JP2002366221A - System and method for adjusting production planning - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a means that selecting an optimum plant for manufacturing a corresponding product by objectively evaluating a date of delivery, cost and working rates of production facilities in manufacturing a corresponding item in the case of examining which plant to be requested to manufacture the item to be a problem on production planning among a plurality of other plants. SOLUTION: The date of delivery, cost and working rates of production facilities in manufacturing the item are objectively evaluated by evaluating results of a plant emulator that performs virtual production faster than real devices, and it is possible to select an optimum plant that manufactures the product in the case of examining which plant to be requested to manufacture the item to be a problem on production planning among the plurality of other plants.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for adjusting an item, which is a problem in a production plan of a certain factory, so as to be manufactured at another factory.
Coordinating where manufacturing should take place.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a make-to-order manufacturing mode in which expected production is not performed, an ordered product is divided into production orders, and a production order is considered in consideration of a delivery date compliance rate, an equipment operation rate, an intermediate stock amount, a cost, and the like. A production plan is created using a production plan creation means of various forms. The production planning unit ranges from a manually created production plan to a production plan using a so-called scheduler that operates on a computer system.

[0005] In addition to the scheduler, the improvement of the processing capability of a computer is realized by a system that virtually simulates a factory or a production line at the time of factory design or before the factory starts operating, and an emulator that mimics the operation of a device (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 7-325803) has provided a system for evaluating the operation time of a device even when there is no actual device, such as a lead time, a tact time, and a timing of an intermediate physical distribution.

[0004]

When a production plan is created manually or by computer processing, a production plan is created for each factory. The same applies to a case where there are a plurality of factories capable of manufacturing the same part or product. In this method, efficiency and cost in a certain factory can be considered, but there is a limit to overall efficiency and cost evaluation including other factories.

[0005] Also, the delivery date is not satisfactory, or
When solving a problem in a production plan, such as when there are items that cannot be efficiently produced at the production equipment of a certain factory, or when there is an item whose cost is reduced when produced at a certain factory, adjustments must be made within one factory. There was a limit to doing.

[0006] Regarding the issues in the above production plan,
It is conceivable that the production of the item in question is outsourced to another factory by hand.

[0007] However, in the method of outsourcing this manufacturing,
It is only necessary to judge whether there is room to add an item that is an issue to a production plan created at another factory, and even if it is possible to judge whether the delivery date is satisfactory, it was added. It is difficult to understand the impact of the plant on the plant.

[0008] Furthermore, the outsourcing of production at the production planning stage cannot take into account factors that occur during operation of the factory, such as distribution time at other factories, stagnation between processes, and suspension of production equipment, and distribution after shipment. However, the accuracy is insufficient.

In addition, it is difficult to determine whether or not outsourcing is really efficient when considering outsourcing across a plurality of factories, and it is difficult to determine production equipment and materials based on a production plan. There was a problem that it was actually manufactured by using it, and the result could only be known.

On the other hand, it is conceivable to evaluate the state of a factory when a certain item is manufactured in a certain factory using a simulation system such as a line simulator. , The value of a probability distribution such as a Poisson distribution is used, so that the calculation is only stochastic.

In addition, the line simulator sets the operation of each device in the form of inputting parameters, and usually has no interface with an external system. In order to perform a simulation, or to simulate each of a plurality of items, it is necessary to re-input all parameters each time, and it cannot be applied to daily problem solving.

[0012] Therefore, when considering a problem in a production plan to which of a plurality of other factories to outsource production, objectively evaluate the delivery date, cost, operation rate of production equipment, and the like due to the production of the item. Therefore, a need has arisen for a means for selecting an optimum factory for manufacturing the product.

[0013]

According to the present invention, it is possible to substantially eliminate or reduce the drawbacks and problems associated with outsourcing an item which is a problem in a conventional production plan to another factory. A production plan adjustment system and a method of operating the same, which can determine which factory is most efficient to manufacture as a whole, are provided.

