JP3075357B2 - Production machine operation schedule planning device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a production machine operation scheduling device, and more particularly to a plan for sequentially processing a plurality of items to be processed by operating a plurality of production machines. To a device for drafting.

[Conventional technology]

In various production processes, generally, a plurality of production machines having different processing capacities are used simultaneously, and a number of items are assigned to each production machine for processing. For example, in the processing of printed matter, printing of printed matter having various sizes and colors is processed by a plurality of printing machines. In this case, in order to operate the printing press most efficiently, it is necessary to make a schedule of which items are to be processed by which printing press and in which order. In particular, in the printed matter of magazines, the time of publication is fixed, so that the schedule must be scheduled with the delivery date condition being the highest priority. Further, since the processing capacity differs for each printing machine, it is necessary to make a schedule so that the capacity of the machine can be fully utilized. For example, in a printing press capable of printing up to four colors, it is more efficient to process four-color items than to process two-color items. Heretofore, such operation planning has been manually performed by a skilled person.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, the above-described operation planning is a very complicated operation, and it takes a long time to reach an optimal schedule. It is also very difficult to train skilled workers who are skilled in this work.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus capable of automatically drafting a schedule for sequentially processing a plurality of items to be processed by operating a plurality of production machines and sequentially.

[Means for solving the problem]

(1) The first invention of the present application drafts an operation schedule of a production machine to sequentially process a plurality of items to be processed by operating a plurality of production machines each having a different type of executable process. A processing capacity data storage device for storing in advance processing capacity data indicating a type of processing that can be executed for each production machine in the operation schedule planning device for the production machine; and the executable processing for each item to be processed. Each item is referred to by referring to the item data storage device for storing the individual processing contents and the delivery date related to the type of the item as item data, the processing contents of each item data, and the processing capacity data of each production machine. Assigned to production machines,
An allocating unit for arranging the allocated items in order of delivery date; and determining whether or not the allocation result by the allocating unit satisfies a condition of a delivery date in the item data. If the condition is not satisfied, the condition is satisfied. And an output device for outputting the allocation data obtained as a result of the processing by the allocation unit and the allocation change unit as a schedule table.

(2) The second invention of the present application drafts the operation schedule of a printing machine in order to sequentially print a plurality of items to be printed by operating a plurality of printing machines each having a different type of executable processing. In a printing press operation schedule planning device, a processing capability data storage device that stores in advance a plate size and the number of colors that can be processed by the printing press, as processing capability data indicating a type of processing that can be executed for each printing press, An item data storage device that stores plate size, number of colors, number of lots, and delivery date as item data for each item to be processed, plate size and number of colors of each item data, and processing capability data of each printing press And an allocation unit that allocates each item to each printing press and arranges the allocated items in order of delivery date in consideration of the number of lots. To determine whether or not the delivery date condition is satisfied.If the condition is not satisfied, an assignment change section that changes the assignment between printing presses so as to satisfy the condition. Replaced items within the range of items with the same delivery date so that item data with the same number of colors is continuous, and processing by the same delivery date item replacement unit, assignment unit, assignment change unit, and same delivery date item replacement unit And an output device for outputting the allocation data obtained as a result as a schedule table.

(3) The third invention of the present application drafts an operation schedule of a printing machine to sequentially process a plurality of items to be printed by operating a plurality of printing machines each having a different type of executable processing. In the printing press operation schedule planning device, processing capability data that stores in advance at least one of a plate size and the number of colors that can be processed by the printing press as processing capability data indicating a type of processing that can be executed for each printing press. A storage device, an item data storage device that stores, as item data, individual processing contents and delivery dates related to types of processing that can be executed for each item to be processed, a processing content of each item data, and each printing An allocation unit that allocates each item to each printing press with reference to the processing capacity data of the printing press, and arranges the allocated items in order of delivery date; Determining whether or not the delivery date condition in the data is satisfied, and if not, changing the allocation between printing presses so as to satisfy the condition; And an output device for outputting, as a schedule table, allocation data obtained as a result of processing by the changing unit.

