MES Model-Driven Application Content (Version 5.5) Readme

Last revision: 8/16/2022

About This Release

The model-driven application content is designed to allow you to use the forms and workflows as is for inventory, job, quality, and work order management, or to customize them to meet the requirements of your specific production environment.

This version of the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) model-driven application content now supports Work Tasks 2020 U2.

The content is being delivered as the following Work Tasks packages:

• The Inventory Management version 5.5 package (MES_PKG_Inventory_Management) includes forms and workflows that allow supervisors and operators to receive and manage inventory among lots and storage locations.
• The Job Management version 5.5 package (MES_PKG_Job_Management), along with the Split Control version 5.5 package (MES_PKG_CustomControl_Split), include forms and workflows that allow operators to manage jobs in a job queue, add job production, add BOM consumption, and manage utilization events for entities.
• The Quality Management version 5.5 package (MES_PKG_Quality_Management) includes forms and workflows that allow operators to view current, past, and future quality samples and record their characteristic result values.
• The Work Order (WO) Management version 5.5 package (MES_PKG_Wo_Po_Management) includes forms and workflows that allow supervisors to manage work orders, a work order's job bill of materials (BOM) records, and a work order's job specifications.

This version includes localization for all packages for the following languages: Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. It also includes a Language Installation wizard to simplify the set up of localized files.

System Requirements

AVEVA Software Requirements

The following AVEVA software is required for using MES model-driven application content.

Platform Common Services (PCS)

PCS is required as it includes the service that provides users with access tokens for MES. PCS can be installed as part of MES, Work Tasks, or System Platform installations.

Note: The PCS service that provides access tokens has also been referred to as AVEVA Identity Manager (AIM), which is the name used throughout this document.

Work Tasks

Work Tasks 2020 U2 is required.

Work Tasks 2020 U2 requires hot fix AWT2020-U2-HTFX-7.2.3020.2 if MES model-driven application content will be integrated with InTouch OMI. Otherwise, it is not required but recommended. This hot fix provides full integration of MES model-driven application content with InTouch OMI.

This hot fix is provided with the MES model-driven application content installation files.

MES

MES 2020 (version 6.2) is required.

If the system also includes System Platform 2020 R2 SP1, then MES 2020 Patch 2 is required. If the system includes System Platform 2020 R2 or a lower version, do not install MES 2020 Patch 2.

MES requires the following hot fixes:

• HF_1055331, to work properly with the Quality Management package.
• IMS-1577968, to work properly with the Quality Management package and Split Jobs control.

  Note that this hot fix includes the fix that was in hot fix IMS-1569379, which fixed MES to work properly with the Quality Management package. If you had previously installed IMS-1569379, you can safely install IMS-1577968. However, installing IMS-1569379 after installing IMS-1577968 would overwrite the latter hot fix and remove the fix for the Split Jobs control.

• IMS-1886463, to enable registration of a service client with the AVEVA Identity Manager. The registered client allows service-to-service authentication.
• IMS-1903067, to allow a new OS Group user to be automatically added to the MES user table without having to first log in to MES from an MES client application.

These hot fixes are provided with the MES model-driven application content installation files.

Note the following if upgrading from MES Model-Driven Application Content version 4.0 or 5.0:

• If upgrading from version 4.0, then hot fix HF_1055331 might already be installed.
• If upgrading from version 5.0, then hot fixes HF_1055331 and IMS-1577968 might already be installed.

  Note: MES model-driven application content supports only OS Group and OS User MES users, but not native MES users.

Work Tasks Connector and Extension for MES

Work Tasks 2020 Connector and Extension for MES 2020 (version 6.7) is required. For additional required installation steps, see the Work Tasks Connector and Extension for MES Installation chapter in the MES Model-Driven Application Content Installation Guide or Tech Note 33657.

Note: Previous versions of Work Tasks Connector and Extension for MES cannot be upgraded to version 6.7. You must uninstall the previous version, then install version 6.7.

Hot fix IMS-1715257 is available to fix an issue in distributed environments where the MES Connector configuration gets removed in Work Tasks when the connector's server is rebooted. For more information, see the Work Tasks Connector and Extension for MES Installation chapter in the MES Model-Driven Application Content Installation Guide. This hot fix is provided with the MES model-driven application content installation files.

Intelligence/BI Gateway

If Intelligence or BI Gateway is being installed to provide MES reporting, the following versions of them are supported:

• BI Gateway 2021. BI Gateway is the next version of Intelligence and is recommended. It is required to support SQL Server 2019. It must be downloaded and installed separately.
• Intelligence 2017 U1. A non-licensed limited version is included with the MES 2020 installation software. The full version is optional.

