diff --git a/src/_includes/layouts/use-case.njk b/src/_includes/layouts/use-case.njk
index d3a0372a73..edcb7c0171 100644
--- a/src/_includes/layouts/use-case.njk
+++ b/src/_includes/layouts/use-case.njk
@@ -9,10 +9,33 @@ sitemapPriority: 0.7
problem hero sub-headline (the pain in one line)
customerPain { heading, intro[], cards[ {icon,title,detail} ] }
outcomeFirst { heading, intro, dimensions[ {label,title,detail} ] }
+ howItWorks { heading, intro, designPattern{}, diagram{}, pieces[], architecture, docsCta{} }
whyItMatters { heading, intro, points[ {title,detail} ] }
competition { heading, intro, traps[ {label,title,detail} ] }
comparison { without[ {title,detail} ], with[ {title,detail} ] }
+ howItWorks answers "how does FlowFuse build this", which the pain, outcome
+ and comparison blocks deliberately do not. It is the bridge from the
+ marketing narrative into the product docs, so keep it high level here and
+ push every detail into a docs link.
+
+ designPattern { kind, name, detail, docsUrl }
+ kind is the pattern family, e.g. "Hardware pattern" or
+ "Software pattern". name is the specific pattern chosen
+ for this use case.
+ diagram { src, alt, caption, width, height, placeholder }
+ End-to-end architecture drawing. src may be a placeholder
+ while the real diagram is commissioned; set
+ diagram.placeholder to true to render the placeholder
+ treatment and keep it visibly unfinished. width/height
+ default to 1200x630 and only exist to reserve the box, so
+ override them when the real asset is a different shape.
+ pieces [ {icon, title, detail, docsUrl} ]
+ The problem broken into the individual components that get
+ built. Order them the way you would build them.
+ architecture slug of a /use-cases/ architecture page this sits on
+ docsCta { label, url }
+
Legacy fall-back front-matter (simple skeleton, still supported):
gap[], workflow[], outcomes[]
@@ -23,11 +46,17 @@ sitemapPriority: 0.7
{% set nav = [] %}
{% if customerPain %}{% set nav = nav.concat([{ id: "customer-pain", label: "Customer Pain" }]) %}{% endif %}
{% if outcomeFirst %}{% set nav = nav.concat([{ id: "outcome-first", label: "Outcome First" }]) %}{% endif %}
+{% if howItWorks %}{% set nav = nav.concat([{ id: "how-it-works", label: "How It Works" }]) %}{% endif %}
{% if whyItMatters %}{% set nav = nav.concat([{ id: "why-it-matters", label: "Why It Matters" }]) %}{% endif %}
{% if competition %}{% set nav = nav.concat([{ id: "competition", label: "Why Off-the-Shelf Fails" }]) %}{% endif %}
{% if comparison %}{% set nav = nav.concat([{ id: "with-without", label: "With / Without FlowFuse" }]) %}{% endif %}
{% if aiBuildLayer %}{% set nav = nav.concat([{ id: "ai-build-layer", label: "Build It With AI" }]) %}{% endif %}
+{# --- section eyebrow numbers, derived from nav so they cannot drift ---
+ Pages omit blocks freely, so a hardcoded "03" desyncs from the nav as soon
+ as an earlier block is missing. Look the number up instead. #}
+{% macro secNum(id) %}{%- for item in nav -%}{%- if item.id == id -%}{%- if loop.index < 10 -%}0{%- endif -%}{{ loop.index }}{%- endif -%}{%- endfor -%}{% endmacro %}
+
-
01 · Customer pain
+
{{ secNum("customer-pain") }} · Customer pain
{{ customerPain.heading }}
{% for paragraph in customerPain.intro %}
@@ -94,11 +123,11 @@ sitemapPriority: 0.7
{% if outcomeFirst %}
-
02 · Outcome first
+
{{ secNum("outcome-first") }} · Outcome first
{{ outcomeFirst.heading }}
{{ outcomeFirst.intro }}
@@ -114,13 +143,103 @@ sitemapPriority: 0.7
{% endif %}
+ {% if howItWorks %}
+
+
+
+
{{ secNum("how-it-works") }} · How it works
+
{{ howItWorks.heading or "How FlowFuse builds this" }}
