JP4449253B2 - Transportation planning device, method and program - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a planning apparatus, method, and program for planning to transport a package around a plurality of bases by a plurality of vehicles.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Various systems have been proposed in the past for transport plans for transporting produced goods and other goods around multiple bases by means of multiple vehicles, which automatically execute complex vehicle arrangements and transport Expected to optimize cost, time required and number of locations.
[0003]
For example, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-40197, a plurality of bases that constitute a map by holding data that defines a cluster including two or more bases together with an order of tracing the bases as a cluster pattern. Is applied to the cluster pattern, and the combination of sub-patterns that optimizes the objective function is calculated. According to this configuration, since the cluster pattern is prepared in advance, there is an advantage that the map division and the optimization calculation by applying the conditions such as the distance, the direction, and the quantity become easy.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in reality, there are restrictions on the vehicle side for transportation by vehicle. For example, depending on the base of the transportation destination, for the business reasons such as confirmation of the transportation status and confirmation of the schedule of the next transportation, it may be necessary to handle not only the transportation but also a contact person. In addition, a road serving as a route (traveling route) may require permission from a public institution for traveling, and there is a restriction that a specific vehicle (especially a large vehicle) cannot travel other than a route that has been approved. On the other hand, depending on the type and contents of the business license held by the transporter that carries out the contract, the loading place and departure place may be limited, and other loading and unloading places may not be available. .
[0005]
For this reason, in the above-described conventional technology, the result of the above-described optimization calculation may not be executed due to the restrictions on the vehicle side, and a situation where the calculation needs to be retried may occur. In addition, since the calculation is performed indiscriminately without considering these restrictions on the vehicle side, there is a problem that the calculation amount is enormous and the processing takes a long time.
[0006]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a means capable of planning a transportation plan in consideration of restrictions on the vehicle side and reducing the amount of calculation.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention is a transportation planning apparatus for transporting a package by traveling to a plurality of bases by a plurality of vehicles, each of which designates a plurality of areas including the plurality of bases or one luggage relay point A plurality of types of operation patterns connecting the plurality of different areas, and an operation pattern specifying means for specifying an operation pattern for each vehicle or vehicle group, and a baggage according to the specified operation pattern Transportation plan calculation means for assigning to a vehicle or a vehicle group, and priority order storage means for storing priority information indicating a priority assignment order among the plurality of types of operation patterns in the same vehicle or the same vehicle group. The operation pattern designating means is configured to prioritize the plurality of types of operation patterns for one vehicle or one vehicle group. Specifies the position-ordered operation pattern, the transportation planning operation means, based on the priority information, a transportation schedule planning and wherein the creating a transportation schedule for allocating luggage vehicle or vehicle group.
[0008]
In the present invention , the area designating unit designates a plurality of areas each including the plurality of bases or one package relay point, and the operation pattern designating unit provides a plurality of types of operation patterns connecting the plurality of different areas. Is stored, and an operation pattern is designated for each vehicle or vehicle group. The transportation plan calculation means assigns the luggage to the vehicle or the vehicle group according to the designated operation pattern. As described above, in the present invention , since an operation pattern that connects between different areas is specified for each vehicle or vehicle group, an operation pattern that considers restrictions according to the vehicle or vehicle group can be specified. As a result, the variation of the vehicle to be selected is limited in advance, so that the amount of calculation is smaller than when performing indiscriminate calculation without considering the restrictions on the vehicle side. can do. In addition, since the operation pattern designating means designates a plurality of types of operation patterns for one vehicle or one vehicle group, when a plurality of types of operation patterns are allowable for the vehicle or vehicle group, the transportation plan is set. It can be created smoothly. In addition, it includes priority order storage means for storing priority order information indicating a preferential assignment order among a plurality of types of operation patterns in the same vehicle or the same vehicle group, and the transportation plan calculation means is based on the priority order information. Thus, since the luggage is allocated to the vehicle or the vehicle group, it is possible to execute the allocation in consideration of the priority order among the plurality of operation patterns in the vehicle.
[0017]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present embodiment relates to the planning of a transportation plan for a finished product of an automobile in which a small variety of products are produced by a flow operation.