A first business form of the present invention is a system for adjusting an item which is a problem in a production plan of a certain factory so as to manufacture the same in another factory, in which virtual production imitating actual equipment in the first factory is performed. A first factory emulator capable of transmitting request information and receiving response information, and a first evaluation calculation for calculating a plurality of evaluations based on virtual production results of the first factory emulator. And request information of the first factory emulator, performing virtual production imitating real equipment of the second factory, and response information from the result of the virtual production. And a second factory emulator interconnected with the first factory emulator, which can be transmitted to the first factory emulator, based on a virtual production result of the second factory emulator. hand And a second factory having second evaluation calculating means for calculating a plurality of evaluations.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the production plan adjustment system according to the first aspect, the request information transmitted by the first factory emulator includes a product number, a delivery date, a quantity, and a manufacturing specification. Information.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the production plan adjustment system according to the first aspect, the response information transmitted by the second factory emulator is the first type.
And information on the cost, lead time, equipment operation rate, and delivery date obtained as a result of virtually producing the item requested by the factory emulator in the second factory.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the production plan adjustment system according to the first aspect, the first factory emulator predicts an operation of an actual device in the first factory. It operates so as to perform virtual production based on the operation prediction means.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the production plan adjustment system according to the first aspect, the first operation predicting means includes operation history information of actual equipment in the first factory; According to the production performance information of the actual equipment in the first factory,
The operation status of the actual equipment in the first factory is predicted.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the production plan adjustment system according to the first aspect, the second factory emulator predicts an operation of an actual device in the second factory. It operates so as to perform virtual production based on the operation prediction means.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the production plan adjustment system according to the first aspect, the second operation predicting means includes the operation history information of actual equipment in the second factory and the second operation prediction information. The operation status of the actual equipment at the second factory is predicted according to the production result information of the actual equipment at the second factory.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the production plan adjustment system according to the first aspect, the first evaluation calculation means calculates the cost, the lead time, the equipment operation rate, and the delivery date as evaluation indexes. And a means for extracting an item for which the value of the evaluation index is an unfavorable problem.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for adjusting an item which is a problem in a production plan of a first factory so as to manufacture the item at another factory, wherein a plurality of first factory emulators of the first factory are provided. Interconnecting with another factory emulator of the first factory, performing the first virtual production by the first factory emulator by imitating real equipment of the first factory, Calculating an evaluation index in accordance with the result of virtual production, extracting a specific item having an unfavorable evaluation index to create request information, and transmitting the request information to a plurality of other factory emulators to generate a virtual Requesting the first factory emulator, receiving the request information of the first factory emulator, and creating the result of virtual production performed by each of the plurality of factory emulators as response information. Transmitting the response information to the first factory emulator; and presenting the first factory emulator which factory should produce the product based on the received response information. , Is provided.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the method according to the ninth aspect, the request information transmitted by the first factory emulator includes information of a product number, a delivery date, a quantity, and a manufacturing specification. It was made.

An eleventh aspect of the present invention is the method according to the ninth aspect, wherein the response information transmitted by the plurality of factories is a result of virtual production by each factory emulator of the plurality of factories. The information includes cost, lead time, equipment operation rate, and delivery date.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, a program for operating a computer as the production plan adjustment system according to the first to eighth aspects is provided by being recorded in a computer-readable recording medium. It is like that.

[0026]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a production plan adjustment system 1 according to the present invention, which includes a plurality of factories 10, 20, 30 capable of manufacturing the same parts or products.

The first factory 10 included in the production plan adjustment system 1 includes a factory emulator 11, an evaluation calculation unit 1,
2, the operation prediction means 13, the operation history collection system 14, and the scheduler 1 separately constructed.
5, a production management system 16 and an order management system 17 are provided.

The second factory 20 included in the production plan adjustment system 1 includes a factory emulator 21 and an evaluation calculating unit 2
2, the operation prediction means 23, the operation history collection system 24, and the scheduler 2 which are separately constructed.
5. It has a production management system 26 and an order management system 27.

The third factory 30 included in the production plan adjustment system 1 includes a factory emulator 31 and an evaluation calculation unit 3
2, the operation prediction means 33, the operation history collection system 34, and the scheduler 3 which are separately constructed.
5. It has a production management system 36 and an order management system 37.

The factory emulators 11, 21, 31
As shown in FIG. 1, they are mutually connected by a network, and can mutually transmit and receive request information and response information.

The number of factories and the positional relationship of the factories shown in FIG. 1 do not limit the scope of the present invention. The invention can also be applied to the physically separate factories shown in FIG. 1, or to separately designed parts within one factory, or to some combination of said separately designed parts. .

In FIG. 1, the three factories are connected to each other. However, if the request information and the response information can be appropriately exchanged, a connection in which the levels are set so that the factories have a hierarchical structure is established. You may do it. The arrangement shown in FIG. 1 is only selected for explanation.

In addition, in FIG. 1, production control systems 16, 26, 36, and
Although the order management systems 17, 27, and 37 are provided, it is needless to say that the system can be configured with a production management system or an order management system that controls a plurality of factories.

The only condition is that each factory has a factory emulator that simulates the operation of a real factory using production performance information and operation prediction of each factory.

