JP3300676B2 - FA information collection method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, in an FA system that manages a plurality of processes for manufacturing a product, various site information generated in each process is collected, in particular, information (abnormality information) indicating that an abnormality has occurred in the manufacturing process. How to do it.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, collection of various site information generated in a manufacturing process of a product in a manufacturing industry, particularly, anomaly information such as occurrence of a malfunction of a manufacturing apparatus or an anomaly of a product has mainly relied on manual labor. In other words, from forms that are periodically output,
By checking information such as the operating status of the device and the quality of the product, the company checked for any abnormalities.

[0003] However, when relying on humans, there is a possibility that omission of check of an item or a mistake in judgment by the person who checks the items may occur. In addition, if the amount of output information is excessive, manual processing becomes difficult. There is a problem.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems and provides an FA that can quickly and automatically collect on-site information in a product manufacturing process, in particular, abnormal information indicating occurrence of an abnormality. It proposes an information collection method.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In an FA system that manages a plurality of processes for manufacturing a product using a network connected to each of these processes,
The site information generated in each of the steps transmitted to the data transmission network of the network is provided on the network, and a data collection condition for collecting desired information from the site information is set. Collecting the desired information based on the data collection conditions set by the data collection condition setting means, and collecting the data by a plurality of data collection means. Means can transmit the data collection conditions to a plurality of the data collection means and can receive the desired information from the plurality of data collection means, and one data collection means is capable of transmitting the plurality of data collection The desired information can be received from the condition setting means and the desired information can be sent to a plurality of the data collection condition setting means. And the data collection condition setting means can transmit different data collection conditions to the plurality of data collection means, respectively, and the data collection means can transmit data from the data collection condition setting means. Desired data can be collected based on the respective data collection conditions, and the data collection means can select desired information from the site information based on the data collection conditions transmitted from the data collection condition setting means. Time change is automatically collected based on a predetermined condition for a predetermined period of time, and the collected information is returned to the data collection condition setting means that transmitted the data collection condition, and the desired information is set in advance. When an abnormal value that is out of the control limit value is detected in comparison with the control limit value, it is determined that an abnormality has occurred in the process.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to easily and surely collect temporal changes in site information generated in a manufacturing process, and compare the collected site information with a preset control limit value. By doing so, it is possible to determine whether or not an abnormality has occurred. Therefore, it is possible to immediately know abnormality information such as the occurrence of a defect in the manufacturing equipment and the abnormality of the product, and it is possible to quickly respond to this, and to automatically check for the occurrence of the abnormality without manual intervention. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the burden and man-hours of the workers and the like.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the method according to the first aspect, the desired information is collected over a period that is a predetermined time in the past from the time when the abnormal value is detected. .

According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to know the progress from a certain point in the past to the occurrence of the abnormality, so that the cause of the occurrence of the abnormality can be clarified and addressed at an early stage.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the method of the first or second aspect, the occurrence of the abnormality is transmitted to a data transmission network of the network simultaneously with the occurrence of the abnormality.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, at the same time as the occurrence of an abnormality, the information is sent to the network of the FA system that controls the manufacturing process, so that the occurrence of the abnormality can be instantaneously known. Therefore, prompt response to the abnormality is possible.

[0011] The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to claim 1.
4. The method according to any one of items 3 to 3, characterized in that it is determined that an abnormality has occurred in the step by detecting the abnormal value a predetermined number of times within a predetermined period.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the occurrence of an abnormality can be predicted or detected at an early stage by detecting a variation in product quality or the like that has occurred within a predetermined period. It is possible to do.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the method according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, a temporal change of the desired information within a predetermined period tends to approach the management limit value. And when the limit value is exceeded, it is determined that an abnormality has occurred in the process.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to grasp the tendency of the quality of the product and the operating state of the manufacturing apparatus to change from a normal state to an abnormal state, and then an abnormality may occur. It is possible to predict that. Therefore, the occurrence of the abnormality can be known in advance, and it is possible to quickly cope with this.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 shows an FA to which the method according to the present invention is applied.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a system. As shown,
The FA system 10 has a network bus 11 and this bus
The production process is managed through 11.

A sequencer 12 is connected to the bus 11, and the sequencer 12 controls the exchange of signals between a line 13 in the manufacturing process and the bus 12. Sequencer 12
Stores a sequence program for each manufacturing process, and each process is controlled by the sequencer program.

In each step, PI / O (Parallel I / O) 1
4. SERVO15 and SENSOR16 are connected to the line 13, and these devices operate according to the instruction of the sequencer 12.

Between the bus 11 and the line 13 of the manufacturing process, there is a router 17 which is a relay device for transmitting information, and controls equipment, production management information, operation information,
Various site information such as quality information, manufacturing condition information, and failure information is broadcast to the bus 11.