[0018]
FIG. 1 shows an outline of a production process and a transportation process of an automobile. Based on the monthly production plan 10 established every month, a monthly transportation plan 12 is drawn up. Based on this transportation plan 12, a large frame of carrier cars for transporting the completed vehicle is arranged. That is, the number of carrier cars that can be used on a certain day of the month is determined. The monthly production plan 10 is sequentially modified every predetermined production unit such as every day by an order 14 from an actual customer. The contents of the order 14 are the vehicle type, specifications, desired delivery date, and the like, and the actual production plan 16 is determined in consideration of these. According to this plan, production is started at the factory 18. Therefore, when production of a certain product is started, the delivery destination of the individual is already specified. A completed vehicle that has been line-off from the production line of the factory is temporarily placed in the shipping yard 20 and is transported to the relay station 22 or directly to the store 24 by a carrier car according to a transportation plan. The completed vehicle sent to the relay station 22 is mounted on another carrier car from here and transported to the store 26. In some cases, it is sent to a dealer via a plurality of relay points. The goods are delivered to the customers from the stores 24 and 26.
[0019]
There are a wide variety of vehicle types and specifications, and the factory 18 flows through a single production line with a mixture of many vehicle types and specifications. In the vehicle assembly process, if the same specifications flow continuously or intensively, the workload of a specific process may be concentrated. In order to avoid this, production plans are made so that the same specifications are not concentrated, and vehicles of various vehicle types and specifications flow one after the other on a single production line. If such a production form is taken, the timing of shipment and the direction of transportation will vary from day to day.
[0020]
A daily transportation plan 28 is drawn up based on the determined production plan, that is, the information on the start of production and the actually completed record. A carrier car is arranged based on this plan, and a transportation instruction 30 is given to the shipping yard 20 based on the information of the line off every moment. The progress 32 of the transportation of the product whose transportation has been started is always managed. The actual transportation information is analyzed, and if there is a problem, it is reflected in the subsequent monthly transportation plan 12 and daily transportation plan 28 to solve the problem.
[0021]
FIG. 2 shows the overall configuration of the transportation planning apparatus of the present embodiment. A product completion schedule indicating the scheduled date and time for completion of a line-in product based on the determined production plan is input from an input means (not shown) and stored in the storage means 42. Further, the completion result of the product is input from an input means (not shown) and stored in the storage means 46. Further, in order to take into account the delivery deadline request of the product shipping destination, the shipping condition indicating the shipping deadline calculated backward from the delivery deadline is input from the input means (not shown) and stored in the storage means 50. In addition, conditions for accepting the shipping destination (transportation destination), for example, the condition that there is no place to stop five or more carrier cars or that the car cannot be accepted after 4 pm are stored from the input means (not shown). 54. In addition, the transportation results such as the location of the current transportation and the products currently in transit and the arrival schedule are inputted from the input means (not shown) and stored in the storage means 58. Based on the information stored in each of the storage means 42, 46, 50, 54, 58 described above, the product to be transported, which is the product shipment order, is created by the creation means 60 and stored in the storage means 62.
[0022]
Further, the transportation conditions are input from the input means 94, 95, 96 and stored in the storage means 66. The storage means 66 stores a carrier car master 91, an operation pattern master 92, and an area master 93, which are databases storing data related to various transportation conditions. In the carrier car master 91, in addition to a code for identifying the carrier car, a model of the carrier car, a usable time zone, etc., which of the various operation patterns to be described later for each carrier car can be operated by which operation pattern. The carrier car information to be set together with the priority order among them is stored. The operation pattern master 92 stores operation pattern information indicating a pattern of operation contents. The area master 93 stores area information for setting a loading base and a transportation destination belonging to each area.
[0023]
The storage means 66 also stores master files 74, 76, 80, 82 and 84 in which data relating to other transportation conditions are stored. Of these, the loading site master 74 stores information such as the location and the number of carrier cars that can simultaneously perform loading operations at the loading site. The transportation destination master 76 stores the location, code, transportation destination name, size of a carrier car that can be carried in, and the like. The number-of-stacks master 80 stores the number of products that can be loaded on the model corresponding to the model of the carrier car. The transportation time master 82 stores the required time from the loading base to each transportation destination, loading work time, unloading work time, and the like. The transport route master 84 stores the route from the shipping point to the relay point and from the relay point to the store.
[0024]
Based on the product information to be transported and the transportation conditions, a transportation plan is computed by the computing means 68 and the result is stored in the storage means 70. The transportation plan can be appropriately output by the output means 72.
