JP2007257563A - Operation support device of batch plant - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an operation support device of a batch plant in fields such as food, medicals, chemicals by which cooperation with an external system is attained by incorporation of data definition and an additional program for cooperation. <P>SOLUTION: Attributes for registering the external program in information indicating processes and steps are provided, presence/absence of external program definition is checked in manufacturing execution management for managing execution of the processes or the steps, at timing of starting and ending of each process and each step, when there is definition of the external program, it is executed, since cooperation is performed with the external program by an optional unit such as processes or steps constituting manufacturing procedures by preliminarily incorporating such processing in a manufacturing execution management part, information regarding manufacturing also including temporary data, etc. is provided to the external system. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a batch plant operation support apparatus that manages and controls a manufacturing process of a batch plant, and in particular, operates a batch plant suitable for linking with other systems such as a material procurement system and a quality analysis system. The present invention relates to a support device.

  In batch plants, for example, depending on whether or not cleaning pipes are provided, the work content and procedure change, or the work procedure and content change depending on the combination of the product manufactured immediately before and the product to be manufactured next, etc. The work contents, procedures, and operating parameters change depending on various factors such as the product production order, the equipment used for production, the outside temperature, etc. For this reason, it is not possible to build a control system specialized for manufacturing a specific product with a specific facility, such as a control device for a continuous plant, and a batch plant control system is very difficult to engineer. It has become.

  Under such circumstances, IEC-61512 (ISA-S88: concept of batch plant control and standard of control system model) has been established worldwide, and the standardization of the concept and model of the manufacturing process is being promoted. However, the standard accepts various forms of deployment of control functions, and does not reduce the procedure and parameter changes as described above.

  On the other hand, products manufactured in batch plants such as food and medicine are often directly linked to the health of the people, and the importance of quality control is increasing. Especially for pharmaceuticals, even a trace amount of substances may have a huge impact on the human body, and the quality may be greatly affected by the presence or absence of individual bacteria, such as fungi that produce toxins. The limitations of sampling tests that assume homogeneity have become a problem, and it is important to record, manage, analyze, and improve the manufacturing process itself, as well as sample tests of finished products and intermediate materials. Is growing.

  For this reason, in batch plant control systems, not only more detailed management and recording of manufacturing procedures, but also the need to be able to easily link with other systems such as laboratories and procurement systems, and statistical processing programs, etc. is increasing. ing.

  There is a workflow system as described in [Patent Document 1] as a system that systematically implements higher-order processing by linking a plurality of information processing systems of an existing system.

As for the control of the semiconductor manufacturing process, an APC (Advanced) that analyzes the manufacturing process and issues a manufacturing parameter change instruction as described in [Patent Document 2].
There is a linkage between a Process Control system and a Manufacturing Execution System for manufacturing management.

  Another technique for linking a plurality of systems is to use a database. If data processing or filtering processing is required when linking systems using a database, it can be retrofitted by trigger processing executed inside the database at the timing of data update, addition, or deletion, or stored procedures. It is also possible to add functions to process data and generate new related data.

  Regarding a technique for generating standard work procedure data for a system that performs management / guidance of a manufacturing process of a batch process, there is one described in [Patent Document 3].

JP 2000-207474 A JP 2004-349644 A JP 2002-207515 A

  [Patent Document 3] describes a system that guides and controls work in a batch process based on work procedure automatic generation technology and work procedures created manually, and manages those results. Coordination with external systems was not considered.

  In the semiconductor manufacturing process shown in [Patent Document 2], special processing such as data filtering is implemented on the external system side to be added, and the control system and the higher-level manufacturing execution system side have a function of responding to inquiries. The data related to product production to be managed is linked with external systems such as statistical processing.

  However, regarding batch processes for manufacturing products such as food and medicine, the PAT (Process Analytical Technology) advocated by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) only describes the need for improvements based on manufacturing process analysis. However, there is no guideline regarding specific analysis objects and analysis methods, and it is not clear what kind of cooperation is necessary.

  For this reason, especially when computer system vendors or software houses produce manufacturing process management systems and provide them to multiple process owners, they have the ability to define information to be provided in advance and respond to inquiries. However, it is difficult to provide sufficient information necessary for an external system to be linked later. Also, since the external system determines the service activation timing, not all temporary information is recorded, but all necessary information such as who, what, why, and how. There is a possibility that it cannot be obtained.

