How to ensure application consistency using FOP

The scheduler informs you, by issuing an "APPLICATION INCONSISTENT" message when trying to save your application, if a common dependency might be needed to link either side of a condition relationship. You can do this by using a dummy operation on a non-reporting general workstation or by using an actual predecessor of the conditional predecessor operation, if one already exists within the same application.

For example, An example of APPLICATION INCONSISTENT problem shows an example that would cause an "APPLICATION INCONSISTENT" message to be displayed because JOB4 has only one predecessor, which is conditional.

To avoid the APPLICATION INCONSISTENT error from occurring, without modifying the job processing flow and logic within the application, it is sufficient to make the following changes:

1. Add a dummy operation JOB1 as First Operation (FOP).
2. Set JOB1 as normal predecessor for JOB2, so that JOB1 is completed as soon as the occurrence starts to run.
3. Set JOB1 as normal predecessor for JOB4, and also for all operations that have only conditional predecessors.

For more information about using a FOP operation, see Loop detection and analysis. An example of how to fix an APPLICATION INCONSISTENT problem shows the result of these changes: