Work centers and sites
A site identifies the factory context you are working in. A work center identifies a machine, workstation or production resource. Work-center groups organize related resources; the plant structure can also display production-line relationships. Configure this structure in Operations Studio → Workcenters.
Choose the intended site and Test/Production environment before creating records. Organization/site administration and access are described in Organization and sites.
Create a usable work center
- Open the work-center explorer and choose the group or creation location.
- Create the work center and enter its name, code and required operational settings.
- Assign it to the intended group or production structure.
- Review its editor, save the draft and publish the intended definition.
- Reopen it and check the saved publication, group and references.
- Configure its calendar, routing eligibility and assigned operator App where required.
Use a stable code that operators and integrations can recognize. Renaming a display label does not replace the underlying record. After moving or regrouping a work center, inspect the Apps, routings and assignments that use it; a different group can change which resources a grouped view includes.
Connect the production process
| Configuration | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Routing operations | Define the primary and eligible resources for the production step. |
| Factory Calendar | Defines availability and applicable inherited/overridden working time. |
| Apps and shop-floor assignments | Determine the interfaces and operations available to operators. |
| Malfunction reasons and reporting | Make downtime reporting meaningful for the resource. |
| Edge connector | Relates machine data to the intended factory resource where configured. |
| KPI widget scope | Determines which work center/group contributes to the displayed metric. |
These settings are related but are not interchangeable. A calendar defines time availability; it does not assign an App. A routing eligible-resource list affects scheduling; it does not grant a user access to the resource.
Groups, inheritance and multiple sites
Groups help present related work centers and supply context to components configured for a group. Use Factory Calendar to review calendar inheritance explicitly at factory, group and work-center level. Other settings follow their own editor's rules; do not assume every field inherits in the same way.
For two sites with similar lines, keep their site scope explicit. Test/Production promotion uses logical configuration identity to reconcile corresponding records; it is not a request to merge one site's runtime orders into another. Verify the target site's available resources and bindings after promotion.
Update and recover
Use the draft and History to review changes before publication. Where offered, Unpublish removes the usable publication without deleting its history. Consider the effect on order creation, Apps and planning before using it. A missing resource may prevent dependency validation or order execution.
If a change fails, check the current scope, design/publish permission and validation message. If another editor changed the same record, reload its saved version before applying your intended update. To recover a former definition, restore the desired History entry into a draft and publish after review.
For daily work-center operation, see Work centers; for timing and inheritance, see Factory Calendar.