WO2014137205A1

WO2014137205A1 - Electronic system for the acquisition, transmission and analysis, in real time, of all of the relevant information about the production flow in a manufacturer environment

Info

Publication number: WO2014137205A1
Application number: PCT/MA2013/000013
Authority: WO
Inventors: Moaad EL ABOUDI
Original assignee: El Aboudi Moaad
Priority date: 2013-03-04
Filing date: 2013-06-06
Publication date: 2014-09-12

Abstract

In manufacturer production communities consisting either of physical people or machines, the invention is an electronic management system consisting of an set of electronic systems that allow all the relevant information about the start and the end of the execution of production tasks (10) to be acquired in real time, by means of sensors and mechanisms. Said information is collected and sent to a central system (14) by electronic systems, in the form of reports. Once the reports have arrived at the central system, they are saved in databases (15) in order to perform a set of analysis activities, in real time, on the production flow, at every work station or along all of the production chains.

Description

DESCRIPTION

1. Field of invention

The invention is positioned in the field of MES (ManufacturingExecutionSystems). It can be implemented in any small, medium or large manufacturing company. It is a real-time management system of production in manufacturing environments, where the work is performed by individuals or by machinas.

State of the art of existing techniques and description of its problematic

GPACi (Computer Assisted Production) is an effective way of managing production in a company.

Currently, the most common method used by manufacturers is the monitoring of the production using bar codes. However this solution is expensive (requires to assign n or more people for the generation of bar codes at the beginning and for the sai if at the end of the working day), expensive (generates a lot of papers) and inconvenient because is not automated from start to finish.

Since the barcode systems are closely monitored, the returns are tracked with a one-day lag. Also, these yields represent only daily averages and give no indication of the real (or real-time) yields, nor the relevance of the time allocated for the performance.

In addition, the production of bar-codes gives much room for human error, and it does not predict or even act quickly on production problems.

3 ': ^"pr." The irverction

One of the aims of this invention is to provide practical solutions to some of the limitations of the aforementioned existing systems.

The first assumption that the invention provides a concrete solution is real-time acquisition: all the events that take place in a production environment.

On the one hand, an electrical or electronic system consisting of sensors / mechanisms is installed at each work station. This system is operated

or "namiellement) per user you (or machine) every time it Ρ - ^ ^* · ΓΟ.. e 'f !. rjn omro-ends) operation This system can consist of an in e. an RFID antenna, a potentiometer (to identify the operation), a sensor; (-: i ^ ro NCE of espacîtance, current, force, bending, infrared, of lur - rie .- r "i 3 ^1: c -, sound, temperature, pressure, d acceleration, etc.) or ur i ir i τ:... · ϊ; ηη ¹ -JS.. .jx had more of the above technologies. On the other hand, a second electronic system intercepts the signals sent by the sensors / mechanisms. This system checks that these signals are valid (and not electrical noises) and the interpreters before sending instantaneously information on the operations that took place in the central system. This information may contain: the employee identification codes or the machine that operated the system, the operation that was performed, and the extension number in which the operation was performed.

Each production line or group of workstations has its own embedded electronic system. This system processes all the signals it receives and, therefore, identifies all events that occur in the production line (or workstations) and sends them to the central system.

The central electronic system is responsible for intercepting all signals or production data. This is a set of relevant reports that provide an accurate and real-time view of the production of workstations (or production lines).

Using the reports received by the central system, it is possible to extract information such as:

At the level of operations management:

- perfect knowledge of standard production times;

Real-time monitoring of production

The impact of scheduling of operations on productivity;

Traceability of products during manufacture;

The presence of bottlenecks and critical paths;

The problems of stopping or malfunctioning of the stations in real time;

Actual quantity of finished products and stocks in progress;

Estimated delivery dates for orders;

The precise time lost at each hazard.

At the level of human resources management:

The productivity of each employee;

The unproductive times of employees and their occupancy rates;

Movements of employees during production;

Versatility of employees;

The degree of achievement of the objectives;

- The contribution of each employee to the production.

At the level of financial management:

Precise calculation of production costs and cost prices

Financial profitability 4. Description of the drawings

After briefly describing the invention in the preceding sections, reference will be made in the following sections to the following figures. Note that these figures are not necessarily scaled:

Figure 1 - Electronic Systems Connected to Workstations 10

AT; Sensor / Mechanism

B: Electronic system

C: Workstation

D: Central system

E: Database

F: Production line

Figure 2 - Using a push button to signal an event 10

A: Push button mechanism

B: Microcontroller

Figure 3 - Analog / Digital Conversion with a Push Button and Potentiometer 11

A: Push button mechanism combined with a potentiometer

B: Microcontroller

Figure 4 - RFID Sensor 11

A: RFID reader

B: RFID antenna

C: Microcontroller

Figure 5 - Recording the VS intensity duration of a noise signal 12

Figure 6 - Bouncing effect 12

5. Detailed description of the invention

This part gives a detailed description of the operation of the invention.

5.1. Acquisition of signals / data

In order to record all the start and end events of the production tasks, we thought to install sensors / mechanisms in all the workstations.

All the sensors / mechanisms of a production line or a group of workstations are connected to an on-board electronic system. Each embedded system will be responsible for recording, processing and interpreting the signals or data that will be sent to it by the sensors / mechanisms of a production line (Figure 1).

In this way, electrical signals will be routed to embedded electronic systems whenever there are relevant events taking place in the workstations.

The electrical signals are generated by the automatic or manual activation of the sensors / mechanisms.

