JPH08215991A - Tracking method on manufacturing line - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To remarkably reduce the number of arranged sensor means even if the territory to be the object of tracking is enlarged by dealing with the territory of routing of which the work moving order is not changed as a control block, and memorizing the order of works existing in each control block as the block order information. CONSTITUTION: On the first position of a manufacturing line 21, the identification data of works A-K to be introduced to the manufacturing line 21 are input to a terminal 43, and transmitted to a memory device 45 through a network 42. Master order information is prepared by the memory device 45. The moved positions of works on the manufacturing line 21 are detected by respective sensor means, 33-38, and transmitted to programmable controllers 39, 40 through the network 42. The order of works is memorized as the block order information by the controllers 39, 40. By searching the master order information while setting the data row of the block order information as a retrieving, the individual works A-K existing in the respective control blocks are identified.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tracking method in a manufacturing line for manufacturing an engine or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in manufacturing industrial products such as engines, a series of machining and assembling operations until completion are divided into a plurality of steps, and each step is assigned to a work station, and a plurality of work stations are visited. In the meantime, work processing / assembly work is performed. For this reason, since there are works in various work-in-progress states on the manufacturing line, it is indispensable to manage which processes have what kind of works in which process. There is a tracking system as a method of acquiring work enrollment in real time. As shown in FIG. 4, in the conventional tracking system, the work W is set in each of the work stations 1 to 6.
By providing sensors 7 to 12 for detecting the entrance and exit of each of the workpieces, each of the sensors 7 to 12 identifies the individual work W, and the enrollment information is stored in the control device 13, so that there is one-to-one complete enrollment of one work per station. Tracking was done based on information.

[0003]

However, in the conventional tracking system described above, the number of work stations increases as the area of the work process to be tracked increases, and the number of sensors increases as the work stations increase. However, there was a problem that the system cost became large and the construction cost and man-hours increased. In addition, in a specific work station, it is necessary to determine the type of work individually according to the characteristics of the work, but in other work stations, it may not be necessary to identify each work, so it is necessary for both. There was no point in providing such information with a conventional system.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a tracking method in a production line that can appropriately retrieve work registration information at a required level.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a tracking method in a manufacturing line of the present invention is a method of machining a workpiece while traveling through a plurality of work stations.
In a manufacturing line where assembly work is performed, a process in which the movement order of works on the manufacturing line does not change, and a plurality of control blocks are set corresponding to each work process over a single work station or multiple work stations. The work identification name to be introduced into the manufacturing line is input to the terminal device at the first position of the production line, and the input work identification data is transmitted from the terminal device to the storage device through the network, and the work identification name data is stored in the storage device. By forming the master sequence information by storing in the database in accordance with the introduction order, while detecting the moving position of the work on the manufacturing line by the sensor means provided at the start end position and the end position of the work process corresponding to each management block, A programmer that connects a position detection signal that notifies the movement position of the work to the sensor means To the controller, and the programmable controller accumulates the work passage order in each management block based on the position detection signal, and stores the order of the works existing in each management block as block order information and connects to any network. In the terminal device, the block order information of an arbitrary programmable controller and the master order information of the storage device are read out and the two pieces of information are compared to identify each work existing in the management block.

[0006]

With the above-described structure, a region of a closed work process in which the movement order of works such as a belt conveyor or a processing machine is invariable is treated as a management block, and the order of works existing in each management block is block order. Since the information is stored as information, it is sufficient to provide the sensor means only at the start position and the end position of the work process corresponding to each management block, and the number of the sensor means to be arranged is greatly reduced even if the area to be tracked is expanded. be able to.

Further, since the identification names of all the works are stored as master order information in the database of the storage device and the block order information of the works existing in each management block is stored in the programmable controller, the information holding form is distributed. The information becomes hierarchical and hierarchical, and only the necessary level of information can be retrieved appropriately. In other words, a work station that does not require individual work identification can perform machining / assembly work based on the block sequence information of the programmable controller, and a work station that requires individual work identification can perform block ordering. By collating the information with the master order information in the database, it is possible to perform the machining / assembly work while individually identifying the workpieces.

Further, since the identification names of the works to be introduced into the production line are determined only at the first position of the production line, and the identification names of all the works are stored as the master sequence information only in the database of the storage device, they are provided in each management block. It is not necessary to individually distinguish the work by the sensor means, and the sensor means can be simplified.

[0009]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, the manufacturing line 21 is formed by a plurality of work stations 21 to 32, and a conveyor device, a processing device, etc. are arranged at each work station 21 to 32. A plurality of management blocks 101 to 104 are set on the manufacturing line 21, and the management blocks 101 to 104 are set.
Reference numeral 104 corresponds to a work process over a single or a plurality of work stations, and in the work process of each of the control blocks 101 to 104, the movement order of the works A to K on the manufacturing line 21 does not change.

Sensor means 33 to 38 are provided at the start and end positions of the work steps corresponding to the control blocks 101 to 104, respectively, and the sensor means 33 to 38 move the works A to K on the manufacturing line 21. The position is detected, and it is sufficient that the presence / absence of an object such as a photoelectric tube can be detected. Each sensor means 33-3
8 is a plurality of management blocks 101 and 102, or 1
03 and 104 are connected to programmable controllers 39 and 40 respectively arranged, and each programmable controller 39 and 40 allocates a file register to each management block 101 to 104. Programmable controllers 39, 40 and work stations 21-3
2 is connected to a network 42, and the network 42 includes a plurality of terminal devices 43 and 44 and a storage device 4.
5 is connected.