(Operation)

In the operation planning device for a production machine according to the present invention, data relating to the processing capability unique to each production machine is stored in advance in the processing capability data storage device. When the operator performs an operation of inputting item data indicating the content of each process for each item to be processed, the arithmetic processing unit refers to the processing capability data and, based on the input item data, A schedule table is created in which items to be processed are arranged for each production machine in the order to be processed. Thus, the schedule table is automatically created.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on the illustrated embodiments.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of an operation schedule planning device for a production machine according to the present invention. The host device 1 is a computer serving as a host, and data communication is performed between the host device 1 and the processing capability data storage device 3 and the item data storage device 4 via the interface 2.
The arithmetic processing device 5 drafts a schedule table in the working memory 6 based on the item data in the storage device 4 while referring to the processing capability data in the storage device 3. The operator can give various instruction inputs to the arithmetic processing unit 5 via the input device 7. The planned schedule table is output to the output device 8.

In the embodiment described here, the operation schedule planning device for the production machine is applied to a printing press. Each of the storage devices 3 and 4 and the working memory 6 is constituted by a memory of a computer, and the arithmetic processing unit 5
U and the software that operates it. In this embodiment, a keyboard and a mouse are connected as the input device 7, and a display and a printer are connected as the output device 8.

Now, the operation of this device will be described based on a specific example. Now, using the four printing machines I, II, III, and IV,
Printing shall be performed for the twelve items up to. First, the processing capability data of the four printing presses is stored in the processing capability data storage device 3 from the host device 1 via the interface 2. Here, the plate size and the number of colors are defined as the processing capability data. The table in FIG. 2 shows specific processing capacity data. In this example, printing presses I and II have the ability to print up to the A-line format, and printing presses III and IV have the capability to print up to the B-column format. The printing presses I and III have the ability to print up to four colors, and the printing presses II and IV have the ability to print up to two colors. Subsequently, the item data is stored in the item data storage device 4 from the host device 1 via the interface 2. Here, four items of plate size, number of colors, number of lots, and delivery date are defined as item data.
The table in FIG. 3 shows specific item data. Here, a to l described in the first column are each item name, that is, a name for specifying each printed matter. In the second column, the plate size of each item is described. In this example, the plate size of either A4 size or B4 size is given. Third
The column indicates the number of colors required to print the item, in this example, either four-color printing or two-color printing. The number of lots in the fourth column indicates the required number of printed sheets in lot units (for example, 100,000 sheets per lot). In this example, it is either one lot or two lots. In the delivery date column in the last fifth column, the number of days from the start date of the printing operation to the delivery date counted is described. That is, 2, 3, and 4 indicate that the second, third, and fourth days, respectively, counted from the start date of the printing operation are the designated delivery dates. Note that, instead of inputting the processing capability data and the item data from the host device 1, the input device 7 may be used.

Now, when data as shown in the table of FIG. 2 is provided to the processing capability data storage device 3 and data as shown in the table of FIG. 3 is provided to the item data storage device 4, the arithmetic processing device 5 The work of planning is performed according to the procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG. First, in step S1, allocation based on the plate size is performed. This is a work of classifying each item based on the plate size of the item data and the plate size of the processing capability data. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, based on the information that the printing presses I and II are suitable for the plate size in row A and the printing presses III and IV are suitable for the plate size in row B, Is a group of column A (I, I
Classification into I) and group B (III, IV). Each item is also classified into a group in column A and a group in column B based on the plate size. The table shown in FIG. 5 shows this classification result. Thus, for the time being, the items a to f correspond to the printing press I or II, and the items g to l correspond to the printing press III.
Or, they are allotted to IV. Such an allocation result is temporarily stored in the working memory 6.

In the following step S2, allocation is performed based on the number of colors. This is a task of classifying each item based on the number of colors of the item data and the number of colors of the processing capability data. Specifically, the group in row A is classified into a printing machine I that can handle up to four colors and a printing machine II that can support only two colors, and a to f belonging to the group in row A are represented by the number of colors. Is assigned to either the printing machine I or II. The printing machine I can cope with both the printed matter of four-color printing and the printed matter of two-color printing.
It is more efficient to process color prints. Therefore,
The operation of allocating the four-color items a and b to the printing machine I and allocating the two-color items c to f to the printing machine II is performed. A similar assignment is made for the group in column B,
A table as shown in the figure is created in the working memory 6.

