Release Notes

This topic provides a list of product changes released for Plant Applications.

Plant Applications Installation Changes

Table 1. Enhancements and New FeaturesThe following enhancements and new features have been added.
Description Tracking ID
The Plant Application Installer now has now become for more simpler. You can now:
  • Flash upgrade from Plant Applications 8.1. That is, you can perform the Database upgrade while Plant Applications services are running and then upgrade the Plant Applications Server later. This will minimize the system downtime. However, you still have the option to perform the standard upgrade that involves upgrading both Database and Plant Applications Server with system downtime.
  • Install Message Bridge as part of the Plant Applications Server. After installation you can observe the Message Bridge service running along with other Plant Applications services. Also, you can create the RabbitMQ user as part of the Plant Applications installation.
F51690
The Plant Application Web Client installer is now rebranded as:
  • Enterprise Edition Web Client: To be installed on Linux and docker based machine.
  • Standard Edition Web Client: To be installed on Windows based machine.
Note: By default, both Standard and Enterprise versions of Plant Application Servers install both Process and Discrete applications. If you want to disable the Discrete applications, use the utility provided by the installer to disable the Discrete applications.
F54118
Centralized configuration to serve all properties from the server, for UI and as well as services. All the common properties in the Enterprise and Standard web client are now moved into one configuration file that makes easier for configuration. This file also includes the Historian configurations. F54420
The Plant Applications Enterprise (Docker) Web Client installer is simplified by bundling all the pre-requisites into the installer (Python, Ansible, Third part images). The only pre-requisites required now are Docker Engine, Docker Swarm, and Docker Compose. A silientinstaller.yml file is introduced to input all the required inputs and credentials. This file must be updated first before starting the installer. F55137
Plant Applications Enterprise Web Client stack is now split into multiple stacks that makes easy to restart the required stack without restarting the full stack. This brings a capability of less down time in restarting the services or applying the patches and upgrades. F55338
The Master control service is introduced in the Standard Web Client to start the required services in a proper order or modify all services to retry if they fail to find their dependencies. F57264
As part of the installer simplification, Zookeeper and Kafka are now part of the Web Client installers. F51622
The Plant Application Enterprise Web Client installer is updated to support AWS load balancer to overcome port issues. It is now easy to deploy in AWS load balancer environment with minimum manual configurations. F52867

Application-Wide Changes

Table 2. Enhancements and New FeaturesThe following enhancements and new features have been added.
Description Tracking ID
Enabled support for over/under production of non-serialized products using material properties. The minimum and maximum allowed over/under production quantities for a material are calculated based on the values of the property definitions added to the Material Import property group:
  • Over Production Threshold
  • Under Production Threshold

This feature is applicable to Unit Operations and Work Queue.

Previously for a specific operation, if all the lots in a work order were on hold, it was indicated with a clocked on status. This has been aligned to show the on hold status for such an operation.

F52968
The comments feature in Plant Applications is enhanced to provide additional functionality for handling images and videos.
  • Images can be copied to clipboard and pasted into the comment rich text editor in line with text.
  • Drag and drop images into the comments rich text editor.
  • A preview of the image/video appears in the comment editor along with a labeled filename.
  • Images can be modified directly in the comment editor and saved.
  • To remove images/videos from the comment editor, either delete the file preview or the labeled filename.

This feature update applies to Unit Operations, Work Queue, Work Order Manager, and Receiving Inspection.

F53563
You can now specify if an operation is Optional. These Optional operations have the same configuration of any operation. However, you can configure an operation as optional and allow execution to Skip these operations. To support this feature, Unit Operations, Work Queue, Work Order Manager, and Route Editor applications have been enhanced for you to configure Optional operations and ability to Skip these operations during execution. F32750
New Language Support:
  • The process applications now support Bosnian language.
  • The discrete applications now support four new languages: German, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
F55231
Plant Applications Client now supports four new languages: Hebrew, Vietnamese, Bosnian, and CZECH. US461770

Activities

Table 3. Enhancements and New FeaturesThe following enhancements and new features have been added.
Description Tracking ID
In addition to quartile and whisker charts, you can now analyze variable data using any of the following Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts, which help determine if a process is stable and predictable:
  • X-Bar and Range
  • X-Bar and Sigma
  • X-Bar and Moving Range
  • P chart
  • U chart
In addition, depending on the configuration in Plant Applications Administrator, variable values or calculated values that are beyond the acceptable limits are represented by a color-coded alarm indicator in the SPC charts.
F55292
Previously, open activities were sorted in an ascending order by default. As a result, the newly created activities were sent to the bottom of the list. Also, if maxRecordsToFetch was less than the total number of open activities in the database, the newly created activities remained hidden due to the sorting order. This issue has been addressed by enabling the default sorting of the Due In column in a descending order when the open activities are loaded onto the page.