In FIG. 1, the factories 10, 20, 30
Although the means and systems included in are described as functional blocks, in practice, these means and systems are to be realized using a computer, and from the viewpoint of hardware, information is A recording device for a computer for recording (magnetic disk, optical disk, etc.), an input device for giving instructions to the computer (keyboard, mouse, etc.), a CPU for performing calculations, a display device such as a CRT for displaying results, and exchange of information with other systems Network, interface, etc. Of course, this computer will incorporate software for implementing the method according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart in the factory 10 of extracting an item that is an issue in the production of the own factory and requesting another factory for virtual production including the item. The scheduler 15 includes an order management system 17
A production order is obtained from the order received from the company (step S110).

The factory emulator 11 performs virtual production 18 based on the operation prediction of the actual equipment calculated by the operation prediction means 13 and virtually producing the actual equipment while imitating the operation of the actual equipment according to the above-mentioned production plan ( Step S120).

The operation prediction means 13 operates to acquire the performance information of the factory 10 from the operation history collection system 14 and the production management system 16 and to predict the operation of the on-premise logistics facilities and the production facilities.

The evaluation calculation unit 12 indexes the results of the virtual production 18 and extracts items 40 that are issues in a production plan, such as items that are not in time for delivery, items that are expensive, and items that reduce the operation rate of production equipment. (Step S
130).

When there is a problem in the production plan, the factory emulator 11 connects the product number, the delivery date, the quantity, and the manufacturing specification of the item 40 to be processed to each other as the request information 51 by a network. To the factory emulators 21 and 31 to request virtual production in order to evaluate the result when manufacturing is performed at another factory (step S150).

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of each factory that has received the request information. Factory emulator 2
1 calculates an evaluation index for the request information 51 when the item 40 is manufactured at the factory 20.

The factory emulator 21 receives the request information 51 of the factory emulator 11 (step S21).
0).

The factory emulator 21 adds the information of the item 40 to the production plan created by the scheduler 25 based on the prediction of the operation prediction means 23, and imitates the on-premise logistics facilities and production facilities of the factory 20, and performs virtual production 28. Is performed (step S220).

The evaluation calculating means 22 calculates an evaluation index from the result of the virtual production 28 (Step S 230).

The factory emulator 21 has a manufacturing cost,
The response information 52 including the delivery cost, the lead time, the equipment operation rate, and the delivery date is created and transmitted to the factory emulator 11.

In the factory emulator 31, as in the case of the factory emulator 21, virtual production 38 is performed, and response information 53 is transmitted to the factory emulator 11.

The factory emulator 11 displays the received response information 52 and 53 together with the evaluation index calculated from its own virtual production 18, and manufactures the item 40, which has become an issue in the production plan, at any factory. It is possible to provide information that can determine whether or not it is optimal to perform.

The factory emulator described in the present embodiment will be described in more detail by taking the factory emulator 11 as an example. As a factory emulator, the one proposed in JP-A-07-325803 described as a known technique is used as an example.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of the factory emulator 11. The factory emulator 11 is a logistics equipment model 1 that mimics the operation of a logistics equipment such as a factory layout 111 on a computer, an automatic warehouse, and transport equipment.
12 and a production equipment model 11 that imitates the operation of the production equipment
3 and an interface 114 for imitating the same input and output as the operation control interface of the real device. The interface 114 also connects between device models or an external instruction system simulator or an external system such as a real system.
4.

The factory emulator 11 receives an operation control interface 114 connected to an external system.
An instruction of the external system is input, and the operation is predicted by the operation prediction means 13 and applied to the subsequent operation state of the actual device, so that the distribution device model 112 and the production device model 113 imitate the operation of the actual device. Is transferred between device models or with an external system via an operation control interface 114.

Since the factory layout 111 is provided, it is possible to calculate the distribution time in the factory in consideration of the positional relationship between the respective device models.
4. By exchanging information between each device with the provision of 4, it is possible to reproduce the output equivalent to that of an actual factory, where the distribution time and the amount of stagnation between processes change dynamically based on the operation prediction of the factory. Becomes possible.

The factory emulator 11 not only exchanges work instructions and operation control information for controlling the distribution equipment model 112 and the production equipment model 113, but also receives parameters of manufacturing conditions for each lot, It returns product trace information to external systems and imitates manufacturing information management and progress management similar to actual factories.

The factory emulator 11 performs the imitation,
By performing at a speed faster than actual equipment, virtual production, such as using materials, operating equipment for a certain period of time, manufacturing, moving manufactured products, etc. on a shorter time axis than the actual factory , Reproducing production results. From a human point of view, the cost, lead time, equipment operation rate, and the like obtained from the virtual production results are future productions performed according to the production plan, and can be used as predicted values thereafter.

