About Product Flows

A product flow specifies a precedence constraint from a source to a target.

For example, a product flow from Operation A to Operation B specifies that Operation A must be completed before Operation B. Operation A is the source, while Operation B is the target.

A product flow can link two systems, two operations, or a system and an operation. Operations can belong to the same system or to different systems.

A product flow can only have one source and one target at a time. However, an operation or system can be part of different product flows at the same time.

A product flow is symbolized by an arrow in the System Editor.

The arrow starts from the source tile and points to the target tile. If the source and target belong to different systems, the arrow crosses over system borders.

When you collapse tiles, the source or target may become hidden. In that case, the arrow appears between the first visible parents instead until you expand the tiles again. Several arrows, corresponding to different product flows, may appear stacked between the same parents.

By default, product flow arrows are blue. You can customize this color in the Display options in Me > Preferences > App Preferences > Simulation > Process Engineering Fastener Planning > System Grid Editor.

When you move or delete the target of a product flow, the sequence can be automatically reconnected.

The following rules apply:

	Origin and Target in the Same System (Sibling Operations)	Origin and Target in Different Systems
Rule	If the target is deleted, the product flow is reconnected with the target successor.	If the target is moved from one exterior system to another, the product flow is maintained.
Example	Consider a sequence of three sibling operations A, B, C: If you delete Operation B, its successor becomes the new target. The product flow is reconnected with Operation C:	Consider the structure below: If you move operation B from System S2 to System S3, the product flow with System S1 is maintained:

Transient flows and constraints symbolize product flows and time constraints of Unloading and filtered operations. Like product flows and time constraints, they are displayed as arrows. The colors are similar to the ones defined for product flows and time constraints, but slightly transparent.

When you filter operations, product flows and time constraints defined on the filtered operations are still displayed:

• If a product flow exists between filtered operations, it appears as a transient product flow. In this case, the product is moved to the next operation.
  
  
• If a time constraint exists between filtered operations, it appears as a transient time constraint. In this case, the product remains on the current operation.