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 Me > Preferences > App Preferences > Simulation > Process Engineering > Process 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:

Transient flows symbolize product flows of Unloading and filtered operations. Like product flows, they are displayed as arrows. The color is similar to the one defined for product flows, but slightly transparent.

When you filter operations, existing product flows appear as a transient product flows. In this case, the product is moved to the next operation: