OBeer Mobile Production

Owned by Brad Windecker (Unlicensed)
Last updated: May 28, 2014
6 min read

Overview

OBeer Mobile is an iPad App that connects directly to the core OBeer application, allowing you to process production orders on the iPad.

Summary

The OBeer Mobile App allows you to process production orders of all types from the iPad. This enables you to process them in real time right where the action happens on the brewery floor.



 

 

The OBeer Mobile App allows you to process production in real time on the brewery floor anywhere anytime.

 

 

Details

The OBeer Mobile App ver 1.0 has three main areas, Brewing, Cellar, and Packaging. Each area of the app displays production orders in that process and allows you to Issue and Receive them either all at once, or in real time as you do the activity in real time on the brewery floor.


Overview

What problems were we trying to solve with the OBeer Mobile App?

    1. Enable OBeer to be used on the brewer floor right at the Kegging, Bottling, or Canning line
      1. Loud, wet, not a lot of space
      2. Not a good place for a laptop!
    2. Enable users to process production in real time, especially for Packaging
      1. Many customers pull beer off the line and put it straight on a truck, so it needs to be in inventory immediately
      2. To be real time, processing production has to be very fast
    3. Need a simple way for packaging staff to replace their whiteboard/paper tick mark tracking
      1. Must be super simple and easy to use and learn

Those three main challenges were the source of the project to build the iPad App. We spent a lot of time limiting the scope of what the app could do, with focus on those three main points.

In the future, we will add in more capabilities and functions (creating PdOs, Closing them, emptying the tank, etc.). But for now, the app is all about speed and ease of use.

Login Screen

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Help Menu

To make it even easier to use, we added a Help Menu overlay that clearly shows you what each button/field does in the app.

To launch the Help Menu, just click the question mark wherever you see it.

Help overlay is currently only available in the Packaging Screen. It is being added to all other screens summer of 2014

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Main Menu

In the screenshot below, you can see the three main areas of the OBeer iPad App. Click on any section to open it up and view the associated productions orders.

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Brewing Section

Once in the Brewing Section, you see a list of production orders. The panel defaults to the "Current" section, which displays the production orders scheduled for today's date. If you want to view production orders from previous dates, you can click the "All" button at the top of the panel. This will now display all production orders, regardless of their production date.

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Information on the PdO Selection Panel

Each block in the PdO Selection Panel displays a set of information about that production order. See screenshot below for the data on each block and where it comes from in OBeer.

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Select a Production Order to open up the processing screen by clicking on one of the blocks in the PdO Selection Panel. This will bring you into the main production order processing screen.

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This screen displays all the information at the top of the screen about the production order: Doc #, Item, Date, Time, MPP#, Planned Qty, Completed Qty, % Complete, etc.

You can also see the raw materials that are planned to consume on this production on order on the left had side of the main screen. The App lists the items in the order in which they show up on the production order, much like the BrewSheet within OBeer.

On the right hand side of the screen, you can see the destination of the production order in the form of a visual representation of the tank, as well as a list of the batches that are currently in the tank.

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For most OBeer users, the target of the brewing process is a "Brewhouse", which we display as a tank with batches of Wort making up the volume. While the beer isn't technically int he brewhouse at this point (it's in the fermenter), this makes it easy to see the beer queued up to be processed into Green Beer. This method of handling Wort through the BrewHouse instead of directly into fermenter is also very helpful for breweries with more than one brewhouse.

If you go from Raw Materials to bring the Wort into a Fermenter, that's ok. On the iPad App, you will see a Fermenter on the right hand side, instead of a BrewHouse as in my example.

Issuing Materials

To Issue materials, simply click the Issue button on the bottom left of the screen. This will bring up a list of all the items that are on the production order.

To issue one of the items, click on a row. This expands the window to display a list of the lots of that item that are available to Issue

Click on the white box to enter in the Quantity manually, r you can click the lightning bolt to automatically pull it in.

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Lightning Bolt

The lightning bolt is a shortcut we added to make it even faster to process production. If you want to quickly tell the App that you used exactly what was planned, clicking the lightning bolt will automatically gran the full planned Qty and set it on the row.

However, if an item has less quantity available than the planned Qty, the lightning bolt will set the Qty on the row equal to what is remaining of that item. In other words, it is smart to know that you can only use the Qty you have available.

Once you have made your selections and entered in Quantities, you can click Submit to process the Issue for Production

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Receiving in Wort

To receive in the Wort, you click on the Receipt button in the bottom right corner. This opens up the receipt box, which gives a quick view of the Item, Batch, and Planned Qty.

Click on the white area to bring up the number pad and enter in the volume of Wort that was produced. Click Ok and Submit to receive the Wort into the BrewHouse (or Fermenter, depending on your setup).

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When you receive in the Wort, you will see the volume in the tank on the screen increase, and you should see a new batch row in the list on the right side (or if receiving more of the same batch, you will see the Qty increase).

Cellar Screen

The Cellar Screen looks much like the Brewing Screen, except that it displays tank information on both the left and the right sides.

From Tank

The "from tank" is the tank the beer is coming out of. The App shows you what is in the tank at this moment that is available to be moved, in both the form of the tank visualization and the list of batches that make up that volume.

To Tank

The "to tank" is the tank the beer is coming out of. The App shows you what is in the tank at this moment, in both the form of the tank visualization and the list of batches that make up that volume.

Issuing Beer Out of the From Tank

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Receiving Beer Into the To Tank

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Packaging Screen

The packaging screen looks quite a bit different than the Brewing and Cellar screens, because we handle all the components in a backflush methodology. This means that with Packaging, you don't tell the system how much you consumed, it does that for you. All you do is tell the system what you produced, and it will remove the bright beer and packaging materials accordingly.

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Processing Packaging Runs

Once you have selected a Packaging Run, it will display all the information about that production order at the top of the screen. It also displays the visual representation of the type of package (Bottle, Keg, Can) that you are packaging.

Concepts of the Packaging App

The packaging functionality was designed to be easy to use and fast, so that users can walk up to the app, click two buttons, and then walk away, and immediately have the beer in stock to be sold or transferred. To accomplish this, we created the ability to process in both Pallet and Single unit quantities, and to have the screen be simple and easy to use.

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Processing a Packaging Run

To process packaging, simply click on the Plus Sign next to either the pallet image or the single unit image (Bottle, Keg, Can). This will increase the number, and you can click multiple times if needed.

Then click Submit to process that production.

In OBeer in the background, the materials will be issued (bright beer and packaging materials) and the finished goods will be brought into stock.

Once the production has been submitted, you screen will update with the newly completed Qty, Completion %, etc.

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