JP2006219258A5 - - Google Patents

Description

Work support system for equipment

  The present invention relates to a work support system for equipment, and more particularly, to a work support system for a device that can utilize an abnormal event that occurred in the past and a recovery procedure thereof when an abnormality occurs in the device thereafter.

For example, a transport apparatus that operates in a clean room of a manufacturing factory for electronic components such as liquid crystal, organic EL, and semiconductors is normally operated continuously for 24 hours by unattended automatic operation.
By the way, when an abnormality occurs in this transfer device and the transfer device stops, the supply of workpieces to the production line is stopped, so that the manufacturing is also stopped. Damage will occur.
By the way, as a feature of this type of clean room, it is often prohibited to bring in paper that causes dust generation. In such cases, it is necessary to bring paper work procedures and drawings into the clean room. I can't.
Also, taking pictures with a camera for confirmation and recording of an abnormal event that has occurred is often prohibited for security reasons.

On the other hand, as a means for assisting recovery after various troubles occur and quickly recovering the system, for example, a failure coping method disclosed in Patent Document 1 has been proposed.
In this failure handling method, when a failure occurs, the failure information database of the remote maintenance server installed at the headquarters is searched, and if there is information on the failure that has occurred, the content is displayed on the display terminal. If the information does not exist in the database, the failure information storage server at the service base is inquired, and the content is added to the headquarters database as a response, and the content of the response is displayed on the display terminal.

However, in the case of a transport device that operates in a clean room of an electronic component manufacturing plant, not only the specifications and operation methods of the transport device differ from one manufacturing plant to another, but also after the equipment is in operation, the manufacturer of the transport device ensures an accurate operating state. It is difficult to grasp, and in some cases, an operation that is not assumed by the manufacturer of the transport apparatus may be performed.
Also, because this type of transport device is made to order with individual specifications, it is difficult to prepare a work procedure manual for recovery that covers all possible cases of abnormal events in the transport device. There are limits to database creation.
Furthermore, in a system that unilaterally displays the contents of the database, it is impossible to determine whether the database search results match the contents of the abnormal event, so data that is displayed but useless can be used for actual recovery. May not be used, and this information cannot be reflected in the database.
From the above, it has been difficult to apply the above-described conventional troubleshooting method to a transfer device that operates in a clean room of an electronic component manufacturing factory.

JP 2002-74520 A

  In view of the problems of the above-described conventional troubleshooting method, the present invention utilizes an abnormal event that occurred in the past in a facility device and its recovery procedure when an abnormality occurs in the device, so that when the abnormality occurs in the device. An object of the present invention is to provide a work support system for equipment that can reliably restore the apparatus in a short time.

  In order to achieve the above object, the work support system for an equipment device of the present invention accumulates an abnormal event that has occurred in the database when an abnormality occurs in the equipment device, and also stores a recovery procedure for the abnormal event in the database. When an abnormality occurs in the apparatus thereafter, an abnormal event stored in the database and a recovery procedure thereof are provided as a work procedure manual.

  In this case, when an abnormality occurs in the equipment, extract cases that match the abnormal event that occurred by searching the abnormal event stored in the database, and provide the abnormal event and its recovery procedure as a work procedure manual. Can do.

  The work support system for equipment according to the present invention can be incorporated into a newly installed equipment or can be incorporated into an existing equipment.

  According to the work support system for equipment of the present invention, when an abnormality occurs in the equipment, the abnormal event that has occurred is stored in the database, and the recovery procedure for the abnormal event is also stored in the database, and the apparatus thereafter When abnormalities occur, abnormal events stored in the database and recovery procedures are provided as work procedure manuals. For example, a manufacturing plant such as a transport device that operates in a clean room of an electronic component manufacturing plant. Not only the specifications and operation methods of the transfer device differ from one to another, but also abnormal events that occurred in the past and recovery procedures even if the operation of the equipment is not intended after the operation of the equipment. Is utilized when an abnormality occurs in the device thereafter, the device can be reliably restored in a short time when the device abnormality occurs.

  In addition, when an abnormality occurs in an equipment device, a case that matches the abnormal event that occurred by searching the abnormal event stored in the database is extracted, and the abnormal event and its recovery procedure are provided as a work procedure manual. Even when the abnormal events stored in the database and the recovery procedure data become enormous, the apparatus can be reliably recovered in a shorter time.

