Functionality Activation

The functionalities are activated when it is necessary to meet a product or production process requirement in the Engineering. These requirements can be generated in the following scenarios:

By a characteristic selected in the product specification.

By Engineering itself.

By a characteristic created by a functionality.

 

Functionality Activation by Specification Characteristic Type

Each product has a set of characteristics that determine its size, how many colors it has, the paper on which it will be printed, etc. These characteristics should be defined in the Specification Characteristic Type records. The Specification Characteristics are predetermined classes that are ready to receive a set of information, which when combined, can supply what is necessary for engineering to create the production routes. For example, the Lamination Specification Characteristic has lamination types that can be selected to be applied on a specific component. When selecting lamination on the cover component, the Specification Characteristic will send to Engineering information about the cover and the type of lamination to be applied. The Lamination functionality receives the information and determines what Production Groups can apply the Lamination on the cover and what materials are required.

Some Specification Characteristics may need several functionalities to determine which Production Group can execute that activity.

In each functionality’s technical specification has all its characteristics. For more information, refer to “Specification Characteristic Types” in iQuote User Guide – Product Specification Records.

In order for a functionality to be activated by a Specification Characteristic, the following are necessary:

Enable the Generate Engineering parameter, in the appropriate Specification Characteristic Class. For more information, refer to “Specification Characteristic Types” in iQuote User Guide – Product Specification Records.

There must be a Production Group with a functionality compatible with the appropriate Specification Characteristic Class.

Enable the Mandatory parameter, in the Engineering Characteristic Type record, for the Generic Class Specification Characteristics. For more information, refer to Engineering Characteristic Type.” If this parameter is not enabled the Engineering Characteristic may be used as a filter in the Production Groups, but will not activate the functionalities.

 

Functionality Activation by Engineering Requirements

In some cases, it is necessary to activate a functionality without any characteristic being selected in the product specification. In this case, Engineering will identify this process requirement and will activate the required functionality, such as a sheet with a format bigger than the printer’s maximum size. In this case, the Engineering will activate the trimming functionality to trim the sheet before the printing functionality.

 

Functionality Activation by Other Functionalities

Functionalities can create Engineering characteristics so that other functionalities can be activated. The functionalities that can create characteristics for others are:

1 - Generic (Simple)

1042 - Generic (Layout)

For more information on how to set these functionalities, refer to “Functionality 1- Generic (Simple)” and “Functionality 1042 - Generic (Layout).”

The Engineering route is always calculated from the end to the beginning – or from the finished product to the starting point. The Engineering checks the list of product’s characteristics and “calls” the functionalities that will run these characteristics, in the sequence they can be executed. For example, in an actual production sequence, printing is always performed before lamination, so Engineering will first calculate lamination, and then printing (calculating in the reverse direction). After executing the required activities for the characteristic to be satisfied, the characteristic is removed from the product list, so that all can be satisfied.

 

This way, whenever a generic functionality creates a characteristic that will activate another functionality, this characteristic is created only for the processes that will be executed after the generic characteristic (considering the calculation direction). This is shown in the following example.

 

This Generic characteristic can be used only for filters in the other functionalities or have to be satisfied by other functionality.