Recipe Management#

Estimated time to read: 16 minutes

As manufacturing relies on increasingly complex equipment, the management of the recipes that the equipment will use for a certain process becomes increasingly important. Not only is this type of management a basic requirement to ensure that the correct recipe with the right parameters is used for the right process, but the recipe information also plays a crucial role in enhancing performance and efficiency.

A Recipe can be defined as a program and/or a set of parameters that contains the necessary information for a particular equipment to execute a certain process. Manufacturers today need to cope with a big diversity of equipment (different generations, different suppliers, different automation capabilities) and a huge variety of processes that can run on the same equipment.

The Recipe Management module provides capabilities to manage, download, upload, resolve and instantiate Recipes.

This document will guide you through the setup and usage of the Recipe Management module functionalities.

Overview#

A Recipe is the necessary information that a specific Resource requires to perform a Service on a given Material. It consists of an executable body which may or may not be human readable and it may contain several parameters. As more sophisticated and complex the industry becomes, the more critical this functionality becomes to ensure that each material is processed correctly at each equipment.

Recipe Management involves an external system which is the equipment controller as shown in the next figure:

Recipes can be stored and edited centrally in the MES, but often it's the case that they can be edited only in the equipment or equipment controller. The system must therefore support the download and upload of Recipes from/to equipment.

The Recipe content is often in a binary form, understandable only by the equipment. Additionally, Recipes are frequently modified locally at the equipment, so a checksum (CRC) must be used to ensure their integrity.

In order to allow for Recipes to be re-used across multiple contexts, and also to support the dynamic resolution of parameters, each Recipe can have a collection of Parameters which can be overridden during runtime, for instance for Run-To-Run (R2R) purposes.

Concepts#

The table below describes the main concepts related to Recipe Management.

Table: Recipe Management main concepts

The Recipe Management object model is shown in the figure below.

graph LR
    C1[Recipe Parameter Overrides Context] --- Main[Recipe]
    L1[Recipe Body] --- Main
    C2[Recipe Context] --- Main
    L2[Recipe Parameter] --- Main
    C1 --- L2
    A1[Parameter] --- L2
    Main --- L3[Recipe Instance]
    L3 --- L4[Recipe Instance Parameter]
    Main ---- L5[SubRecipe]
    L5 ----|SubRecipe| Main
    Main --- L6[SubRecipe Parameter]
    L6 --- A1

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classDef mermaid_start color:#000, fill:#fafafa, stroke:#fafafa, color:#fafafa, stroke-width:0x, font-size:100%, visibility: hidden;
classDef mermaid_businessdata color:#000, fill:#65CDE8, stroke:#65CDE8, stroke-width:0px, font-size:100%;
classDef mermaid_nonbusinessdata color:#000, fill:#B7DEE8, stroke:#B7DEE8, stroke-width:0px, font-size:100%;
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class Main mermaid_entity
class A1,A2,A3,A4,A5,A6,A7,A8,A9,A10 mermaid_businessdata
class L1,L2,L3,L4,L5,L6 mermaid_entitylinked
class C1,C2,C3,C4,C5,C6 mermaid_context
class N1,N2,N3,N4,N5,N6 mermaid_nonbusinessdata

click Main "../../userguide/business-data/recipe"
click A1 "../../userguide/business-data/parameter"
click C1 "../../userguide/administration/tables/smart-tables/recipeparameteroverridecontext"
click C2 "../../userguide/administration/tables/smart-tables/recipecontext"
click L5 "../../userguide/business-data/recipe"

The MES Recipe object model is based on SEMI E139, as shown in the table below. The SEMI E139 Recipe and Parameter Management is a standard developed to specify the cooperative interaction between the factory information and control system (FICS) and the equipment in order to manage the specifications of equipment processing (for instance, equipment recipes).

The PDE (Process Definition Element) translates from the SEMI E139 into a Recipe in Critical Manufacturing, with the following element matching:

Table: SEMI E139 and Critical Manufacturing MES concepts

Setting Up a Recipe#

The necessary steps to set up a Recipe shall be explained over the next sections.

Create a Parameter#

A Parameter provides an abstraction to Resource specific variable names which have the same meaning at the MES/human level. A Recipe can contain static or dynamic Parameters.

To create a Parameter to be used in a Recipe, the properties listed in the table below need to be defined.