Next, in step S3, the items assigned to each printing machine are arranged in the order of delivery date. At this time, each item is arranged on the time axis in consideration of the time required for the printing operation.
The table in FIG. 7 shows this arrangement with the number of days of delivery as the time axis. In this embodiment, all of the four printing machines have a printing speed of one lot / day. Therefore, the printing operation is completed in one day for an item to be printed only in one lot, but the printing operation is completed for an item requiring two lots in two days.
Days needed. In this example, it takes two days to print the items c and e. For the sake of convenience, in the following description, only the processing for the printing presses I and II will be described.
A similar process proceeds for the printing presses III and IV.

When the table as shown in FIG. 7 is obtained, the delivery date is checked in step S4. That is, it is checked whether the delivery date condition shown in the table shown in FIG. 3 is satisfied. The number written on the shoulder of each item name in the table of FIG. 7 indicates the delivery date of each item. In the case of this example, the conditions of the delivery date are satisfied for the items a to c, but the conditions are not satisfied for the items d to f.

If the condition of the delivery date is not satisfied, the assignment between the printing presses is changed in step S5. This change
This must be done under the constraint that the modified printing press has sufficient processing power to process the item.
For example, in this example, printing machine I can handle four colors, while printing machine II can only handle two colors. Therefore,
Changes can be made to assign items originally assigned to printing press II to printing press I, but not vice versa. In the apparatus of this embodiment, various changes are tried to obtain the optimum result. For example, when the assignment is changed for the item c, a table as shown in FIG. 8 is obtained. Here, the delivery date check in step S4 is performed, but the delivery date condition is still not satisfied. So, step
Another change is attempted in S5. When the assignment is changed for the item d, a table as shown in FIG. 9 is obtained. Even so, the conditions are still not satisfied. Thus, every possible change is attempted. Then, when the change as shown in FIG. 10 is reached, the condition of the delivery date is completely satisfied. That is, the assignment change is performed for the two items d and f. When the conditions for the delivery date are satisfied, the process proceeds to the next step S6. If no changes are made to meet the delivery deadline, it is concluded that this task is logically impossible.

In step S6, to achieve more efficient work,
It is determined whether the “switching time” is minimum. Here, the "switching time" refers to the time required for the switching operation of the number of colors in one printing press. As described above, the printing machine I can handle both four colors and two colors. However, in the case where the two colors are printed after the four colors are printed, or vice versa, Switching work such as setting of ink to be used is required. When the work is performed based on the table shown in FIG. 10, the printing machine I needs to perform the work of switching the number of colors three times as shown in FIG. 11, which requires much time. Therefore, the replacement work of the same delivery date item in step S7 is performed until it can be recognized that the switching time in the schedule shown in the current table is the shortest. As long as the replacement work is performed between the items with the same delivery date, the condition of the delivery date is not affected. For example, in this example, if the items a and d having the same delivery date are exchanged,
The table shown in Fig. 12 is obtained. The replacement work at this time only needs to be performed twice as shown in FIG. Since no other items have the same delivery date, it can be recognized that the switching time in the schedule shown in the table of FIG. 12 is the minimum. This is the end of all the work.

Eventually, by executing each of the above procedures, a schedule table as shown in FIG. 12 is finally obtained in the working memory 6. This schedule table is output by the output device 8. If a printer is used as the output device 8, the operator can obtain a schedule table as shown in FIG. This schedule table clearly shows which printing machine should process which items and in which order, and enables a very efficient printing operation.

