JPH10315076A - Assembly line, assembly parts supply line and assembly parts supply control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To minimize parts in process at a line side, save the number of setup workers and eliminate an useless space of stockyard, considering a delivery time by a stacker crane from a part warehouse. SOLUTION: In an assembly process for applying an assembly work to plural parts and forming a product 21 in order, for example, an assembled-parts consolidatedly transferring means 3 of a conveyer is arranged in parallel with a parts consolidatedly transferring means 2 of a conveyor provided connectingly with the part supply room 1 of a high-rise warehouse and a part storage is provided between the parts consolidatedly transferring means 2 and the assembled part transmitting means 3. A work area or automatic machine is arranged in the opposite side to the parts consolidatedly transferring means 2 for the assembled-parts consolidatedly transferring means 3. Further, a parts supply control device 5 which can forecast the number of parts of each parts box and a parts request time in each process from an assembly line tact and having a scheduler provided with a function for judging whether the delivery time of the automated storage and retrieval system can perform within the part request interval or not is provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a construction of an assembly line for assembling a plurality of parts to sequentially form products, a supply line for assembly parts to a worker in the assembly line, and a supply control device for assembly parts. Things.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are two main modes of transporting and supplying parts to workers in each process in an assembly line. In other words, if the component transport time is longer than the component consumption time in each assembly process, large lot transport is conversely performed if the component transport time is shorter than the component consumption time in each assembly process. Is used for small lot transfer.

[0003] Large lot transfer means transferring a large number of parts at once using a transfer device having a high loading capacity. Therefore, a stock yard for temporarily storing components near the assembling process is required. The transfer device moves from the warehouse to between the stockyards and supplies parts to the stockyard. As a transport means, an autonomous transport vehicle or fork truck with a high loading capacity but not very fast transport speed, or
For small parts, a wheelbarrow or the like is used. And
For the supply from the stock yard to the assembling process, a small amount of stocker is provided immediately beside or immediately before the assembling worker.

[0004] On the other hand, the small lot transfer method is a method in which in-process parts on the line side, such as the above-mentioned stock yard, are minimized by transferring and supplying at a high frequency using a high-speed transfer device. As a transport means, an air train or the like which transports at high speed in the air with no obstacles, such as a ski gondola, is used as a transport route, although the loading capacity is low. In this case, a stock yard is not required, but a transfer area for unloading parts from the aerial train is required. Also, in this case, the supply from the transfer area to the assembly worker is performed by the serving worker.

In designing a layout of an assembly line, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. Hei 7-24701 and Hei 7-16
There is a case where a production line layout creation support device such as that disclosed in JP-A-0739 is used. When such a support tool is used, or when a layout is manually created, the layout creation is performed in an assembling work sequence and
This is performed mainly in consideration of the transport route of a product that is not an assembly product.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 62-4843 discloses a product conveying means for giving a degree of freedom to a line layout.
As can be seen in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2, a means has been proposed that does not use a conventional conveyor, but uses an autonomous transport vehicle whose transport path can be easily changed, and easily responds to changes in the assembly work sequence of new products and the like. ing. However, it can be said that these conventional techniques are line layout methods that focus on the flow of non-assembled products.

[0007]

As described above, both the large lot transfer and the small lot transfer can be automatically transferred from the warehouse to the stockyard and the transfer area on the line side. However, the supply from the stock yard or the transfer area to the assembling worker involves a serving operation and a serving operator. Such a serving operation is not an operation of actually creating an added value by performing an assembling operation, but is a non-added value operation, so that there is a high demand for rationalization.

In view of this, a method is conceivable in which a stockyard or a transfer area is provided immediately beside the assembling worker, and the assembling worker directly picks up parts from the stockyard, assembles them, and does not use a serving worker. However, in this operation method, since the position of the non-assembled product and the position where the parts are placed are not in the same direction, it is a so-called turning operation, and the operation efficiency is poor. Furthermore, these stockyards, transfer areas, and the like are useless areas and have poor space efficiency.