+ {# width/height are here to reserve the box before the image
+ arrives; without them "h-auto" collapses the figure to
+ zero and the whole section below it jumps on load. #}
+
+
+ {% if howItWorks.diagram.caption or howItWorks.diagram.placeholder %}
+ {% if howItWorks.diagram.placeholder %}Placeholder diagram, pending art request. {% endif %}{{ howItWorks.diagram.caption }}
+ {% endif %}
+
+ {% endif %}
+
+ {% if howItWorks.pieces %}
+
{{ howItWorks.piecesHeading or "The individual pieces" }}
+
+ {% for piece in howItWorks.pieces %}
+
+
+
+ {% include "components/icons/" + piece.icon + ".svg" %}
+
{{ secNum("why-it-matters") }} · Why this is important
{{ whyItMatters.heading }}
{{ whyItMatters.intro }}
@@ -140,11 +259,11 @@ sitemapPriority: 0.7
{% if competition %}
-
04 · Why off-the-shelf doesn't work
+
{{ secNum("competition") }} · Why off-the-shelf doesn't work
{{ competition.heading }}
{{ competition.intro }}
@@ -165,11 +284,11 @@ sitemapPriority: 0.7
{% if comparison %}
-
05 · With / without FlowFuse
+
{{ secNum("with-without") }} · With / without FlowFuse
Without FlowFuse
@@ -206,11 +325,11 @@ sitemapPriority: 0.7
{% if aiBuildLayer %}
-
06 · Build it with AI
+
{{ secNum("ai-build-layer") }} · Build it with AI
{{ aiBuildLayer.heading or "From described to deployed, with the FlowFuse Expert" }}
{{ aiBuildLayer.intro }}
diff --git a/src/index.njk b/src/index.njk
index b7f03ee6c6..a2a7a1b3fa 100644
--- a/src/index.njk
+++ b/src/index.njk
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ operationalSystem:
- name: "Quality Validation"
description: "Inline inspection and QA checks outside the core system."
- name: "Track & Trace"
+ url: "/use-cases/track-and-trace/"
description: "Part, component, and batch traceability across the plant."
- title: "OPERATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE"
items:
diff --git a/src/use-cases/production-monitoring.njk b/src/use-cases/production-monitoring.njk
index 5086a4a875..8dfbc56b0e 100644
--- a/src/use-cases/production-monitoring.njk
+++ b/src/use-cases/production-monitoring.njk
@@ -7,6 +7,44 @@ problem: "Your operation is running. You just can't see it clearly enough, until
industries: ["automotive", "food-beverage", "life-sciences", "aviation-aerospace", "aerospace-components", "renewables", "semiconductors", "electronics-appliances"]
values: ["production-performance"]
+howItWorks:
+ heading: "How FlowFuse builds production monitoring."
+ intro: "Production monitoring is not one app you install. It is a handful of pieces you define once and then replicate. This is how the problem breaks down, and which FlowFuse pattern carries it across every line and site."
+ designPattern:
+ kind: "Hardware pattern"
+ name: "Pipeline plus environment variables"
+ detail: "The monitoring application is built once and distributed to every line by a DevOps pipeline. Everything site-specific, tag addresses, line names, shift boundaries, lives in environment variables instead of inside the flows, so the same snapshot runs everywhere without an edit."
+ docsUrl: "/docs/user/devops-pipelines/"
+ diagram:
+ placeholder: true
+ src: "https://placehold.co/1200x630/eef2ff/4338ca?text=Production+Monitoring+Architecture"
+ alt: "End-to-end architecture for production monitoring: PLCs and machines feeding edge instances, publishing to a broker and historian, with role-specific dashboards on top and a pipeline distributing the application across sites."
+ caption: "Machines and PLCs into edge instances, out over MQTT into your historian, role-specific dashboards on top, and one pipeline distributing the whole application across every line."