A static message label is also introduced on the Open page to inform on the number of displayed activities from the total number of open activities available in the database. This message is shown only when the displayed open activity records are less than the records available in the database.

The number of records to display on the Open page is configured in the maxRecordsToFetch property in the app.properties.json file. If you have installed Plant Applications Web Client using Docker, this file is located in the Plant Applications installation folder/PlantApplicationsDocker/plantapps-universal-client/activities folder. Otherwise, this file is located in the <Plant Applications installation folder>\PlantApplicationsWebClient\NodeUIApp\activities-app\assets folder.

US425802, US433997
Plant Applications Web Client now supports the Electronic Signature functionality for autolog variables. This new functionality provides a highly secure environment by requiring that operators or supervisors electronically "sign" for all database process changes resulting from modifying the Autolog variable values. Electronic signatures are the computer-generated, legally binding equivalents of handwritten signatures. They uniquely identify the Performer making the change and can optionally require the electronic signature of Verifier to verify the change.

In Plant Applications Administrator, an autolog variable can be configured for an electronic signature at two levels:

  • Level-1: Requires only the Performer signature.The performer that initiated the action must electronically sign for that action.
  • Level-2: Requires both the Performer and a Verifier signature. The performer that initiated the action must electronically sign for that action and the verifier must electronically sign to validate the action. The action is not committed until both signatures are entered.
Note: Electronic Signature functionality is applicable to the Activities, Unit Operator, and Work Queue applications. The Electronic Signature window appears when modifying the autolog variable values that are electronic signature enabled.
F42432
In the Activities application, in the Open page, a numeric counter in red has been added that indicates the number of overdue activities. You can select the numeric value to view all activities that are overdue. US420543
When Activities are created based on the title, the order of the activity execution is based on the Activity Order defined in the Activity Order column in the Variable tab of Autolog Sheet in Plant Applications Administrator. By default, all activities created per title will have the Activity Order defined as zero. F52401

Unit Operations

Table 4. Enhancements and New FeaturesThe following enhancements and new features have been added.
Description Tracking ID
Previously, the available quantity to record was entered manually. The application service variable default_record_quantity_to_remaining_quantity has been introduced to populate the available Record quantity by default, if set to true. US414595

Work Queue

Table 5. Enhancements and New FeaturesThe following enhancements and new features have been added.
Description Tracking ID
Previously, the available quantity to record was entered manually. The application service variable default_record_quantity_to_remaining_quantity has been introduced to populate the available Record quantity by default, if set to true. US414762

Analysis

Table 6. Enhancements and New FeaturesThe following enhancements and new features have been added.
Description Tracking ID
Using the Analysis application, you can now:
  • Save your favorite trends to a folder
  • Mark a saved trend as default trend which then appears when you login to the Plant Applications Web Client and access the Analysis application for the first time.
US420545, US435438, US430542

Process Orders

Table 7. Enhancements and New FeaturesThe following enhancements and new features have been added.
Description Tracking ID
The Process Application has been enhanced to:
  • Display the list of process orders grouped based on the multiple execution paths (configured in Plant Applications Administrator) or unbound path in a tabular format.
  • Display Unbound Process Orders.
  • Load Custom Tabs created in the Configuration application.
  • Search using the Barcode scanner.
  • Display the BOM along with the required quantity of each BOM item to complete the process order, search for raw material serials/lots, and consumed quantity from the serials/lots.
F53699

F54195

As a supervisor, you now have the ability to change properties of the Process Order such as: scheduled quantity, path, status, and sequence. You can also view the Process Order stats such as: actual start/end time, actual good items, actual bad items, actual down time, and so on. F51504

BOM Editor

Table 8. Enhancements and New FeaturesThe following enhancements and new features have been added.
Description Tracking ID
A new application, BOM Editor, has been introduced. Using this application, you can create and maintain BOM Formulations. It allows you to create a BOM and add items to it. This new application displays all existing BOM formulations that you created through the Client. F49938

