JPH05265952A - Distributed cim system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify a management, to improve a reliability, and to suppress a cost up even at the time of specifying only a certain specific function. CONSTITUTION:A host network A is constituted of MMI terminals 11-13, application server 14, file server 15, and application gate way 16. The MMI terminals 11-13 on which storage devices for file preservation, or applications are not mounted, allows the application server 14 to execute the application, and allows the file server 15 to execute the storage and reading of a file based on a server/ client system. The application gate way 16 operates the protocol conversion of entire layers between a slave network B and the host network A, and also operates the conversion between character data handled by the application server 14 or the file server 15 or the like and bit data handled by a PLC 21 or a POP terminal 22 of the slave network.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a distributed CIM system connected to a network and configured by computers in a distributed environment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the improvement in performance of workstations (hereinafter referred to as WS) and personal computers, and the development of network technology, applications that used to operate only on general-purpose large-scale computers have been used to connect WS and personal computers to the network. It is starting to be downsized on connected distributed systems. The downsizing of large machines in this distributed system has the advantage that it is more expandable than the centralized system of conventional general-purpose large machines, and the system price is much cheaper than when it is built with a large computer. There is.

FIG. 2 shows an example of such a distributed CIM system.

In this system, in the upper network A, the manufacturing department, the materials department, and the production engineering department, and the computer devices 1 to 5 connecting the upper network A and the lower network B, the production plan, the inventory management, and the equipment. management,
By assigning jobs such as production instructions and production information collection, it is possible to construct a system gradually while making the most of each adjustment.

Therefore, these computer devices 1 to
In all five, applications corresponding to each job are installed in a memory such as a ROM, and disk devices 1 to 5a for storing files such as data collected from the lower network B and execution results of applications.
It also has displays 1 to 5b and has a file management function and a man-machine interface function.

[0006] In other words, the production planning computer device 1 stores the sales plan from the sale and the order / sales status, the application for production planning / process planning is executed, and the inventory management computer device 2 uses parts. The inventory status, daily production results, and production plan are filed, the application for obtaining proper inventory is executed, and the equipment management computer 3 has the production plan filed, and the application for managing the equipment is The production instruction computer apparatus 4 executes an application for sending the production instruction to the lower network based on the production plan, and the production information collecting computer apparatus 5 executes the inventory management computer apparatus 2
An application that collects the daily production record required for inventory management of the above from the lower network B is executed.

[0007]

By the way, when such a distributed CIM system is applied to a factory production management system or the like, each computer device having a storage device for storing files and an application is dispersed in the factory. However, management and maintenance will become complicated, and its reliability will be required.

[0008] WS that constitutes a distributed CIM system
Since computer devices such as computers and personal computers are not specialized functions but are general-purpose machines, when improving the reliability of the distributed CIM system, they are equivalent in this system as indicated by the broken line in FIG. In many cases, the function WS and personal computer are added to this system to make it a redundant system, and the cost is increased. In other words, even if a hardware trouble occurs, in order for the production planning application to continue operating, it is necessary to multiplex the computer device itself equipped with the new production planning application. Peripheral devices such as displays and disk devices will also be multiplexed.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and facilitates management / maintenance to improve reliability, and cost increase can be achieved even when only a specific function is specialized. An object is to provide a distributed CIM system that can be suppressed.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a host network to which a plurality of computer devices are connected so that they can communicate with each other and a subordinate network to which various control devices in a factory are connected. In a distributed CIM system constructed by connecting to a network, an application server in which the higher level network is loaded with various applications, executes the various applications, and a storage device for storing files that are execution results of the application servers. A file server for accessing the storage device and the storage device for storing the application and the file without installing the application server, and the application server causes the application server to execute the application and display the execution result on a display or the like. Along with displaying And a plurality of man-machine interface terminal to save the file to the file server,
It is connected to the lower network, performs protocol conversion of all layers between the lower network and the upper network, and the information handled by the application server, the file server and the man-machine interface terminal and various control devices of the lower network are And an application gateway that performs data conversion with information to be handled.

[0011]

In the host network, the man-machine interface terminal does not have a storage device for storing an application or a file, but the server / client method causes the application server to execute the application and displays the execution result on a display or the like. The file resulting from the execution is stored in the file server.

Further, the application gateway is
Protocol conversion of all layers is performed between the lower network and the upper network, and data conversion between information handled by the application server, file server and man-machine interface terminal and information handled by various control devices of the lower network is performed.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a distributed CIM system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the distributed CIM system according to the present invention.

This distributed CIM system is constructed with a two-layer structure of an upper network A and a lower network B.

The upper network A is a manufacturing department, a materials department,
Multiple (three in this example) man-machine interface (MMI) terminals 11 provided in each department such as the production engineering department.
To 13, an application server 14, a file server 15, and an application gateway 16 are connected to each other.

Each of the MMI terminals 11 to 13 does not have a storage device for storing files or an application, but has a keyboard, an arithmetic processing unit (CPU) dedicated to input / output, a RAM as a main memory, a program for starting this terminal, etc. R that stores
An OM or the like is provided, and the result of executing the application by the application server 14 by the server / client method is displayed on a display or the like, and the file server 15 is caused to store / read the file and execute only the input / output processing of the application. It is configured.

In the case of the present embodiment, the application server 14 executes applications such as production planning for the manufacturing department, inventory management for the materials department, and facility management for the production engineering department.
Installed on OM etc. and C for application execution
A PU and a RAM as a main memory are provided, and when a request is made from the MMI terminals 11 to 13 by the server / client method, the requested application is executed.

