Process Design - Processes and Steps

Process Design is where you define what happens in your plant. You create Processes (e.g., CIP, SIP, Production) and break them down into Steps, where each Step assigns specific States to the Engineering Items on your P&ID. Think of it this way: A Process is a recipe (like "CIP Cleaning"), and each Step is a stage in that recipe (like "Fill", "Circulate", "Drain"). In each step, you specify exactly which valves are open, which are closed, and what instruments are doing.

🔄 Process

A Process is a sequence of actions over a plant with a desired final result. Each Process consists of ordered Steps and spans across all P&IDs included in the parent Module.

🏭 Common Process Examples in Pharma

Managing Processes

Open the Processes Workspace from the Processes panel in the Module Ribbon. The Processes column on the left of the workspace is where you create, rename, duplicate, delete and reorder processes.

Available operations:

📋 Steps

A Step (historically called "Phase") represents a specific point in time during a Process. In each Step, you assign States to Engineering Items, defining the configuration of the plant at that moment.

What a Step Contains

How Steps Work

Each Step has independent state assignments. Changing a valve's state in Step 2 does not affect Step 1 or Step 3.

🏭 Example — A CIP Process with 6 Steps

Assigning States to Engineering Items

There are several ways to assign states in a step:

1. Direct selection — Select one or more items on the P&ID, then click a state in the States Gallery in the Live Edit panel

2. Status Editor — Use the Status Editor for bulk assignment and copy-paste operations

3. Matrix view — Use the Matrix in the Live Edit panel for a spreadsheet-like overview

Managing Steps

The Steps column of the Processes Workspace lists the steps of the selected process and is where you add, rename, duplicate, delete and reorder them. Step management is also available from the Steps panel of the Module Ribbon.

Editing a step's code

Each step carries a short code alongside its descriptive name (for example code S20 for the step Caustic Wash). In the Steps column the code shows as a small badge before the name; click the badge to edit it directly, with a uniqueness check inside the process.

🏷️ Auto-Naming Rules

Rather than typing a name and code for every step by hand, you can define naming rules once and have AseptSoft generate consistent names and codes automatically whenever a step is created or duplicated. This keeps an entire module's steps following one convention — for example every step coded as S10, S20, S30… — without manual effort.

Open the naming rules from the Processes Workspace. The rules are configured with patterns: short text templates that mix fixed text with tokens that get filled in automatically.

Naming tokens

Tokens can be refined with a modifier after a colon: :UPPER, :LOWER, :VOWELLESS (consonants and digits only — a good default for codes), and :FIRST3 (first three characters). Modifiers combine, so {NAME:VOWELLESS:FIRST3} turns Caustic Wash into CST.

What you can configure

• Step name pattern and step code pattern — applied to top-level steps.

• Sub-step name and code patterns — applied to the sub-steps inside composite steps. Leave them blank to inherit the step patterns.

• Process code pattern — process names are always typed by hand, but their codes can be generated.

• Per-code on/off switches — turn code generation off independently for steps, sub-steps or processes. When a code is switched off it is neither generated nor shown on cards.

• Card display preference — choose whether step cards and process cards show the Name or the Code as their primary label.

A token palette of clickable chips inserts any token at the cursor, and a live preview shows three sample rows for each pattern against realistic data, so you can see the numbering and the resolved process name before you save.

Workflow: Set up step codes for a module

1. Open the naming rules from the Processes Workspace.

2. In the step code pattern, click the {N,10} chip and type a prefix in front of it, e.g. S{N,10} to produce S10, S20, S30….

3. Check the three-row preview to confirm the sequence looks right.

4. Optionally set the card display to Code so step cards lead with S10 rather than the descriptive name.

5. Save. From now on, each step you add to any process in the module is coded automatically.

🧩 Composite Steps and Sub-Processes

A step can be a simple leaf step — a single point in time — or a composite step that contains its own internal sequence of sub-steps. This mirrors the ISA-88 idea of a procedure made of nested sub-procedures: a high-level wash phase can expand into its own Fill → Circulate → Drain sequence, each sub-step with its own state assignments and transition logic.

For example, the Caustic Wash step of a CIP cycle can be composite, containing the sub-steps:

• Fill caustic — open the NaOH supply valve, fill to level.

• Circulate — run the circulation pump, hold for the wash time.

• Drain caustic — open the drain valve, empty the loop.

Turning a step composite

Select a leaf step in the Processes Workspace. The Sub-steps column offers a Make composite + add first sub-step button. Choosing it converts the step to composite and creates the first sub-step inside it. From then on, the Sub-steps and Sub-conditions columns work exactly like the Steps and Conditions columns, one level deeper.

Drilling in and navigating up

1. Drill in: select a composite step and work in the Sub-steps column, or double-click the composite step in the SFC Editor to open its internal chart.

2. Know where you are: the breadcrumb at the top of the workspace gains a sub-step chip when the active step is composite — CIP Rinse Cycle › Caustic Wash › Circulate — so the depth is always visible.

3. Navigate up: click an ancestor chip in the breadcrumb to step back out to the parent process.

📖 How To: Design a Complete CIP Process

Follow this workflow to create a full CIP process from scratch:

1. Ensure your Module Data is ready — Make sure you have defined your States (Open, Closed, etc.) and Fluids (WFI, CIP Caustic, CIP Acid, etc.). See Module Data.

2. Create the Process — In the Processes Workspace, add a process and name it "CIP".

3. Create your Steps — Add steps in sequence: "Pre-Rinse", "Caustic Wash", "Intermediate Rinse", "Acid Wash", "Final Rinse", "Drain". With naming rules configured, their codes fill in automatically.

4. Assign States in each Step — For each step, select valves on the P&ID and assign the correct state (Open/Closed). The P&ID will update with colors immediately.

5. Add Algorithm conditions — For each step, define the transition logic using the Algorithm Design — e.g., "Wait for temperature ≥ 75 °C" or "Wait for timer ≥ 15 minutes".

6. Review visually — Navigate through each step and verify the P&ID colors match your expected valve positions.

7. Reuse the structure — When other units run the same procedure, promote this process to a template rather than copying it, so all of them share one definition.

🧩 Relationship Between Processes and Steps

A Module contains multiple Processes, each with its own sequence of Steps:

Each Step also contains an Algorithm — a sequence of conditions that define when the step is considered complete and which step comes next. A composite step additionally contains its own sub-process of sub-steps.

🔗 Related Pages

• Processes Workspace — the five-column window for building and navigating process design.

• Process Templates — share one structure across many processes.

• 🧠 Algorithm Design — Define transition conditions between steps.

• SFC Editor (GRAFCET) — graphical view, with drill-in for composite steps.

• Module Ribbon — Ribbon panels for process and step management.

• Status Editor — Bulk state assignment tool.

• 🔵 State — How states and colors work.

• P&IDs and Modules — Multi-P&ID process design.

• 📋 Module Data — All module-level data definitions.