+ pieces:
+ - icon: "queue-list"
+ title: "Define the data model"
+ detail: "Name the equipment hierarchy and tag structure first: site, line, cell, signal. Every later piece depends on it, and this is exactly the part an off-the-shelf tool decides for you."
+ - icon: "chart"
+ title: "Derive the metrics"
+ detail: "Counts, cycle times, downtime reasons and OEE are calculated from the model rather than read off a machine. The logic sits in Node-RED flows your own team can read and change."
+ - icon: "device-agent"
+ title: "Collect at the edge"
+ detail: "The Device Agent runs an instance on existing edge hardware and speaks OPC-UA, Modbus, S7 or MQTT to whatever is already on the floor."
+ docsUrl: "/docs/device-agent/introduction/"
+ - icon: "arrows-right-left"
+ title: "Publish and store"
+ detail: "Contextualized data leaves the edge on a stable topic structure and lands in your historian or database. The schema and the storage stay yours."
+ - icon: "dashboard"
+ title: "Visualize per role"
+ detail: "A line view for the supervisor, trend detail for the maintenance engineer, a roll-up for the plant manager. FlowFuse Dashboard builds all three from the same data."
+ - icon: "rectangle-stack"
+ title: "Replicate across sites"
+ detail: "Snapshot the working application and let the pipeline push it to every other line, with each site's specifics supplied by environment variables."
+ docsUrl: "/docs/user/envvar/"
+ docsCta:
+ label: "Read the pipeline docs"
+ url: "/docs/user/devops-pipelines/"
+
aiBuildLayer:
intro: "The FlowFuse Expert works on this use case with you: describe the monitoring you need and get a working starting flow, then query what it captures in plain language."
steps:
diff --git a/src/use-cases/shop-floor-communication.njk b/src/use-cases/shop-floor-communication.njk
index 070eede175..a1a8645826 100644
--- a/src/use-cases/shop-floor-communication.njk
+++ b/src/use-cases/shop-floor-communication.njk
@@ -6,7 +6,44 @@ meta:
problem: "The line stopped four minutes ago. The person who can fix it will find out when someone walks over."
industries: ["automotive", "food-beverage", "aviation-aerospace", "electronics-appliances"]
values: ["labor-operational-efficiency"]
-architecture: "edge-connectivity"
+howItWorks:
+ heading: "How FlowFuse builds connected andon."
+ intro: "Getting an event to the right person is a small number of pieces, not a product. The routing logic is identical at every site; only the people, channels and shift patterns differ, and that is what decides the pattern."
+ designPattern:
+ kind: "Hardware pattern"
+ name: "Pipeline plus external configuration"
+ detail: "The routing and escalation flows are built once and distributed by pipeline. Who responds, on which channel, during which shift is read at runtime from a central configuration source, so a rota change or a new contact never requires a redeploy."
+ docsUrl: "/docs/user/devops-pipelines/"
+ diagram:
+ placeholder: true
+ src: "https://placehold.co/1200x630/eef2ff/4338ca?text=Shop+Floor+Communication+Architecture"
+ alt: "End-to-end architecture for connected andon: machine signals and operator call buttons into edge instances, routed against a central directory of roles and shifts, delivered to displays, team channels and phones, with acknowledgment timing recorded."
+ caption: "Machine signals and call buttons into edge instances, routed against a central directory of roles and shifts, out to displays, team channels and phones, with every acknowledgment timed."
+ pieces:
+ - icon: "bell-alert"
+ title: "Capture the event"
+ detail: "Machine signals, alarm bits and operator call buttons all become the same kind of event, collected by an edge instance next to the equipment."
+ docsUrl: "/docs/device-agent/introduction/"
+ - icon: "queue-list"
+ title: "Model the event"
+ detail: "Each event carries type, area, severity and the role that should respond. Routing decisions are made against that shape, not against a machine address."
+ - icon: "users"
+ title: "Keep the directory outside the flow"
+ detail: "Roles, contacts, channels and the shift calendar live in configuration rather than inside the flows, so the floor can change who responds without touching the application."
+ docsUrl: "/docs/user/envvar/"
+ - icon: "share"
+ title: "Deliver where people look"
+ detail: "The same event fans out to andon displays, team channels and phones, each with the context the recipient needs to act on it."
