Grades Summary and Overview

This information is specific to the latest release of PARCview:

7.2.x

A Grade based process is an operational state you will return to repeatedly, such as making different types of products with the same equipment. A grade difference can reflect the production of different products like Chicken Soup vs Clam Chowder, or it can be as simple as a different production rate or product ratios.

Establishing Grades allows you to visualize and track your process data based on these operational states. You can combine Grades with Tag Limits to track product dependent quality information. This also allows you to establish Grade based Alarms to track events.

PARCSecurity Permissions

PARCsecurity Console will need to have the following permissions enabled for basic access to Grades in PARCview.

• Grade Maintenance: Give access to the Grade option under the Tools menu item.
• Grade Specification: Give access to the Grade Specification option under the Tools menu item.
• Limit Calculation: Give access to the Limit Calculator option under the Tools menu item.
• Limit Configuration: Give access to the Tag Limits option under the Tools menu item.

Configuration

System Configuration: In order to associate a Grade Tags with a Process must be assigned the Grade tag to the Process and enter it as the Grade Basis Tag in the Process configuration.

Defining Grade Types: While we have default Grade Types this is a configurable type if you need to define more specialized operational states. Grade Types can be defined in “Tools”, “Grades”, “Grade Type” tab.

Assigning Grade Names: For Grades to function properly you need a defined list of specific Grades. Grade Names can be defined for any Grade Type in “Tools”, “Grades”, “Grade Name” tab.

Grade Groups (Optional): Grades can be grouped into logical collections. This can be used in centerline, where runs from several different grades can be viewed simultaneously, or in MDE, where the visibility of MDE records can be filtered by grade. Grade Groups can be defined for any Grade Type in “Tools”, “Grades”, “Grade Groups” tab.

Phases (Optional): Phases break up product runs into discrete portions of the production process. They are often defined in context of batch processes and represent sequential steps of the process, like steps in a recipe. Phases can be defined for any Grade Type in “Tools”, “Grades”, “Grade Groups” tab.

Grade Specifications: The Grade Specification window is used for configuration of the limits of all tags associated with producing a specific grade. The limits configured in this menu will only be active when the Basis Value Tag (grade tag) for a process area is set to that grade.

Tag Limits: Tag Limits are maintained with the Edit Tag Limits tool. This feature is very similar to Grade Specification except that it allows both Grade and Non-Grade based limits to be defined.

Excel Addin Admin Tools Limit Editor: To bulk edit limits you can use the Excel Addin Limit Editor.

Log Files

PARCmessage is a built-in error monitoring software. It creates an ongoing log of errors generated from PARCview on the specific computer where PARCmessage is running.

Errors can also be stored in the PARCview install directory both on the server and clients ...\Capstone\PARCView\LogFiles

Required Server Applications

UA Server: All PARCview vr 7 functionality requires a Universal Access (UA) server.

GDS: All PARCview vr 7 functionality requires a Global Discovery Server (GDS).