  In addition, the work support system for an equipment device of the present invention can be incorporated into an existing equipment device, in addition to being incorporated into a newly installed equipment device. The apparatus can be reliably restored in a short time.

  DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of a work support system for facility equipment according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 to 7 show an embodiment of a work support system for equipment according to the present invention.
This work support system for equipment is applied to a transfer device that operates in a clean room of a liquid crystal manufacturing plant.

In the liquid crystal manufacturing plant, comprising an automatic warehouse, and storage of the cassette accommodating the liquid crystal substrate, so as to supply the cassette hotel has been manufacturing apparatus in the automated warehouse. Then, as shown in FIG. 1, the cassettes are transferred between the automatic warehouses on the floor or on the rails laid on the ceiling by the tracked vehicle 5 (hereinafter simply referred to as “transport vehicle”). The transport vehicle 5 is operated continuously for 24 hours by unattended automatic operation based on the map data, and the transport vehicle integrated control device 2 is instructed to the transport vehicle 5 by the cassette loading position and the wholesale position. . A plurality of automatic warehouses are installed in the clean room, and bays are defined for each process.

In the automatic warehouse , one to a plurality of (usually about three) stacker cranes 6 are arranged sharing a traveling rail and controlled by the automatic warehouse control devices 3a, 3b, and 3c.

The conveyance control device 1 that controls the entire conveyance system is configured to issue an instruction to leave the conveyance rack 5 to the conveyance vehicle 5 and to perform a process between the conveyance vehicle 5 with respect to the automatic warehouse at the conveyance source according to an instruction from a production management system (not shown). The transfer instruction from the transfer vehicle to the storage shelf is given to the transfer instruction and the automatic warehouse of the transfer destination.

For this control system of the transport device, when an abnormality occurs in the transport device, the information on the abnormal event that occurred is recorded, the maintenance server 4 that searches for the recovery procedure is provided in parallel, and the operation status of the transport vehicle 5 is recorded. To do.
The maintenance server 4 is connected to the network LAN of the transport system, but is usually installed outside the clean room because it is not directly operated by workers working in the clean room or maintenance personnel. The maintenance server 4 can be set in a place other than the factory, for example, a service center of the manufacturer of the transport apparatus via a public line or the Internet. It is not limited.

[Recording the situation when an error occurs]
When an abnormality occurs in the transport device, when the transport vehicle 5 detects an abnormality, the content is wirelessly transmitted to the transport vehicle overall control device 2.
If there is a minor abnormality that allows the transport vehicle 5 to continue operation, the content is displayed on the screen of the transport vehicle overall control device 2 and reported to the transport control device 1.
If the conveyance vehicle 5 is abnormal so that the operation cannot be continued, the conveyance vehicle 5 stops. Each of the transport vehicles 5 has a control device, and only the transport vehicle in which an abnormality has occurred stops, and the other transport vehicles continue to operate. However, in the case where the layout of the annular rail is adopted, the transport vehicle is a travel rail. If it stops above, all the following vehicles stop in front of it, and transportation stops. Even in the case of a linear layout in which reciprocal operation is performed, a transport vehicle in which an abnormality has occurred becomes an obstacle and the transportable range decreases.

On the other hand, when the automatic warehouse control devices 3a, 3b, and 3c detect an abnormality in the stacker crane 6, the contents are displayed on the screen of the control device and reported to the transport control device 1.
When the stacker crane 6 is stopped, the supply of cassettes to be transported to the transport vehicle 5, the acceptance of cassettes transported from the transport vehicles 5 to the shelves, the supply to the production facilities, and the entry from the production facilities to the storage shelves are stopped. To do.

Since a normal transfer device is operated unattended, it takes some time for maintenance personnel to arrive and perform recovery work.
When an abnormality occurs, the transport vehicle overall control device 2 and the automatic warehouse control devices 3a, 3b, and 3c transmit information on the abnormal event that has occurred to the maintenance server 4 according to the flow of FIG. ) And record.
The abnormal event is given a code that identifies it, and along with the code, whether the motor of each axis was stopped or rotated when the abnormality occurred, the coordinate data of each axis at that time, the control device's Record input and output signals. In addition, what kind of work instruction is received from the transfer control device 1 and executed is also recorded.