+ - icon: "clock"
+ title: "Acknowledge and escalate"
+ detail: "An unacknowledged event climbs the chain on a timer. Nothing waits on someone happening to be free."
+ - icon: "circle-stack"
+ title: "Record the timing"
+ detail: "Event, notification and acknowledgment timestamps land in your database, which is what turns response time into a metric you can manage."
+ architecture: "edge-connectivity"
+ docsCta:
+ label: "Read the pipeline docs"
+ url: "/docs/user/devops-pipelines/"
customerPain:
heading: "Events travel at walking speed."
diff --git a/src/use-cases/track-and-trace.njk b/src/use-cases/track-and-trace.njk
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fa110c3feb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/use-cases/track-and-trace.njk
@@ -0,0 +1,138 @@
+---
+title: "Track & Trace"
+meta:
+ title: "Track & Trace | Use Cases | FlowFuse"
+ description: "Genealogy and traceability from raw material to shipped unit: capture every step with context, answer recalls in minutes. Built on Node-RED, managed with FlowFuse."
+problem: "A recall question lands, and the answer lives in three systems, two spreadsheets and a binder."
+industries: ["life-sciences", "food-beverage", "aviation-aerospace", "aerospace-components"]
+values: ["quality-compliance"]
+
+howItWorks:
+ heading: "How FlowFuse builds genealogy and traceability."
+ intro: "Traceability is one record per unit, written as production happens rather than reconstructed afterwards. This is how the chain breaks down and which FlowFuse pattern carries it."
+ designPattern:
+ kind: "Software pattern"
+ name: "Data-driven application"
+ detail: "The genealogy record is the application. Which capture points exist, and what each contributes to the chain, is configuration rather than wiring, so a new process step is a data change."
+ docsUrl: "/docs/user/ff-tables/"
+ diagram:
+ placeholder: true
+ src: "https://placehold.co/1200x630/eef2ff/4338ca?text=Track+and+Trace+Architecture"
+ alt: "End-to-end architecture for track and trace: identity assigned at the first step, capture points along the line writing into one genealogy record with process context, queryable forwards and backwards for recalls and audits."
+ caption: "Identity assigned once, every capture point writing into a single genealogy record with process context attached, queryable in both directions."
+ pieces:
+ - icon: "pin"
+ title: "Assign identity once"
+ detail: "A serial, lot or batch identity created at the first step and carried forward. Everything else hangs off it."
+ - icon: "device-agent"
+ title: "Capture each step at the edge"
+ detail: "Scanners, machines and station PLCs report the move as it happens, so there is no gap to reconstruct later."
+ docsUrl: "/docs/device-agent/introduction/"
+ - icon: "chart"
+ title: "Attach process context"
+ detail: "Not only where a unit went but the conditions it was produced under, captured at the same moment as the move."
+ - icon: "circle-stack"
+ title: "Write one genealogy record"
+ detail: "Material moves from ERP, process steps from MES and machine conditions from the floor land in one chain instead of three systems."
+ docsUrl: "/docs/user/ff-tables/"
+ - icon: "eye"
+ title: "Query forwards and backwards"
+ detail: "From any lot, unit or shipment, in either direction, with the evidence attached to the answer."
+ - icon: "document-check"
+ title: "Answer audits as a query"
+ detail: "Compliance requests become a lookup against the chain rather than a cross-system research project."
+ architecture: "data-integration"
+ docsCta:
+ label: "Read the tables docs"
+ url: "/docs/user/ff-tables/"
+
+customerPain:
+ heading: "Traceability by reconstruction."
+ intro:
+ - "Which lots went into which batch, on which machine, under which conditions, shipped to whom: the data exists, but scattered across ERP, MES, machines and paper."
+ - "When an audit or recall asks the question, teams spend days reconstructing what a connected system could answer in minutes, and the exposure window stays wide open the whole time."
+ cards:
+ - icon: "queue-list"
+ title: "Genealogy gaps between systems"
+ detail: "Material moves are recorded in ERP, process steps in MES, machine conditions nowhere; the chain has holes."
