JPH0392251A - Work control method in manufacturing line and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate mixture of nonconforming articles by changing over the identification marks to those meaning the completion of works by an identification mark changeover means each time respective works are completed, and also by reading the identification marks stored in a work identification storing means by an identification mark reading means after passage of all work stations to control the line work. CONSTITUTION:In a work identification storing means (magnetic card) 31 having storing units which correspond to respective work stations 2 to 8 provided to a work pallet 30, prescribed identification marks are previously stored by an initial setting means 1A. Then, each time respective works are completed, the identification marks are changed over to those meaning the completion of work by an identification mark changeover means (write head) 13. Further, after passage of all work stations, the identification marks stored in the work identification storing means 31 are read by an identification mark reading means (read head) 9A to control the line work.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides a method for storing work information at each work station on a work pallet conveyed through the production line in a production line having a plurality of work stations. The present invention also relates to a work management method and apparatus for a manufacturing line that manages work on the manufacturing line based on the stored work information. [Prior art and its problems] Currently, in the processing and assembly of parts related to the manufacture of mechanical devices such as automobiles, workpieces are placed on pallets and transported on a conveyor. This is done using a so-called manufacturing line in which predetermined tasks (processing to assembly) are performed sequentially at work stations. In such a manufacturing line, it is desirable to record and store work information for each workpiece at each work station in a format that can be read later for the purpose of post-processing and product maintenance management. For example, on a machining line, the machining dimensions at each machining station are recorded.
Based on this machining information, parts to be combined can be selected in subsequent processes. Additionally, on the assembly line, recording tightening data for bolts and nuts can be useful for quality control. As described above, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-16348, a storage means is provided on the pallet on which the workpieces are placed, and a storage means is provided on the pallet on which the workpieces are placed. Some devices have a data writing/reading head placed on the side of the conveyance path (conveyor), and the data writing/reading head writes information to the storage means. In addition, if work is not performed correctly at a work station on a production line, stopping the line at that station will reduce productivity, so some lines are managed so that only transport continues, but if the defective workpiece is not a good workpiece, In order to prevent the pallets from being shipped out in a mixed state that cannot be identified, the pallets are equipped with the same number of pass/fail identification means as the number of work stations on the production line.
When work at each work station is not performed correctly, some devices are designed to display a defective indication at the part of the pass/fail identification means corresponding to the work station. Although this configuration does not store a large amount of work information,
Line management can be performed with small storage capacity. However, as described above, when the work at a work station is not performed correctly, a failure is displayed on the part of the pass/fail identifying means corresponding to the work station.
If for some reason a defective item is not indicated even though the work at that work station is defective, the defective item will be identified as a non-defective item and flowed to the subsequent process.
There was a problem in that after the post-process, good products and defective products were mixed together, making it difficult to distinguish between good and bad products. That is, since the system is designed to display when a work defect occurs, for example, a failure or malfunction of the means for operating the pass/fail identification means of the work station, or
If an error occurs due to a manual operation by an operator, a defective product will not be displayed, and therefore a defective product will be identified as a non-defective product, and if a defective product is mixed in with the non-defective products, it will be impossible to distinguish between them. This is what happens. [Object of the Invention] In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, the present invention is designed to prevent defective products even in the event of failure or malfunction of the means for operating the pass/fail identification means of a work station, or an error caused by manual operation by an operator. To provide a work management method and device for a production line that prevents non-defective products from being mixed with non-defective products and leaked to subsequent processes;
Its purpose is to [Structure of the Invention] Therefore, in the present invention, as a work management method in a production line, a predetermined identification mark is set in advance by an initial setting means in a work identification storage means having a storage unit corresponding to each work station provided on a work pallet. The identification mark is stored in the work identification storage means by the identification mark reading means after passing through all the work stations. This system is designed to manage line work by reading the identification marks placed on the workpiece, and the work pallet is provided with a work identification storage means having a storage unit corresponding to each work station.
