Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Product assembly or manufacturing
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-06
2004-02-10
Picard, Leo (Department: 2125)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Product assembly or manufacturing
C700S014000, C700S174000, C702S176000, C702S178000, C702S187000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06690985
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method for the hybrid-automated monitoring of production machines, in which production information, in particular with respect to the capacity utilization, with respect to the reliability and/or with respect to the availability of the production machine, can be generated.
Methods for generating such production information in which evaluation statuses are assigned to a production machine are conceivable. In this case, an operator of the production machine has to switch back and forth between the various evaluation statuses. Depending on which evaluation status the production machine is in, an amount of time which corresponds to the time period in which the production machine is in the evaluation status concerned is credited to a time account assigned to the evaluation status. At the end of a production cycle, the counter readings of the various time accounts can be inquired. The productivity of the production machine is then obtained as a quotient of the amount of the time account, which corresponds to the production status of the production machine, and the overall running time of the production machine.
In the case of such a method, it is disadvantageous that manual inputs of an operator of the production machine are required for the transition between various evaluation statuses. Such manual inputs are often forgotten or even intentionally incorrectly made to make the production result look better.
According to an adaptive procedure, it is also conceivable for the transitions between various evaluation statuses to be undertaken in accordance with events that are picked up on the production machine. Many production machines are provided with status lamps, which switch back and forth between “red”, “green”, “yellow” and “red+yellow”, depending on the operating status of the production machine. It is consequently conceivable for an evaluation status of “processing” and another evaluation status of “no processing” to be established, operating times of the production machine then being credited to a time account assigned to the evaluation status of “processing” when the status lamp is in the “green” status. Times are credited to the other time account, for the evaluation status of “no production”, when the status indicator is in the “red”, “yellow” or “red+yellow” statuses.
In the case of this adaptive procedure, it is advantageous that the automated registering of events allows an operator-independent crediting of time periods to the time accounts to be performed. Incorrect inputs are ruled out in this case. However, in the case of such adaptive methods, it is disadvantageous that the production information obtained is very inaccurate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a method for the hybrid-automated monitoring of production machines in which more accurate production information is obtained.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a method for operating a production machine in order to generate production information, which includes steps of:
setting up an evaluation status model having a plurality of evaluation statuses, each one of the plurality of the evaluation statuses having precisely one respective time account corresponding thereto;
setting up an interpretation status model having a plurality of statuses, transitions between the plurality of the statuses of the interpretation status model being established in accordance with events that can be picked up on the production machine;
assigning the plurality of the statuses of the interpretation status model to the plurality of the statuses of the evaluation status model; and
while operating the production machine, increasing the time account of an applicable one of the plurality of the evaluation statuses, which is applicable at a particular time, by an amount corresponding to a time period in which the production machine is in the applicable one of the plurality of the evaluation statuses.
The method according to the invention has the step of setting up an interpretation status model. In this case, transitions between statuses of the interpretation status model are established in accordance with the events which can be picked up on the production machine. Furthermore, the step of assigning statuses of the interpretation status model to statuses of the evaluation status model is provided.
Unlike in the case of the known methods, in the case of the inventive procedure, a particularly fine breakdown of the evaluation status model can be performed. It is possible for the time periods in which the production machine is in the evaluation status concerned to be assigned particularly accurately.
In this case, events which cannot be included in the assignment when only an evaluation status model is being used can also advantageously be picked up on the production machine and used for the assignment according to the invention. The inventive provision of an additional interpretation status model of the production machine advantageously allows these events to be used to assign time periods, in which the production machine is in certain statuses, accurately to the correct evaluation status. As a result, the accuracy of the generation of production information is improved considerably.
In an advantageous development of the invention, when setting up the interpretation status model, transitions between the statuses are established in accordance with the inputs made by an operator of the production machine. If such inputs are provided as events which correspond to transitions between statuses of the interpretation status model, the accuracy of the production information generated according to the invention can be increased considerably. This is because it is not possible in the case of many production machines for all of the statuses of the production machine to be established just on the basis of events that can be picked up in an automated manner on the production machine itself. For example, it is possible with additional inputs of an operator to distinguish between the operation of a production machine in a test phase and the operation of the same production machine in a production phase.
According to the invention, both operator inputs and events automatically picked up on the production machine are used for determining the operating status of the production machine applicable at a particular time. The operating status can be derived by using the operator inputs and the automatically picked-up events from the interpretation status model of the production machine and can be accurately assigned to a corresponding main status of the evaluation status model. The respectively applicable main status of the production machine is accordingly dependent on the type and sequence of the events of the production machine that have occurred and on their interpretation and prioritizing according to the main status of the interpretation status model.
The manual inputs of the operator can in this case be described by a status model and can be used as events of the interpretation status model. The manual inputs of the operator of the production machine can be performed on a keypad, on a terminal, on a standard keyboard or on a touch-sensitive screen or touchscreen and can picked up from there.
This allows a further increase in the accuracy of the generated production information to be achieved.
According to a further advantageous configuration of the invention, signals can be picked up from sensors, in particular from buffer sensors, from pressure sensors and from indexers of the production machine. These signals can be used as events in the interpretation status model in order to further improve the accuracy of the assignment of the time periods, in which the production machine is in certain operating statuses, to the correct evaluation status. In this case, the signals of the sensors can assume discrete statuses and can be described by a sensor status model.
Haller Martin
Haueis Norbert
Greenberg Laurence A.
Infineon - Technologies AG
Mayback Gregory L.
Picard Leo
Rodriguez Paul
LandOfFree
Method for the hybrid-automated monitoring of production... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method for the hybrid-automated monitoring of production..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method for the hybrid-automated monitoring of production... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3345531