DE102022102379A1 - Process for operating a system for mass production of components, computer program and data carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for operating a system which is designed for (at least partially) series production of components, with the steps:
- detecting at least one state value, which characterizes a state of a semifinished product on which one of the components is based and/or one of the components and/or the system, for each component during a time interval in which the system is being operated; (S1)
- Storing the at least one detected state value for each component in a first memory area (S2);
- determining at least one statistical value from the at least one stored status value after the time interval has ended and/or the at least one status value has been recorded for a predetermined number of components; (S3) and
- Storing the at least one statistical value in a second memory area. (S4)
The invention also relates to a computer program and a data carrier.

Description

The invention relates to a method for operating a system which is designed for at least partial series production of components, in particular shaped sheet metal parts, according to patent claim 1. The invention also relates to a computer program according to patent claim 9. Finally, the invention relates to an electronically readable data carrier according to patent claim 10.

In motor vehicle construction, for example, sheet metal parts are formed as components from semi-finished products in series production. The respective semi-finished product can be a blank, which is produced, for example, by cutting in a blank cutting system.

When manufacturing circuit boards, semi-finished product properties can be recorded using sensors and stored in a central database. Furthermore, the material or the circuit board can be identified automatically, so that the measurement data recorded by the sensors can be unambiguously assigned to a respective circuit board. In a system for series production, such as a press in a press line, this identification can in turn be read. Corresponding process parameters used in a press can thus be assigned to each processed circuit board, and data relating to the component quality of the components formed from it can also be recorded and thus unambiguously assigned to the circuit boards originally used as a basis.

For example, component part numbers, cold strip numbers of coils, descriptions of orders for cutting the blank and/or associated sensor data and/or process parameters for the production of components can be recorded. A statistical evaluation may be desirable for individual or each of these values.

It should be noted that the blanks cut in the blanking system are usually initially stored temporarily. It is therefore not possible to ensure that the order in which the blanks are formed into components, for example in a press line, corresponds to the order in which the blanks were cut in the blanking system. For example, blanks from different coils can be processed in one production order in a press line.

Thus, analyzes of time series following a production order of components can usually be based on the order in which the blanks are processed in the press line. On the other hand, the order in which the blanks were created in the blanking line is generally considered for analyzes to prepare production orders for a press line.

The DE 10 2015 221 417 A1 shows how an individual identifier for isolated material parts can be provided linked to a respectively specific at least one part parameter, with the isolated material parts being formed from a strip-shaped semi-finished product.

The object of the present invention is to provide a method, a computer program and a data carrier by means of which a system for the series production of components, in particular shaped sheet metal parts, can be operated in such a way that a statistical evaluation of the operation of the system, for example for advantageous quality control, is simple is made possible.

According to the invention, this object is achieved by the subject matter of the independent patent claims. Advantageous refinements and developments of the invention are specified in the dependent patent claims as well as in the description and in the drawing.

• In einem ersten Schritt erfolgt ein Erfassen wenigstens eines Zustandswertes, welcher einen Zustand eines einem der Bauteile zugrundliegenden Halbzeugs und/oder einen Zustand eines der Bauteile und/oder einen Zustand der Anlage charakterisiert, je gebildetem beziehungsweise zu bildendem Bauteil während eines Zeitintervalls, in dem die Anlage betrieben wird. In einem zweiten Schritt erfolgt ein Ablegen des wenigstens einen erfassten und insbesondere zuordenbaren Zustandswerts je Bauteil in einem ersten Speicherbereich, beispielsweise einer Speichereinrichtung einer elektronischen Recheneinrichtung beziehungsweise Steuerungseinrichtung der Anlage. In einem dritten Schritt erfolgt ein Bestimmen wenigstens eines Statistikwerts aus dem wenigstens einen abgelegten Zustandswert, nachdem das Zeitintervall beendet und/oder der wenigstens eine Zustandswert für eine vorgegebene Anzahl an Bauteilen erfasst wird beziehungsweise worden ist. In einem vierten Schritt erfolgt ein Ablegen des wenigstens einen Statistikwerts in einem zweiten Speicherbereich, welcher insbesondere von dem ersten Speicherbereich unterschiedlich ist beziehungsweise eine andere Datenstruktur aufweist. Dabei kann der zweite Speicherbereich Teil der Speichereinrichtung und/oder einer weiteren Speichereinrichtung sein.

A first aspect of the invention relates to a method for operating a system which is designed for an at least partial series production of components, in particular shaped sheet metal parts. At least in part, this is to be understood in such a way that the components do not have to be finished in the system. For example, if the system is a blanking line, only a preliminary stage of the finished component is produced in the system. The method according to the invention comprises several steps:

• In a first step, at least one condition value is recorded, which characterizes a condition of a semi-finished product on which one of the components is based and/or a condition of one of the components and/or a condition of the system, for each component formed or to be formed during a time interval in which the plant is operated. In a second step, the at least one recorded and in particular assignable status value for each component is stored in a first memory area, for example a memory device of an electronic computing device or control device of the system. In a third step, at least one statistical value is determined from the at least one stored status value after the time interval has ended and/or the at least one status value is or has been recorded for a predetermined number of components. In a fourth step, the at least one statistical value is stored in a second memory area, which in particular differs from the first memory area or has a different data structure. In this case, the second memory area can be part of the memory device and/or a further memory device.

In other words, in the method on which the invention is based, at least one statistical parameter, in particular with regard to semi-finished product properties, process parameters and/or the component quality, is calculated in particular at regular time intervals. The calculated results are stored separately in the second memory area, which is designed in particular as a database.

For the calculation of the statistical key figures or the at least one statistical value, an average sheet thickness of the coils in relation to a given component part number in the last few months while the system is in operation is determined, for example. To do this, the sheet thickness values of all associated coils must first be exported from the first memory area, and only then can the average value for the respective coil be determined, for example.

In order to obtain meaningful statistics, for example for the fluctuation in the sheet thickness of the numerous coils, and not to have to go through a long-lasting calculation process in which a sufficiently large temporary memory area has to be kept available, according to the invention no statistical analysis is required for the at least one statistical value the entire raw data or status values are loaded and analyzed at once, but rather the at least one statistical characteristic value is calculated regularly within the time interval or after a predetermined number of components and stored in the second memory device. It is sufficient to only load the results of the previously calculated statistical characteristic values, such as the median, the mean value and/or a variance, in order to obtain results in a particularly short period of time and make them available to a user, for example.

By calculating the at least one statistical value at regular time intervals and storing it in the second memory area, which is designed in particular as a database, data compression can thus be carried out, so to speak, which enables an efficient statistical analysis.

A further advantage of the method is that the memory requirement required for analyzing the data falls disproportionately. If, for example, the sheet thickness and the amount of lubricant or the lubricant application in the pressing value are considered as the at least one condition value for a semi-finished product or a blank, there are more than 3000 entries for a component, for example. In series production, particularly large amounts of data accumulate very quickly. These can be reduced by the method so that, for example, a statistical analysis can also be carried out using conventional electronic computing devices.

One advantage of the method is that the at least one statistical value and thus at least one statistical key figure are made available particularly quickly. Another advantage of the method according to the invention is the creation of analysis perspectives. In addition, the method is advantageous for a statistical analysis with regard to long periods of time. Due to the compression of the data, a particularly aggregated transfer of the data is also possible.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the number of components that cause the at least one statistical value to be determined is specified by a production instruction, in particular a production order. For example, the time interval can be two hours, and during execution it is checked how many production instructions or production orders have been completed, for example, in the past fourteen days. This number now serves as the basis for calculating the at least one statistical value, so that, for example, a load on the electronic computing device can be kept constant. In addition or beyond, fluctuations in the amount of available data, in particular status values and/or statistical values, can prevent the electronic computing device from being overloaded.

