Production Workflow

When a release candidate Product Bundle has been developed, the product can be made commercially available.

The first step is to associate the product with a customer account.

Then the product is associated with the customer and given a part number.

The product can then be manufactured in several ways.

Request a Customer Account

Request a customer account from Zentri. Only Zentri administrators can create a customer account.

Create a Production Product

Request that Zentri creates a production product from the release candidate development product. The production product belongs to the specified customer account. Only Zentri administrators can perform this process.

Request a Part Number

Request a part number for the product. Only Zentri administrators can perform this process.

A Production Product Cannot be Activated to Another Product

When a device is loaded with a development product, a developer can activate the device to a different product.

Once a product is in production, a device activated to that product cannot activate to a different product. It can update to another version of its product, but it can never activate to a new product.

This is necessary to prevent hacking and repurposing of devices.

A customer cannot allow their end-users to change the product that was loaded onto the module at manufacturing time.

One consequence of this policy is that the ota command -b (bundle) option is not available for a device loaded with a production product.

This prevents end-users who have not licensed a particular firmware bundle from gaining access to it via the ota command.

You can tag a production product bundle as alpha or beta.

Use an Activation Token

For small production runs, you can create an activation token and use it to claim and activate devices with the product.

Then claim each device using the activation token. On the device run the command: 

dms claim <product-code> <token>

When claiming the device, the token is used by the DMS to automatically activate and lock the device to the specified product.

Then use OTA to put the latest version of the product on the device. On the device, run the command: 

ota

For legacy WiConnect devices, use the command:

ota -a <product id> <token>

You can provide the token to a contract manufacturer. The CM does not need a user name and password to access the DMS. They simply use the token. Once the specified number of devices has been claimed with the token, the token cannot be used to claim any further devices.

Make a Purchase Order

When you arrange a Purchase Order with Zentri, Zentri organizes the manufacture of devices and activation of devices to your product. Devices are manufactured and delivered to the customer. Product Devices are registered in the DMS. Manufactured devices are locked to the product, and cannot be claimed or loaded with a different product.

There are Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs) for Purchase Orders. A Purchase Order is recommended when the number of devices you wish to program with your product is too large to manage using the Activation Token approach.

Zentri adminstrators set up a work order, specifying the Product Bundle and the number of devices to be created with the product.

Post Production Workflow

When a commercial product is out in the field, Devices with that Product can OTA the current release.

The product development cycle continues with new releases as required. See Developer Workflow.

Product Devices can download and upload Device Files using the Zentri Cloud File System.

Product Devices can download Product Assets using the Zentri Cloud File System.

Product Devices can be tracked in the DMS, with details available on OTA events, location, telemetry and more.

Continued Development

Development workflow continues after the first production version of a product. See Developer Workflow.

Managing Devices

Tracking Users

End-Of-Life Production Workflow

Archiving a Product

When a product reaches end-of-life, the DMS Product is archived. Devices already activated to the Product can still OTA the product, but no new devices can activate to the product.