JPH0756619A - Production controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a production controller which can reduce the quantity of data that are transmitted in an overload state within the performance of a computer. CONSTITUTION:The processing load quantity of a work station 2 is detected, and the data which are sent to the station 2 are selected by a programmable controller 1. So that the processing overload is prevented for the station 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a production management device for controlling a production line including a plurality of processes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A production line consisting of a plurality of processes is constructed by connecting a work station and a plurality of programmable controllers via a network and installing at least one programmable controller in each process.

The workstation processes data from the programmable controller as a higher-order model which gives a command to the programmable controller, and gives the next instruction from the processed data. In addition, a statistical table or the like is created from the processed data according to the purpose of the user.

On the other hand, a programmable controller as a subordinate model operates or stops the equipment in response to a command from the work station, detects failure data from the equipment, operation state data of the equipment, and the like.

For example, the workstation creates a schedule for operating or stopping production equipment, a production record of products, etc. based on data such as quality data and equipment data transmitted from the programmable controller, and stores it in the programmable controller. The schedule is transmitted only when the generated schedule request signal is received. Then, the amount of processing load processed by the workstation increases as the production line becomes complicated. As a result, the workstation cannot send the schedule immediately to the schedule request signal sent from another programmable controller because the data sent from the programmable controller exceeds the processing capacity of the workstation, so during that time, The production line could not be operated at a desired speed due to a situation in which the operation of the equipment was stopped.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a production management apparatus capable of reducing the amount of data to be transmitted at the time of overload so as not to exceed the processing capacity of a computer.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To achieve the above object, the present invention comprises at least one upper control processing device for creating a schedule of a production line and a plurality of lower control devices for controlling the production line equipment. In a production management device connected by a network, the lower control device detects the processing load amount of the upper control processing device, and the upper control process according to the processing load amount detected by the processing load amount detecting means. A selection means for selecting the production equipment data to be transmitted to the device; and a transmission means for notifying the selection of the production equipment data by the selection means to a lower level control device on the same network other than the lower level control device. To do.

[0008]

In the production control apparatus of the present invention, the processing load amount detecting means and the processing load amount detecting means for detecting the processing load amount of the upper control processing device from the time when the schedule request signal is transmitted to the upper control processing device in the lower control device. When the detection means detects an overload of the higher-level control processing device, it selects that the data is selected by the selection means for selecting the production equipment data to be transmitted to the higher-level control processing device. Communicate to the device via the transmission means.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A production management apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the configuration of the production control apparatus of the present invention. The lower-level control device that controls the production equipment of each process on the production line is the programmable controller 1, and the higher-level control processing device that centrally manages this programmable controller 1 is the workstation 2, and these are the network 3 Connected by.

The programmable controller 1 detects a production facility installed on a production line, for example, operation or stop of operation of an assembly device and a welding device, a cutting device and the like, a failure signal, a good or defective product on the production line. To do. At least one programmable controller 1 is installed for each production facility, detects each data, and transmits it to the workstation 2. Incidentally, each data is, for example, quality data, equipment data, production performance data, schedule request data, etc., the quality data indicates whether the quality of the product output from the production equipment is good or bad, and the equipment data is Shows the failure data of the production equipment and ON / OFF data of the power supply of the production equipment.

The production record data indicates the operating status of the production facility, and the schedule request data is output to the workstation 2 when the production facility finishes the schedule given to the production facility.

At least one workstation 2 is installed for a plurality of programmable controllers 1, processes the data from the programmable controller 1, and generates a schedule for a production line according to schedule request data transmitted from the programmable controller 1. After that, the schedule is transmitted to the programmable controller 1.

The network 3 connects a plurality of programmable controllers 1 installed in each process to at least one workstation 2 so that the programmable controller 1 or the workstation 2 can communicate the data and schedule. .

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the programmable controller 1 used in the present invention.