A plurality of terminals 18, 19 and 20 are provided on the bus 11, and a plurality of terminals 21 are also provided on the line 13. A printer 22 is connected to a part (one in the figure) of these terminals 18. Have been. These terminals 18 to 21 are for monitoring each process and collecting the above-mentioned various information, and these terminals perform the above-mentioned monitoring and information collection according to roles described later. The terminal 19 in the figure is the FA system.
10 is a shared server.

The terminal 18 uses the various site information transmitted to the bus 11 for a person who intends to use the site information to collect the site information in accordance with data collection conditions set by the user himself / herself. Here, it is defined as a data collection condition setting device (hereinafter referred to as View).

The View 18 allows the user to see what information is present in the FA system 10 in a list format. The user can collect desired information as described above. Can be set using View18. In the following description, the data collection condition set by the user is called a mission. This Mis
The sion may be directly input by the user from the View 18, or may be in the form of a data file created in advance using another computer and stored in an external storage device such as a floppy disk.

The FA system 10 is provided with a data collection / management mechanism (hereinafter referred to as an agent house) 23.
The terminals 19 to 21 belonging to the se23 play a role of a data collection device (hereinafter, referred to as an agent) for collecting field information based on the data collection conditions (Mission) set by the user in the View18.

Further, the FA system 10 is connected to a communication line by a DCE (data line terminating device) 24 connected to the bus 11.
The terminal 27 connected to the external network 26 may be used as the above-mentioned View via the network 25.

The procedure for collecting site information using these views and agents is as follows. First, the Mission set by the user receives the Agent hou from View 18 via bus 11
Sent to se23. This mission is Agen in Agent house23
Collect the site information according to the contents of Mission received from t19 to 21. Here, the agent that actually collects information is
One or more may be selected and specified by Mission. In addition, conditions for detecting abnormal information (examples of which will be described later) are also described in this Miss.
Specify with ion. The collected site information (data) is Age
The data is stored in the nt and sent to the Mission's requester (View) when the collection is completed, or it is sequentially viewed from the Agent.
Sent to View18 that received the information from Agent,
This data is stored. The data stored in View18 is
It is processed and analyzed by spreadsheet software or the like provided in the View 18 in advance, and the result is displayed on a screen or output to the printer 22. The user can know whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the manufacturing process by looking at the result.

In the FA system 10, Agents 19 to 21 that collect on-site information transmit the information specified by the Mission for a predetermined period of time, for example, for each product (or lot).
Alternatively, the data is collected and accumulated every time. By doing so, the user of the information can know the transition and fluctuation. It is assumed that the stored information is updated from old one at any time when new information is entered.

Next, a method of detecting an abnormality in the FA system 10 will be described.

FIG. 2 is a time chart schematically showing the operation of the Agent from the injection of the mission to the detection of the abnormality in the present system. Agent that receives Mission from View,
The specified information (measurement data) is collected and accumulated sequentially, and this data is compared with the conditions specified in Mission. If abnormal data that meets the specified conditions, for example, exceeds or falls below a certain value, is detected by the Agent from the collected data up to the specified period in the past from the time when the abnormal data was detected. To collect data and transmit it to View. Note that, here, it has been described that data is collected retrospectively. However, in actuality, as described above, data for a predetermined period in the past is accumulated, and this accumulated data is stored in the View. Will be sent.

Hereinafter, a specific example of abnormality detection will be described.

(1) Detection of a series of abnormalities In a specific process, for example, the fluctuation of data per unit production amount, such as the quality of products manufactured continuously in the manufacturing process and the operation status of the manufacturing apparatus, is chronologically determined. (Referred to as "ren"). In this case, it is assumed that limit values (control upper limit value and control limit value) are set in advance for these data, and these limits and conditions for determining that an abnormality has occurred in Mission, that is, how many times this limit value It is assumed that if data out of the range is generated, whether or not it is determined to be abnormal is specified.

FIG. 3A shows an example of the variation of the data to be examined. As shown in the drawing, the series (runs) of data indicated by solid lines are all below the management upper limit value, and it is determined that no abnormality has occurred in these runs. On the other hand, in the series indicated by the broken line, a plurality of values below the lower management limit occur. When this number exceeds a predetermined number, it is determined that an abnormality has occurred.

FIG. 3 (b) is a time chart schematically showing the operation of the Agent for detecting the above-described abnormalities in the series.
As mentioned above, the Agent that received the Mission from View
Collects and accumulates specified information (measurement data) one by one, and checks the data as shown in a graph of FIG. 3A based on the conditions specified by Mission. As a result, a series of abnormalities as indicated by a broken line in FIG. 3A occurs, and when this abnormal data occurs a predetermined number of times, data for a predetermined period in the past before the abnormality detection is collected from that point in time. Transmit the result to View.