  On the other hand, depending on the system to be linked and the content of the process, there is also a method of rebuilding the system by remodeling the process to generate and change the data, but in such a method, the system construction is continued. There is a problem that not only the cost for the operation is required, but also the operation needs to be stopped at the time of rebuilding.

  The method of linking between systems using a database can add processing retrospectively when the data changes, and when, where, who, what, why, how, etc. Although there is a high possibility that the data can be acquired, there is a problem in that the systems cannot be linked in accordance with the product to be manufactured because the timing at which the data has changed is the trigger for such processing.

  For example, in order to add a process of “recording the time if the measured value of temperature is 100 ° C. or higher”, the temperature data is recorded in the database, the measured value is checked at the change timing of the recorded temperature data, If it is 100 ° C or higher, it is necessary to generate a record of another table including the time, but such a process is necessary for the manufacture of one product, but it works even when it is not necessary for the manufacture of another product. Therefore, there is a lot of waste.

  Several technologies are known as technologies for linking arbitrary processing programs afterward, such as OLE described in [Patent Document 1] and COBA, Java (registered trademark) RMI described in [Patent Document 2]. However, even in such a technique, it is necessary to determine in advance a part for calling a processing program provided later. However, in the same way as the problem of the semiconductor manufacturing process described in [Patent Document 2], it is determined which part of the manufacturing process management system should have a mechanism for calling an external program. However, even if it can be determined, it is not sufficient, and there is a high possibility of recompilation and modification.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an operation support apparatus for a batch plant that can be linked with another system by adding a data definition, a library program, or the like without performing system restructuring processing such as recompilation.

  A second object of the present invention is to provide an operation support apparatus for a batch plant suitable for managing and controlling the manufacturing process of a batch plant in the field of pharmacology.

  In order to achieve the above object, the operation support device for a batch plant according to the present invention is a management information holding information such as the manufacturing process and the manufacturing procedure of each product, the name of the process, the order relationship, and the vertical relationship. Information necessary for program call is recorded as information attached to the element, and is necessary for program call at the start or end of execution of the process or procedure element that occurs as the manufacturing process or manufacturing procedure progresses. The presence or absence of information is checked, and if there is information necessary for calling the program, the program is called.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to bind a program retrospectively to each stage constituting a product manufacturing process by adding a definition and a retrofitting program. Can be acquired and processed at the timing when it is generated.

  An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a functional configuration of the batch process control system shown in IEC-61512 and a hierarchical model of process management, unit management, and process control which are three main functions.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, a prescription management unit 104 that manages a manufacturing prescription of a product, a manufacturing execution management unit 105 that manages execution of a process and a procedure based on the manufacturing prescription of the product, and data associated with the progress of the manufacturing procedure The production information management unit 106 manages the above. The manufacturing execution management unit 105 includes process control 101, unit management 102, and process management 103.

  The process control 101 is hierarchically defined such as a procedure 111, a unit procedure 112, a unit sequence 113, and phases 114 and 115, and the unit management 102 includes equipment 121, devices 122, 123, and 124, equipment 125, and instrumentation equipment. The process management 103 is hierarchically defined such as a process 131, a process 132, a small process 133, and operations 134 and 135. Each procedure, its sequence, and the like are associated with information for manufacturing a product such as raw materials, work contents, required amount, and judgment criteria.

As shown in FIG. 2, each of the procedure 111, the unit procedure 112, the unit sequence 113, and the phases 114 and 115 includes information for defining post-program information called from the manufacturing execution management unit 105 during manufacturing and parameter information thereof. Storage areas 401, 402, 403, 404, and 405 are provided in advance, and in the information storage areas 401, 402, 403, 404, and 405, a program corresponding to information of a program to be called recorded in the information storage area ( 411, 412, 413, 414, 415) are previously provided.

  The process control 101, the unit management 102, and the process management 103 of the manufacturing execution management unit 105 can store the program information by the function to be bound and executed if the program information is stored in the information storage area at each step of the work. The program shown is executed. A database 420 is provided so that data generated by an external program can be stored.

FIG. 3 shows details of the hierarchical structure of the prescription management unit 104 and the production information management unit 106. The prescription management unit 104 manages information about raw materials and manufacturing prescriptions 110, information on processes 5110, 5120, and 5130 for manufacturing products 5010, 5020, and 5030, and information on equipment for executing this process. Information 5210, 5220, 5230, 5231, 5232, control / work 5310, 5320, 5330, when the process is executed in the facility
Information of 5340, 5341, 5342 and the like is managed hierarchically.

In the production information management unit 106, for the production lot 504, information on processes 5510, 5511, 5512, 5520, 5521, 5530, 5531, 5532, information on equipment 5610, 5611, 5612, 5620, 5621, 5622, control / work 5710 ,
Information on 5720, 5730, 5740, control 5711, work 5712, and the like is managed hierarchically.

  This hierarchical relationship is a part-of relationship, and the upper hierarchical process is composed of a plurality of lower hierarchical processes. The same applies to equipment and control / work. For this reason, the data of the production information management unit 106 generated corresponding to the manufacturing instruction also has a hierarchical structure. In addition, the process, control, and work information have an order relationship within the same hierarchy.

  In FIG. 3, the order relationship is indicated by a solid line with an arrow, the part-of relationship is indicated by a broken line, and the other relationships are indicated by a solid line. Other relationships indicated by solid lines are, for example, a product and process are associated with 1: n, a process and facility are further associated with 1: n, and a process / equipment and product are controlled / worked with 1: n. The correspondence relationship to be associated is shown.

  This correspondence may be in other forms according to the system implementation. For example, if the crystallization process is handled as a separate process for each product, the control / work can be determined based on only the equipment information even if there is no product information, and there is a separate process for each combination of equipment and product. Therefore, it is not necessary to directly link the information with the facility information, and if the process is determined, the control / procedure can be determined. As described above, various methods for configuring data can take various forms, but in any case, control and operations are determined for processes, equipment, and products. As a special case, there are also control / work not related to the product. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 3, the control / work 5310 and 5320 are related to the product 5010, but the control / work 5330 is It shows that there is no such relationship.

  A pre-processing program and a post-processing program, which will be described later, are recorded in association with the control / work information 5330, together with the control / work name 5421, data 5432 necessary for the control / work, and the like. . In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, information associated with a process is not illustrated, but may be stored in association with a process in the same manner as control and work information.

The program information includes information necessary for calling the program and its parameters. Calling a program usually requires the name of the module in which the program to be called is stored, and information about functions and classes provided externally within the module. DCOM and CORBA,
Even in a distributed object technology such as Java (registered trademark) Beans, such information may be replaced by an ID. Web service technology also requires server information, service information, and parameter information passed to the service.

  The manufacturing execution management unit 105 manages the manufacturing execution process in accordance with manufacturing information instructed by a system for performing a manufacturing plan or an HMI (abbreviation of Human Manchine Interface).

  The manufacturing information includes information such as products to be manufactured, amounts to be manufactured, and equipment used for manufacturing. The manufacturing execution management unit 105 collects necessary information from the prescription management unit 104 and presents instructions related to manufacturing to the worker through the terminal 502 or gives a command to the automatic control device 503 to start processing. To do. For execution of the manufacturing process, the result input by the operator, data acquired from the automatic control device 503, and the like are recorded in the production information management unit 106. The data structure of the production information management unit 106 is the same as that of the prescription management unit 104. However, since the data structure corresponds to the instruction from the device that performs the manufacturing plan and the HMI, it is associated with the manufacturing lot 504 that is the instruction. It is managed as information.

In order to control the automatic control device 503, it is necessary to incorporate a service on the control device side that receives the command by communication, executes the control command, and returns the result. As such processing, for example, based on the execution instruction received from the workflow control unit, the business application or business database is controlled, the initial data is transferred and processed by the business execution module, and when this processing data is received, the packet is transmitted. Application control means or OPC that converts and sends it to the workflow controller via a computer network
(Abbreviation of OLE for Process Control) is known.

  The flow of the manufacturing execution management process performed by the manufacturing execution management unit 501 of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The batch plant operation support apparatus that manages and controls the manufacturing process of the batch plant according to the present embodiment selects a lot to be manufactured on the manufacturing lot selection screen 700 shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the production lot selection screen 700 includes a search part 701 for searching for a production lot by a production location and a production period, and a search result display part 702 for displaying a search result and selecting a lot to be manufactured. It consists of a manufacturing start button 704. When the manufacturing location and the manufacturing period are input and the search button is operated, the search result display unit 702 displays information such as the item to be manufactured, the period, and the manufacturing amount for each manufacturing lot. By selecting the radio button located in the leftmost column in FIG. 5, one production lot can be selected, and the production of the selected lot is started by operating the production start button 704. Note that the radio button located in the leftmost column of FIG. 5 may be a screen on which the row with the cursor is selected, and the manufacturing start button 704 may be an interface such as double-clicking a row instead of the button.

  When the production start button 704 is operated, information on processes 5510, 5511, 5512, 5520, 5521, 5530, 5531, and 5532 associated with the production lot, or control / operations 5710, 5711, 5712, 5720, 5721, 5730, Information of 5731, 5740, and 5741 is displayed on the execution screen 800 of the procedure shown in FIG. 8, and the manufacturing proceeds while confirming the process and control / work performed by the worker.

The procedure execution screen 800 includes a process information display unit 801 indicating information indicating which process or procedure is being executed in the entire manufacturing process, information on a manufacturing lot number, etc. It includes an execution process display unit 802 that displays data to be associated, input data from an operator (user), and a flow display unit 804 that indicates the status of other processes or procedures in the same hierarchy. The procedure execution screen may have other configurations as long as the context and the vertical relationship are known as well as the contents of individual processes or operations, and at least information on the process or procedure currently being executed is sufficient.

  When a process or control / process at any level is selected at first, a step (process) or a procedure (control or work) at that level is displayed on the procedure execution screen 800 at step 601. In step 602, selection of a process or procedure input by an operator is accepted, and in step 603, execution conditions of the selected process or procedure are checked. If it can be executed in step 620, it is checked in step 604 whether a preprocessing program definition exists. If it cannot be executed in step 620, the process returns to step 602.

  In step 605, it is checked whether or not the preprocessing program is defined. If it is determined that the preprocessing program is defined in step 605, the preprocessing program is bound in step 606, and the preprocessing program is set in step 607. The parameter information obtained is set from the program information 5433, the preprocessing program is called at step 608, and the selected process or procedure is executed at step 609.

  If it is determined in step 605 that it is not defined, the process proceeds to step 609, and the selected process or procedure is executed. Here, if there is a lower process or procedure, the processes from step 601 to step 609 shown in FIG. 6 are recursively executed for the lower process or procedure associated with the process or procedure.

  If there is a lower-level process or procedure, when it is completed, if there is not, the presence or absence of a post-processing program is checked at step 610 when the control or operation of that process or procedure is completed. If a post-processing program is defined in step 611, the post-processing program is bound in step 612, the parameters of the post-processing program are set in step 613, as in the case of the pre-processing program. At 614, a post-processing program is called.

  When the calling of the post-processing program is completed, in step 615, it is checked whether there is a next process or a next procedure. If it is determined in step 611 that the post-processing program is not defined, in step 615, it is checked whether or not there is a next process or a next procedure. If it is determined in step 616 that there is a process or procedure to be executed next in the same hierarchy, the process returns to STEP 601 to manage execution of the next process or procedure. If it is determined in step 616 that there is no next process or procedure, the process proceeds to a higher-level process or procedure that is the caller of step 610.

  In this way, since the process can be added at the start and end timing of a process or procedure at an arbitrary level, for example, a reason is input to the post-processing program, and the immediately preceding process is executed in the post-processing program. A function that is not originally provided, such as checking the results of the process or procedure, inputting the reason if the result is a specific result, and managing the reason and the result of the process or procedure in one record Can be added. Also, information on data areas temporarily used in the form of stacks and heaps can be accessed at the start or end timing of processes and procedures, and the latest data can be stored and recorded as other information. it can. Note that instead of directly calling the program, information regarding the program may be presented to the user and the program executed by the user.

  Parameters used in the pre-processing program and the post-processing program are described by, for example, a comma-delimited character string. In order to set the parameters corresponding to the control executed until the program is executed and the results of the work 5710, 5711, 5712, 5720, 5721, 5730, 5731, 5740, 5741, for example, “abcd, ¥ [ Control and work identification codes], ..., xyz ", and the actual results from the results until the program is executed are shown in the part of \ [***]. You can use the method of searching, assigning, and passing to the retrofit program. Also, ¥ RESULT. In the case of [***], the results of control and work 5710, 5711, 5712, 5720, 5721, 5730, 5731, 5740, and 5741 are displayed, and in the case of [SQL. When the SQL described in the section is executed, it is possible to execute a program reflecting various information.

