First-Time Setup

This page is for plant administrators who just received a fresh OpSee installation and need to configure it before operators can start using it.

:::tip Your integrator may have pre-configured some of this If your OpSee was delivered by an integrator, they may have already completed steps 1–3 using your plant's data. Start by checking what is already in place before duplicating work. :::

Overview

OpSee modules depend on each other in a specific order. The recommended setup sequence is:

You do not need to complete all six steps before going live. Steps 1–3 are the minimum for OEE tracking to work. Steps 4–6 are only needed if you use Material and Recipe management features.

Step 1: Equipment

Goal: Model your plant as an ISA-95 hierarchy of sites, areas, lines, and machines.

1. Go to Administration → Equipment
2. Create your top-level item (Enterprise or Site level)
3. Add child items level by level, down to the Unit or Equipment Module level
4. For each trackable machine (Unit), configure its OEE settings (see the OEE Settings step below)

Refer to Equipment Getting Started for the step-by-step walkthrough.

:::info How many levels do you need? A small plant often uses just three levels: Site, Area, and Unit. Only add levels that reflect how you actually report production. You can always add levels later; the hierarchy is fully editable. :::

Step 2: Personnel

Goal: Set up the people and schedules that track production shifts.

1. Go to Administration → Personnel
2. Create Shifts (Morning, Afternoon, Night) and define start/end times
3. Create Crews (Crew A, Crew B, …) and add shift assignments
4. Create a Schedule and link it to your lines
5. Create Operators (optional at this stage; operators can be added later by HR)

Refer to Personnel Overview for the module documentation.

Step 3: OEE Configuration

Goal: Define what counts as a loss, and give every loss a classifiable reason.

This step has four sub-steps that must be completed in order:

1. OEE Categories are fixed by OpSee (unscheduled, planned, unplanned, performance, quality, outside_area). You do not create them; they are referenced when defining loss types. Optionally, you can also create custom Loss Categories (business-level groupings like "Mechanical" or "Electrical") in Administration → OEE → Loss Categories.
2. Go to Administration → OEE → Loss Types and create at least one loss type per OEE category you need to track
3. Go to Administration → OEE → Reasons and create reasons under each loss type
4. Go to Administration → OEE → Reason Trees and build a tree, then assign it to your equipment

Refer to OEE Configuration Getting Started for the step-by-step walkthrough.

Step 4: Data Tags (optional for OEE)

Goal: Connect real-time sensor data (OPC-UA, MQTT) to your equipment.

If OpSee is connected to a SCADA or PLC system, your integrator will have configured the MQTT/OPC-UA data sources. You need to:

1. Go to Administration → Data Tags and verify the tags appear
2. Go to Equipment → OEE Settings for each tracked machine and assign the relevant tags (Running signal, Produced count, Defect count)

This step is required for automatic OEE calculation. Without tag bindings, availability, performance, and quality must be entered manually.

Refer to Data Tags for tag management.

Step 5: Material (optional)

Goal: Define the materials your plant processes, to track production by product.

1. Go to Administration → Material → Classes and create material classifications (e.g., Beer, Soft Drink, Packaging)
2. Go to Administration → Material → Materials and create individual materials under each class

Refer to Material Overview for the module documentation.

Step 6: Procedures and Recipes (optional)

Goal: Model your production process using ISA-88 batch control structure, then attach parameters per material.

Only needed if your plant uses batch production or if you want to track process parameters per recipe.

1. Complete the Procedures module first: Phases → Operations → Unit Procedures → Batch Procedures
2. Then create Recipes that reference the procedures and define per-material parameters

Refer to Procedures Overview and Recipes Overview.

After setup: assign equipment to schedules

Once equipment and schedules both exist, you need to link them:

1. Open an equipment item
2. Go to the Assignments tab
3. Link the schedule to the equipment

This activates shift-based grouping in the Production module.

Checklist

Step	Required for OEE	Required for Batch	Estimated time
1. Equipment hierarchy	Yes	Yes	30 min – 2 h
2. Personnel / Schedules	Yes	Yes	30 – 60 min
3. OEE Configuration	Yes	No	1 – 3 h
4. Data Tags	Recommended	No	Integrator task
5. Material	No	Yes	30 – 60 min
6. Procedures + Recipes	No	Yes	1 – 4 h

Prerequisites

• Introduction: the overall picture of OpSee
• Interface Overview: get comfortable with the UI first

Next steps

• Equipment Getting Started
• Personnel Overview
• OEE Configuration Getting Started

Related

• Roles and Permissions: who can do what
• Glossary: definitions of every key term used in OpSee