[0025]
The transport target product information creating means 60 extracts information on products to be transport plan based on the product completion schedule information 42, the product completion record information 46, and the transport plan information 70 created last time. The product completion record information 46 is information on a product that has already been completed and is line-off at the time of planning. Further, the product completion schedule information 42 is a product completion schedule determined at the time of line introduction, and when planning a transportation plan, there is a product scheduled to be completed after this time and a product completion record 46. The target is a finished product that is not in the transportation record 58 (waiting for transportation) and a product that is in the transportation record 58 but is in a transit point in the middle of transportation and for which a subsequent transportation plan needs to be formulated. Furthermore, the product information creation means 60 for transport considers various conditions after shipment. The product shipping condition 50 is a condition based on a desired delivery date of the product to the customer. Specifically, the time at which the product should be shipped is determined by going back from the delivery date to the customer to the time required to transport the product. In addition, the condition 54 regarding delivery destination delivery is also taken into consideration. For example, the delivery deadline is conditioned by the closing time of a store that is a shipping destination. The transport target product information creating means 60 determines the product information 62 on the extracted transport plan target in consideration of the product shipping condition 50 and the shipping destination delivery condition 54.
[0026]
Based on the determined product information 62, the transportation plan calculation means 68 makes a transportation plan 70. At this time, various transport conditions stored in the transport condition storage means 66 described above are taken into consideration. The calculated transportation plan information 70 is output by the output means and sent to the person in charge of transportation work. The person in charge makes arrangements for the vehicle dispatch with reference to this transportation plan.
[0027]
Specific setting contents of the operation pattern master 92 are shown in FIGS. 4A shows the setting data of the operation pattern “001” (indicated by “pattern No./001” in FIG. 4) in the operation pattern master 92, and FIG. 4B shows the corresponding data expressed thereby. The operation pattern is shown. This operation pattern “001” is a case of piston transportation, and “loading is carried out by piston transportation to the most suitable transportation destination in area A and area C (transportation mode in which the forward path is loaded and the return path travels by an empty vehicle). Is set to carry "." The “passing order” column is set to “free”, which means that the transportation to the area A and the transportation to the area C may be assigned in any order and in any proportion for the vehicle. For the vehicle for which this operation pattern “001” is designated, the transportation plan calculation means 68 preferentially assigns the vehicle to the piston transportation in the area A, and the vehicle is moved to the piston in the area A due to other factors. When the vehicle is not suitable for transportation, the vehicle is assigned to the piston transportation in the destination area having a low priority indicated by the numbers in the “operation order” column, that is, in the area C.
[0028]
Similarly, the operation pattern “002” shown in FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b) is a case of round-trip transportation, “after the transportation to the optimum destination in the area D, the optimum in the area D” It is specified that the cargo will be loaded and transported to the area A near the shipping place. The “passing order” column is set as “in order”, which means that the vehicle must be assigned transportation in this order, and the transportation that circulates these areas A and D in other orders is assigned. It means not to be. For a vehicle for which this driving pattern “002” is designated, the transportation plan calculation means 68 assigns the vehicle to transportation according to this driving pattern.
[0029]
The operation pattern “003” shown in FIGS. 6 (a) and 6 (b) is a designation for the case of piston transportation to a nearby dealer and including business restrictions such as correspondence with the dealer. It is. In this operation pattern, a store to be preferentially designated is directly designated by a designation input of “Seller A-1” in the “Destination Area” field. For vehicles for which this operation pattern “003” is designated, the transportation plan calculation means 68 assigns the vehicles to the respective transportations according to the numerical priority in the “operation order” column.
[0030]
The operation pattern “004” shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B is a case where the piston is transported after the round-trip transport, and “in the area D after transporting to the optimal transport destination in the area D” It is designated that the cargo is transported to the area A with a load near the optimal shipping place, and then transported to the area C. For vehicles for which this operation pattern “004” is designated, the transportation plan calculation means 68 assigns the vehicles to each transportation in the priority order as indicated by the numbers in the “operation order” column.
[0031]
FIG. 8 shows the settings for each case where the return is transported and when it is not transported. FIG. 8A shows the case where there is a return (operation pattern “005”), and the case where there is no (b) (operation pattern). “006”). In the latter case, the return shipment is transported to, for example, the store A-2. In FIG. 8, port E-1 is a luggage relay point.
[0032]
Of the specific setting contents of the carrier car master 91, the part related to the designation of the operation pattern for each vehicle is shown in FIG. In the “Car No.” column, the car number of each vehicle is described, and in the “Operating Pattern / Priority” column, the number of the operating pattern to which the vehicle should be preferentially assigned is shown in the priority order from left to right in the figure. They are listed in order.
[0033]
For the “001” car, the operation patterns “001” and “002” are designated in this order of priority. Therefore, in the transportation planning process described later, the vehicle is preferentially assigned for round-trip transportation to area D, and is assigned to piston transportation when there is no luggage.