Therefore, in order to design an efficient assembly line, it is necessary to design a line layout that fully considers not only the transport of non-assembled products but also the transport system of parts. For example, in an assembly line of a room air conditioner (hereinafter, abbreviated as an air conditioner), which is a typical mass-produced product, a very high frequency of component supply is required due to a short assembly tact. In particular, medium or large parts such as resin molded parts used for decorative covers of air conditioners have a large occupied area due to their dimensions, so that an aerial train with a low loading capacity can carry only a few and many transporting devices are required. . However, since such a high-speed transfer device is expensive, in many cases, a large-lot transfer by an inexpensive and high-capacity autonomous transfer vehicle or a fork is used. However, in this case, as described above, the catering work and its workers and a large stock yard are required, and the efficiency is low. Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a system for transporting and supplying parts to an assembly worker without using a large intermediate part buffer such as a stock yard or a transfer area, and in consideration of the workability of assembly. In particular, the layout of the entire assembly line including the component transport device from the component warehouse to the work position and the component transport device and the non-assembly transport device is a problem.

On the other hand, the number of parts per component box used for component transport is often a well-defined number such as 10, 20, or 50. In this case, parts are lost in a plurality of assembly steps at the same time, and parts must be supplied. However, when a plurality of types of parts must be paid out by one stacker crane as in a three-dimensional automatic parts warehouse, the payout may not be in time. In particular, when JIT (Just-in-Time) supply is performed in which the in-process parts at the line side are minimized, the frequency of dispensing the parts increases, which is a serious problem.

[0011] Therefore, another object of the present invention is to provide a transport control system that takes into account the consumption of parts in a line, the required time of parts, and the payout time of a stacker crane or the like from a parts warehouse.

[0012]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided, as a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, a parts supply room such as a three-dimensional automatic parts warehouse, and a connection with the parts supply room. For example, a component-conveying means such as a conveyor is provided. An assembly line having an operation-specific part station and an assembly part supply line are provided.

[0013] In the above feature, the component mixed transfer means includes a supply transfer means for transferring a component box loaded with components in a direction from the component supply chamber to the assembly target transfer means;
It is advantageous to have a structure including return transfer means for transferring the empty component box in the reverse direction.

[0014] In the above feature, it is advantageous to dispose a work area or an automatic machine on the opposite side of the part mixed transfer means with respect to the assembly transfer means.

Further, it is desirable that the component loading / transporting means and the assembling article transporting means are arranged in parallel or in parallel. For example, when the assembling part transfer means is U-shaped, the assembling part transfer means is arranged around the I-shaped part mixed transfer means, and when the assembling part transfer means is I-shaped, one I-shaped part transfer means is provided. It is advantageous in terms of workability and space factor to arrange two I-shaped assembling object transferring means on both sides of the character-shaped component-mixed transferring means.

It is desirable that the work-specific parts station is configured to be movable by casters or the like so that it can flexibly respond to layout changes.

Next, features relating to the control of the assembly line according to the present invention will be described.

First, as hardware relating to control,
In the work-specific parts station, a contact type for determining the presence or absence of parts, or a non-contact type sensor such as a photoelectric tube, and an operation button operated by an operator,
A component box or a component carried out of the component supply chamber is transported by the component consolidating / transporting means to a platen, for example, I.
By D card or IC card or bar code,
An information medium having component identification number information is provided. Further, at each work-specific part station, at least one of a reading device and a writing device for the information medium is provided, and the output of the contact or non-contact sensor and the operation button is provided. A computer connected to the terminal and the control terminal of the parts supply room is provided.

Further, a component temporary stocker for temporarily storing components is provided on a component supply conveyor between the component supply chamber and the work-specific component station.

The computer has, as a database, a relation between a number or a symbol for recognizing the type of each component stored in the component supply chamber and a storage position in the component supply chamber, and controls the supply of the component. Do.

Further, each of the parts boxes 1 is stored in the computer.
By storing the number of parts per box, and the assembly line tact, the computer predicts the component request signal time for each type of component, and calculates A determination is made as to whether or not the component discharging time to the component-mixed transfer means by the stacker crane or the like can be executed within the component request signal interval. If not, a plan for paying out in advance to the component temporary stocker is prepared. A scheduler function can be provided.