  In addition, it is possible to have a special identifier for acquiring process information, results, equipment information, and the like. Note that the data managed by the production information management unit 106 shown in FIG. 3 can be uniquely identified by the primary key so that the record can be uniquely identified by the primary key value in the database. The above is an example of expressing a plurality of parameters with a single definition data. In addition to such a parameter implementation method, parameters are defined as a plurality of records, and process or control / work identification information associated with each record is defined. There is also a method of providing information on parameter values, information on parameter types, and the like.

  Since processes and controls / work are defined hierarchically, the process of the manufacturing execution management unit 501 of the apparatus that manages and controls the manufacturing process is also a flowchart assuming recursive calls assuming such a hierarchical configuration. As described above, when the maximum depth of the hierarchy is known in advance, such a flowchart is not necessary. For example, in the portion of step 609, the entire process shown in FIG. 4 is directly described up to the lowest hierarchy. It is good.

  In addition, the preprocessing program incorporates a loop or semaphore inside the process, and is configured to control the loop or semaphore with communication or shared memory, so that not only the process or procedure is executed, It is also possible to make the process resident during execution.

  According to the present embodiment, since the program can be bound retrospectively by adding a definition and a retrofit program to each stage constituting the product manufacturing process, information related to the product manufacturing procedure is temporarily stored. It can be acquired and processed at the timing when it is generated, including information. As a result, for example, by applying it to a system that manages and controls the operation of batch-type manufacturing plants in fields such as medicinal chemistry, what data is attached at what timing, and what kind of incidental information It is possible to realize the cooperation with the system whose clear cooperation purpose is not clear at present without stopping the operation / control system.

  In addition, it is possible to add the linkage with the external system retrospectively with as few processes as possible at the start and end timings of processes or procedures in an arbitrary hierarchy, instead of the trigger timing of the database. Further, since no cross-sectional processing is added to the data, there is no influence on existing data, and it is possible to link with an external system only for manufacturing a specific product.

It is a basic functional block diagram of the batch process control system which is one Example of this invention. It is a functional block diagram for linking a manufacturing execution system with other systems. It is a block diagram of the manufacturing execution system of a present Example. It is a flowchart of a process of the manufacturing execution management part of a present Example. It is a top view which shows the production lot selection screen of a present Example. It is a top view which shows the actual screen of the procedure of a present Example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 ... Process control, 102 ... Unit management, 103 ... Process management, 104 ... Prescription management part, 105 ... Manufacturing execution management part, 106 ... Production information management part, 700 ... Manufacturing lot selection screen, 701 ... Search part, 702 ... Search Result display section, 704 ... Manufacturing start button, 800 ... Procedure execution screen, 801 ... Process information display section, 802 ... Execution process display section, 804 ... Flow display section.

Claims (5)

  A prescription management unit that manages manufacturing recipes of products described hierarchically, a production information management unit that manages data associated with progress of manufacturing procedures described hierarchically, and process management described hierarchically, A manufacturing execution management unit configured by unit management and process control, and the process management, unit management, and process control for defining information of a post program called from the manufacturing execution management unit during manufacturing and parameter information thereof Information storage area is provided in advance, the manufacturing execution management unit collects necessary information from the prescription management unit, presents instructions related to manufacturing to the operator through the terminal, or commands to the automatic control device To start the process and record the results input by the operator and the data acquired from the automatic control device in the production information management unit for the execution of the manufacturing process. Referring to the driving support apparatus of a batch plant for performing a call process or procedure execution start or program execution at the end of the time there is information of the program the information storage area.   An operation support apparatus for a batch plant that manages and controls product manufacturing processes based on management information that hierarchically describes product manufacturing processes and manufacturing procedures, and the management information constitutes the manufacturing processes and manufacturing procedures of each product. Record information necessary for program call as information accompanying elements that hold information such as process and procedure names, order relations, hierarchical relations, etc., and process or process that occurs as the manufacturing process or manufacturing procedure progresses A batch plant operation support apparatus that checks whether or not there is information necessary for calling the program at the start or end of execution of an element of the procedure, and calls the program if there is information necessary for the program call.   The operation support apparatus of the batch plant of Claim 2 with which the information required for the said program call is recorded as information accompanying the element of the lowest layer.   4. The batch plant according to claim 2, wherein information related to an argument is recorded in addition to the information necessary for the program call, and if there is information on the argument, the call is made in a set with an argument of the program to be called. Driving assistance device. The batch plant according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein if there is information necessary for the program call, the information necessary for the program call is presented to a user terminal, and the program call is executed by a user input. Driving assistance device.

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