(2) Detection of Trend Abnormality FIG. 4 shows how the quality of the product and the operation status of the manufacturing apparatus change with time, and in particular, the value of the data indicating these changes.
Consider a case in which a trend (trend) such as whether the upward trend as shown in FIG. 4A or the downward trend as shown in FIG. 4B is observed. In this case, in Mission, limit values are determined in the same way as in the case of abnormal detection described above, and the conditions for judging abnormalities, that is, data trends are checked, and abnormalities are reached when the limit values are reached or exceeded. Is specified.

FIG. 4 (c) shows the variation of the data to be examined.
become that way. As shown in the drawing, when the data trend rises toward the management upper limit value and reaches, for example, the management limit value, it is determined that an abnormality has occurred.

FIG. 4D is a time chart schematically showing an operation of the Agent for detecting the above-mentioned trend abnormality. As mentioned above, A who received Mission from View
The gent sequentially collects and accumulates the specified information (measurement data), and checks the data as shown in the graph of FIG. 4C based on the conditions specified by the mission. As a result, when the data shows the tendency shown in the figure and reaches the control limit value, data is collected for a predetermined period in the past before abnormality detection from that time point, and the result is transmitted to View.

[0036]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to automatically and promptly know the occurrence of an abnormality in the manufacturing process, and to deal with it promptly. At the same time, it is possible to reduce the burden on workers and the like.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the progress from a certain point in the past to the occurrence of the abnormality can be known, it is possible to clarify the cause of the occurrence of the abnormality and to cope with it at an early stage.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, at the same time as the occurrence of an abnormality, the information is sent to the network of the FA system, so that the occurrence of the abnormality can be instantaneously known, and a prompt response to the abnormality is possible. Becomes

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the occurrence of an abnormality can be predicted or detected at an early stage by detecting a variation in product quality or the like that has occurred within a predetermined period. It is possible to do.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to grasp the tendency of the quality of the product and the operating state of the manufacturing apparatus to change from a normal state to an abnormal state. It is possible to predict that there is.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing an FA system to which a method according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a time chart schematically illustrating an abnormality detection procedure according to the present method.

FIG. 3 is a time chart schematically illustrating an example of an abnormality detection procedure according to the present method.

FIG. 4 is a time chart schematically showing another example of the abnormality detection procedure according to the present method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 FA system 11, 13, 26 Network bus 12 Sequencer 14 PI / O 15 SERVO 16 SENSOR 17 Router 18, 19, 20, 21, 27 Terminal 22 Printer 23 Data collection management mechanism 24 DCE 25 Communication line

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. An FA system which manages a plurality of processes for manufacturing a product by using a network connected to each of the processes, wherein site information transmitted in a data transmission network of the network and generated in each of the processes is stored. A plurality of data collection condition setting means provided on the network, for setting data collection conditions for collecting desired information from the site information, and data collection set by the data collection condition setting means When collecting the desired information based on a condition, when collecting with a plurality of data collection means, one data collection condition setting means can transmit the data collection condition to a plurality of the data collection means and a plurality of data collection conditions can be transmitted. The desired information can be received from the data collection means, and one data collection means can receive a plurality of the data. Receiving the data collection condition from the data collection condition setting means and transmitting the desired information to the plurality of data collection condition setting means, and one data collection condition setting means Different data collection conditions can be transmitted to the collection means, and the respective data collection means can collect desired information based on the respective data collection conditions transmitted from the data collection condition setting means, The data collection means automatically changes a desired information with time from the site information based on the data collection conditions transmitted from the data collection condition setting means for a predetermined period of time based on predetermined conditions. The collected information is returned to the data collection condition setting means that has transmitted the data collection condition, and the desired information is stored in a preset pipe. A FA information collection method, comprising: comparing with a logical limit value and detecting an abnormal value in a process when detecting an abnormal value outside the control limit value. 2. The FA information collecting method according to claim 1, wherein the desired information is collected over a period that is traced back by a predetermined time in the past from the time when the abnormal value is detected. 3. The FA information collecting method according to claim 1, wherein the occurrence of the abnormality is sent to a data transmission network of the network at the same time as the occurrence of the abnormality. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein an abnormality has occurred in the step by detecting the abnormal value a predetermined number of times within a predetermined period. How to collect FA information. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein a temporal change of the desired information within a predetermined period of time indicates a tendency to approach the control limit value, and the limit value is determined. A method for collecting FA information, wherein it is determined that an abnormality has occurred in the process at the time when the value exceeds the threshold. 6. An FA information collecting apparatus using the method according to claim 1. 7. An FA system comprising the device according to claim 6.