[0022]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

This embodiment is an example in which the present invention is applied to an assembly process of a mass-produced product in which an assembling operation is performed using a large number of medium-sized or large-sized components, for example, an air conditioner.

First, the configuration of the assembly line of the present embodiment will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 1, at one end of the assembly line, there is a three-dimensional automatic parts warehouse 1, which is a parts supply room. Is provided along the direction of the assembly line.

In parallel with the I-shaped component conveying conveyor 2, a product conveying conveyor 3, which is a means for transferring assembled products, is arranged. The shape of the product transport conveyor 3 is U-shaped, and the folded portion 3-1 is located at the other end of the assembly line. In addition, a work space for the worker 8 is arranged on the opposite side of the product transport conveyor 3 from the component transport conveyor 2. When the product conveyor 3 is I-shaped,
The two I-shaped component transport conveyors 2 may be arranged in parallel on both sides of the I-shaped component transport conveyor 2, and the I-shaped component transport conveyor 2 or the product transport conveyor 3 may have a curved shape. In the case of, parts conveyor 2
And the product transport conveyor 3 may be arranged so as to follow each other.

Between the component conveyor 2 and the product conveyor 3 provided in parallel as described above, a hand supply station 4 as a component storage area is provided for each worker 8. A parts temporary stocker 6 is provided on the parts conveyor 2 between the three-dimensional automatic parts warehouse 1 and the hand supply station 4.

As shown in FIG. 2, the component conveyor 2, which is one of the features of the present invention, has a two-stage structure including an upper conveyor 2-1 and a lower conveyor 2-2. -1 is a direction from the three-dimensional automatic parts warehouse 1 to the local supply station 4, that is, a parts supply direction, that is, a parts supply conveyor for carrying the parts box 7 on the platen 9, and a lower conveyor 2-2 is the reverse direction. That is, it is a return component transport conveyor that transports the platen 9 in the component box collection direction. Lift elevators 22 are provided at both ends of the supply component transport conveyor 2-1 and the return component transport conveyor 2-2.
A descending elevator 23 is provided, and the platen 9 is configured to be able to circulate on both the component conveying conveyors 2-1 and 2-2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the hand supply station 4 includes a stock portion 41 which can be rotated by rollers 41a. The stock part 41 has a roller group 41b and a stopper 41c, and one box used for assembling work is provided on the near side,
A total of two spare parts boxes can be stocked on the back side. The roller 41a is provided with the photoelectric tube 14 and the operation button 10.

The stock unit 41 is in the form of a flap, and when the part discharge switch 15 of the operation button 10 is pressed, as shown in FIG.
2-1 from the position opposite to -1
, And the parts box 7 is discharged.

Referring to FIGS. 4A to 4E, the worker 8
The method of transporting and unloading the parts box 7 near the operator to the hands of the worker 8 will be described. As shown in FIG. 4A, the component box 7 is transported by the component transport upper conveyor 2-1 just before the worker 8. Thereafter, as shown in (b), the slide slides down toward the worker 8 by the slope formed by the roller group 41c. The worker 8 opens the flap 7-1 of the parts box 7 and takes out the parts 31 as shown in FIG. When the parts in the box are exhausted, the rollers in front of the worker 8 rotate and move downward as shown in (d), and slide down the parts box 7 in the direction of the parts conveying lower conveyor 2-2, (e). As shown in ()), the parts box 7 is transferred onto the lower part conveyor 2-2.

The hand supply station 4 further includes I
Supply ID read device 1 which is a D card reading device
1. A return ID read / write device 12 for reading and writing is provided, and a caster 13 is provided below.

As shown in FIG. 5, an ID card 20 is attached to the component supply platen 9. ID card 20
Instead, another information medium having component identification number information such as an IC card or a barcode may be used. The parts are
It is not always necessary to carry the components in the component box 7, and the components themselves may be placed directly on the component supply platen 9 and transported. If an information medium having component identification number information such as a bar code can be attached to the component box or component, the component supply platen 9 is not required.