Initial setting means for storing a predetermined identification mark in the work identification storage means of the work pallet in advance; and identification mark switching means provided at each work station for switching the work identification storage means to an identification mark indicating completion of the work; and identification mark reading means for reading the identification mark stored in the work identification storage means of the work pallet after it has passed through the work station. According to this, by switching a predetermined identification mark stored in advance in a work identification storage means provided on a work pallet to an identification mark indicating work completion each time each work is completed, a product can be identified as a non-defective product. The Rukoto. Therefore, although a non-defective product may be identified as a defective product due to a malfunction in the identification mark switching means, a defective product cannot be identified as a non-defective product, and a situation may arise in which defective products are mixed in with non-defective products. can be prevented. [Embodiments of the Invention] Examples of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a plan view of a manufacturing line to which an embodiment of the work management method and device for the manufacturing line according to the present invention is applied. The illustrated production line is a circulating production line, in which a carry-in station 1, each work station 2 to 8, and a carry-out station 9 are arranged in order along the circumferential direction of a circumferential conveyor 20, which is indicated by an arrow in the figure. It is being organized. 7-Although it is not shown in Figure 1, the pallet! In this state, it is carried into the circulating conveyor 20 from the carrying-in station l, which is the first process, and the circulating conveyor 2
During the conveyance, predetermined work is carried out at each work station 2 to 8, and the work is carried out at unloading station 9.
It is carried out from the circulating conveyor 20. Note that station 4 and station 8 are so-called backup stations, and are used to store workpieces (i.e., stations 2 and 3 in the case of station 4, stations 5 and 6, and 7 in the case of station 8) that have been defective at the previous work station. This is a work station where only the pallet (pallet) is stopped and the defective work is corrected. As shown in the second figure, a magnetic card 3l serving as work identification storage means is attached to a predetermined position on the side surface of the pallet 30. As schematically shown in FIG. 3(A), the magnetic card 3l has at least N+1 memory cells (8+1=in this embodiment), where N is the number of work stations on the manufacturing line. 9 cells), and each cell corresponds to each work station in a one-to-l ratio (in Fig. 3, each cell corresponds to
). Note that the remaining cell T is used for comprehensive identification, which will be described later. The carry-in station 1 is a station where the pallet 30 on which a work is placed is carried into the circulating conveyor 20 as described above, and a magnetic card is placed at a position corresponding to the magnetic card 31 of the pallet 30 on which the carried work 32 is placed. card 3
A write head IA is arranged as an initial setting means for the IA. Note that the write head IA is controlled by a control section 1C. As shown in FIG. 2, each of the work stations 2 to 8 after the loading station 1 includes a control device l1 having a CPU, a measuring device 12 connected to a sensor 12A disposed on the work device, and an identification device. A writing head l3 is provided as a sign switching means. The control device l1 receives measurement information from a work control unit 11A that controls a predetermined work on the workpiece 40 and a measuring device l2, and determines whether the work has been performed correctly based on the input information. It has a quality judgment section 11B. The measuring device N12 quantitatively measures the working status at the station based on information from the sensor 12A. The writing head l3 writes the pallet}3 at the station concerned.
It is arranged at a position corresponding to the magnetic card 3l of No. 0 and is connected to the control device M11, and a predetermined cell corresponding to the station of the magnetic card 31 is placed on the basis of information from the quality determination section 11B of the control device 1l. Write the information of (
It is designed so that it can be memorized. Note that at stations 4 and 8, which are pack-up stations, a read head is attached to the write head 13. The unloading station 9 has an identification mark reading unit 7D 9A placed at a position corresponding to the magnetic card 31 of the pallet 30 that has been transported to the unloading position after completing the work at each of the work stations 2 to 8. and the read head 9
A control device 9C receives the information read by A and, based on the read information, applies an interlock to disable the work 32 (pallet 31) from being carried out from the carry-out position or sounds a buzzer or the like to issue a warning; It is equipped with the following features. Therefore, in a production line configured as described above, work management is performed as follows. First, the pallet 30 on which the work 32 is placed is carried into the circulating conveyor 20 at the carrying station l, but at this time,
The write head IA stores and initializes the cells (1 to 8) corresponding to all the work stations 1 to 8 of the magnetic card 31 with information (for example, ■1) as an identification mark indicating a work defect. However, information indicating a good product (rOJ) is stored only in cell T of the general identification. (As shown in FIG. 3(B)) Then, the pallet 30 is conveyed by the revolving drive of the revolving conveyor 20, and is controlled by each work control unit 11A at work stations 2 to 8 to perform a predetermined work determined at the work station. is carried out, and based on the measurement information from the measuring device engineer 2, the pass/fail determining section 11B determines whether or not the work has been performed correctly. Here, when it is determined that the work has been performed correctly, the writing head l3 writes information rlJ indicating work defects stored in the cell corresponding to the work station concerned, indicating whether the work is a good product or not, as shown in FIG. 3(C). Information indicating that there is] Rewrite it to 0. (The figure shows a state in which up to work station 3 has been completed.) Also, when it is determined that the work has not been performed correctly, the information rlJ indicating the work defect stored in the cell corresponding to the work station is sent as is. Furthermore, the control device 11 determines whether or not the content of the work defect can be repaired at the back-up station blind on the downstream side of the line.