The method can be carried out in such a way that, for example, a certain number of production orders are processed every two hours (eg n=20 production orders). In this context, the production orders of the last 14 days can be viewed and the most recent production orders are processed. The number n can be determined in such a way that with a very high degree of certainty means that all production orders for a week can be calculated. When determining n, it can be taken into account that there may be fewer production orders, for example at night and/or at the weekend, and this time can therefore be used to recalculate older orders. The method thus offers the possibility of keeping the load on the computing server or the computing device constant at times of extremely high volume of orders and in turn shifting this pending calculation effort to times when there is a low volume of production orders.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, a blanking machine and/or a press, in particular a forming press, which can be part of a press line in vehicle production, is operated as the system. In other words, the method serves to particularly advantageously statistically evaluate the cutting of blanks in a blanking system. Additionally or alternatively, the method can be used to operate a press or a pressing plant in such a way that statistical parameters of the press are available at any time for data analysis. This results in the advantage that shaped sheet metal parts can be produced particularly advantageously as the components on their way from the coil in series production.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the at least one state value of the semi-finished product describes at least one semi-finished product property and/or the at least one state value of the component describes at least one component quality. In other words, the few condition values of the semi-finished product on which the component is based are a property of the semi-finished product itself, such as sheet metal thickness, for example, if the semi-finished product is a sheet metal blank. Additionally or alternatively, if the at least one state value characterizes the component, it characterizes the component in particular in such a way that it describes a component quality of the finished component in particular. This results in the advantage that the at least one statistical value can be used particularly advantageously for monitoring series production, since in particular a component quality can be directly inferred or a connection between semi-finished product properties and molded component can be determined.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the at least one state value of the system describes at least one process parameter during the production of the component or semi-finished product. In other words, the at least one status value is at least one process parameter, such as a temperature of a forming tool of a press and/or, for example, a pressure with which forming tools of the press are operated to form the component. The at least one status value thus provides information about the operation of the system during the production of the respective component. This results in the advantage that the at least one statistical value can be used particularly advantageously for analysis or for monitoring when operating the system.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the at least one statistical value is a median, an average value, a quantile and/or a variance, or these are determined by the method as the at least one statistical value. In other words, known statistical key figures that are relevant for a statistical analysis are determined. This results in the advantage that the at least one statistical value can be used particularly advantageously for an analysis of the operation of the installation.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the component quality and a further condition value are recorded as the at least one condition value, and a model value is also determined from this determined statistical value, which in particular describes a correlation. In other words, at least two status values are recorded, at least one of which corresponds to the component quality of each component produced in series production. In addition, a further state value is recorded, which can now be correlated with the component quality, so that, for example, the influence of the at least one further state value on the component quality can be seen, which the model value or a model based on it can describe. For example, the influence of sheet metal thickness on component quality can be determined. This results in the advantage that the system can be operated particularly advantageously.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the time interval and/or the number is/are determined based on the computing power of an electronic computing device, which determines the at least one statistical value. In other words, the time interval or the number of components until the at least one statistical value is determined is coupled depending on the computing power of an electronic computing device that carries out at least some steps of the method or is designed, for example, as a control device of the system, so that a particularly efficient operation of the electronic computing device is possible. So For example, using the computing power or, for example, additionally or alternatively also using a storage capacity, it can be determined how long a time interval or the number is before a new statistical value can be determined particularly effectively. This results in the advantage that an efficient statistical analysis is made possible.

A second aspect of the invention includes a computer program. The computer program can be loaded into an electronic computing device of a system, for example, and includes programming means to carry out the steps of the method according to the first aspect of the invention when the computer program is executed in the electronic computing device or, for example, a control device.

In this case, advantages and advantageous configurations of the first aspect of the invention are to be regarded as advantages and advantageous configurations of the second aspect of the invention and vice versa.

A third aspect of the invention relates to an electronically readable data carrier. The electronically readable data carrier includes electronically readable control information stored on it, which includes at least one computer program according to the second aspect of the invention and is designed in such a way that when the data carrier is used in an electronic computing device, it can execute a method according to the first aspect of the invention presented here .

Advantages and advantageous configurations of the third aspect of the invention are to be regarded as advantages and advantageous configurations both of the second aspect and of the first aspect of the invention and vice versa.

Further features of the invention result from the claims, the figures and the description of the figures. The features and combinations of features mentioned above in the description and the features and combinations of features mentioned below in the description of the figures and/or shown alone in the figures can be used not only in the combination specified in each case, but also in other combinations or on their own.

• 1 ein schematisches Ablaufdiagramm für ein Verfahren zum Betreiben einer Anlage für eine Serienherstellung von Bauteilen.

