Harnessing Custom Notifications for Optimizing Single-User POD Utilization

[egeAksoyek]

Introduction

In SAP Digital Manufacturing, notifications play a crucial role in various scenarios in the background. Whether it involves creating alerts, displaying messages on POD screens, or facilitating communication between different POD pages, this underlying structure is highly beneficial. By adapting notifications within Core Plugin Extensions, a versatile solution is created, allowing for custom implementations and scenarios, and providing a robust framework to address diverse operational needs.

This article is concise and underscores the importance and flexibility of notifications in SAP Digital Manufacturing, clearly illustrating their application in various contexts.

In the following sections, we will explain several cases that can be addressed through notifications. One scenario will demonstrate how a selected POD can be configured to allow only one user to work with an SFC at a time, preventing users from overwriting each other’s data on the same POD screen. Another scenario will show how a message can be sent to a POD specific to a user, as messages sent via the POD message plugin in the Design Production Processes App are currently broadcast to all users who match the subscription settings. This blog post will also cover the solution to this issue.

Notifications in DM

Whether we realize it or not, the standard notifications feature operates actively in the background of standard DM POD screens. An example of this can be seen when sending a POD Message through Process Designer, where subscription information must be filled out.

["Figure 1 - Pod Message Warning"]

With this method, DM ensures the desired communication by sending the triggered notification type and input to every user that matches the given subscription parameters.

["Figure 2 - Pod Message with Message Notification"]

The capabilities of the existing notification structure were enhanced through the implementation of the Notification Send API. This API enabled the realization of various triggering scenarios, significantly broadening the system's functionality.

With the Notification Send API, additional developments can be made, such as enabling communication between pages, real-time UI changes on pages used by other users, and displaying instant screen messages and warning messages in PODs.

POD Logic for the Single-User Based Scenario

The operator selects the order they will be working on and is subsequently directed to the labor tracking page, where they are expected to initiate the labor time tracking process by using the Labor-On button. By integrating an extension within a plugin located in the labor tracking page, a process is triggered upon pressing the Labor-On button. The operator can't proceed to the other page without using the button. This button triggers our labor-on process thanks to the related extension, which, in turn, calls the Find All Time Records service with the Operation, Plant, and SFC information to check if any user is already tracking labor for the selected SFC under the DIRECT_LABOR type.

If the service returns a null result, indicating that no active labor is being tracked for the SFC, the Direct Labor Start process is initiated, and the user will be navigated to the details page, where they can be execute operations.

If the service returns a user ID who is the same as the one clicks on the Labor-On button, the process output ‘LaborExists’ is sent as empty data, and the user will be navigated to the details page.

However, if the returned user ID is different from the one trying to track labor on the SFC the process first triggers the 'Create Stop Event For Direct Labor On An SFC' service with the returned user’s ID, and then initiates the 'Create Start Event For Labor On An SFC' event for the user who triggered the button. The ID of the user whose labor tracking is stopped is then sent as the process output data.

["Figure 3 - Labor On Process"]

Based on the result of this process triggered within the extension, if the returned ‘LaborExists’ data is neither empty nor null, a custom notification that we created within the Notification Extension is triggered along with the returned user ID.

When the custom notification is triggered, everyone using the same POD and subscribed to the same custom notification within the extension will receive this notification. Upon receiving the notification, a function we wrote is triggered to handle it by comparing the page user's ID and the ID sent as the process output data.

If the user ID in the process output data matches with the user who received the notification, the user is navigated to the Main Page from the Details page and a message box indicating the labor tracking event for the user is stopped will appear on the screen of the navigated user.

["Figure 4 - Incoming Custom Notification"]

As a result, the previous user tracking the labor on an SFC, whose labor has been off due to the new user labor on event, will need to trigger the labor on process again to continue. This ensures that the operations performed for an SFC through this POD, are effectively managed as a Single-User Utilization through the extension.

Future Directions

As we continue to refine and optimize the use of notifications in SAP Digital Manufacturing PODs, several potential enhancements could further elevate the user experience and system efficiency. Expanding the custom notification framework to support more complex, multi-user scenarios could provide greater flexibility in managing shared resources. These future enhancements hold the potential to make SAP Digital Manufacturing PODs even more robust, versatile, and user specific, ensuring they continue to meet the demands of modern manufacturing environments.

A significant enhancement could involve delivering targeted alerts to users subscribed to specific notifications within the POD, displaying custom messages on their screens, sending real-time notifications via Microsoft Teams, and even triggering email alerts. These improvements would greatly enhance the system's responsiveness and interactivity.

 Demo Video

If you like this post or have any questions, please let us know in the comments.
All questions are highly appreciated.

Dilahan Çiloğlu & Ege Aksöyek