A sensor / mechanism in our case is an electrical or electronic component that generates signals or sends data whenever it is activated. The generated signals are then routed to on-board electronic systems for analysis and interpretation.

5.1.1. Examples of the mechanisms used

The first mechanism is the push button. A pushbutton is used to send an electrical signal to the on-board electronic system whenever it is operated by the operator {Figure 2). The embedded system is equipped with a microcontroller which records the received signal, processes it, and sends a report to the central system.

The second mechanism used is the push button combined with a potentiometer. This mechanism is similar to the first. Indeed, the signal is sent during the actuation of the push button. However, the power of the sent signal varies depending on the position of the potentiometer (thanks to a variable resistor). After confirming the validity of the received signal, the embedded system microcontroller performs Analogue / Digital (ADC) conversion to evaluate the power of this signal and send it to the central system (Figure 3). This second mechanism allows the operator to select and send several signals, depending on the nature of the task he is performing. 5.1.2. The sensors used

One of the sensors uses RFID technology. In fact, an RFID antenna is installed in each workstation and a unique RFID tag is assigned to each employee. The RFID antenna is connected to an RFID reader and continually searches for the presence of an RFID tag nearby.

Once an employee begins or completes a task, he positions his tag near the RFID antenna, which detects the presence of the tag and sends electrical signals to the RFID reader (Figure 4). The RFID reader detects the signals in turn, decrypts them and sends the identifier of the tag detected to the microcontroller. The latter transmits the identifier to the central system. This method is particularly interesting in the case of employee mobility in the work environment. Because each employee has a unique RFID tag ID, employees can perform their tasks without being assigned to a particular workstation. It suffices that they scan their tags where they are and their ID will be sent to the central system and the ID of the workstation.

5.2. Processing and validation of received signals

All the mechanisms / sensors presented in the previous section operate in TTL (Transistor Transistor Logic) logic. In other words, all the signals generated and captured are of the order of 5V ± 5%.

However, false signals can be generated because of the following phenomena.

a) Electric noise

False signals can be generated because of the distance that can exist between the mechanisms / sensors and the microcontrollers. The proximity of low-voltage wires (which connect mechanisms / sensors to microcontrollers) and high-voltage wires (usually power leads of stations and work equipment) can also be a significant source of electrical noise.

These noise signals must be identified and eliminated in order to avoid the recording of false events and thus to bias (distort or lose events) the monitoring of the production.

b) The rebound effect

Some mechanisms such as mechanical switches can generate electrical bounce. At the time of connection or disconnection, the contacts of some mechanisms may bounce and generate false events (Error! Source of return not found.).

c) Confirmation method

The method used to identify noise signals and the rebound effect is the method we call confirmation. Intrinsically and experimentally, the noise and bounce signals are amplitude and random frequency signals (Figures 5 and 7). The confirmation method consists of double reading the signal received by the microcontroller. The first reading (SI) is made upon detection of a signal and the second (S2) is after a certain time interval, defined according to the type of mechanism or sensor. If the signals S1 and S2 are equivalent, the microcontroller concludes that the received signal is valid and that it is in the presence of a real event. However, if the signals S1 and S2 are not equivalent, the microcontroller concludes that the received signals are noises and ignores them (see the following figure).

5.3. Transmission of production reports

The transmission of the reports is done following the reception of signals / data of the sensors / mechanisms. This transmission is done wirelessly using a Zigbee, Wi-Fi, radio or cellular network; and this, from all the production lines to the central system.

5.4. Consideration of the number of workstations

In some industries, the number of workstations may be high (50 or more workstations), so the management of signals / data from the mechanisms / sensors used becomes more expensive.

Consequently, for economic reasons and in order to minimize the number of on-board electronic systems (microcontroller), multiplexers will be used to group the signals / data received from the mechanisms / sensors and send them to the on-board electronic systems. Several multiplexers (16 or 32 channels such as CD4067BE) are used and programmed to group signals and data and route them to the relevant microcontrollers.

Claims

1- An electronic management system consisting of a method and a device for acquiring, analyzing and presenting in real time all the relevant information on the start and the end of execution of the production tasks, in order to to optimally manage a production environment.

Characterized in that it comprises:

Mechanisms and sensors (10) operated manually or automatically by operators or machines;

Electronic systems (12) connected to the aforementioned mechanisms and sensors, capable of intercepting the signals generated by the latter and • transmitting reports in real time (13);

Central electronic system (14) capable of intercepting the reports sent by the aforementioned electronic systems and transmitting them to databases (15);

U'-) computer system capable of storing said reports and performing a set of analysis activities to display a dashboard containing real-time information on production, human and financial resources.

2- An electronic management system according to the preceding claim, further comprising:

One or more FID sensors, proximity, capacitance, current, force, bending, light, radiation, sound, temperature, pressure, linear and angular accelerations, infrared sensors, a combination of two or more of the above technologies; One or more mechanisms such as switches and analog or digital potentiometers.

3- An electronic management system according to the Claim ^era, further comprising:

Electronic systems connected to the aforementioned mechanisms and sensors through patch panels using parallel ports and R.I9 or RJ45 connectors;

electronic systems are capable of intercepting and verifying the validity of the signals or data received, of interpreting them, of summarizing them and of sending reports in real time (13); The electronic systems are capable of sending the aforementioned reports with or without wire (13).

An electronic management system according to the preceding claims, characterized in that it allows a work process based on the collection of information about the execution time of the tasks and the identification of the persons who executed them. .