The operation of the above structure will be described below.
At the first position of the production line 21, the identification names of the works A to K to be introduced into the production line 21 are input to the terminal device 43. The input identification name data of the works A to K is the terminal device 4
3 to the storage device 45 via the network 42, and the storage device 45 stores the identification name data of the works A to K in the database in the order of introduction, thereby forming the master order information MD in the format shown in FIG. To do.

The sensor means 33 to 38 detect the moving positions (time of passage) of the works A to K on the manufacturing line 21, and the position detecting signals notifying the moving positions of the works A to K are sent from the sensor means 33 to 38. Programmable controller 3 through network 42
Send to 9, 40. Programmable controller 3
In 9 and 40, each management block 1 is based on the position detection signal.
The passage ranks of the works A to K in 01 to 104 are added up in the file register, and each management block 10
The order of the works A to K existing in Nos. 1 to 104 is stored as the block order information BD in the format as shown in FIG.

In order to obtain the tracking information, in any terminal device 44 connected to the network 42, the block order information BD of the programmable controllers 39 and 40 and the master order information MD of the storage device 45 are read out and the individual works are read. The individual works AK existing in the respective management blocks 101 to 104 are identified by searching the master order information MD using the data string of the block order information BD describing only the arrangement order of AK as a search key.

Therefore, the identification names of the works A to K to be introduced into the production line 21 are determined only at the first position of the production line 21, and the identification names of all the works A to K are stored only in the database of the storage device 45 as the master sequence information MD. Therefore, it is not necessary to individually identify the works A to K by the sensor means 33 to 38 provided in each management block 101 to 104, and the sensor means 33 to 38 can be simplified. In addition, the programmable controller 3
Since the sensor means 33 to 38 are provided by using 9, 40, the manageability at the production site is improved.

All works A are stored in the database of the storage device 45.
Since the identification names of ~ K are stored as the master order information MD and the block order information BD of the works A to K existing in each of the management blocks 101 to 104 is stored in the programmable controllers 39 and 40, the information holding mode is It becomes decentralized and hierarchical, and only the required level of information can be retrieved appropriately. In other words, individual work A ~
A work station that does not require the identification of K can perform machining / assembly work based on the block sequence information BD of the programmable controller, and a work station that requires identification of the individual works A to K can perform the block order. Information BD and database master order information M
By collating D, it is possible to perform the working / assembling work while individually identifying the works A to K. Further, through the network 42, it is possible to share information with other systems, and it is possible to manage incidental information.

Areas of closed work processes in which the moving order of the works A to K are invariable, such as a belt conveyor device and a processing machine, are treated as management blocks 101 to 104 and exist in each management block 101 to 104. Work A
Since the order of K to K is stored as the block order information BD, it is sufficient to provide the sensor means 33 to 38 only at the start position and the end position of the work process corresponding to the management blocks 101 to 104, and the areas to be tracked are Even if enlarged, the number of sensor means 33 to 38 to be arranged can be greatly reduced.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, the area of the work process in which the movement order of the workpieces is invariable is used as the management block, and the sensor means is provided only at the start end position and the end position of each management block. Even if the area to be tracked is expanded, the number of sensor means to be arranged can be significantly reduced. Since the master order information is stored in the storage device, the block order information is stored in the programmable controller, and the information holding form is distributed and hierarchical, only the necessary level of information can be appropriately extracted. Since the type of the work is discriminated only at the first position of the manufacturing line, the sensor means provided in each management block does not need to discriminate the work individually, and the sensor means can be simplified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a manufacturing line and a tracking device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a recording format of master order information in the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a recording format of block order information in the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a conventional tracking device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 21 Manufacturing Line 22-32 Work Station 33-38 Sensor Means 39-41 Programmable Controller 43-44 Terminal Device 45 Storage Device 101-104 Management Block

Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Office reference number FI Technical display location G07C 11/00 G06F 15/21 R

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A manufacturing line for machining and assembling a work while going through a plurality of work stations, which is a process in which the order of movement of the work on the manufacturing line does not change, and is a single or plural work. Multiple control blocks are set according to each work process across the station, the identification name of the work to be introduced into the production line is input to the terminal device at the first position of the production line, and the input work identification name data is input to the terminal device. From the network to the storage device, and the storage device stores the work identification name data in the database in the order of introduction to form master sequence information, which is provided at the start and end positions of the work process corresponding to each control block. The sensor means detects the movement position of the work on the manufacturing line and detects the movement position of the work. The position detection signal indicating the position is transmitted to the programmable controller connected to the sensor means, and the programmable controller accumulates the passage order of the work in each management block based on the position detection signal and blocks the order of the works existing in each management block. Individual work existing in the management block by storing as sequence information and reading out the block sequence information of an arbitrary programmable controller and the master sequence information of the storage device in any terminal device connected to the network and comparing both information. A tracking method in a manufacturing line, characterized by identifying