System Platform

For solutions using automated data and event capture, the following software is required:

• System Platform 2020 R2 (Application Server, InTouch, Historian).
• Work Tasks Connector and Extension for the latest available update of System Platform 2020. This connector is included with the Work Tasks 2020 U2 installation software.

  Note: If System Platform 2020 R2 SP1 is or will be installed, then MES Patch 2 must be installed.

  Important: If a version of System Platform that is lower than System Platform 2020 R2 SP1 is or will be installed, do not install MES 2020 Patch 2.

Upgrading from Previous Versions of MES Model-Driven Application Content

Upgrades to MES Model-Driven Application Content version 5.5 can only be performed from version 4.0 or 5.0.

If upgrading from MES Model-Driven Application Content version 3.0 or earlier, you must first upgrade to version 4.0. Then upgrade from version 4.0 to version 5.5.

Operating System, SQL Server, and Browser Requirements

For a particular node when implementing MES model-driven application content, the Windows operating system version, SQL Server version, and web browser must be compatible with all of the AVEVA products that are being installed on the node.

For the current compatibility information, see the Technology Matrix, which is available in the Knowledge and Support Center.

The recommended configuration is:

• For servers, Windows Server 2019. For clients, Windows 10 or 11.
• SQL Server 2019.

For the web browser, the latest available version of Chrome is recommended.

Hardware Requirements

The Windows operating system and SQL Server versions that are being used in the Model-Driven MES solution impose hardware requirements for the nodes in the solution. Refer to the Microsoft MSDN web site for the hardware requirements for the versions of Windows and SQL Server that are being used.

In addition, it is strongly recommended that the Work Tasks server node and all nodes that will support client Work Tasks web browser user sessions have at least 16 GB of RAM to optimize performance. For more hardware requirement details, refer to the Work Tasks Administration Guide help and to the MES Deployment Guide.

Installing MES Model-Driven Application Content

For complete system requirements and instructions about how to install a system to support MES model-driven application content and how to install the application content Skelta BPM workflow packages, see the MES Model-Driven Application Content Installation Guide.

Extracted Installation Files Folder Structure

The folder structure of the MES model-driven application content installation files, after being extracted from the installation Zip file, is described below.

Top Level Folder

• Additional Files folder The additional files that might have to be manually copied during an upgrade. See Known Issues.
• Hotfix folder The hot fixes that are available for installation to support MES model-driven application content.
• Package files The MES model-driven application content package files.
• User documentation files The Readme, Installation Guide, and Developer Guide.

Additional Files Folders

• CSS The CSS files for all packages.
• DLL The DLL file for the Job Management Split control.
• Help The folders that contain the help file, by package.
• JS The javascript files for all packages.
• JSON The MES Web API v3 Open API (Swagger) JSON file.
• Locales The localized text files for all packages, organized by the locales of the supported languages.
• MDMSPLIT\images folder Image files for the Split control.
• MDMTHEME\images folder Image files that are used by forms and controls for all packages.
• MSI The additional package MSI files and the Language Installation MSI file.

Resolved Issues

The following important issue was resolved in this release, listed by its CR number.

In addition, the following issues were resolved:

• Full integration of MES model-driven application content with InTouch OMI is not fully implemented with Work Tasks 2020 U2 and hot fix AWT2020-U2-HTFX-7.2.3020.2.

  Note: If Work Tasks is on a different node than System Platform, a WinPlatform object must be deployed on the Work Tasks node to ensure proper communication between Work Tasks and the System Platform galaxy.

• On a tablet, when using the Gantt chart in the Utilization form, the Merge and Split pop‑up forms are not being called properly.
• When a form lookup is called and no records are returned, a warning message is logged in SMC because the MES Web API returns a null instead of an empty JArray. This issue does not adversely affect the use of the form.
• On the Quality Management package Result tab, some of the strings on the results history chart can't be localized.

Known Issues

Display Issues on Non-Windows Devices

MES model-driven application content has been optimized for web browsers on Windows devices. While Work Tasks does not support browsers on non-Windows devices, MES model-driven application content has been tested on a limited number of these devices (that is, Android and iPad tablets). Best results were found with Chrome in landscape mode (if the tablet device is used in portrait mode, you might experience limitations in the display of the forms). Future versions of MES model-driven application content will further address mobile device needs and support for the Work Tasks Pro application.

Non-English Characters Being Passed Using the MES Web API

With Windows running in a non‑English language, when Work Tasks uses the MES Web API for a Quality Management operation and the data includes non‑English characters, the operation fails. Therefore, the use of non‑English characters are only supported with Windows running in the English language. Further investigation and resolution of this issue is planned for the next release.