+ - icon: "clip-list"
+ title: "Paper travelers, manual scans"
+ detail: "Handwritten lot numbers and missed scan points break the chain exactly where it matters."
+ - icon: "shield-exclamation"
+ title: "Recalls scoped by worst case"
+ detail: "When you cannot prove which units are affected, you recall everything that might be."
+ - icon: "book-open"
+ title: "Audit answers take days"
+ detail: "Every compliance request becomes a cross-system research project."
+ #placeholder: template copy for review, refine per Showcase
+
+outcomeFirst:
+ heading: "An unbroken chain, captured as it happens."
+ intro: "FlowFuse wires the capture points together: scanners, machines, MES and ERP feed one genealogy record per unit or batch, with process context attached at every step."
+ dimensions:
+ - label: "Compliance"
+ title: "Recall scope in minutes, not days"
+ detail: "Forward and backward trace from any lot, unit or shipment, with evidence attached."
+ - label: "Quality"
+ title: "Process context on every step"
+ detail: "Not just where a unit went, but the conditions it was produced under."
+ - label: "Financial"
+ title: "Smaller recalls, faster audits"
+ detail: "Precise scoping replaces worst-case recalls; audit requests become queries."
+
+whyItMatters:
+ heading: "Traceability is insurance you build in advance."
+ intro: "The value shows up on the worst day: a recall, an audit finding, a customer claim."
+ points:
+ - title: "Recall cost scales with uncertainty"
+ detail: "Every unit you cannot rule out is a unit you pay to recall. Precision is money."
+ - title: "Regulators expect data, not binders"
+ detail: "Digital genealogy with process context is becoming the audit baseline in regulated industries."
+ - title: "Trace data compounds into insight"
+ detail: "The same chain that answers recalls also reveals which conditions produce the best product."
+
+competition:
+ heading: "Why the usual approaches stall."
+ intro: "Traceability projects fail on the connections, not the concept."
+ traps:
+ - label: "ERP-only trace"
+ title: "Material moves without process truth"
+ detail: "ERP knows what was issued, not what actually happened at the machine."
+ - label: "Monolithic MES"
+ title: "Full-suite rollouts measured in years"
+ detail: "Enterprise MES traceability arrives with a multi-year implementation and per-site licensing."
+ - label: "Spreadsheet genealogy"
+ title: "Manual chains break silently"
+ detail: "One missed entry and the chain is fiction; nobody notices until it is needed."
+
+comparison:
+ without:
+ - title: "Chain reconstructed on demand"
+ detail: "Days of cross-system work per recall or audit question."
+ - title: "Worst-case recall scoping"
+ detail: "Recall everything that might be affected."
+ - title: "Capture depends on discipline"
+ detail: "Paper and manual scans break the chain silently."
+ with:
+ - title: "Chain captured continuously"
+ detail: "Scanners, machines and business systems feed one genealogy record automatically."
+ - title: "Precise scope with evidence"
+ detail: "Trace any direction from any point, conditions included."
+ - title: "Capture enforced by flows"
+ detail: "Missing steps block or alert in real time instead of surfacing at audit."
+
+aiBuildLayer:
+ intro: "The FlowFuse Expert works on this use case with you, from capture flows to answering trace questions."
+ steps:
+ - title: "Describe it, get a starting flow"
+ detail: "Tell the Expert your capture points and systems; it assembles a genealogy starting flow. Currently in open beta on FlowFuse Cloud."
+ - title: "Refine with in-editor assistance"
+ detail: "Function Builder and completions help with lot-number parsing, joins and record writes to your database or Tables."
+ - title: "Ask trace questions in plain language"
+ detail: "Expose the genealogy store through MCP tools and query it with Expert's Insights mode (beta): 'which shipments contain lot 4711?'"
+ note: "AI capabilities noted as beta are in open beta on FlowFuse Cloud at time of writing. Placeholder template copy for internal review."
+
+closingCta:
+ heading: "Be ready for the worst day"
+ description: "Talk to an expert about end-to-end traceability, or wire your first capture point today."
+---
+