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Using a Name Generator#

Estimated time to read: 3 minutes

Importance#

In the context of CM MES, the Name Generator plays an important but often overlooked role in ensuring data consistency, traceability, and standardization across manufacturing operations.

The Name Generator feature is important for several key reasons:

  1. Unique Object Naming - the Name Generator provides a mechanism to generate unique and consistent names for objects in the CM MES system. This ensures that each object has a distinct identifier that follows a predefined naming convention.

  2. Automatic Name Generation - the Name Generator can automatically create names for various entities, including:

    • Change Set names for versioned objects.
    • Default names for objects during creation (for example the creation of a Maintenance Activity Order named 01/10-Annual Maintenance.0001 - composed of a date, the name of the Maintenance Plan, and a counter):

    Screenshot showing a maintenance activity order with default name "01/10-Annual Maintenance.0001".

  3. Customization Options - allows the configuration of naming rules for different entities, provides flexibility in how names are generated, and can be configured with multiple tokens to create complex naming patterns (see image above).

  4. Administrative Control - enables administrators to define precise naming rules, can set context retention types (example, purge contexts after a certain time), and supports synchronous naming to ensure transactional integrity.

Good Practice#

Additionally, there are many good practices why you should ues a Name Generator with Critical Manufacturing MES.

These range from:

  • Uniqueness and Traceability - in manufacturing, every batch, work order, lot, material, or piece of equipment needs a unique identifier. The use of a name generator prevents duplication and ensures that every item can be traced throughout the production lifecycle. This is critical for industries like pharmaceuticals, aerospace, or food & beverage, where compliance and recall tracking are mandatory.
  • Standardization - MES systems often integrate with ERP, SCADA, and quality systems. Standardized naming conventions (generated systematically) reduce errors in communication between systems. For example, lot numbers generated with embedded metadata (date, line, product code) make it easier to identify and analyze production data.
  • Regulatory Compliance - many regulated industries (FDA, ISO, automotive standards) require strict traceability. Automatically generated names ensure consistent documentation for audits and regulatory reporting.
  • Efficiency and Error Reduction - manual naming introduces human error-duplicates, typos, and inconsistencies. Automated generators eliminate this risk, thus reducing downtime and rework.
  • Scalability - as production scales, so does the volume of identifiers (example: thousands of serial numbers daily). A systematic generator can handle this volume reliably, while manual naming would collapse under the scale.
  • Embedded Information - name generators can encode useful information (example: production line, timestamp, shift, product type, and others). This makes names self-descriptive, improving analysis and troubleshooting without always needing to query the MES database.

Moreover, as a customer, you want to use conventions for names in operations such as split, expand, creation of lots and others. By using the Name Generator feature you can cater for this need and guarantee the uniqueness of names.

How to Create a Name Generator#

To create a Name Generator follow the steps set out in the Name Generators page.

Here you can also see how tokens are used and managed to best suit your needs.

You can also explore some sample use cases in the next section: Use Cases