BCI CORE™
Run Every Batch the Same Way, Every Time
The batch operations management layer that sits above your real-time control system.
Overview
The Management Layer for Batch Production
BCI CORE™ gives operators one reliable place to run production and engineers a clean way to manage recipes, schedules and records. Built on the ISA-88 standard, it scales from a single product line to complex, multi-stage recipes without forcing you to outgrow it.
Your controls run the process. CORE runs the operation around it: the recipes, schedules, inventory and batch records your people build and change every day. Author a recipe once, schedule it in seconds, run it on the controls you already have and capture a complete, traceable record of every batch — all on one platform.
Whatever you produce, CORE runs the same process across food and beverage, coffee, pet food, extrusion resins, specialty chemicals, toner, concrete, pharmaceuticals and more.
Capabilities
Recipe & Formula Authoring
Create and manage ISA-88 recipes without rewriting control code. Build formulas with a simple drag-and-drop interface: pull ingredients into groups, set targets and parameters — mix times, speeds, temperatures — and enter targets as percentages or weights.
- Version control, so a supervisor can review, activate or roll back to a previous formula
- Ingredient tolerances and item-type nesting
- Import and export formulas to move them between systems
Production Scheduling
Plan and sequence batches across equipment and shifts. Manage production by campaigns — a set of batches running the same formula — or by individual batches, whichever fits your operation.
- Create and schedule batches in seconds, releasing them manually on demand or automatically as soon as a line becomes available
- Auto-release sends the next queued batch to any available process cell
- Inventory forecasting projects what the queued batches will consume and flags shortfalls up front, not halfway through the run
- Optimized scheduling and campaign management cut changeover time, so constantly changing ingredients and recipes stop being a headache
Electronic Batch Records & Traceability
Capture a complete, traceable record of every batch as it runs, including targets versus actuals, the parameters used and the lots consumed.
- Batch, campaign and material-usage reports out of the box
- Lot tracing follows which batches a given lot ended up in
- Out-of-tolerance tracking flags scaling deviations for sign-off, with optional second-user approvals and notes
- Audit trail and retention policies keep a defensible history of logins, configuration changes and production data
Inventory Management
Inventory accuracy is essential to quality. CORE manages ingredient amounts and locations and integrates with your WIP and ERP inventory tools, handling real complexity while keeping the operator's interface simple.
- Location and lot tracking, with FIFO/LIFO consumption rules configurable per location group — worth having wherever spoilage matters
- Configurable allocation logic sets real rules for how materials are drawn, so ingredients are used consistently and equipment is used well
- Pre-release verification checks that every required ingredient can be sourced before a batch is released, so lines don't start and stall
- Preweigh management for staged, pre-scaled ingredients
- Flexible sourcing: split a draw across locations, favor certain sources first, or treat supplies like water as unlimited
- Dosibox, warehouse and transfer support for automated and semi-automated material movement
Handheld Operation
Put verification in the operator's hand. The Scan Server exposes production tasks to rugged Android scanners, so material moves are scanned, checked and recorded at the point of use.
- Hand-adds, preweigh dumps, lot adds and transfers, all driven by barcode
- Barcode verification on manual additions guarantees the right ingredient, lot and amount go into the right batch
- Take-control handling prevents two scanners from stepping on the same operation
Dashboards & Reporting
Make data actionable. Configurable dashboards surface the KPIs that matter — throughput by formula, capacity by day, week or month, scaling accuracy, and current performance against recent history — all at a glance.
- Configurable widgets for totals, performance gauges, history and inventory accuracy
- SSRS, Excel and Zebra (ZPL) label reporting, with triggers that print or save automatically when an event occurs, such as printing a label the moment a product is produced
- Custom reports and dashboards you can shape to your business
Security & Access Control
Secure the system by assigning roles to individuals or groups, with permissions granular enough to match real responsibilities.
- Roles, groups, users and API keys, with hierarchical role inheritance
- Active Directory integration, password policies and account lockout
- Approvals for sensitive actions, with optional dual-user sign-off
Integration
Fill the Gap Between Your ERP and Plant Floor
One of CORE's biggest advantages is that it integrates with your ERP business systems and your OT/PLC control systems, closing the gap that usually sits between the top floor and the plant floor.
No two ERPs are configured the same way. Rather than forcing a rigid, pre-built connector on you, CORE exposes standard, versioned integration points — for formulas, batches and more — through a stable API. Once you connect, upgrades won't break the link. Built-in web hooks push notifications and data to other systems without any custom programming.
- Communicates with corporate systems like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle / JD Edwards and other external databases
- ISA-88 batch-recipe compatible, with an accessible Microsoft SQL Server back end
- REST API and API keys, plus configurable web hooks for connecting other applications
With the plant floor synced to the business system, you get real manufacturing responsiveness: schedules downloaded to the floor, real-time status back to the office, tighter quality management and a complete audit trail.
Works With Your Controls
Designed to Sit on Top of the Systems We Build
CORE provides the intelligence and orchestration, with real-time execution running on whatever layer best fits your plant — FactoryTalk Batch, Rockwell SequenceManager or BCI's own Core Engine. CORE coordinates them behind the scenes, so operators always work from one consistent system.
The result: operators get a system they can rely on, and engineers get a clean way to manage recipes and records without duplicated effort or gaps between hand-offs.
Why BCI CORE
Built to Fit Your Plant — and Built to Last
Most of CORE is proven, quality-tested code. The rest we configure to your process, your equipment and the way your operators actually work, so the software fits how your plant runs rather than the other way around.
That flexibility reaches all the way to the screen. Nearly every view is a configurable data grid you can sort, filter, color-code and save per user or site — so a coffee producer can watch a roast profile while a mix plant watches scaling accuracy, on the very same platform.
- A modern platform. CORE is a ground-up build on a current Microsoft / C# stack with a SQL Server back end, making it maintainable and extensible.
- Future-proofed. Maintained under a PLM strategy, CORE stays in step with updates to the third-party systems it integrates with.
- Full visibility and history. A live system-status indicator, detailed logging and complete production history make troubleshooting fast.
- Backed by real engineers. Bachelor Controls has been a licensed engineering firm since 1983, with controls engineers and software developers under one roof.
- Operators like using it. As our customers put it, the interface just makes sense.
Proof
A Plantwide Conversion With Zero Lost Production
When Continental Mills (Krusteaz® brand products) converted its mix-plant control system — a comprehensive software conversion, recipe overhaul and bar-coding upgrade — the changeover had to happen over one weekend with no lost scheduled production. The BCI team consolidated single-purpose recipes into a few data-driven, multipurpose recipes, ran a full Factory Acceptance Test and executed the cutover on schedule.
- Delivered on time and on budget, hitting the original start-up date set at the kickoff meeting
- Every test batch run during the shutdown produced sellable product, with no rework
- The entire conversion closed with only "two, small punch list items"
As project manager Bob Durbin put it: "Bachelor Controls' project methodology and management procedures enabled us to implement a major control system software conversion project during a single weekend shutdown with minimal problems and without losing any scheduled production."
It was the best project I've ever been involved with.
BCI CORE in Action
Creating and Running a Campaign
A short walkthrough: creating a campaign from a formula, releasing it and running two batches through to a completed batch record.
See BCI CORE Running on Your Process
Ask us for a walkthrough of the platform on your process, and we'll show you how recipes, scheduling, inventory and batch records come together on one system.