Station

ops station glossary

A Station is the primary organizational unit of the OPS (Operations) subsystem. Stations are containers that encompass machines, people, and jobs. They represent physical locations or logical steps in a manufacturing process flow (see OEE System Vision).

How Stations Differ from Machines

AspectStationMachine
Tableops_stationsoee_machines
PurposeJob routing, production tracking, process flow stagesOEE metrics & equipment monitoring
TracksJobs (pending/in_progress/completed), downtime events, incident eventsMachine events (job/downtime/incident)
MetricsEfficiency, throughput, yield, cycle timeOEE (Availability x Performance x Quality)
FlowConnected via ops_station_connectionsConnected via oee_machine_connections

Stations are separate from machines. A station belongs to an oee_systems group (the system is the parent container), and machines and people operate within stations.

Running State

A station is running only when it has a job that is actively being worked on — meaning a person or machine is currently contributing time to a job at that station. If no job is active (no machine or person is clocked in to a job), the station is idle.

Events

Stations participate in all three event types:

  • Jobs — production run events that belong to one station at a time. Multiple machines and people contribute time to jobs at the station. Completing a job means finishing it at this station. Jobs are tracked across stations via job_number. See OEE Job.
  • Downtime — periods where the station is not producing. A single downtime event can affect multiple stations and/or machines simultaneously. See Downtime Reason.
  • Incidents — notable occurrences logged against the station. A single incident can affect multiple stations and/or machines simultaneously. See Incident Reason.

Database Table: ops_stations

ColumnTypeDescription
idUUID (PK)Auto-generated
codeVARCHAR(50)Short identifier (e.g., “ST-01”)
nameVARCHAR(255)Display name (e.g., “Assembly Station 1”)
site_idUUID (FK)References Site (oee_sites.id)
organization_idUUIDOrg ownership
system_idUUID (FK, nullable)References oee_systems.id — the parent system
is_archivedBOOLEANSoft-delete flag
created_at / updated_atTIMESTAMPTZAudit timestamps

Indexes: site_id, organization_id, system_id, active stations (is_archived = FALSE)

Relationships

  • Belongs to a Site (oee_sites)
  • Belongs to a System (oee_systems) — stations are organized under systems in the hierarchy: System > Station > Machine/Person
  • Contains zero or more machines (many-to-many via a join table) — a machine can belong to multiple stations, and a station can have multiple machines
  • Has many jobs (ops_jobs.station_id)
  • Connected to other stations via Station Process Flow (ops_station_connections)
  • Has canvas positions for process flow visualization (ops_station_positions)
  • Has per-product standard hours via ops_station_product_standards

SQL Functions

  • create_ops_station() / get_ops_stations() / update_ops_station()
  • archive_ops_station() / unarchive_ops_station()
  • ops_check_station_org() — authorization helper

Codebase Paths

  • Table definition: database/sql_scripts/tables/ops_stations.sql
  • Functions: database/sql_scripts/functions/ops/ops_station_functions.sql
  • KPI function: database/sql_scripts/functions/ops/ops_station_dashboard_kpis.sql
  • Backend endpoint: backend/endpoints/ops.ts
  • Frontend components: frontend/src/app/features/oee-dashboard/

Stations as Containers

Stations are the primary organizational unit that encompasses machines, people, and jobs (see OEE System Vision):

  • Stations act as stages in a process flow — a linear or branching sequence of production steps
  • Machines and people contribute time to jobs within a station (they are time sources, not stages)
  • Multiple jobs can be present (pending or active) at a station
  • Configurable: machine-only stations exclude human labor
  • Configurable: concurrent job stations allow multiple active jobs simultaneously

See Station Configuration for configuration options and Process Flow Vision for how stations are visualized as large containers in the process flow.

See Also