Quarantine/block processing of production units and materials

In the event of "bad" or sub-standard materials that don't meet your factory's quality standards, you can quickly search for affected production units or materials, then quarantine/block them from being processed. When you quarantine/block an item from processing, the item is started, then paused so that it cannot be transacted or started anywhere else. After pausing, quarantined/blocked items are rerouted to a quarantine/re-route operation you previously set up in the process flow.

You search for production units or materials to quarantine block in the Inventory environment (identical in the Logistics, Production, and NPI client applications). You can search by UID, workstation, customer, and/or time span and use additional search filters to help you locate potentially faulty production units or materials to quarantine.

Important

To use quarantine/blocking features, your process definition in NPI must include a quarantine reroute operation to handle all quarantined/blocked items. To learn more about reroute operations, see Out of route operations and reroutes.

1. Log into the NPI client application.

2. Select System Configuration > Settings.

3. Select the General category (Option Type: Assembly Blocking Options).

4. Specify the default global settings for quarantining/blocking units or materials (you must have Administrator rights to modify global options):
   

   • Allow Operator to Choose Blocking Mode - When set to True, operators can choose between Block, Quarantine, and Quarantine Then Block when blocking items in the inventory management area. When set to False, the Default Behavior option is used and operators are not given a choice.

   • Default Quarantine Operation Name - Specifies the name of an out of route (quarantine) operation that units will be routed to when being quarantined/blocked. (Use this option in conjunction with the Quarantine or Quarantine then Block Default Behavior options.)
     

   • Default Behavior

     • Block - Standard FactoryLogix blocking prevents unit from being used immediately or transacted in Production.

     • Quarantine - The unit is rerouted to a designated out of route quarantine operation where it is started and paused, preventing any further in-route transactions. (Use in conjunction with the Default Quarantine Operation Name option.)

     • Quarantine then Block - After routing a unit to a quarantine operation, the unit is also blocked.
       

Note

It is possible to have multiple quarantine out of route operations in a process definition. For example, one out of route operation might be Quarantine and another might be Repair or Rework.

5. Log into the Production client application, then select Advanced features > Inventory.
   

Note

You can also access the (identical) Inventory environment from the NPI or the Logistics client applications.

6. Select the Quarantine button.
   
   

   

   
   
   Under Search, there are filtering options to help you find the UIDs of the units/materials you want to quarantine and/or block.
   

7. Use the Filters buttons to further customize your search for units/materials you want to quarantine and/or block.
   

   For each filter you select, a Look Up dialog displays, allowing you to further customize the search activity for units/materials. You can add filters for customer, part number, process, batch, operation, line, and/or workstation. You can also filter by time using the Time Last Used drop-down.
   

Tip

To view all IDs in a Look Up dialog, enter an asterisk * symbol.

8. When a filter returns the desired data, select OK to return to the Inventory Management window. (Repeat the filtering if desired.)

9. To search by UID, select the Unit/Material ID button.

10. In the Look Up dialog, enter a UID to locate the desired units/materials.

11. Select one or more UIDs for quarantine/blocking (use Shift+click or Ctrl+click to multi-select items), then select OK. (To select all UIDs quickly, select the topmost check box in the first column of the table.)
    
    

    

    
    

12. To search for only blocked UIDs, select the Only return blocked UIDs check box.
    

Tip

To view the Block Status column of one or more items, use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the Search Results list.

13. After all search filters are set, select the Search  button (the magnifying glass) to return the search results in  the lower half of the window.

    The Top Most Parent column displays the UID of the top most "parent" part in an assembly.
    

14. To block or unblock one or more UIDs, select the items in the list, then select the Block UID or Unblock UID button to change the status.

15. To quarantine and/or block the selected items, select the Save button in the lower-right corner of the window.