Whether you’re a manufacturer operating in the medical devices sector, the automotive market, the aerospace and defense industry, or any other field of manufacturing, operational efficiency is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. To achieve this, enterprises need tools that enable rapid response to production issues, streamlined communication, and minimal downtime.
DELMIA Apriso, a leading Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) solution from Dassault Systèmes, provides a powerful capability called the Alerting Framework to meet these needs. This functionality is designed to send real-time notifications to employees, ensuring that critical issues are addressed promptly, thereby enhancing cross-team collaboration to optimize your manufacturing operations.
The Alerting Framework is used to create alerts and control the process of resolving alerts. You can use any process flow comprising Standard Operations, Process Operations, or Processes to create alerts. Moreover, any Apriso application that can call a Business Component can be used to create alerts and notifications.
The Alerting Framework in Apriso MOM supports two primary types of notifications: email notifications and alerts. Each type serves a distinct purpose and provides unique benefits for different scenarios. Both notifications and alerts can be displayed on the My Alerts and Alarms screen within the Apriso interface.
Email notifications are particularly effective for urgent situations requiring immediate attention from supervisors or remote stakeholders. For example, when a production line breaks down or there is a critical component shortage, an email notification ensures that the right personnel is alerted instantly, no matter where they are. This immediate awareness allows for swift action, preventing minor issues from escalating into major disruptions.
On the other hand, notifications displayed on the My Alerts and Alarms screen provide on-site staff with a unified view of all active alerts. This on-screen notification system is beneficial for day-to-day operations, enabling operators and shop-floor managers to monitor real-time updates and prioritize tasks effectively without having to check their email constantly.
The Alerting Framework is designed with flexibility in mind, allowing for highly customizable notifications. Alerts can be tailored using different classes and types to categorize issues based on their nature and urgency. For instance, you can classify alerts into categories like supply chain disruptions or equipment issues, and then further categorize them by types such as critical, warning, or informational. This categorization helps in prioritizing responses, ensuring that each alert gets the appropriate attention and triggers the relevant action.
Customization extends to the properties of each alert as well. Using determination functions, users can define specific characteristics and actions for each alert. This includes determining who should receive the alert, how it should be delivered, and any additional properties that need to be included.
To better drive cross-team collaboration, DELMIA Apriso supports multilingual environments by storing alert messages in different languages within the LITERAL and LITERAL_TRANSLATION tables. This allows for separate messages for different languages, ensuring that alerts are comprehensible to all recipients, regardless of their command of the language or preferences.
Multilingual alerts and notifications are possible due to the proper message text being selected based on Written Language from recipient settings, determined for each recipient separately. To ensure greater flexibility for users, alert messages are kept with placeholders that are replaced with real data in the runtime. The list of supported placeholders depends on business
Email notifications are particularly effective for urgent situations requiring immediate attention from supervisors or remote stakeholders. For example, when a production line breaks down or there is a critical component shortage, an email notification ensures that the right personnel is alerted instantly, no matter where they are. This immediate awareness allows for swift action, preventing minor issues from escalating into major disruptions.
On the other hand, notifications displayed on the My Alerts and Alarms screen provide on-site staff with a unified view of all active alerts. This on-screen notification system is beneficial for day-to-day operations, enabling operators and shop-floor managers to monitor real-time updates and prioritize tasks effectively without having to check their email constantly.
To further enhance its capabilities, the Alerting Framework can be integrated with third-party tools to support a variety of communication methods beyond email and on-screen notifications.
You can extend the reach of alerts to platforms such as Microsoft Teams, enabling Teams messages to be sent directly to team channels or individual users. This integration supports instant communication within the collaborative environment of Teams, making it easier for teams to respond quickly to critical issues.
You can also configure the Alerting Framework to send short text messages (SMS) for immediate notifications to mobile devices. This communication method ensures that key personnel or decision-makers are quickly alerted even when they are away from their workstations.
For scenarios where voice communication is essential, automated voice messages can be generated and delivered via phone calls, providing a verbal alert to recipients.
Manufacturing applications provide diverse functionalities. Typically, depending on your manufacturing solution, some of the available features are more useful than others. The bottom line is you need a system that offers true value and not just theoretical use cases. And the true power of the Alerting Framework lies in its ability to address real-life scenarios effectively.
Consider the case of a work order put on hold. A situation like that can significantly disrupt production schedules, potentially leading to delays and inefficiencies. With the Alerting Framework, an immediate notification is sent to the supervisor responsible for the work order, enabling them to investigate and resolve the issue swiftly. This proactive approach helps minimize disruptions and keep production on track.
Another common scenario is a components shortage on the production line. A shortage of critical components can halt vital manufacturing processes, causing significant downtime and impacting delivery schedules. The Alerting Framework can be configured to send alerts to the procurement team or relevant supervisors as soon as a shortage is detected. This enables timely replenishment of stock to effectively prevent production delays and ensure a smooth workflow.
Similarly, the Alerting Framework is invaluable in the event of a production line breakdown. If not addressed promptly, such breakdowns can lead to extended periods of inactivity, resulting in potential fines or damaged brand image. By sending immediate alerts to the maintenance team, the framework ensures that the issue is tackled without delay, reducing downtime and minimizing the impact on overall productivity.