The file server 15 is provided with a storage device such as a disk device 15a for storing a file which is an execution result of the application server 14 and a job, that is, a file necessary for executing an application, and is dedicated to writing and reading. It is provided with a CPU, a ROM, a RAM and the like, and is configured to access the disk device 15a.

The application gateway 16 is connected to the lower network B having a protocol layer different from that of the upper network A, and the application layer (O) is connected between the upper network A and the lower network B.
In addition to performing protocol conversion up to the 7th layer of the SI reference model), it is equipped with an application for production instruction and production information collection, and batch processing of data in each terminal of the upper network A and data in each control device of the lower network B In addition to synchronizing with the real-time processing, the character data handled by the man-machine interface terminals 11 to 13, the application server 14 and the file server 15 and the bit data handled by various control devices of the lower network B are also converted. It is configured to send a production instruction based on the execution result of the production plan, and collect production information such as daily production results for inventory management.

In addition, the manufacturing department is a department which, in the factory function, makes a sales plan from the sales base, orders and accounts receivable on a monthly or daily basis, and a process plan corresponding to the production plan. , The materials department is a department that grasps the parts inventory based on the stock status of parts for making products and the daily manufacturing results, and manages the appropriate parts inventory based on the production plan. Based on this, it is a department that manages the equipment required for production.

The lower network B is provided in a line or the like in a factory, and a programmable controller (PLC) 21 for controlling production equipment on the line according to a production instruction from the upper network A and a production amount are controlled. It is configured by connecting various control devices of a point of product (POP) terminal 22 that detects and collects the production status by inputting.

Next, the processing in the present system thus constructed will be described.

First, the MMI terminal 11 which is a client
However, for example, when an application for production planning is to be executed, a request for executing the application is sent to the application server 14, the application server 14 executes the application corresponding to the request, and the execution result is the MMI. It is returned to the terminal 11.

At this time, when the application server 14 executes the application by using the data such as the production status in the lower network B, the application server 14 sends a request for the production information collection to the application gateway 16 and the application gateway. 16 is the PLC 21 or POP of the lower network B
Production information (bit data) is collected from the terminal 22, converted into character data, and loaded into the application server 14.

In the MMI terminal 11, the execution result is displayed on the display, and when it is necessary to store it as a file, the request is sent to the file server 15 by the client / server method, and the file server 15 is stored in the storage device 15a. To the file.

When the MMI terminal 11 sends a production instruction to the lower network B, it sends a request to the application server 14, causes the application server 14 to output a production instruction request, and the application gateway 16 produces the request. The instruction application is executed to convert the character data into bit data and send it to the PLC 21 and the POP terminal 22 of the lower network B.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the MMI function for showing the execution result to a person is MMI terminals 11 to 13,
The function of the management system is the application server 14, the function of the control / information collection system is the application gateway 16,
The file management function for executing those functions is implemented by the system components such as the file server 15.
Since it is divided into two functions and this function unit is used as a configuration unit of this system and one function is assigned to each terminal, for example, in order to improve the reliability of production control,
It suffices to strengthen the application server 14 equipped with the production management application, or to multiplex the application server 14a as shown in the figure.
In addition, if only the file server 15 is strengthened in response to a request from the system that only the file system should not be broken, the terminal having a certain part of the application or function for which the reliability is to be improved is strengthened.
It can be multiplexed.

Therefore, it is not necessary to provide an extra terminal or peripheral device, etc., or to enhance the performance of all the terminals, a system with good cost performance can be constructed, and the same resources such as files are not scattered. As a result, efficient use of resources can be achieved and management and maintenance becomes easier.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, the host network A is provided with a plurality of MMI terminals provided with an arithmetic control unit dedicated to input / output without any storage device for storing applications and files, and various applications. An application server that is installed and executed, a file server that includes a storage device that stores a file that is the execution result of the application server, and a lower network B that is connected to a lower network B to perform protocol conversion of all layers as well as an upper network A. Since it was built with an application gateway that performs data conversion between the information to be handled and the information to be handled by the lower network B, when strengthening a certain application, it is only necessary to strengthen the application server equipped with that application, thus strengthening all terminals. No need to It is possible to build a good cost-performance system, by an amount corresponding to the same resource such as a file has not been dotted efficient management of resources is achieved becomes easy management and maintenance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a distributed CIM system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional example of a distributed CIM system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 to 13 man-machine interface terminal 14 application server 15 file server 16 application gateway A upper network B lower network

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification number Internal reference number FI technical display location H04L 29/06 (72) Inventor Goji Nakata 10 Hanazono Tudo-cho, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto City Omron Corporation

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A distributed CIM system constructed by connecting a host network to which a plurality of computer devices are connected so that they can communicate with each other and a lower network to which various control devices in a factory are connected, A higher-level network is equipped with various applications, includes an application server that executes the various applications, a storage device that stores a file that is the execution result of the application server, and a file server that accesses the storage device, A plurality of units that do not have the above-mentioned application or a storage device for storing files, and use the server / client method to cause the above-mentioned application server to execute the application and display the execution result on a display or the like, and save the file in the above-mentioned file server. The man-machine interface terminal is connected to the lower network, performs protocol conversion of all layers between the lower network and the upper network, and the information handled by the application server, the file server and the man-machine interface terminal and the lower layer. A distributed CIM system, comprising: an application gateway that performs data conversion with information handled by various control devices of a network.