[0034]
For the “002” car, only the operation pattern “003” is designated. Therefore, in the transportation planning process described later, the vehicle is preferentially assigned for transportation (and correspondence) to the store A-1, and is also assigned to piston transportation to the area A.
[0035]
For the “003” car, the operation patterns “004” and “002” are designated in this order of priority. Therefore, in the transportation planning process described later, the vehicle is preferentially assigned to the round trip transportation to the area D and the piston transportation to the area C, and when there is no luggage to the area C, the piston transportation to the area C is not performed. Are allocated as follows.
[0036]
For the “004” car, the operation patterns “005” and “001” are designated in this order of priority. Therefore, in the transportation planning process described later, the vehicle is preferentially allocated for piston transportation to area E, and when there is no luggage to area E, the vehicle is allocated to piston transportation to areas A and C.
[0037]
For the “005” car, the operation patterns “006” and “001” are designated in this order of priority. Therefore, in the transportation planning process described later, the vehicle is preferentially assigned for transportation to area E and transportation to area A on the return path, and piston transportation to areas A and C when there is no luggage to area E. Assigned.
[0038]
In the transportation plan planning process to be described later, the transportation plan calculation means 68 is described in the “operation pattern / priority” column for each vehicle specified by the description in the “car No.” column in the carrier car master 91. The operation pattern master 92 is searched according to the existing number, information related to the content of the corresponding operation pattern is read, and each vehicle is assigned according to this.
[0039]
FIG. 3 shows a flowchart relating to a transportation plan planning process executed by the transportation plan calculation means 68. First, product completion schedule information, performance information, and past transportation plan information are read (S100). A list of products to be completed in the target time zone of the transportation plan is created from the completion schedule information, and information on products already completed is added to the list from the actual information (S102). In addition, in the transportation plan prepared so far, information on products already incorporated in the transportation plan is extracted from the list (S102). Next, product shipping conditions are read (S104). As described above, the product shipping condition is a shipping time determined by going back the time required for transportation from the delivery date.
[0040]
Next, the product in the list corrected in step S102 is searched for whether there is a product that strictly adheres to the delivery date. If there is a target product, it is determined whether the product can satisfy the desired delivery date on the normal transportation route (S106). ). If the delivery date cannot be satisfied, the shortest transportation route is set (S108). The shortest transportation route is, for example, a land transported by a carrier car, which is usually transported by sea. For products in time for the normal route, the transport route is set to normal (S110). Then, the receiving time of the shipping destination is leveled (S112), and the shipping available time zone is calculated for all products (S114). The shipping time zone is the time from the line-off to the shipping allowable time calculated backward from the delivery date. If the target product is not shipped during this time, the delivery date cannot be maintained.
[0041]
Next, a priority 1 operation pattern is temporarily selected for each carrier car (S116). Next, carrier cars whose product destinations are included in the operation content indicated by the operation pattern are set as candidates for assignment (S118). Next, products are assigned to carrier cars capable of transporting each product in the shipping time zone of each product from the candidates for assignment (S120).
[0042]
After the allocation is completed for all products in the planning target period, the allocated transportation plan is evaluated using a predetermined evaluation function (S122). If this evaluation function is not equal to or greater than a predetermined value, that is, not more than the target efficiency, the operation content of the carrier car having a low evaluation score is changed to the next priority operation pattern (S124), and the allocation condition is changed (S126). ), The process returns to step S118. The allocation condition is changed, for example, by transporting 10 products by 2 carrier cars with 5 stacks, and transporting with 7 carrier cars with 7 stacks. If it becomes more than a predetermined value by step S122, this will be output as a transportation plan (S128), and this routine will be complete | finished.
[0043]
As described above, in this embodiment, the area master 93 designates a plurality of bases constituting a part of the plurality of bases as the common areas A, B, C, D, and E, and the operation pattern master 92 An operation pattern connecting a plurality of different areas is stored in advance. Then, an operation pattern is designated for each vehicle by the carrier car master 91, and the transportation plan calculation means 68 assigns the luggage to each vehicle according to the designated operation pattern.
[0044]
Thus, in this embodiment, since the operation pattern which connects between several different areas A, B, C, D, and E was designated for every vehicle, the operation pattern which considered the restrictions according to each vehicle This can be used to obtain an executable calculation result, and the variations of the selected vehicle are limited in advance, so compared with the case where the calculation is performed indiscriminately without considering the restrictions on the vehicle side. The amount of computation can be reduced.
