JPH0616982B2 - Logistics control device - Google Patents

Description

Description: FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a physical distribution control system, and more particularly to a physical distribution control system in an automated processing factory.

[Background of the Invention]

In an automated processing factory, various types of workpieces are processed using a plurality of processing devices. When processing by the processing device is completed, decide when and when to perform the next processing, considering the delivery completion date of the workpiece, efficiency of processing work, minimization of the amount of work in process between processing devices, etc. is doing. According to this determination, the transfer device is instructed to carry out the work to the processing device immediately downstream. These processes are repeated.

In order to smoothly perform these processes in the automated processing factory, it is natural that the reliability of the control function of each device is important, and the reliability of the management function is particularly important. This is because automated processing plants often operate the system unattended and cannot get human help.

Therefore, in the conventional management method, a method has been adopted in which all data in the factory is taken in by a central computer, and work instructions are issued from this computer. (Note that this central computer is referred to as the centralized management computer here.) This method is a high-performance system because it keeps track of the entire situation of the processing factory when the centralized management computer is operating normally. Functional control can be realized. However, it had the following drawbacks.

If the centralized management computer fails, there is no substitute for the function of this computer, and the physical distribution control of the processing plant cannot be performed at all.

The software installed in the central management computer is
It is a model system that includes processing equipment and transport equipment.
Further, in many cases, an algorithm that depends on the characteristics of the processing device or the transfer device is incorporated. Therefore, when updating the equipment, it is necessary to modify the software of the centralized management computer, and the amount of work for the modification and expansion becomes enormous.

[Object of the Invention]

An object of the present invention is to control a plurality of processing devices by their respective computers in order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and to manage the processing devices immediately upstream and downstream of the processing device in synchronization with the movement of the work. By transmitting to each computer
It is an object of the present invention to provide a physical distribution control system that gives work instructions for processing and transportation in accordance with the status of a processing apparatus, which changes moment by moment, and the status of a workpiece.

[Outline of Invention]

The present invention, in place of the conventional centralized management computer, disperses the computers for each processing device so that each computer can control the operation of the processing device and exchange data between these computers. In order to perform the above, a data transmission device is provided.

With such a computer configuration, even if an arbitrary computer fails, other devices except the computer and the processing device controlled by the computer can operate normally. As a result, it is possible to make the management function of the physical distribution on the site highly reliable.

The present invention configures the following on-site physical distribution control system in order to smoothly perform physical distribution control at a processing factory when such a computer configuration is adopted.

Currently, the processing plant to be managed usually has the following characteristics.

(i) The processing sequence of the work and the type of processing device to be used at that time have already been determined at the design stage.

(ii) The movement of the work is slow. That is, it has an in-process inventory for the processing device.

As described above, when the machining order of the workpieces is known and the movement speed of the workpieces is not high, it is not necessary to grasp the status of all the machining apparatuses one by one and simultaneously. That is, it suffices to grasp the situation of the processing devices directly upstream and downstream, which are directly related to the processing device.

As described above, with the proposed computer configuration, the management function can be made highly reliable, and the drawback of the conventional system "discontinuation of physical distribution and control when the centralized management computer fails" can be solved.

Furthermore, the drawback of the conventional method "difficulty in software maintenance and expansion" is dealt with as follows.

By increasing the quality of the computer software assigned to each processing device, it is possible to easily deal with the increase in the number of processing devices. Also, as for software maintenance, only the original software can be maintained, and the others can be duplicated.
The expandability and maintainability of software can be improved.

The present invention is based on the above idea and has improved the conventional drawbacks.

Example of Invention

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on examples and drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an automated processing factory. In the figure, 1 is a processing device group, 2 is a conveying device, and 3 is a data transmission device. The processing device group 1 is composed of a plurality of processing devices 11, 12, ....

FIG. 2 shows the details of the processing device 11, and FIG. 3 shows the details of the carrying device 21. Since FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are similar, the details of the processing apparatus will be described below mainly with reference to FIG.