When an abnormality occurs in the transport apparatus, there may be a case where only one abnormality is detected or a plurality of abnormality is detected.
In the case where related phenomena occur in a chain due to the first occurrence of abnormality, these are recorded in the database as one related event. Specifically, when recording in the database, each event is not recorded as one record, but a plurality of events are recorded in association with the occurrence time of the event that occurred first.
The time from when an abnormality occurs until the device stops is usually several seconds. An event occurring within 10 seconds after the occurrence of the first event with an allowance is recorded as a related event. In addition, about the thing which has a long stop time by the kind of apparatus, this time can be lengthened suitably.

The database is structured to record not only abnormal events but also annotations and recovery procedures for these events.
More specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the database is composed of recovery procedures, drawings, abnormality history, recovery procedure reference history, operation traces, drawings reference records, detailed procedure documents, etc. in addition to abnormal events. Like that.
Of these, the database for annotations, recovery procedures, etc. is blank when an abnormal event is automatically recorded, but is required when the database is prepared and used as an example of a recovery procedure.
Here, Table 1 shows the contents sent from each device to the maintenance server 4, Table 2 shows the contents recorded in the recovery procedure database, Table 3 shows the contents recorded in the abnormality history database, and Table 4 shows the contents restored. Table 5 shows the contents recorded in the procedure reference history database, and Table 5 shows the contents recorded in the drawing reference history database.

The abnormal code when registering in the database is the first recorded abnormal code, and the device code of the device and the classification code for classifying it are recorded. At the time of automatic recording, the classification code is blank.
Record multiple record pointers of the table that registered a series of related data. Leave the comment blank.
The recording type identifies whether the recorded event is automatically recorded, or whether the database administrator confirms the contents of the automatically recorded contents and corrects the contents.

  Check the contents of the database, and after the recovery work is completed, review the abnormal contents and classify them appropriately. At this time, it is determined whether the cause of the abnormality is a single factor, a serial factor or a parallel factor. If the cause can be separated by serial generation, the recorded contents are divided into two, and the abnormal code on the divided side is also corrected. In the case of parallel generation of factors, the fact that multiple factors are generated in parallel is recorded in the classification code. The annotation is explained with a sentence of about 20 to 30 words for the abnormal event, and a keyword to be used in the subsequent search is added. The keyword does not specify the abnormal code itself, but lists related states, device behavior, and the like.

[Recovery method]
1 and 2 show a processing flow until an automatic operation is restored after an abnormality occurs in the transport device.
The restoration process is a program independent of the control of the transfer device and is performed in parallel with the control.
The recovery process executes two processes in parallel.
One is a guidance process, which refers to a recovery procedure database and displays its contents, and the other is an operation trace process.

