflows 101: Actions. 

Workflow Tiggers

There are a variety of different Trigger types you can choose from when configuring a Workflow: Alarm Occurs, Anomaly Occurs, Exceeds Setup, Enters Setup Stage (Setup Triggers are only available if your company tracks setup stages.), Downtime Categorized, Machine Reports Inactive, and Scheduled. Below, we go into more detail about each of these Triggers and how you can use them to automate portions of your factory. After selecting Triggers, you will select the Action(s) that you wish to trigger. 

1) Alarm Occurs 

This Trigger is based on an Alarm Code that occurs on your machine(s) that are selected for this Workflow. 

2) Anomaly Occurs

When the Anomaly occurs Trigger is selected, no further Trigger specification is required. MachineMetrics will automatically monitor Machine part production for anomalies as described in the Anomaly Detection article.

3) Machine Reports Inactive 

Choosing the Machine reports inactive Trigger requires that you input a bit more information, outlined below:

• Delay/Minutes of Downtime: In this field, you will enter the number of minutes of downtime that must pass before the Workflow is triggered. Enter 0 to trigger the alarm immediately when the downtime event starts.
• Downtime/Job Dependency: Clicking the checkbox highlighted below will only trigger the downtime Workflow if the downtime event occurs when a job is scheduled to be running on the machine.
• Shifts to Monitor: Select the checkbox associated with each shift that you want to apply to the Workflow. At least one shift must be selected.

4) Exceeds Setup

When the Exceeds setup Trigger is selected, you then select which specific Setup Stage to trigger the Workflow from. 

5) Enters Setup Stage

When the Enters setup stage Trigger is selected, you then select which specific Setup Stage to trigger the Workflow from. 

6) Downtime Categorized 

When the Downtime Categorized As Trigger is selected, you then select the specific downtime category you would like to apply this Workflow to.

How manufacturers use this Trigger: 

This Trigger is great for downtime categories that may require maintenance or additional personnel to help an Operator. The Operator categorizing the downtime as the selected reason can be configured to trigger a notification or incident to make sure the right person knows about the issue. 

7) Scheduled

A Scheduled trigger will automatically trigger an Action based on the time and day selected. 

8) Operator Triggers Manually

A Manually Triggered workflow to trigger an Action based on the configuration 

How manufacturers use this Trigger: 

This Trigger is great for events that may require maintenance or additional personnel to help an Operator at their machine. An Operator can manually trigger a notification or incident based on the configuration without leaving their machine unattended to make sure the right person knows about an issue, send a call for help, request materials or other events as desired.

Have Questions? 

Reach out to our Support Team at support@machinemetrics.com.