The processing device 11 includes a processing facility 11-1 and a central processing unit 11-2 that controls the processing facility 11-1. The processing facility 11-1 includes a processing device 116, a storage device (front) 117, and a storage device (rear) 118. The processing equipment 116 performs processing and transfer of workpieces from the storage equipment (front) 117 to the processing equipment 116, and the processing equipment 116 to the storage equipment (rear) 11.
The work is transferred to 8. The storage device (front) 117 is
The unprocessed work in the processing device 116 is stored, and the storage device (rear) 118 stores the work processed by the processing device 116, respectively.

On the other hand, the central processing unit 11- which controls the processing equipment 11-1
The reference numeral 2 denotes an interface unit (device control input / output interface 113,) which exchanges information with the arithmetic unit 112 (this function will be described in detail later).
It comprises a data file interface 114, an input / output interface 111) to and from a transmission device, and a data file 115 stored in a computing mechanism 112. The equipment control input / output interface gives a work instruction to the processing equipment 116 and receives a work completion signal. I / O signals of the work are received from the storage device.

Further, the data transfer between the central processing unit 11-2 and another central processing unit is performed by the network controller 311.
Through.

On the other hand, the carrier device 216 in FIG. 3 has the following functions.

Transfer of work on transfer device 216 to storage device (front) 117 Transfer of work on storage device (rear) 118 to transfer device 216 Incidentally, the central processing unit 21-2 is 11 in FIG. Since it is the same as -1, the description is omitted here.

Now, the information necessary for controlling the processing / conveying operation of the automated processing factory is as shown in FIG.

Work information = (work identification information, processing route / condition information, processing information, tool information) Processing equipment information = (processing equipment current status information, storage equipment (previous) current status information,
Storage device (after) present condition information) Transfer device information = (transfer work content information, track route) By the way, the main functions of the central processing unit 11-2 which controls the processing facility 11-1 are as follows.

Machining Control of Machining Equipment 116 Determining Workpieces to be Machined Next by Machining Equipment 116 Determining Workpieces to In and Out of Machining Equipment 116 Data Transmission Management Hereinafter, these four functions will be described.

Machining control of the machining equipment 116 This is the same as the operation control of the machining equipment in a normal automatic machining factory, and prepares for machining (for example, transfer of a workpiece to the machining equipment, loading of a tool into the machining equipment, and NC tape controller The processing is advanced while coordinating the load) operation sequence and the processing operation sequence. When all the processing is completed, the end signal is received and the transfer instruction and the transfer of the work from the processing device to the storage device (rear) are performed.

Determination of processing sequence in the processing equipment 116 will be described with reference to FIG. This function is activated when the machining device is first operated and when machining of a work is completed by the machining device 116. At this timing, it is confirmed whether processing is possible. That is, it is checked whether or not the current state of the processing equipment, the presence or absence of a work to be processed, NC information for processing these works, and whether the tools are prepared. If it is ready, which work should be machined next should be considered from the viewpoint of time (i) vs. outside the machining factory, considering the synchronization with the assembly factory, etc. (ii) This will be implemented by examining the aspects of processing work in order to improve work efficiency in the processing plant.

It is necessary to determine the machining order of the work from both sides. However, the method of determining the machining order of the work, that is, the algorithm, differs depending on various conditions. Therefore, here, as an example, FIG. 6 shows that the next processing work can be determined only from the current status information of the processing device (including storage device) and the processing device immediately upstream or downstream (including storage device). Will be specifically exemplified.

Work information in the storage device (front) is read, and the latest and earliest work start date of those works is calculated. On the other hand, a work having a similar work content is selected. Therefore, the work of the same or similar work is put together as much as possible within the range where the processing shop completion delivery date is satisfied. In this way, the next processing work can be determined in consideration of processing workability and time.

Determining work to be carried in (out) from (to) the processing equipment 116 If the processing equipment 116 is an open process now, an allocation method that selects a work that is convenient for the processing equipment immediately upstream is selected. However, on the contrary, for the processing equipment on the downstream side, the problem is how quickly the work in the storage equipment (rear) is processed, so the indentation method is effective in each case. The take-up method is shown in FIG. 7 and the push-in method is shown in FIG.