As shown in the figure, the memory contents of the general identification cell T are rewritten to information rlJ indicating a work defect. The backup station controller (stations 4 and 8) reads the information stored in the magnetic card 3l and sends the information to the work stations upstream from the station (i.e. stations 2 and 3 in the case of station 4, stations 5 and 3 in the case of station 8). 6. If there is a work defect in 7), perform the rework at the station concerned, and when the work is completed, the information rlJ indicating the work defect stored in the cell corresponding to the station is transferred to indicate that the product is good. Rewrite the indicated information to ``0''. In addition, if there is no work defect at a work station upstream from the station, and if information "l" indicating a work defect that cannot be corrected is stored in cell T of the overall judgment, the station is It is designed to pass through
In this case, the memory content of the cell corresponding to the station seal is rewritten to ``0'' so that passing means the completion of the work. Even if the work defect is corrected by rework at the station, the information rlJ indicating the work defect stored in the cell corresponding to the station where the work defect occurred is not rewritten and is transferred to the next process. In this way, when the workpiece 32 that has completed the work at all the work stations 2 to 8 reaches the unloading station 9, the workpiece 32 is stored in the magnetic card 31 by the reading head 9A at the unloading station 9. When the information is read and information rlJ indicating a work defect is stored in cell T of the general identification, the line is interlocked as a defective product and cannot be carried out. In other cases, the product will be carried out as a non-defective item, but if information rlJ indicating a work defect is stored in the cells (1 to 8) of work stations 1 to 8, a buzzer will sound. After indicating that the work has been defective, it is transported out. In other words, in the manufacturing line in this embodiment, only those items for which information rlJ indicating a work defect is stored in the general identification cell T are defective items that cannot be repaired at the backup station, and the work station cell (1 Even if information rlJ indicating a work defect is stored in any of items 8) to 8),
If information rl1 indicating a defective work is not stored in cell T of the general identification, it is determined that the defective work has been corrected at the backup station (stations 4 and 8) and has become a non-defective product. However, a buzzer sounds to alert the worker that the product has been repaired at the backup station and is now a good product (not a good product from the beginning). According to the above configuration, information rlJ indicating defective work is first stored in the cell corresponding to the work station, and when the work is correctly completed, this stored information is rewritten to information rOJ indicating non-defective product. Therefore, if, for example, there is a failure or malfunction of the writing head 13, which is the identification mark switching means of the work station, or if there is a mistake due to manual operation by the operator, a good product may be judged as a defective product. The problem of defective products being judged as non-defective products and defective products being mixed in with non-defective products does not occur, and therefore, the reliability of work management can be made extremely high. The above embodiment is an example in which the capacity of the memory cell corresponding to each work station of the magnetic card is 1 bit.
It is not limited to this, and it is also possible to use 2 bits or more.
By doing so, a larger amount of information can be stored and more detailed work management is possible. [Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the work management method and device for a production line according to the present invention, failures or malfunctions of the identification mark switching means of the work station, and mistakes due to manual operations by workers may occur. Even in cases where defective products are mixed in with good products, the reliability of work management can be improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a manufacturing line to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied, Fig. 2 is an enlarged schematic diagram of a work station, and Fig. 3 (
A) to (D) are diagrams schematically showing storage cells that are storage units of the work identification storage means. l... Carrying-in station IA... writing head (initial setting means) 2, 3, 4, 5
, 6, 7.8... Work station 9... Unloading station 9A... Reading head (identification mark reading means) l3...
・Writing head (identification mark switching means) 30...Barre r
(Work pallet) 31... Magnetic card (work identification storage means) 32... Work 1 Figure b f Figure 2 Figure 3 (A) (B) (C) (D) Toko4 Kob t 6

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a manufacturing line having a plurality of work stations, a predetermined identification mark is stored in advance by an initial setting means in a work identification storage means provided on a work pallet and having a storage unit corresponding to each work station, Each time each work is completed, the identification mark switching means switches the identification mark to an identification mark indicating completion of the work, and after passing through all the work stations, the identification mark reading means stores the identification mark in the work identification storage means. A work management method on a production line that manages line work by reading signs. (2) In a manufacturing line having a plurality of work stations, the work pallet is provided with a work identification storage means having a memory unit corresponding to each of the work stations, and the work identification storage means of the work pallet is provided with a predetermined identification. initial setting means for storing a mark; identification mark switching means provided at each of the work stations for switching the work identification storage means to an identification mark indicating completion of work; and the work pallet after passing through all the work stations. 1. A work management device for a manufacturing line, comprising: identification mark reading means for reading an identification mark stored in a work identification storage means;