In the programmable controller 1 used in the present invention, the processing load amount detecting means for detecting the processing load amount of the workstation 2 transmits the schedule request signal from the transmission processing unit 18, and then the reception processing unit 26 schedules. The schedule reception time monitoring unit 24 detects the time until the reception of. Further, the selection unit that selects the data to be transmitted to the workstation 2 by detecting the processing load amount of the workstation 2 determines the magnitude of the processing load amount by the delay time determination unit 16 and transmits the transmission data. The judgment processing unit 14 selects the data. In the transmission means for notifying the other programmable controller 1 on the network 3 of the overloaded state of the workstation 2, the schedule reception time monitoring unit 24 detects the processing load amount and the delay time determination unit 16 determines that the load is heavy. And programmable controller selection unit 28
It will be sent more.

Each part of the programmable controller 1 used in the present invention will be described in detail.

The types of data processed in the transmission / reception processing are
For example, there are quality data, equipment data, production performance data, and schedule request data. The quality data signal from the facility 10 is converted by the quality data processing unit 12 and treated as quality data. The quality data is temporarily stored in the transmission data judgment processing unit 14, judged by the delay time judgment unit 16 and selected for data transmission, and is sent to the transmission processing unit 18 only when transmission is possible by this selection. And sent to workstation 2 via 3.
Further, the equipment data signal from the equipment 10 is converted or processed by the equipment data processing unit 20 and treated as equipment data and production record data. The equipment data is temporarily stored in the transmission data determination processing unit 14 and is referred to by the delay time determination unit 16 to select data transmission. Only when transmission is possible by this selection, the facility data is transmitted to the transmission processing unit 18 and the network 3 is transmitted. And is transmitted to the workstation 2.

The schedule data generator 22 generates a schedule request signal for requesting the next schedule when the schedule given from the workstation 2 ends. This schedule request signal is sent to the transmission processing unit 18 through the transmission data determination processing unit 14 and is transmitted to the workstation 2 via the network 3.
Further, the schedule from the workstation 2 is stored in the schedule storage processing unit 23 via the reception processing unit 26 and the reception data determination unit 30, and is sequentially transmitted to the equipment.

The schedule reception time monitoring unit 24 detects a delay time from when the schedule request signal is transmitted from the transmission processing unit 18 to when the workstation 2 processes the new schedule and the reception processing unit 26 receives a new schedule. Next, the delay time is compared with a preset delay time reference value to determine the processing load amount. therefore,
When the delay time is larger than the delay time reference value, the work station 2 is heavily loaded. On the contrary, when the delay time is smaller than the delay time reference value, the processing state of the work station 2 is normal. . The transmission data determining unit 14 transmits the schedule request data and the production record data among the above data when it is necessary to transmit them to the workstation 2 based on the processing load amount, but does not transmit the facility data and the quality data. Make a decision.

Programmable controller selection unit 28
When the data selection signal is sent after the delay time judgment unit 16 judges the delay time, the other programmable controller 1
Then, the data selection signal is transmitted via the transmission processing determination unit 18. The data selection signal passes through the reception processing unit 26 of another programmable controller 1 and the reception data determination unit 30.
Sent to. Upon receiving the data selection signal, the reception data judgment unit 30 sends it to the transmission data judgment unit 14 via the delay time judgment unit 16 and performs the same processing as when selected.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the workstation 2 used in the present invention.

In the workstation 2 used in the present invention, the processing load amount detecting means receives the schedule request signal from the programmable controller 1 in the reception processing section 40, and the schedule data processing section 52 creates a schedule to generate the transmission processing section. The processing load amount is detected in the programmable controller 1 by transmitting it to the programmable controller 1 at 42.

The workstation 2 used in the present invention will be described in detail.

The data processed in the transmission / reception processing includes quality data from the programmable controller 1, facility data, production record data, schedule request data, and the like. The data received by the reception unit 40 is received by the reception processing unit 4
0 is received, and the received data determination processing unit 44 sends the data to the processing unit according to the type of data.