Since the processing method is basically similar, only the case of the take-back method will be described.

This function works when, when the transfer of the work to the processing equipment is completed, the in-process status of the storage equipment (front) does not meet a certain level. (If the status of work in progress exceeds a certain level, leave a margin so that other work can be accepted.) At such times, processing is completed by inquiring the current status of processing equipment immediately upstream. Check the existence of the work. Similar to the rule for determining the processing sequence, the work to be transported is determined here also from the time side and the processing operation side. If it is decided, in order to prevent it from being taken out to another processing device and double-processed, a reservation for carrying is scheduled. At the same time, a transport request is output to the transport device.

Data transmission management There are roughly two types of data transmission.

i) Transmission of work information in synchronization with movement of work ii) Transmission for various inquiries and their responses i) is one of the features of the proposed method. When the work is moved, the set of work identification information and the processing route / condition information is transmitted to the data file of each central processing unit that controls the processing devices immediately upstream and downstream of the processing device.
In this way, since the information is also moved in synchronization with the movement of the work, the reliability of the data becomes high.

ii) provides relevant information when making various inquiries and requests.
It is to inform the other party's data file. On the contrary, the responses to these inquiries and requests are similarly transmitted.

(1) According to the present embodiment, a computer is installed corresponding to each of a plurality of processing devices and a transport device, and data is stored in a distributed manner to control distribution in a factory in correspondence with transmission of management data. can do. As a result, it is possible to realize the automatic operation in the unmanned factory, since it is possible to adapt to the ever-changing equipment status and work-in-progress status while satisfying the processing completion delivery date in the processing factory.

(2) By installing a computer for each device and storing data in a distributed manner, the reliability of the system of the entire factory can be achieved.

Even if a device or a computer fails, another device or computer that has not failed can operate normally. That is, the failure can be localized without the failure being propagated to the entire factory. At the time of recovery from the failure, the data related to the failed device or computer may be recovered.

(3) By transferring the data corresponding to the movement of the work, it is possible to prevent inconsistency between the work and its information, and improve the reliability of the data.

(4) It is possible to improve the expandability and maintainability of the software by homogenizing the software.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, a computer is installed corresponding to a plurality of facilities, and the management data relating to the facilities connected to each computer and the objects related to the facilities are distributed and stored, thereby supporting distribution of management data. Can be controlled.

[Brief description of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a functional block diagram of an automated processing plant, Fig. 2,
FIG. 3 is a detailed functional block diagram of the processing device and the transfer device, FIG. 4 is an information item for controlling the processing / transfer device, and FIG. 5 is a flow chart for determining the processing sequence. The figure shows an example of the processing order determination algorithm, No. 7
FIG. 8 and FIG. 8 are flow charts for determining a work to be transported. 1 ... Processing device group, 11, 12 ... Processing device, 11-1
…… Processing equipment, 116 …… Processing equipment, 117 …… Storage equipment (front), 118 …… Storage equipment (rear), 11-2 …… Central processing unit, 111 …… Input / output interface to transmission device, 112 ... Arithmetic mechanism, 113 ... Equipment control input / output interface, 114 ... Data file interface, 115 ... Data file, 2 ... Transport device, 21 ... Transport device, 216 ... Transport device, 21- Two
...... Central processing unit, 211 ...... Input / output interface to transmission device, 212-arithmetic mechanism, 213 ...... Device control input / output interface, 214 …… Data file interface, 215 …… Data file, 3 …… Data transmission device, 311, 312 ... Network controller with processing device, 321. Network controller with transportation device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When transporting an object between a plurality of facilities,
A computer that manages data related to the target object is provided corresponding to the equipment of the transportation source and the equipment of the transportation destination of the target object, and the computer provided at the transportation source corresponds to the transportation of the target object. A physical distribution control device, which transfers data regarding the object to a computer provided at the destination.