Table: Parameter creation wizard properties

Create a Recipe#

To create a Recipe there are configurations regarding its Parameters, Sub-Recipes and Body that need to be defined in advance.

The next table describes the properties that need to be taken into consideration when creating a Recipe, the first step of Recipe creation.

Table: Recipe creation wizard properties

To manage the Recipe Parameters, the User must access the Manage Parameters wizard in the Recipe page, as shown in the table and figure below.

Table: Parameter management wizard properties

To manage the Recipe Body, the User must access the Manage Recipe Body wizard in the Recipe page, as shown in the table and figure below.

Table: Manage Recipe Body wizard properties

To manage the Sub-Recipes, the User must access the Manage Recipe Sub-Recipes wizard in the Recipe page, as shown in the table and figure below.

Table: Manage Sub-Recipes wizard properties

Compare Recipes#

The Compare Recipes page provides the functionality to verify not only changes in Recipe Versions, but also to compare different Recipes, as shown on the figure below.

Recipe Context Resolution and Recipe Instance Creation#

A Material requires a Service at a Step, as defined in the ServiceContext Smart Table, and this Service is provided by a Resource. For this Service, in order to provide the necessary setup and configuration information to process a Material in a Resource, the Recipe Context is defined.

For a particular Material Context, the MES creates a Recipe Instance when performing a Material track-in. The Recipe Instance stores the used Recipe Version and Parameter information for traceability and analysis purposes.

The relationship between the above presented concepts can be found in the figure below.

Manage Recipe Context#

A Recipe is configured for processing a Material in a Step and Resource through the Service defined in the ResourceRunningMode table, as detailed in the table and figure below.

Table: Add Recipe Context Record

Manage Parameter Overrides Context#

To promote Recipe reusability and to support a dynamic resolution of Parameters during runtime, a Parameter can be marked as overridable.

Table: Add Parameter Overrides Context Record

Experiment Definition#

An Experiment Definition allows the User to carry out controlled variations of the production process. A typical use case for this situation is the creation of an Experiment Definition in order to test a new Recipe. This can be configured by defining the Action SetRecipe at the Track-in Event for an Experiment Definition Material Group, as shown in the figure below.

For more information about the Experiment Definition, see the Create Experiment Definition section.

Using a Recipe#

Over the next sections it is detailed how a Recipe can be used in MES.

Resource Configuration#

In order to use Recipe Management for a particular Resource, it is necessary to set the property Recipe Management Enabled to true, as shown in the figure below.

Set Resource Recipe#

When the setup is performed manually, the User can access the Set Recipe wizard in order to select the Recipe to be set on the Resource, as shown in the figure below.

If the option Validate Recipe Context is set to True, then only Recipes that are defined on the Recipe Context are displayed.

After selecting the Recipe, it is set as the Current Recipe and the Current Recipe Source is set as User.

In this wizard it is also possible to clear the Resource Current Recipe, by selecting Clear and then Set.

If the Resource has lanes configured and Is Multilane Active enabled, you will have to select a valid Lane of the Resource for your Recipe.

For more information, see Set Resource Recipe.

Perform Resource Setup#

Before tracking-in a Material in a Resource it is possible to perform the Resource setup. The Perform Setup For Material at Resource wizard is available on the Resource view after selecting a Material, as shown in the figure below.

If the option Set Selected Recipe is set to True, then the User has the option to set it manually at the Resource. The selected Recipe is set as the Resource Current Recipe and Current Recipe Source is set as User.

Material Track-in#

When a Material is tracked-in, the Recipe defined in the RecipeContext is displayed, as shown in the figure below.

For the Recipe Input Parameters, it is possible to specify their values.

After performing the track-in, the resolved Recipe is set as the Resource Current Recipe, if not already, in which case the Current Recipe Source is set as System, and a Recipe Instance is created, as shown in the figure below.

The Recipe set for the Resource can be viewed on the Resource View Recipe tab, as shown in the figure below.

Multiple Recipe Track-In#

The system allows you to track in multiple Materials with different Recipes at the same time.

The following is an example of a Multiple Recipe Track-In view. The panel on the left displays the Material and associated Recipe:

You can also select to Preview the Material, and the information displayed will correspond to the Material selected in the left panel:

Recipe Active Instances#

All active instances of the Recipe can be found on the Active Instances section of the Recipe page, as shown in the figure below.