The ModelEnterprise environment

Comprehensive graphical environment for easy creation, quality assurance, maintenance and execution of enterprise models

ModelEnterprise Modeller and Site Editor

The ModelEnterprise graphical editors make it easy to set up and maintain an enterprise representation

Equipment Editor

Recipe Editor

Demand Editor

The ModelEnterprise project environment

Gantt Editor

The ModelEnterprise environment provides both graphic-based editors and form-and-text-based project management facilities in order to make the description of complex manufacturing facilities and procedures as simple and intuitive as possible.

The ModelEnterprise Modeller project environment allows easy creation, auditing, maintenance and execution of enterprise models.

In addition the Site Editor provides facilities for graphical definition and visualisation of key information.

All information is maintained in a consistent form in an underlying Common Data Model. This allows ModelEnterprise to check for any possible errors or inconsistencies at all points of the input process.

Site Editor

The Site Editor is a set of graphical tools for creating, viewing and modifying the equipment, materials and recipes at a site.

It has two main components, the Site Equipment Editor and Site Recipe Editor.

In addition, a Demand Editor provides capabilities for defining the demands and supplies – usually in the form of sets of product orders and individual supplies – placed on the enterprise, and the Gantt Editor allows user manipulation of the calculated schedules.

Site Equipment Editor

The Site Equipment Editor is used to define the equipment available for processing at the site.

It is possible to represent possible interconnections – usually corresponding to piping or other material transport routes – between items of equipment. These connections are merely representative; the model determines actual material flow routes via the recipes.

Users select equipment items from a palette of generic equipment and create instances in the editor window for the site.

Site Recipe Editor

The Site Recipe Editor is used to create site recipes in graphical format as a State Task Network (STN).

Users select resources and tasks from a palette of generic items to create the STN.

Recipes can be brought into ModelEnterprise from SAP or other software environments via an MS Excel interface and the ModelEnterprise automation library, to avoid the need for rework.

Demand Editor

The Demand Editor is used to describe the demands placed on and supplies to the manufacturing facility, as well as defining initial inventories and any non-availability of equipment or other resources.

Typically these are in the form of product orders or – for example, when performing campaign planning – an anticipated set of demands.

The Demand Editor is usually configured for a particular site, typically in MS Excel, to allow site personnel to enter order information in an easy and recognisable form.

ME Modeller: underlying model representation

Underlying the graphical representation is a ModelEnterprise Modeller project description containing the full model in text format. The two views – graphical and project – are maintained consistent at all times.

The easily-accessible text view of the project allows fine tuning, quality assurance, printing and archiving, as well as easy comparison between different versions.

Graphical representation of the process allows non-modellers to quickly understand process and information flows.

Graphical output and the Gantt Editor

ModelEnterprise output is usually in the form of an interactive Gantt chart, which allows the user to see schedules and resource utilisation at-a-glance.

It is possible to zoom or pan across the chart, and to select equipment items, materials, resources and utilities for more detailed investigation.

Tool tips allow immediate view of result key operational metrics such as utilisation and throughput.

In addition ModelEnterprise can send results to external databases or IT system components.

Alternatively Microsoft Excel can be used as a simple, cost effective and readily-available tool to further process data, provide results in a graphical form and generate reports for enterprise stakeholders.

Editing using the Gantt

The Gantt output representation can be used to edit the schedule.

For example, operations that need to occur at a particular time can be selected and fixed at their current point, or moved as necessary. The problem can then be re-executed with these items fixed as constraints.