[0045]
In this embodiment, since the carrier car master 91 can specify a plurality of types of operation patterns for one vehicle (FIGS. 4, 6, 7, and 8), there are a plurality of types of operation patterns for the vehicle. Transport plans can be created smoothly if acceptable.
[0046]
Moreover, in this embodiment, since the transportation plan calculation means 68 assigns a load based on the priority information about each vehicle, the assignment considering the priority among a plurality of operation patterns in the vehicle is executed. it can.
[0047]
Further, in the present embodiment, for example, operations related to a plurality of different vehicles / priorities, such as “Priority 1” of “001” car and “Priority 2” of “003” car in the setting contents of the carrier car master 91 (FIG. 9). The pattern is specified (in this example, the operation pattern “002”). As a result, the common operation pattern information in the operation pattern master 92 can be used in each designation. Therefore, when the operation pattern is modified, the data about the operation pattern (operation pattern “002”) in the operation pattern master 92 is modified. All that is required is easy modification.
[0048]
In the present embodiment, the computer program used for the transportation plan planning process in the transportation plan calculation means 68 is an area designation step for designating a plurality of bases constituting a part of the plurality of bases as a common area. An operation pattern designating step for designating an operation pattern connecting the different areas for each vehicle or vehicle group, and a transportation plan calculating step for allocating luggage to the vehicle or vehicle group according to the designated operation pattern; Can be traded as a program for executing the above, and can be used as a useful auxiliary means for realizing the effects of the present invention.
[0049]
In the present embodiment, the operation pattern is specified for each vehicle. However, the operation pattern may be specified for each vehicle group including a plurality of vehicles, for example, belonging to the same transportation company. When the operation pattern is specified for the vehicle group at a time, it is possible to execute transportation allocation considering the restrictions on the transportation side (particularly, the restrictions on the travel route) caused by the authorization.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of a production process and a transportation process of an automobile.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of the embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing transportation plan planning processing according to the embodiment.
FIG. 4A is a diagram showing the setting contents of an operation pattern master, and FIG. 4B is a diagram showing an operation pattern corresponding to this.
FIG. 5A is a diagram showing the setting content of an operation pattern master, and FIG. 5B is a diagram showing an operation pattern corresponding to this.
6A is a diagram showing the setting contents of an operation pattern master, and FIG. 6B is a diagram showing an operation pattern corresponding to this.
7A is a diagram showing the setting contents of an operation pattern master, and FIG. 7B is a diagram showing an operation pattern corresponding to this.
FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrams showing operation pattern master settings, and FIG. 8C is a diagram showing operation patterns corresponding to these settings.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing setting contents of a carrier car master.
[Explanation of symbols]
60 transportation target product information creation means, 62 transportation target product information storage means, 68 transportation plan calculation means, 70 transportation plan information storage means, 91 carrier car master, 92 operation pattern master, 93 area master.

Claims (3)

A transportation planning apparatus for transporting luggage around a plurality of bases by a plurality of vehicles, each of which designates a plurality of areas including the plurality of bases or one luggage relay point; and
Storing a plurality of types of operation patterns connecting between the different areas, and specifying an operation pattern for each vehicle or vehicle group ;
A transportation plan calculation means for allocating luggage to a vehicle or a vehicle group according to the designated operation pattern;
Priority order storage means for storing priority information indicating a preferential allocation order among the plurality of types of operation patterns in the same vehicle or the same vehicle group,
The operation pattern designation means designates an operation pattern in which the plurality of types of operation patterns are prioritized for one vehicle or one vehicle group,
The transportation plan calculation device, wherein the transportation plan calculation means creates a transportation plan for allocating luggage to a vehicle or a vehicle group based on the priority information . In the transportation planning apparatus according to claim 1,
The transportation plan calculation means assigns a package to a vehicle or a vehicle group based on the priority information, and then evaluates the transportation plan with a predetermined evaluation function set in advance, and an evaluation point of an evaluation function of the current transportation plan When the vehicle is less than a predetermined value, the transportation planning apparatus changes the allocation of the luggage to the vehicle or the vehicle group so that the vehicle is operated with the next highest priority operation pattern. A transportation planning device according to claim 1 or claim 2,
  It further comprises operation pattern storage means for storing the operation pattern,
  The transportation plan characterized in that at least one operation pattern stored in the operation pattern storage means can be designated as a common operation pattern of operation patterns assigned to a plurality of vehicles or a plurality of vehicle groups. Planning device.

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