Recipes are a valuable property when manufacturing a product that represents a brand. It is not just a list of specific quantities of ingredients. They can be called as formulations. In recipe management, the formulations comes first followed by the ordered set of steps. It is very important to protect recipes from the theft by a competitor as well as from internal sabotage. Manufactures always want to bring new product to the market quicker. Same time products within the production schedule should be delivered effectively.
Managing recipes with a batch management package is beneficial. Batch Management Software executes the Production Management functions for the batch processes except for the Maintenance Operations Management. This software plays a supervisory role to direct process control process. It includes the server or workstation batch management software and the services to implement the overall batch project. It can reduce the cost as well as the risk that are associated with custom programming. This adds flexibility and agility to the manufacturing environment.
Which is better?
In recipe management, the formulations are generally represented as data in controller memory tables, simple files or databases. Earlier, the formulations were moved around in the controller data table with a selector switch. Many HMI software offers formulation management. They often misnamed formula management as recipe management. A formula and recipe are not the same thing. Formula can be a sub-component of a recipe.
The ordered steps of recipes are often represented in programming. Compared to developing and managing codes in a controller, much faster and more accurate manner is nothing but developing and managing recipes in batch manufacturing. When assessing the added value of a batch managing package, some important things has to be considered. Cost of controller programming development, validation, maintenance, and modification are considered when introducing new products. This must be considered when assessing the added value of a batch management process. Controller programming modifications require downtime for implementation and testing. By moving the programming aspects of the recipe to a package with robust recipe management, it is possible to avoid even just a few hours of downtime in a cell or line. This can easily justify the batch management software.
Preserving brand reputation
Getting the new products to the market quickly will promote the sales growth. Considering the controller programming, it needs specialized skill. Also the programming modifications lengthen time-to-market for these new products. ISA88 flow-chart style recipes takes much shorter time-to-market because of its developer who are very familiar with the process.
Programming change involves risk. But programming in a controller presents more opportunities for mistakes than programming in the higher-level environment found in a batch management software package. Packages will both control and track here. It is possible to know who can or did create, modify, or release a recipe for production. Packages could maintain multiple recipe versions. Especially for additional traceability, version control, and rollback. This results in consistent quality products.