Genealogy

Table 9. Enhancements and New FeaturesThe following enhancements and new features have been added.
Description Tracking ID
A new application, Genealogy, has been introduced. Using this application, you can trace or track the real-time details of any serial/lot such as current status, location, initial and current quantities, what raw materials the serial/lot consumed, where the serial/lot was used, what triggered its execution, and how did it come to be manufactured in the MES. F49938

My Machines

Table 10. Enhancements and New FeaturesThe following enhancements and new features have been added.
Description Tracking ID
My Machines now provides two types of views: Exclusive and Inclusive. When you access the application, you can now see these two views in respective tabs.
  • Exclusive: Allows you to select machines from the list of machines accessible to you across a plant model.
  • Inclusive: Allows you to create your own profile and add machines to it.
F57354

ERP Integration Enhancements

For ERP Integration related changes or enhancements, refer to the Release Notes section in the ERP Integration Guide.

Known Issues and Limitations

The following issues are unresolved in this release.
Description Tracking ID
In the Activities application, after selecting the Overdue Activities badge counter for filtering results, the badge counter is not updated with the newly added overdue activities. DE145039
In the Work Order Manager application, the work order grid is not automatically updated with the newly created work orders.

Workaround: You can manually reload the browser URL or refresh the page using the Refresh icon in the application to load the new work orders.

DE145709
In the Unit Operations application, the work order table is not being automatically updated with the newly created work orders.

Workaround: You can manually refresh the page to the new work orders.

DE145711
The Web Client applications’ user interfaces displays more canvas (white space) at the bottom of the screen when you try to zoom-in or zoom-out in the browser. DE128346
The Upload button in the Upload Document window is not activated when trying to paste a URL using the right-click + Paste function.

Workaround: Use Ctrl + V for pasting the copied URL in the FILE NAME / URL * box instead of using the mouse for the right-click + Paste function.

DE141990
The Router service is not starting after installing Plant Applications Server (when license is not already configured).

Workaround. You must restart the router service again.

DE141013
When you select an activity in the Complete tab, navigate to a random page, and then select the back button, the current page of the activity is not retained. Instead, you are navigated to the first page. DE136409
Newly added waste event is not reflecting immediately in CURRENT DAY and CURRENT WEEK time selection in the Add Production Based Waste Event screen. DE152352
In the SPC graphs, the charts hide labels when there are more number of ticks on the x-axis. However, you can see all the details by hovering on the datapoint.

Workaround: If you want to view ticks and labels aligned, you need to set the spcArgumentAxisMode property to continuous in the app.properties.json file of the Activities application.

DE144012
Authentication issue with Swagger UI for Workorder service.

Workaround: Perform below steps:

  1. Go to the C:\ProgramData\GE\Operations Hub\uaa-config location.
  2. Using a text editor, update the uaa.yml file by adding the below lines at the end of file with proper indentation.
    cors:
      xhr:
        allowed:
          headers:
            - X-Requested-With
            - Authorization
          methods:
            - POST
  3. Restart the GE Operations Hub UAA Tomcat Web Server service.
DE149729
When you try to open the GOTO component, select on the camera icon, and then close the GOTO component, the camera will be still running in the background.

Workaround: You need to open the GOTO component, select the camera icon again, and then close it.