The output terminal of the photoelectric tube 14 of the three-dimensional automatic parts warehouse 1 and the hand supply station 4 and the control terminal of the parts temporary stocker 6 are the parts supply control device 5 which is a computer.
Is connected to The component supply control device 5 includes a database 51 for associating a component identification number with a component storage position;
Based on the number of parts per each box and the assembly tact time on the product transport conveyor 3, the time of the component request signal from each local supply station 4 is predicted, and the movement of the stacker crane,
A scheduler 52 is provided for transmitting a signal to be previously discharged to the component temporary stocker 6 from the transfer time to the three-dimensional automatic component warehouse 1.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described in detail. First, it is assumed that the component identification number, the number of components per box, and the storage position in the component warehouse are registered in the component supply control device 5 when each component is stored in the three-dimensional automatic component warehouse 1. The operation will be described from the state where two parts boxes are supplied to the hand supply station 4 in advance.

As shown in FIG. 4, the worker 8 takes the parts out of the parts box 7 being supplied immediately with the product transport conveyor 3 interposed therebetween, and is an assembled product which is transported by the product transport conveyor 3. The assembly work is performed on the product 21. As described above, since the components are in the same direction as the assembled product, the operation of taking out the components is not a turning operation and the workability is good.

As shown in FIG. 3 (b), the roller in the front half of the stocker portion of the hand supply station 4 has a flap shape. When the ejection switch 15 is pressed, as shown in FIG.
And is sent to the component conveyor 2-2 on the return side. After that, the return ID read / write device 12 writes a component identification number on the ID card 20 of the component supply platen 9, and an empty component supply platen 9 circulating on the return component transport conveyor 2-2. The parts box 7 is transferred, carried out, and collected. In the present embodiment, the empty parts box is collected at the position stored under the three-dimensional automatic parts warehouse 1.

The photoelectric tube 14 provided at the flap portion of the hand supply station 4 senses that the empty component box 7 has been discharged, and notifies the component supply control device 5 of a component request signal. In response to the component request signal, the component supply control device 5 uses the stacker crane to first execute the database 51.
The required components are delivered to the component transport conveyor 2-1 in accordance with the component storage information registered in. The dispensed parts box 7 is supplied to the parts conveyor 2-1 on the supply side.
The parts are transferred to the empty parts supply platen 9 circulating thereover, and at the same time, the part identification number is written to the ID card 20.
That is, various types of component boxes 7 are mixed and loaded at one time on the supply component transport conveyor 2-1. afterwards,
The component identification number written on the ID card 20 transported by the component transport conveyor 2-1 and immediately transported by the supply ID reading device 11 at each local supply station is read to recognize the transported component. When the requested part identification number is conveyed at each hand supply station 4, it is taken into the stock unit by a drawing device or the like.

Next, the scheduler function 52 of the component supply control device 5 will be described.

The above-described series of component supply and empty box collection operations are performed when the component supply interval is sufficiently longer than the component delivery time and a component request signal is issued, and then the delivery from the three-dimensional automatic component warehouse is sufficient. is there. However, the number of parts per box is often a well-defined number such as 10, 20, or 50 parts, and therefore, parts may be requested from a plurality of hand supply stations 4 at the same time. The three-dimensional automatic parts warehouse 1 stores various kinds of parts, but is often equipped with only one stacker crane. For this reason, it is impossible to pay out parts stored in the three-dimensional automatic parts warehouse 1 at the same time,
Payouts are made in order, and parts supply may not be in time. In particular, in the case of JIT supply in which the processing of the line side parts is minimized as in the present invention, the payout frequency increases, which is a serious problem.

Therefore, first, the amount of parts consumed in each work process is estimated, and the time at which each part is required is predicted. Since the number of parts contained in one box is registered in the database 51 in advance, and the assembly tact is also known, the component supply control device 5 can calculate the time required to consume the number of parts in one box. It is possible to predict when parts are required in each work process.