[Guidance processing]
The guidance process is accompanied by a man machine, and is started by an operator process such as maintenance personnel after an abnormality occurs.
The guidance processing is divided into processing on the apparatus side where the abnormality has occurred and processing on the maintenance server 4 side.
An error code generated for an abnormal event occurring on the device side is determined when the guidance process starts.
When a plurality of abnormal states that have not been restored are occurring, a factor that should be dealt with by maintenance personnel is selected from the device status, the severity of the abnormality, and the experience of the maintenance personnel, and processing is performed for that factor.
The device side activates a browser for guidance display.
For the browser, for example, general-purpose software such as Internet Explorer can be used, and the software and specifications are not particularly limited.
The display contents of the browser on the device side are determined by the processing on the server side, and the maintenance staff performs the recovery by displaying the recovery procedure displayed on the screen and related drawings.
The maintenance server 4 searches the database for the recovery procedure from the abnormal code and the annotation keyword that are the start parameters of the connection request from the apparatus, edits the search result into HTML, and displays it on the browser.
Maintenance personnel select the search results displayed on the screen that are considered appropriate for the abnormal event.
If the recovery procedure database does not have enough data, or if there is a recovery procedure associated with an abnormal event in the past, multiple search results may be obtained, or there is no appropriate recovery procedure There is also. If there is no procedure, restore without referring to the database restoration procedure.
The maintenance server 4 edits the selected restoration procedure into HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and displays it on the browser. At this time, not only the procedure manual, but also specifications and design drawings related to the site where the error occurred are prepared on the server in PDF (Portable Document Format), TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), etc., and to the drawings Display the link on the browser screen. As a means of referring to a drawing that is not directly related to the site where an abnormality has occurred, a drawing number, a drawing name, and the like are used as search keys to provide a drawing on a browser.
In the maintenance server 4, the recovery procedure stored in the database is displayed on the screen of the apparatus that recovers the abnormality by using the HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) protocol, and when the drawings stored in the server are referred to, Record the number in the drawings reference record.
There is a shortage in the contents of the recovery procedure manual by leaving a reference record of the drawings, and if you refer to the drawings to make up for it, the data referenced in the procedure manual will contain the drawings referenced at that time in the database. It can be added to enhance the contents of the database.
If there is no appropriate procedure manual and the procedure manual is not referenced, or the procedure manual does not exist as a result of the search, if the referenced drawings are known, it can be added to the database as a procedure manual. .
When the restoration process is finished, the validity of the procedure manual is confirmed, and the information is added as the database reference history of the procedure manual. The procedure manual created at the time of design is not always effective in field work. If the procedure is not useful, leave a reference history so that it can be distinguished, refer to it when correcting the procedure, and feed back the evaluation of the practitioner.
When searching the recovery procedure database, if there is no registered procedure in the search results, create a new empty record for the error code in the recovery procedure database and set the creation category. Automatic generation.
Then, a pointer to the record record of the operation trace and a pointer to the reference record record referring to the drawings are written, and what kind of drawings are referred to by the maintenance staff for the occurrence of the abnormality and what operation is performed is recorded. To do.
The automatically recorded content is not normally displayed as guidance when searching the database for abnormal codes, but if there is no valid updated data, it can optionally be automatically displayed as guidance. Can do.
The contents of the automatic recording include not only a record of the effective operation of the maintenance personnel but also a portion where trial and error and a wasteful operation are performed. Of course, it is conceivable to refer to a drawing that is meaningless even if it is a reference record of the drawings. However, there is a hint for recovery from a state where there is no guideline for work, or information that can be solved only by maintenance personnel and can be used as a reference when making an inquiry to a designer or the like.

[Trace processing of operation]
During the restoration work, that is, the operation content of the transfer device from the occurrence of the abnormality to the removal of the cause of the abnormality and the restoration to the automatic operation is reported to the maintenance server 4 from the apparatus in the flow shown in FIG. 4. Record the operation details.
The contents to be recorded are recorded according to the flow shown in FIG. 7 when the contents of the control screen operation, the contents of the manual operation, the input of the control device, and the I / O state of the output signal of the control device change.
As for the failure state, the abnormality factor recognized by the control device is eliminated, and the content is recorded when the failure state changes.
The operation trace records the time when the event to be traced and the event that occurred.
The restoration process may be completed in a short time, or the controller may be turned off for parts replacement or inspection. For this reason, the trace data of the operation contents may be incomplete, but even when there is a period in which the power is turned off and no data is collected, the operation trace is performed during the period in which the control device can collect data. .

Database maintenance
After the recovery work is completed, perform database maintenance for the abnormality.
Maintenance work of the database can be performed by maintenance personnel, but it is performed exclusively by designers who are familiar with the specifications, design philosophy, and design details.
Refer to the recovery procedure reference history and revise the contents of the procedure manual that did not function effectively.
Also, refer to operation traces or reference records of drawings, sort out what the maintenance personnel refer to and what operations were performed for abnormalities, update the recovery procedure database, and automatically create creation categories Change from to updated.
Database maintenance is performed by the designer or senior maintenance personnel. The implementation period is preferably immediately after the solution of the abnormality, but is not limited to this.
It can be referred to as unorganized information even in the state of automatic generation, and can be used as reference material for work.
Database maintenance not only reviews the automatically recorded contents, but also makes it easy to expand the contents by integrating the data of other customers who have delivered similar equipment.

