For this example: there is 1 operator who must run 4 cookers each day, each cooker using a separate recipe from a list of about 250–each with unique steps and ingredients.
The challenge: the operator needs to be able to view the work instructions for each of the 4 running recipes, so he/she can work on each simultaneously and enter data as he/she goes. Since there is only 1 operator, it wouldn’t make sense to run Tulip on 4 different devices.
The solution: The first step allows the operator to type in 4 different recipe ID’s (which are each loaded from a table), and when the operator presses ‘Enter,’ each recipe is displayed into 4 different columns on the next step. Each column has a ‘back’ and ‘next’ button, to flip between steps for that particular recipe. Data can either be entered at the bottom of each column if space permits, otherwise a third step page for data entry is easy to flip back and forth between.
Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions or feedback!
As you no longer have a single step to select from in analytics to monitor step time, how will/would you be record the times to complete the steps of the four simultaneous processes?
Hi Matt! Great question. There’s probably other ways to go about this, but here’s one:
You could capture the ‘Start Time’ for all 4 recipes when the work instructions page is opened (alternatively you could add a ‘start’ button for each recipe column, if capturing individual recipe Start Times is preferable). When a recipe’s ‘Next’ button is pressed, you can capture the current DateTime in a variable, and use a trigger equation to subtract this from the ‘Start Time,’ and find the ‘Total Time’ for that step. The second step’s Total Time can be found by subtracting the first step’s End Time, and so forth. For each step in each recipe, the equation results will be loaded into a separate variable for its ‘Total Time’. You can create visual comparisons with these variables in the analytics builder. I attached a picture of some logic I wrote for the first recipe column’s ‘Next’ button. I think the key here is keeping your variables organized.
