Core Concepts

Continual is organised around the physical structure of your factory and the checks that operators complete on the floor.

Factory

A factory is a physical production site. Factory settings control the timezone, shift configuration, default check grace period, digest schedule, and the Lines, Groups, and machines that belong to the site.

Most operational and analytics views are scoped by factory.

Lines And Groups

Machines sit inside either a production Line or a Group. Lines and Groups are parallel structures within a factory:

• Production Lines arrange machines in the fixed sequence that product flows through. They can have active line formats and record production output.
• Groups organise machines that have no meaningful sequence, such as shared heating or cooling systems, utilities, workshop equipment, or another collection of standalone assets. They do not have line formats or production output tracking.

Checks, results, actions, and check reporting work the same way for machines in either structure. Choose the correct structure when creating it; a Line cannot be converted into a Group, or a Group into a Line, afterwards.

Names should match the terminology operators use on the floor. See Groups for examples and setup instructions.

Machine

A machine is a piece of equipment within a Line or Group. Checks are assigned to machines. On a production Line, machines run in sequence order; in a Group, order does not matter.

Machines can also have machine formats for format-specific centreline targets.

Format

A format represents the product or configuration currently running.

• Line formats describe what is running on a production Line. Groups do not have line formats.
• Machine formats are used to define target values for specific machines.

Changing the active line format updates which targets apply and can trigger checks scheduled for format changes.

Check

A check is the reusable definition of what operators need to verify. It includes the location, type, schedule, target, grace period, evidence requirements, reference media, and sequence order.

Checks can be active or archived. Archived checks stop creating new due instances but remain available for historical reporting.

Check Instance

A check instance is a scheduled occurrence of a check. Instances can be pending, due, completed, missed, or skipped.

Analytics are scoped to the instance due date, not just the date the operator submits the result.

Check Result

A check result is the operator's submitted response, including pass/fail state, numeric or text values, notes, photos, and time spent.

Failed results can automatically create actions.

Action

An action is a trackable problem or corrective task. Failed CIL checks create defect actions. Failed centreline checks create deviation actions.

Managers, Admins, and Owners can also create manual actions from the portal or mobile app.

Output

Output records capture production performance for each line by day: total output, planned downtime, unplanned downtime, and total stops.

Output data powers OEE and line efficiency metrics in analytics.