[Change display position]
When an abnormality occurs, the contents can be transmitted to the maintenance server 4 only by the apparatus in which the abnormality has occurred, but recovery guidance can also be performed by another apparatus connected on the network.
Since control and recovery processing are performed in parallel as separate processes, there is no need for the same device.
By using a general-purpose browser, it is possible to display only the guidance portion on a notebook personal computer or the like, and to perform appropriate guidance display or drawing reference even when the restoration work is performed with the power supply of the apparatus shut off.
This database can be used not only for work procedures when an abnormality occurs, but also for maintenance work and modification work.
The modification of the equipment is completely new work, but the abnormal codes for the modification work are defined, the related drawings are registered in the drawing server, and the drawings to be referenced in the detailed procedure manual are enumerated to refer to the drawings in the clean room. be able to.
Both the manufacturer's service staff and the customer's maintenance staff have access to the recovery procedures for abnormalities.
However, there are drawings that should be kept private to customers. The drawings can be prevented from being leaked by setting a password to be required when referring to the drawings.
In this example, the restoration procedure based on the designer's knowledge, the field data based on the actual behavior records of maintenance personnel, and the evaluation of maintenance personnel are fed back, and the maintenance database is updated each time an abnormality occurs in the equipment. Provide a way to accumulate and expand.
In the present embodiment, an environment in which paper in a clean room cannot be brought in is assumed, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be applied to equipment devices operating in other environments. For example, the present invention can be applied to an operation where there is no place to expand drawings at high places such as crane maintenance work.

  As described above, according to the work support system for an equipment apparatus, when an abnormality occurs in the equipment apparatus, the abnormal event that has occurred is stored in the database, and the recovery procedure for the abnormal event is also stored in the database. When an abnormality occurs in the equipment, the abnormal events stored in the database and the recovery procedure are provided as work procedure manuals, so that the manufacturing factory like a transport device operating in the clean room of the electronic parts manufacturing factory. Not only the specifications and operation methods of the transfer device differ from one to another, but also abnormal events that occurred in the past and recovery procedures even if the operation of the equipment is not intended after the operation of the equipment. Is utilized when an abnormality occurs in the device thereafter, the device can be reliably restored in a short time when the device abnormality occurs.

  In addition, when an abnormality occurs in an equipment device, a case that matches the abnormal event that occurred by searching the abnormal event stored in the database is extracted, and the abnormal event and its recovery procedure are provided as a work procedure manual. Even when the abnormal events stored in the database and the recovery procedure data become enormous, the apparatus can be reliably recovered in a shorter time.

In addition, the above-described work support system for equipment can be incorporated into existing equipment, and can also be incorporated into existing equipment. The device can be reliably restored in time.
Hereinafter, the case where the above-described equipment support operation system is incorporated into an existing equipment will be described.

[Change display position]
(1) Processing content When an abnormality occurs in the equipment, as shown in FIG. 2, processing for reporting the generated abnormal event to the maintenance server is added.
(2) Maintenance server Since existing equipment does not have a maintenance server, a maintenance server is added to the existing equipment.
(3) Service PC
A service PC such as a notebook personal computer is added to display a guidance portion and to enable appropriate guidance display and drawing reference even when restoration work is being performed with the apparatus powered off.
With such a configuration, the work of changing the software of the existing equipment is reduced, and the system can be easily remodeled. Further, by using a portable service PC such as a notebook personal computer, it is possible to display the guidance portion near the apparatus that performs the recovery work. As hardware, a LAN port to which a portable service PC can be connected is added. As the LAN, a wired LAN or a wireless LAN can be appropriately selected.

  As mentioned above, although the work support system of the equipment of the present invention was explained based on the example, the present invention is not limited to the composition described in the above-mentioned example, and suitably in the range which does not deviate from the meaning. The configuration can be changed.

  The work support system for facility equipment according to the present invention uses the abnormal events that occurred in the past and the recovery procedure thereof in the event of the subsequent occurrence of an abnormality in the device, thereby reliably restoring the device in a short time when an abnormality occurs in the device. Therefore, not only equipment specifications and operation methods differ from one manufacturing plant to another, but after the equipment is in operation, operations that are not assumed by the equipment manufacturer. It can be used suitably for applications such as conveyors that operate in clean rooms of many electronic component manufacturing factories, and can also be used for applications such as crane work support systems where there is no place to expand drawings at high altitudes. it can.

1 is a system configuration diagram illustrating an embodiment of a work support system for equipment according to the present invention. It is explanatory drawing of the flow of recording when abnormality generate | occur | produces. It is a block diagram of a database. It is explanatory drawing of the flow of a recovery process. It is explanatory drawing of the flow of a guidance process. It is explanatory drawing of the flow of operation trace processing. It is explanatory drawing of the flow of operation content report processing.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Conveyance control apparatus 2 Conveyance vehicle integrated control apparatus 3a, 3b, 3c Automatic warehouse control apparatus 4 Maintenance server 5 Conveyance vehicle 6 Stacker crane