Batch Tags provide a way of categorising or showing ownership of batches in the ATS SPC database. Some of your batches may record data for parts destined for one customer while other batches are destined for a different customer. Some batches may have been produced by one factory or machine centre and other batches by another factory.
You can create tags for each of the ways you want to categorise your batches. For example you might create a tag type called ‘Factory’ and then create tag values of ‘Birmingham’, ‘Newcastle’, and ‘Sheffield’. Another tag type might be ‘Customer’ and might have possible values of ‘Big Cars Inc.’, ‘Posy Cars GmbH’, and ‘Sports Cars Ltd’. The combination of tag type and tag value is assigned to a batch and is then known simply as a ‘tag’. Every batch may have one Customer tag and one Factory tag. Batches can be left without tags or with only some of the possible tags if required, perhaps a Factory tag but no Customer tag, but no batch may have more than one tag of the same type. You can’t have a batch with two Customer tags.
Later when you open a batch (or rename or delete one) ATS SPC can show you a list of all the batches in your database or just a short list of batches with a particular set of tags. You could choose from a list of batches produced in Sheffield and destined for Sports Cars for instance, or perhaps from a list of batches produced in Newcastle regardless of customer.
You can also apply tags to the entered data items within your batches and subdivide the batches further. See Data Tags.
Here you create, edit, and delete batch tags to determine what categories are available to classify your batches into. A Tag Type is a way of classifying your batches, perhaps by customer, or by factory. A Tag Value is a particular classification, e.g. a particular customer or factory.
You must create one or more Tag Types first and then create Tag Values for each type.
You create Batch Tag Types by selecting Configure Batch Tags from the Tools menu (only in Design mode) or by clicking Configure in the Tags tab of the Batch Plan dialog.
1. In the Configure Batch Tags dialog click the Add button, or press ALT+A.
2. Choose Type.
3. Enter a name for the new Tag Type, e.g. Customer, and click OK or press ENTER.
4. Repeat steps 1 - 3 for any other tag types you want to create.
5. Click OK or press ENTER to save the tag types.
You create Batch Tag Values by selecting Configure Batch Tags from the Tools menu (only in Design mode) or by clicking Configure in the Tags tab of the Batch Plan dialog.
If you have not yet created any Tag Types you must do so before creating Tag Values for them. See Create Batch Tag Types. Each tag value belongs only to the tag type you create it for. It is one of a number of possible values for that type.
1. In the Configure Batch Tags dialog select the tag type for which you want to create a value (click on it, or press TAB until the focus reaches the Tag Type list and then use the cursor keys to highlight a type).
2. Click the Add button, or press ALT+A.
3. Choose Value.
4. Enter a name for the Tag Value, e.g. Sports Cars Ltd, and click OK or press ENTER.
5. Repeat steps 2 - 4 for any other tag values you want to create.
6. Click OK or press ENTER to save the tag values.
Here you assign tags to the current batch to classify it among the other batches in your database. You may categorize your batches by Customer perhaps, or by Month of production – you create your own categories, the Tag Types, to suit your needs. Then create as many Tag Values, e.g. the specific customer or month names, for each Tag Type.
You can tag a batch with one Tag Value for each Tag Type so you might classify a particular batch as being for the Customer Ford, and produced in the Month March. If a particular Tag Type is not relevant to the batch you can leave unused – without a value. You may not know, for instance, which customer a batch is for at the time of production, so you can leave the Customer tag unused for now and perhaps fill it in later.
1. Open the batch in Design view.
2. Open the Batch Plan dialog.
3. Select the Batch Tags tab.
The Batch Tag Select dialog contains a line for each tag type you have created and each has a drop down list box from which you can select tag values.
4. Click the list box for the tag type you want to assign, or press TAB to move the focus to the list boxes and then PGUP and PGDN to select a tag type.
5. Drop down the list box (click the arrow on the right or press ALT+DOWN) and choose the required tag value.
6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 for any other tag types you want to assign to this batch.
7. Click OK or press ENTER to finish assigning tags.