DE150615
When accessing the Report application in an iPad, the tooltips are not displayed properly. DE151029
Certain text in the Analysis application are not translated. DE150634
You can only open Plant Applications Web Client in only three browser tabs at a time. DE151581
In the Analysis applications, few UI components and icons are distorted when the Block third-party cookies option is enabled in the browser. DE151918
The BOM is not displayed in the BOM Formulation drop-down when you do not select any path. DE152109
In the Activities application, complete % is not updated when variable values are updated from the Closed tab. DE152324
If you have not selected a value in selected from product or applied product drop down (when no product is running on unit or a new unit is created and product is not there) and then if you try to edit any field in the Event tab, the parameter value not defined error occurs. DE152327
With the standard display setting, if you scale up the display to 150%, set resolution to 1920x1080, and use the "Resize" button on the browser, the page reloads the iFrame and all data is lost. DE143471
While accessing the Activities application in an iPad, tapping on buttons or icons leaves an impression on the screen. DE149232
When you do not have any preferred machines selected from the My Machines application, instead of displaying blank screens, the preferred machines display data that is driven by PA security as follows:
  • If you have the admin access level in the administrator group, you will get all the available units as preferred Machines and data from those machines appears.
  • You will get all the units on which you have write access and data from those machines appears.
  • You will get all the units from sheets that do not belong to any security group and data from those machines appears.
DE135908
During the Plant Applications installation, if you minimize or move the command prompt windows that appear, causes an issue. DE150896
In the User Defined Properties screen of Plant Applications Administrator, when you try to add DateTime property value for Production_Plan table and try to enter following short date format, the record is not saved.
  • dd-mm-yy
  • dd-mm-yyyy
  • dd/mm/yyyy
  • dd/mm/yy
  • dd.mm.yy
DE152571
Property Definition value of float data type allows you to enter only upto three decimal points in the Route Editor and Work Order Manager applications. DE152913
For the routes created in Plant Applications 8.0, the mandatory bill of materials are displayed as ‘non mandatory’. DE152914
The documents created with all special characters in the name is not listed in Documents tab of Route Editor. DE152915

Resolved Issues

The following issues have been resolved in this release.
Description Tracking ID
Previously, .NET SDK Variable subscription ran slow joins on backend. This issue has been resolved. DE131277
Previously, Mobile client allowed you to add a user-defined event/activity if the subtype is not on the unit. This issue has been resolved. DE138286
Previously, spServer_DBMgrUpdUserEvent returned different result set for Add and Update. This issue has been resolved. DE139923
Previously, Plant Applications Administrator refresh of server was causing a reload of services. This issue has been resolved. DE145337
Previously, when trying to create a child process for a process order nothing happened. This issue has been resolved. DE149702
Previously, multiple services were restarting and buffering. This issue has been resolved. DE146332
Previously, Display Editor was not saving, activating, or reloading stubber service reliably. This issue has been resolved. DE113921
Missing triggers on the Event_Configuration_Value table. As a result, Event_Configuration_value_History is not saved. This issue has been resolved. DE142235
Previously, Plant Applications new user creation had issues with cross domain users. This issue has been resolved. DE145109
Previously, Plant Application thick client Schedule view refresh rate increased after upgrading to SIM8. This issue has been resolved. DE147727
Plant Applications client Schedule view does not sort newly generated POs. Also, moving POs Backward/Forwards functionality does not work either. This issue has been resolved. DE147728
Previously, multiple active specifications were present for single var_id against a single prod_id. This issue has been resolved. DE110393
Previously, global Specification Variable Properties were not editable. This issue has been resolved. DE145783
Previously, Web reports error occurs if you have not selected all the Summary options. This issue has been resolved. DE113924
Previously, Downtime+ did not support Max Edit. This issue has been resolved. DE123599
Previously, you could not create Autolog display after upgrade from Plant Applications 7.0 SIM 3 to 7.0 SP5 SIM 8. This issue has been resolved. DE143229
Previously, Reader or Summary Manager could not read historian enumerated set correctly. This issue has been resolved. DE144886
Previously, you were getting an error while creating Property Specification from SDK. This issue has been resolved. DE147265
Previously, Historian Variables were not able to retrieve data from the correct OSI PI tag attached. This issue has been resolved. DE121986
Previously, spServer_SchMgrCalcStats mixes dimensions and variable values when PE has dimension values set and PP_id associated as well. This issue has been resolved. DE132959
Previously, NPT flag is not making any difference in the process analyzer graph. This issue has been resolved. DE133714
Previously, in Web Client, the Activity application was not updated with the calculation result. This issue has been resolved. DE130696
Previously, in the Activities application of Web Client, when you select Perform and then select Back without entering any data, the Status displays 100%. This is due to an issue with user defined event displays and variables with custom data types. This issue has been resolved. DE131443
Previously, in the Analysis application, Save, Restore, and Analysis icons were missing on Chrome 80.x. This issue has been resolved. DE129152
Previously, RabbitMQ could not start if you have deleted a user folder that was used for the Plant Applications Message Bridge. This issue has been fixed. DE89506
Previously, when you tried to modify the status of a Process Order from pending to the next status, the Move Process Order Backward and Forward feature did not function correctly. This issue has been resolved. DE90193
Previously, users with MDATA level access were unable to modify data on a DowntimePlus (downtime +) display with a 7 day (168 hour) max edit setting. This issue has been resolved. DE129157
Previously, there was a performance issue with event manager after installing the SIM. This issue has been resolved. DE122127
Different values in the autolog and the calc grid for the variable - Region settings issue. This issue has been resolved. DE129745
Previously, Waste Display showed run time error on double-click on child event. This issue has been resolved. DE130254
Previously, dbo.spServer_DBMgrUpdEventComp could not update Child_Parent EventId. This issue has been resolved. DE132331
Previously, the Report Menu could not retain Node_Order. This issue has been resolved. DE134497
Previously, Web reports had issue with Tree Import /Export. This issue has been resolved. DE135192
Previously, in the Event Details report, when a specific combinations of dates was selected (with the dutch regional settings) the web page gives an error that the start-time is before the end-time. This issue has been resolved. DE78420
Previously, after modifying a downtime event, if you attempted to modify it again, an error occurred. This issue has been resolved. DE135191, DE135780
Previously, License Manager became unresponsive when trying to read a license. This issue has been resolved. DE137828
Previously, the process orders in a Schedule View display did not match with the list in the spSV_GetProcessOrders stored procedure. This issue has been resolved. DE139250
Previously, in Plant Applications Web Client, the OEEAggregation table was not getting populated with data for a newly configured unit without production event configured. This issue has been resolved. DE129744
When opened in Citrix, the TreeView display on the left side in Plant Applications Web Client did not appear. This issue has been resolved. DE137827
Previously, when using custom displays, some of the activities displayed incorrect IDs. This issue has been resolved. DE137830
Previously, when you attempted to create a waste event using the Waste application, the following issues existed in the Event box:
  • It contained the oldest records first instead of the latest ones.
  • If you selected Show More, the scroll bar did not appear.
  • If there were more than 1500 records, it took a long time to search for a record.
  • If there were more than 4000 records, the application did not respond.

