Holding and releasing a batch

RUN-000026 read pH 4.10 at the end of the simmer. Three passes of vinegar later, 87 ml in all, it reads 3.82, and its condition allows no fourth pass. Someone now says what becomes of the batch, and the record keeps who said it and why.

When a batch needs a decision

A batch asks for a decision in two cases:

• A condition reaches its limit and the recipe says to ask for a decision when the check is still off. The card reads “Limit reached after 3 passes.” and “Needs a decision.”
• A critical control point fails, with or without a condition on it. Decide… under the check stays highlighted until someone holds or discards the batch.

The run header then reads Needs a decision, Today lists the batch under Make, and the people who can decide get a Batch needs a decision notification. The batch can’t complete until it is decided: the completion dialog names the check (“pH: needs a decision.”).

A recipe can answer its own limit instead. A condition set to hold the batch when the check is still off reads “The batch completes held.” and needs nobody. One set to carry on reads “Carried on, as the recipe says.” and the batch goes on. A critical control point can’t carry on.

A failed check that is not a critical control point can be decided too, from the same Decide…, though its note already answers for it.

The four choices

Decide… opens the dialog with the trail first: each pass, what went in, and each reading. Then the choices, one line each:

Choice	What it does
Release as is	“The batch completes as it is. Your reason goes on the record.”
Hold	“The batch completes, and its output stays held until someone releases it.”
Discard	“The batch completes with no output. Its ingredients leave stock, and it counts as waste.” With the right to see costs, the line gives the amount.
Keep going	“Go on with the batch: measure again or add something, each with its reason.”

Release as is is not offered on a critical control point, and the tip beside the choices says why: “A critical control point can’t be released as is. Hold the batch for evaluation, discard it, or keep going.”

Every choice needs a Reason. Record decision puts it on the card and on the batch record, with who decided and when.

Complete still closes the batch after a decision, and its dialog says what the decision makes of it: “This batch is held: its output books held until someone releases it.” A discarded batch completes without asking for its output.

After Keep going on a condition at its limit, its next pass reads off-plan and asks why, like any pass beyond the limits.

Decisions are for production batches.

Without Decide on batches

Holding is open to everyone working the batch. Every other choice takes Decide on batches. Without it, the dialog still offers Hold, and says who can do the rest: “Releasing, discarding or going past the limit needs …”, followed by their names.

Owners, admins and members hold the right. A custom role can leave it out, so a shop-floor role works the batch while someone else decides what leaves.

Holding

A held batch completes like any other: its ingredients leave stock and its cost is sealed. Its output books as Held, pending check, whatever Release batches says. Held stock is counted, but it can’t be sold, shipped or used in another batch.

Release batches, in organization settings, handles the everyday case through the finished-product check. On completion books the output as soon as the batch completes. After the check holds it until that check passes.

The completion dialog has its own switch, Hold this batch: “Its output stays held until someone releases it, whatever the Release batches setting.” Turned on, it asks Why is it held? Holding the whole batch there answers a failed critical control point as well. A condition waiting on a decision is decided from its card.

Releasing

Release… sits in the held band on the batch page, beside Held, pending check on the batch record, and beside each held lot on the product or component page. It asks for a reason. The band then reads “Released by … on …: …”, colleagues get a Batch released notification, and the batch leaves Today. The steps are in completing a run.

RUN-000024, a jam, read Brix 60.4 and was still at 62 after four boils. It was held with “Brix 62 after four boils, still under 64. Set aside until the set test.” The next morning it was released: “Set test on a cold plate: firm after two minutes. Fine to sell.”

Throwing held stock away

A held batch you will never sell leaves like any other stock: Record stock on the product page, Lost some with the reason Spoiled.

Discard or abandon

Abandon is for a batch that never happened. It closes the run with no output, and anything it consumed goes back to stock.

Discard is for a batch you made and threw away. It completes with no output, its ingredients are gone, and the Shrink and waste report counts it on a Discarded batches line, at its cost.

Who can do what

Action	Takes
Record a pass, an addition or a reading	Edit on Runs
Skip a condition	Edit on Runs, plus Decide on batches on a critical control point
Hold, from Decide… or the completion dialog	Edit on Runs
Release as is, Discard, Keep going	Decide on batches
A pass beyond the limits	Decide on batches
Release a held batch	Decide on batches

For what the record answers to, see corrective action.