As described above, the present invention has been described based on one embodiment, but the embodiment described here is a very simplified model, and in actuality, the number of items of processing capacity data and item data is larger and more complicated. It becomes something. In addition, the finally obtained schedule table is displayed on the display, and the operator gives an instruction to change the schedule table via the input device 7 such as a mouse, and displays the changed schedule table based on the instruction. If the data is output to the printer, the final confirmation and correction can be performed manually. Further, the above-described embodiment is an example in which the present invention is applied to a printing press. However, the present invention can be applied to an operation planning work of not only a printing press but also any production machine.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, in a device for planning a schedule for sequentially processing a plurality of items to be processed by operating a plurality of production machines, processing capability data relating to a processing capability unique to each production machine, Since the schedule table is created based on the item data indicating the individual processing content related to the processing capacity for each item, the schedule can be automatically created.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of a production machine operation schedule planning apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a table showing an example of processing capacity data used in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a table showing an example of item data used in the apparatus shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the arithmetic processing unit in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is a step S1 in the flowchart shown in FIG. 6 is a chart showing the result of the step S2 in the flowchart shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 7 is a chart showing the result of the step S3 in the flowchart shown in FIG. 4. Chart showing the eighth
FIG. 9, FIG. 9, and FIG. 10 are charts showing the result of the step S5 in the flowchart shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing the switching time in the schedule shown in FIG.
FIG. 12 is a chart showing the result of the end of step S7 in the flowchart shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing the switching time in the schedule shown in FIG. I, II, III, IV: printing machine, al: items (printed matter).

Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Takuro Tobita 1-1-1, Ichigaya-Kagacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-60-242945 (JP, A) JP-A-64 -64761 (JP, A) JP-A-64-85761 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B23Q 41/08

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] An apparatus for planning an operation schedule of a production machine for sequentially processing a plurality of items to be processed by operating a plurality of production machines each having a different type of executable process, A processing capacity data storage device that stores in advance processing capacity data indicating a type of processing that can be executed for each production machine; and individual processing contents related to the type of processing that can be executed for each item to be processed. And an item data storage device for storing the delivery date as item data, and referring to the processing content of each item data and the processing capacity data of each production machine, assigning each item to each production machine, And an allocation unit for arranging the items in order of delivery date, and determining whether or not the allocation result by the allocation unit satisfies a condition of a delivery date in the item data, and does not satisfy the condition. In this case, an assignment changing unit that changes the assignment between the production machines so as to satisfy the condition, and an output device that outputs assignment data obtained as a result of the processing by the assignment unit and the assignment changing unit as a schedule table, An operation schedule planning device for a production machine, comprising: 2. An apparatus for planning an operation schedule of a printing machine for sequentially printing a plurality of items to be printed by operating a plurality of printing machines having different types of executable processes, As processing capacity data indicating the type of processing that can be performed for each printing press, a processing capacity data storage device that stores in advance the plate size and the number of colors that can be processed by the printing press, and for each item to be processed, An item data storage device that stores the plate size, the number of colors, the number of lots, and the delivery date as item data, the plate size and the number of colors of each item data, and the processing capability data of each printing machine. An allocating unit that allocates items to each printing press and arranges the allocated items in order of delivery date in consideration of the number of lots; and an allocation result by the allocating unit satisfies a delivery date condition in the item data. If the conditions are not satisfied, the assignment change unit that changes the assignment between printing presses so as to satisfy the conditions is the same as the item assigned to the same printing press. The same delivery date item replacement unit that replaces within the range of the item with the same delivery date so that the item data with the number of colors is continuous, and the result of processing by the allocating unit, the allocation change unit, and the same delivery date item replacement unit is obtained. And an output device for outputting the assigned data as a schedule table. 3. An apparatus for planning an operation schedule of a printing machine for sequentially processing a plurality of items to be printed by operating a plurality of printing machines having different types of executable processing, respectively. A processing capacity data storage device that stores in advance at least one of a plate size and the number of colors that can be processed by the printing machine as processing capacity data indicating a type of processing that can be executed for each printing machine, For each item, an item data storage device that stores individual processing contents and delivery dates related to the types of executable processing as item data, processing contents of each item data, and processing capability data of each printing press. An allocation unit that allocates each item to each printing machine and arranges the allocated items in order of delivery date with reference to Determining whether or not the term condition is satisfied, and if the condition is not satisfied, an assignment changing unit that changes the assignment between the printing presses so as to satisfy the condition; and the assignment unit and the assignment. An output device for outputting, as a schedule table, allocation data obtained as a result of the processing by the change unit, an operation schedule planning device for a printing press.