A robust Data Model and a set of Business Components underpin the Alerting Framework. These two functional pillars effectively facilitate the creation, management, and response to alerts and notifications.
The Data Model uses appropriately formatted tables that start with the word ALERT followed by the relevant detailed extension, i.e., ALERT_ prefix:
ALERT: Stores all alerts and is the primary table. Each entry in the ALERT table represents an individual alert instance, capturing essential details about the alert.
ALERT_CLASS: Defines the categories of alerts and allows alerts to be grouped based on their nature, such as maintenance issues, supply chain disruptions, or safety incidents.
ALERT_DETAIL: Contains additional properties for each alert, providing context and specifics about the alert.
ALERT_GROUP: Manages the assignment of alerts to groups, facilitating the organization of alerts based on different criteria such as department or project team.
ALERT_RECIPIENT: Manages the recipients of alerts, specifying who receives the notifications, whether they are individual employees or resource groups.
ALERT_RESPONSE: Records the responses made to alerts by recipients, allowing for follow-up, analysis, and actions.
ALERT_STATUS: Manages and tracks the status of alerts. This is used to track the lifecycle of an alert, from creation through in-progress to resolution.
ALERT_TYPE: Specifies the type of alert, providing further classification within an alert class. This helps in identifying the specific nature of the alert, such as critical, warning, or informational.
A set of dedicated Business Components is leveraged in standard operations to execute the most important actions in the Alerting Framework. Business Components like CreateAlert_v2 and CreateGenericAlert_v2 are used to generate alerts with a few (the former) or without any (the latter) standard determination functions.
This flexibility allows for both predefined and custom alert configurations, catering to specific production processes.
The RespondToAlert component captures and stores response data used for alerts, facilitating a detailed analysis of how issues are addressed and resolved. This data can be invaluable for continuous improvement initiatives, helping organizations refine their processes and minimize production delays.
Furthermore, Business Components in DELMIA Apriso MOM allow for two ways of sending emails:
AddEmployeeRecipient and AddResourceRecipient are components used to assign recipients to alerts, ensuring that the right people are notified.
The SendEmailToEmployee_v3 component enables the sending of customizable email notifications, offering full control over the email's subject and body, including support for HTML formatting.
Look at the two following examples. The first one of AddEmployeeRecipient, in which CommunicationType input should be set to EmailAddress.
The second example shows SendEmailToEmployee_v3, in which we can send emails in HTML format.
DELMIA Apriso’s Alerting Framework is an extremely useful tool that can empower your teams to cross-collaborate effectively, leading to enhanced efficiency and productivity of your manufacturing sites. However, to make the most of it, you should follow some best practices.
Defining clear alert triggers is crucial. Alerts should be triggered by specific, actionable events to ensure they are relevant and useful. For instance, setting up triggers based on critical thresholds or specific conditions in the production process helps in generating actionable alerts.
Customizing alert messages is another key aspect. Messages should provide clear and concise information about the issue at hand. Using placeholders for dynamic content ensures that alerts are contextually relevant, helping recipients understand the situation quickly.
Optimizing recipient groups is also important. Alerts should be directed to the appropriate individuals based on their roles and responsibilities. This targeted approach prevents unnecessary notifications and ensures that the right people are informed.
In the following example, we have two recipients in the case of Alert Class IMM in Work Center AEROWC1 for Production Order:
The two recipients have been defined in a custom determination based on Alert Class, Work Center where the alert was created, and Work Order Type for which the alert was created.
AlertClassID and/or AlertTypeID determine reasons why the alert was created, such as Incoming Machine Maintenance, Machine Breakdown, Component Shortage, etc.
WorkCenter, Facility, ResourceName, and ResourceType identify the location where the issue happened.
Finally, it’s vital to regularly review and update alert configurations. As operational requirements evolve, so should the alert settings. Regular reviews help in maintaining the relevance of alerts, ensuring that they continue to provide value and support your manufacturing model.
The Apriso’s Alerting Framework offers significant benefits in terms of operational efficiency. Improved response times are among the most notable advantages. By providing instant alerts and email notifications, this functionality enables faster responses to issues, reducing the time between problem detection and resolution. This swift action minimizes production delays and keeps manufacturing operations running smoothly.
Reduced downtime is another key benefit. Proactive alerts enable timely interventions, preventing minor issues from escalating into major disruptions. This helps in maintaining a consistent workflow and reduces the impact of unexpected problems.
The Alerting Framework also enhances communication across teams and departments. By ensuring that all relevant personnel and stakeholders are informed in real time, manufacturers experience improved coordination and collaboration. This streamlined communication is crucial for effective problem-solving and operational management.
Moreover, the data collected through alert responses supports data-driven decision-making. Analyzing this data provides valuable insights into operational performance, helping manufacturers assess performance and implement continuous improvement initiatives.
By implementing best practices and regularly updating alert configurations, enterprises can maximize the benefits of the Alerting Framework. Whether you’re a manufacturer operating in the medical devices sector, the automotive market, the aerospace and defense industry, or any other field of manufacturing, the Alerting Framework can help you better manage key production pillars, from warehouse through shop floor to quality control.
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