Work Process Segments

For example, making a bicycle frame requires an assembly jig, a bending machine, and an assembler for 30 minutes.

A work process segment can be used to produce different products depending on how the process is used. In the example described above, the process segment could be used to produce bike frames of different sizes and colors.

Work process segments are made up of material, equipment, and personnel specifications, as well as process parameters that customize the process behavior. The specifications can refer to definitions or classes from a corresponding resource model. You can track resource actual properties that are based on a specification's properties when the work process segment is associated with a segment response. Each specification can define a template for resource actual properties based on the specified resource's properties. A template is used when resource actuals associated with a specification are created.

Resource actual properties are tracked in a segment response when the appropriate call methods (that is, CreateMaterialActual, CreateEquipmentActual, or CreatePersonnelActual) are used in a workflow that is configured to create a segment response. However, for a template to be applied, the Requirement ID parameter must be used to provide the segment requirement ID so that the specification with the template can be determined.

Alternatively, rather than using the response tracking capability on the Specifications tab to predefine the resource properties to track, you can use the AddResourceActualProperties call method to explicitly add resource actual properties to a resource actual to track the resource properties on the associated segment response.

A segment-workflow association defines the associated workflow at design time, then looks it up at run time, and executes it without the need to hard-code the workflow address into another workflow. With this additional flexibility, a workflow could load a work process segment and execute its associated workflow without you having to know which workflows are actually associated with the segment.

A master segment is a work process segment that contains information that applies to all work definition segments associated with a work definition. In other words, a master segment is a template for a work request. For example, a customer name can be represented as a segment parameter in a master segment.

A master segment can be associated with multiple work definitions; however, a work definition can be associated with only one master segment. Work requests are created from an individual work definition and, therefore, can also be associated with only one master segment.