[0054]

As described above, if the production planning adjustment system according to the present invention is used, when it is necessary to consider where to outsource production of an item which cannot be solved at a certain factory to a plurality of other factories, it is possible to use the system. By evaluating the results of a factory emulator that performs virtual production at a speed faster than the equipment, the cost of manufacturing the item, the availability of production equipment,
It is possible to objectively evaluate a delivery date and the like, and to select an optimum factory for manufacturing the product.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a production plan adjustment system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for sending request information of an item, which is a subject of the present invention, to another factory.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure for transmitting response information to received request information according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a factory emulator according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Production plan adjustment system 10, 20, 30 Factory 11, 21, 31 Factory emulator 111 Factory layout 112 Logistics equipment model 113 Production equipment model 114 Interface 12, 22, 32 Evaluation calculation means 13, 23, 33 Operation prediction means 14, 24 , 34 Operation history collection system 15,25,35 Scheduler 16,26,36 Production management system 17,27,37 Order management system 18,28,38 Virtual production 40 Item 51 Request information 52,53 Response information

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A system for adjusting an item which is an issue in a production plan of a certain factory so as to be manufactured at another factory,
A first factory emulator capable of performing virtual production imitating real equipment in a first factory, transmitting request information, and receiving response information, and virtual production of the first factory emulator Receiving the request information of the first factory and the first factory emulator, the first factory having first evaluation calculating means for calculating a plurality of evaluations based on the result of A second factory emulator interconnected with the first factory emulator, capable of performing virtual production, generating response information from the result of the virtual production, and transmitting the response information to the first factory emulator. And a second factory having a second evaluation calculating means for calculating a plurality of evaluations based on a virtual production result of the second factory emulator. Adjustment system. 2. The production plan adjustment system according to claim 1, wherein the request information transmitted by the first factory emulator includes information on a product number, a delivery date, a quantity, and a manufacturing specification. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the response information transmitted by the second factory emulator is obtained as a result of virtually producing an item requested by the first factory emulator in the second factory. 2. The production plan adjustment system according to claim 1, further comprising information on a lead time, a facility operation rate, and a delivery date. 4. The first factory emulator operates to perform virtual production based on first operation prediction means for predicting operation of real equipment in the first factory.
The production plan adjustment system according to claim 1, wherein: 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first operation predicting means is configured to execute the operation of the first factory according to operation history information of actual equipment at the first factory and production performance information of actual equipment at the first factory. The production plan adjustment system according to claim 1, wherein an operation status of an actual device is predicted. 6. The second factory emulator operates to perform virtual production based on second operation prediction means for predicting operation of actual equipment in the second factory.
The production plan adjustment system according to claim 1, wherein: 7. The system according to claim 2, wherein the second operation predicting means is configured to execute the operation of the second factory in accordance with the operation history information of the actual equipment in the second factory and the production result information of the actual equipment in the second factory. The production plan adjustment system according to claim 1, wherein an operation status of an actual device is predicted. 8. The first evaluation calculating means calculates a cost, a lead time, a facility operation rate, and a delivery date as evaluation indexes, and extracts a problematic item in which the value of the evaluation index is not preferable. 2. The production plan adjustment system according to claim 1, comprising: 9. A method for adjusting an item which is an issue in a production plan of a first factory so as to be manufactured in another factory, wherein the first factory emulator of the first factory is installed in a plurality of factories. Interconnecting with another factory emulator; performing a first virtual production by the first factory emulator by imitating real equipment of the first factory; Calculating the evaluation index in accordance with the result of the typical production, extracting the undesired specific items of the evaluation index and creating the request information, and transmitting the request information to a plurality of other factory emulators, Requesting a first production emulator, the plurality of factory emulators receiving request information of the first factory emulator, and responding to the results of the plurality of factory emulators respectively performing virtual production. Stage to create as information Floor, transmitting the response information to the first factory emulator, and providing the first factory emulator, based on the received response information, at which factory the product should be produced. A method comprising: 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the request information transmitted by the first factory emulator includes information of a product number, a delivery date, a quantity, and a manufacturing specification. 11. The response information transmitted by the plurality of factories, the factory emulator of each of the plurality of factories:
The method according to claim 9, further comprising information on cost, lead time, capacity utilization, and delivery date obtained as a result of virtually producing. 12. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to operate as the production plan adjustment system according to claim 1 is recorded.