This issue has been resolved.

DE140362
Previously, when using License Manager, the following error messages appeared:
  • The specified network name is no longer available.
  • Communication link failure.

This issue has been resolved.

DE136203
Previously, spServer_DBMgrUpdUserEvent returned a different set of results for add and update transactions. This issue has been resolved. DE139923
Previously, there were memory leak issues in Alarm Manager. This issue has been resolved. DE132196
Previously, there were memory leak issues in the gateway service. This issue has been resolved. DE134126
The following changes have been made in the Process Orders application in Plant Applications Web Client:
  • The actual quantity, start time, and end time of process orders appears in both the Open and Closed pages.

The process orders in the Closed page are sorted based on the actual start time and end time.

DE139827
Previously, in the Process Order page, the columns were wider than required, thus increasing the length of the grid. This issue has been resolved. DE141803
Previously, you could not import data type sheets with phrases longer than 12 characters although the maximum limit was 25 characters. This issue has been resolved. DE140892
Previously, the PASDK methodPAAlarmEventQuery contained an invalid join in the query. This issue has been resolved. DE141750
Previously, when you deleted a production event using spServer_DBMgrUpdEvent in a custom stored procedure, an error occurred. This issue has been resolved. DE142236
Previously, the OPC server could not connect to the SQL server configured with instance. This issue has been resolved. DE135774
Previously, the Route Enable function used to set the security group of the Schedule View that it created, to ‘Administrators’ instead of defaulting to ‘No Security Group’. This issue has been resolved. DE143407
Previously, in the Activities application, the single line autolog is paginating even if the variable scrolling is set to scroll. This issue has been resolved. DE141261
Previously, in the Analysis application, the production lines and favourites did not appear. This issue has been resolved. DE139383
Previously, the alternative variable description did not appear in Plant Applications Client although it appeared in the Activities application in Web Client. This issue has been resolved. DE139483
Previously, in the Activities application, the whisker chart in the autolog sheet was too long. This issue has been resolved. DE143698
Previously, in Plant Applications Administrator, the Event subtype drop-down box is not populating all the event subtypes that were created for Client displays. Also, the same issue occurred when a UDE variable was configured using the variable sheet. The UDE event subtypes drop-down box is not populating all the available event subtypes. This issue has been resolved. DE143600
Previously, it was not allowing to create a product using the stored procedure spS95_ScheduleProdCreate. This issue has been resolved. DE145856