The invention will now be explained in more detail using a preferred exemplary embodiment and with reference to the drawings. It shows:

• 1 a schematic flow chart for a method for operating a system for a series production of components.

• In einem ersten Schritt S1 des Verfahrens erfolgt ein Erfassen wenigstens eines Zustandswerts, welcher einen Zustand eines einem der Bauteile zugrundliegenden Halbzeugs und/oder einen Zustand eines der Bauteile und/oder einen Zustand der Anlage charakterisiert, je insbesondere gebildeten beziehungsweise zu bildenden Bauteil während eines Zeitintervalls, während dem beziehungsweise in dem die Anlage betrieben wird.

The only figure 1 shows a schematic flowchart of a method for operating a system which is designed for an at least partial series production of components, in particular shaped sheet metal parts. The method is used, among other things, to enable the system to be operated in such a way that statistical analyzes of production processes carried out with the system or series production can be made possible in a simple manner. The procedure for this includes several steps:

• In a first step S1 of the method, at least one status value is detected, which characterizes a status of a semi-finished product on which one of the components is based and/or a status of one of the components and/or a status of the system, depending in particular on the component formed or to be formed during a time interval , during or during which the system is operated.

In a second step S2 of the method, the at least one recorded and in particular assignable status value for each component is stored in a first memory area, in particular a memory device, for example an electronic computing device or control device of the system.

In a third step S3 of the method, at least one statistical value is determined from the at least one stored status value after the time interval has ended and/or the at least one status value for a predefined number of components is or has been recorded. The at least one statistical value or the at least one statistical parameter can relate to a production order.

In a fourth step S4, the at least one specific statistical value is then stored in a second memory area, which differs from the first memory area in particular and can be part of the memory device and/or another memory device, for example.

In this case, the number of components is advantageously specified by a production instruction, for example in the form of a production order. The production order determines, for example, a specific form of the components to be produced by the system and their quantity. For example, a production order can mean that 2000 left fenders are to be formed as components in vehicle construction using the system. Thus, advantageously as the system is a Press or, in order to obtain semi-finished products for forming the components, operated a blanking line. The method can thus be used particularly advantageously in the series production of motor vehicle components.

It is advantageous for the method if the at least one state value of the semi-finished product describes at least one semi-finished product property and/or the at least one state value of the component describes at least one component quality. In addition or as an alternative, it is advantageous if the at least one state value of the system describes at least one process parameter during the manufacture of the component or semi-finished product.

In order to use the one statistical value particularly advantageously for an analysis of the operation of the system and thus for the operation itself, in order to advantageously enable the production process or series production, it is advantageous if the at least one statistical value is a median, an average value, a quantile and/or a variance are determined, so that at least one meaningful value is determined as the at least one statistical value, by means of which, for example, irregularities in the production process can be detected.

At least two condition values are advantageously determined, so that the component quality and a further condition value are recorded as the at least one condition value. In this case, in addition to the at least one statistical value determined from these, a model value is determined which, for example, describes a correlation between component quality and the further condition value.

The time interval or the number of components, according to which at least one statistical value is calculated, takes place in particular as a function of a computing power of the electronic computing device, which determines the at least one statistical value.

In summary, with steps S1 to S4, a method is presented which calculates the at least one statistical characteristic value, the statistical value, with regard to semi-finished product properties, process parameters and/or component quality, in particular at regular time intervals, and stores the results in a second memory area, in particular designed as a database saves. This results in the possibility that for a statistical analysis it is not necessary to load or analyze the status values to be regarded as raw data, but to load the previously calculated at least one statistical value, in particular, for example, in the form of the median, the mean value of a quantile value and/or the variance can, as a result of which a statistical analysis takes up particularly little computing time of the electronic computing device or guarantees a particularly short access time to the memory area, as a result of which analyzes can be provided much more quickly and at the same time or additionally the memory size of the database does not have to be kept too large.