The data is the received data discrimination processing unit 44.
The processing destination is selected with. The quality data is processed and stored by the quality data processing unit 46. The equipment data is stored in the equipment data processing unit 48, and the equipment performance data is processed and stored after being transmitted from the equipment data processing unit 48 to the equipment stop time processing unit 50.

In the schedule creation processing, the stop data of the equipment by time processed by the equipment stop time processing unit 50 is transmitted to the schedule creation processing unit 52 to create a schedule.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of processing data in the programmable controller 1.

The data transmitted from the equipment 10 is received by the quality data processing unit 12 and the equipment data processing unit 20. The schedule from the workstation 2 in response to the schedule request signal is received by the reception processing unit 26 (S1).

The programmable controller 1 selects the data to be transmitted to the workstation 2 by the transmission data judgment processing unit 14, generates a selection signal, and sets "1" in the transmission delay flag. The data and the signal are sent to the transmission processing unit 18, and the data is sent to the workstation 2 and the signal is sent to another programmable controller 1. When the reception processing unit 26 receives a selection signal from another programmable controller 1, data is selected and the transmission delay flag is set to "1" (S2).

When the transmission delay flag is set to "1" (S3), the quality data and the equipment data are saved in the transmission interruption buffer of the transmission data judgment processing unit 14 (S).
4).

When there is data in the transmission interruption buffer of the communication data judgment processing unit 14 (S5), the data is taken out from the transmission interruption buffer (S6), and this data is transmitted to the transmission processing unit 18, and if there is no data. Sends the selected data to the workstation 2 (S
7).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for selecting the programmable controller 1.

When the selection signal is transmitted from the other programmable controller 1, it is received by the reception processing unit 26 and judged by the reception data judgment processing unit 30 (S2).
0) The transmission delay flag of the delay time determination unit 16 is set to "1" (S23).

The delay time is determined by the schedule reception time monitoring unit 2 when the schedule processing unit 22 transmits the schedule request data and then the transmission processing unit 18 transmits the schedule request data.
4 is the delay time from the transmission end time until the schedule is received by the reception processing unit 26 (S21).

To determine the processing load of the workstation 2, the delay time judgment unit 16 compares the delay time reference value with the delay time. If the delay time is larger than the delay time reference value, the load is heavy (S22). ).

When the transmission data judgment processing unit 14 judges that the workstation 2 is under heavy load, the transmission delay flag is set to "1" (S23).
The flag is set to "0" (S24).

When the transmission delay flag is set to "1", the transmission data judgment processing unit 14 selects only the production record data and the schedule request data (S2).
5).

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention, the detecting means for detecting the processing load amount of the upper control processing device detects the data, and the selecting means selects the data to be transmitted to the upper control processing device. Since the processing load amount of the higher-order control processing device can be adjusted by the transmission means for transmitting to the lower-order control device other than the control device, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of delay time due to overload, and therefore the production line is operated at a desired speed. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a production management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a programmable controller 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a workstation 2.

FIG. 4 is a main flowchart of the programmable controller 1.

FIG. 5 is a sub-flowchart for selecting the programmable controller 1.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Programmable controller, 2 ... Workstation, 3 ... Network,
14 ... Transmission data determination processing unit, 16 ... Delay time determination unit, 24 ... Schedule reception time monitoring unit, 28 ... Programmable controller selection unit, 30
... reception data judgment unit, 44 ... reception data judgment processing unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. At least one higher-level control processing device for creating a schedule of a production line, and a plurality of lower-level control devices connected to the higher-order control processing device by a network and controlling production equipment installed in the production line. And a processing load amount detecting means for detecting a processing load amount of the upper control processing device, and transmitting to the upper control processing device based on the processing load amount detected by the processing load amount detecting means. Selection means for selecting the production equipment data to be used, and transmission means for notifying that the production equipment data has been selected by the selection means to a lower-level control device connected to the same network other than the lower-level control device. Production control device.