“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

“Watch out for that first step Mac, it’s a lulu!” – Bugs Bunny

These quotes by the great philosophers Lau Tzu and Bugs Bunny have more in common than would appear at first glance. At the beginning of a journey you have the element of the unknown. There is excitement that it could be a great journey, but there is also an element of the unknown that may make that first step the hardest to take. If you haven’t put in the preparation for a successful journey, that first step might be a lulu.

Similarly, when starting a new equipment control application, there is excitement for the great end product, but also some element of not knowing the best place to start. CIMControlFrameowrk (CCF) offers a great training program to get you started and many building blocks for helping create a first-class equipment control application. Even with these great starting tools, many users still have the question, “Where do I go from here?”

The first step is to create a work breakdown of what it takes to create a successful equipment control application. There will obviously be tasks that are unique to each equipment control application, but most applications have some common tasks or epic user stories that have to be completed during the project. The order in which these stories are completed may depend on milestones and expectations for when they are accomplished, but they generally all need to be completed during the project.

• Integrate Devices – CCF provides an Equipment layer with abstractions of most commonly used devices. Integrating these devices into CCF only requires the implementation of the abstract interface.

• Material Movement Through the Tool – CCF provides a flexible scheduler with complete working examples of different types of scheduling that could be done.

• Implement the Process Module – CCF provides a process module interface that allows the rest of CCF to communicate with your process module – your secret sauce.

• Create an Operator Interface (OI) – CCF provides an OI framework that allows commands to be sent and updates to be made. It also provides some default screens that use this interface. It also allows for insertion and use of custom OI screens.

• Simulation – CCF provides a simulator that can be used in place of real hardware. The simulator can be used to deliver/remove material, perform robot moves, and do simulated IO. This is invaluable in continuing development before the hardware is ready or if there is limited tool time for the developers.

• Recipes (Process Recipes and Execution) – CCF provides a recipe manager for passing recipes through the tool. The default recipe can be used or custom recipes can be added.

• I/O – CCF provides ASCII serial drivers and other common IO providers. Custom IO providers can also be included in CCF.

• Data Collection and Storage – Knowing what data to store and what medium to use for storage is recommended up front.

• Factory Automation – CCF provides a fully integrated GEM, GEM300, and EDA implementation.

• Diagnostics and Testing – The CCF logging package is a fantastic tool for debugging your application both on the tool and remotely.

• Errors and Recovery – CCF provides an Alarms package for signaling of and recovery from error conditions.

By going through CCF training and creating a work breakdown of the tasks that need to be done for your equipment control application, you can ensure that your first step will be the foundation of a successful journey.♦

To learn more about CCF, visit the CIMControlFramework page on our website!