Job Management Issue

When filtering the Job grid by work order, if you select a work order whose ID includes any of the following special characters, no jobs will be displayed in the Job grid: ~ ! ( ) .

Quality Management Issues

• When saving sample results, the Verified Write feature is not currently supported.
• For a finalized sample, the fields on the Result tab are incorrectly shown as editable. However, any edits can't be saved because the sample is finalized.
• On the Result tab, there is an issue when you add samples up to the maximum allowed but then skip any of the rows when entering result values. For example, say the normal sample size is 3 and the maximum sample size is 5 and on the Result Values panel you add 2 rows. If you then enter values only for samples 1, 3, and 5 (skipping 2 and 4) and save your entries, when you reopen the Result Values panel there will only be 3 rows, with values for 1 and 3. If you enter values for rows 1, 2, and 3 but leave 4 and 5 empty, you would see rows 1 through 3 when you reopen the panel, but 4 and 5 would not be shown because values weren't saved for them.

  So, to ensure the expected behavior when you've added samples, make sure you don't skip entering values for any of the samples.

Package Uninstall Issues

• When uninstalling a package, the workflows don't get removed. Delete them manually in Enterprise Console. This issue will be considered for resolution in a future release of Work Tasks.
• If multiple MES model-driven application content packages are installed:
  • When uninstalling a package the shared lookups, the Web API, and the shared additional files don't get removed. Manually delete the shared lookups and Web API in Enterprise Console and delete the shared additional files in Windows Explorer.
  • For resources such as lookups, navigations, and forms that are shared by another installed package, Work Tasks might display an error message saying that the resource could not be removed. This is because it is still being used by another installed package and so is not actually an error. Performing an Resetting IIS and clearing the web browser cache after each uninstall might minimize or eliminate the appearance of these messages.
• When uninstalling the Split Control:
  • The Work Tasks services are stopped. Manually restart them.
  • If the MSI uninstall fails, uninstall the package again (it should succeed the second time).
  • Note that the Job Management package has to be uninstalled before the Split Control package. This is as designed: the Job Management package requires that the Split Control package be installed, so it has to be uninstalled first. Then, before uninstalling the Split Control package, clear the browser cache and perform an IIS reset. This will prevent the Enterprise Console session from hanging when you proceed to uninstall the Split Control package.
  • If you are uninstalling the Split Control package and it was installed as an upgrade and not a clean install, there might be a Form Controls error: Uninstall failed – Length cannot be less than zero. You can ignore this error. It is caused by Work Tasks trying to roll back the Split Control package to the previous version but not finding the Split Control DLL file, which was deleted as part of the uninstall.

Performance

Performance testing of MES model-driven application content in versions 5.0 and 5.5 has shown longer load times than in version 4.0 for the following conditions, with some improvement in version 5.5:

• The Job Management form loads a couple seconds slower when loading 1,000 jobs from a database with 55,000+ job records.
• The Quality Management form loads several seconds slower when loading 1,000 samples from a database with 2 million+ records.

To minimize these increased load times, the following is recommended:

• For the Job Management form, filter it to load only the jobs that an operator would currently be working on.
• For the Quality Management form, filter it by an entity as this shows significant load time improvement in the internal testing environment.

Configuration Issue with Intelligence and System Platform 2020 R2

If the supplied Intelligence 2017 U1 is installed on a node that also has an installation of System Platform 2020 R2, then there might be issues with configuring Intelligence and other components. The recommendation is to use BI Gateway 2021 (with or without SP1) on a node that has System Platform 2020 R2 or later.

Additional Known Issues

Following are additional known issues:

• During an upgrade to Work Tasks 2020 U2, MES 2020 (version 6.2), and Work Tasks 2020 Connector and Extension for MES 2020 (version 6.7), errors might appear in the SMC Logger until you complete the Work Tasks 2020 Connector and Extension for MES 2020 installation and configuration.
• When updating packages, a warning message might appear in the install window. Also, two errors and a warning message are logged in SMC. The error relates to the folders created in Forms to separate each package. The error does not affect proper functionality of package features.

MES Model-Driven Application Content Documentation

The MES model-driven application content documentation set includes the following:

MES Model-Driven Application Content Installation Guide

Provides information about installing Work Tasks, MES, Work Tasks Extension and Connector for MES, Work Tasks Extension and Connector for System Platform, and Intelligence/BI Gateway to support using the MES model-driven application content. Also provides information about installing or updating the MES model-driven application content packages.

Work Order Management Help

Provides information about using the Work Order Management form.

Job Management Help

Provides information about using the Job Management form.

Inventory Management Help

Provides information about using the Inventory Management form.

Quality Management Help

Provides information about using the Quality Management form.