For example, the at least one status value can be calculated at time intervals, for example y=2 hours. With each execution, it is checked which production orders have been completed, for example, in the past x=14 days, and then a number n=20 orders is selected for the calculation of the at least one statistical value. The oldest orders are preferably always selected first. This procedure allows the load on the electronic computing device, which is connected to the system as a computing server, for example, or which can additionally or alternatively be a control device of the system, to be kept constant, and fluctuations in the amount of available data in the form of the status values or the at least one Statistical value, do not lead to an overload of the electronic computing device. For example, n can be determined on the basis of the production orders per unit of time. For example, fewer production orders can be queued at night and/or at the weekend and this time can therefore be used to recalculate older orders. In this case, n can also be determined in advance, for example by taking into account all production orders for the next 14 days and thus also being able to calculate them. Thus, time intervals with a particularly high volume of production orders can be advantageously processed by the method.

Said parameters x, y and n are determined based on available resources on the electronic computing device and additionally or alternatively also based on the number of incoming status values. In summary, this means that the state value can be calculated using the time interval, the specified number and/or the capacity of the computing power. With the method shown here, any number of systems, for example for an entire production line, in motor vehicle production can be operated together, in particular, or their manufacturing processes can be analyzed.

It is irrelevant whether the method is used for a system for manufacturing the finished component and/or for manufacturing the semi-finished product. In other words, it is irrelevant whether the production order relates to a blanking line and/or a press line. The at least one statistical value can also be determined with regard to different reference variables, such as a coil, an order from a blanking system, an order from a press line and/or other variables for grouping data, in particular production data of the system.

In particular, one advantage of the method is that long-term storage of all raw data, i.e. the condition values, which are based, for example, on sensor data and, for example, characterize a sheet metal thickness for a semi-finished product and are kept for each individually produced circuit board or for each individually produced component, is not proportionate expensive memory with fast access times must be kept available, which can lead to high costs in the long term. The method presented enables a particularly large aggregation of the data by summarizing them into at least one statistical value, which effectively achieves data compression. The method also offers the possibility of carrying out particularly cost-effective statistical analyses, particularly over a particularly long period of time. The data compression made possible by the method also makes it easier, for example, to pass on data, for example in order to use them for a simulation, for example of product properties of the components.

A further advantage is that, for example, based on the at least one statistical value, it is possible to draw conclusions about individual coils from which blanks have been cut and thus, for example, about the supplier of the coil. In this way, a manufacturer-dependent material quality can be determined and, in order to obtain a particularly high component quality, correspondingly advantageous material can be selected.

Reference List

S1

first step

S2

second step

S3

Third step

S4

fourth step

QUOTES INCLUDED IN DESCRIPTION

This list of documents cited by the applicant was generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Patent Literature Cited

• DE 102015221417 A1 [0007]

Claims (10)

Method for operating a system which is designed for series production of components, with the steps: - detecting at least one state value, which characterizes a state of a semi-finished product on which one of the components is based and/or a state of one of the components and/or a state of the system, for each component during a time interval in which the system is being operated; (S1) - Storing the at least one detected state value for each component in a first memory area (S2); - determining at least one statistical value from the at least one stored status value after the time interval has ended and/or the at least one status value has been recorded for a predetermined number of components; (S3) and - Storing the at least one statistical value in a second memory area. (S4) procedure after claim 1 , characterized in that the number of components is specified by a manufacturing instruction. procedure after claim 1 or 2 , characterized in that a blanking machine and/or a press is operated as the system. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the at least one status value of the semi-finished product describes at least one semi-finished product property and/or that the at least one status value of the component describes at least one component quality. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the at least one state value of the system describes at least one process parameter when manufacturing the component and/or when manufacturing the semi-finished product. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a median, a mean value, a quantile and/or a variance is determined as the at least one statistical value. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the component quality and a further condition value are recorded as the at least one condition value and a model value is determined in addition to the statistical value determined from these. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the time interval and/or the number is determined on the basis of the computing power of an electronic computing device which determines the at least one statistical value. Computer program, which can be loaded directly into a memory of an electronic computing device, with program means to carry out the steps of the method according to one of Claims 1 until 8th to be executed when the program is executed in an electronic computing device. Electronically readable data carrier with electronically readable control information stored thereon, which at least one computer program claim 9 include and are designed such that when using the data carrier in an electronic computing device, a method according to one of Claims 1 until 8th carry out.

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