Next, the time required for payout is estimated.
The storage position in the three-dimensional automatic parts warehouse 1 is registered in advance, and the moving speed and the transfer time of the stacker crane in the vertical and horizontal directions are known, so that the payout time of each part can be calculated. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6A, the payout time of the parts (A, B, C) predicted to be required at the same time (time: t) is calculated, and the minimum part request interval (in the case of this example) , The supply frequency of the component A is the highest, and the payout time of the component C is longer than the accumulated payout time of the component (A, B, C) for the time interval a).
If the next request start time t + a exceeds
As shown in (b), the parts C are paid out in advance using the idle time of the stacker crane before the time t,
The parts are temporarily stored in the stocker 6. Then, when there is actually a component request signal, the component is taken out from the component temporary stocker 6 and supplied to the local supply station 4. In this way, by dispersing the tasks of the stacker crane, parts can be supplied without delay. The scheduler function of the component supply control device 5 refers to the above-described component request time prediction, payout time calculation, and advance payout determination function.

In the example of FIG. 6, an assembly tact set in advance is used for predicting a component request time. But,
In the case of an assembly line with many short stoppages or the like and a low line operation rate, the predicted progress of component consumption and the actual consumption are greatly deviated. In such a case, every time the component request signal is broadcast, the scheduling content is updated, synchronized with the component consumption in the actual line, or
It is desirable to provide a counter on the assembly line, manage the number of actually assembled articles, and synchronize and perform predictive control.

In some cases, the order of the assembling process is reversed for each model due to restrictions on the assembling order. In this case, the supply points of the parts change for each model. The present invention is a decentralized system that can arbitrarily take in parts conveyed in front of the worker (work point) if necessary. Therefore, the identification number of the part to be taken in the hand supply station 4 is reset. It is possible to change the parts to be taken by just using That is, the component supply point can be changed. When the supply points need to be moved or newly added, the supply points can be easily moved or added because the handy supply station 4 is provided with the casters 13 and is modularized.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention, parts can be directly supplied from an automatic parts warehouse to an assembling worker without manual intervention, so that parts which are non-value-added work can be supplied. It is possible to save labor and rationalize transfer and serving work, and it is also possible to eliminate useless space such as a stock yard.

Also, even if the order of the assembly process is changed and the part supply point is changed, the assembly line and system can be easily changed, and there is an effect that the system can be flexibly dealt with.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an assembly line showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the component conveyor shown in FIG. 1;

3 is an overall perspective view (a) and a perspective view (b) of a stock portion of a hand supply station in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a working state.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a component supply platen in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a time chart illustrating a scheduler function of the component supply control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... 3D automatic parts warehouse, 2 ... parts transport conveyor, 2-1
… Supply parts conveyor, 2-2… Return parts conveyor, 3… Product conveyor, 4… Hand supply station, 41… Stock unit, 41a… Roller, 41b… Roller, 41c… Stopper, 5… Part supply Control device, 51 ...
Database 52, scheduler 6, component temporary stocker 7, component box 8, operator 9, component supply platen 10, operation button 11, supply ID read device,
12 ... return ID read / write device, 13 ... caster,
14 ... photoelectric tube, 15 ... part discharge switch, 16 ... arbitrary part request switch, 17 ... signal line connector, 20 ... ID card, 21 ... product, 22 ... elevator, 23 ... elevator

Claims (15)

[Claims] 1. A component supply chamber, a component-mixing / transporting means connected to the component-supply chamber, an assembling-object transporting means arranged in parallel with the component-mixing / transporting means, and the component-mixing / transporting And a work-specific part station provided between the means for transferring the article to be assembled. 2. A component supply chamber, a component-mixing / transporting means connected to the component-supply chamber, an assembling-object transporting means provided in parallel with the component-mixing / transporting means, and the component-mixing / transporting means. Means and a work-specific part station provided between the assembly-transferring means, and the component-mixing-and-transporting means moves the component box loaded with the components from the component supply chamber toward the assembly-transferring means. A transfer means for supply for transferring;
An assembling line comprising: a return transfer means for transferring an empty component box in a reverse direction. 3. The assembly line according to claim 1, wherein a work area or an automatic machine is arranged on a side opposite to the part mixed transfer means with respect to the article transfer means. 4. The assembly line according to claim 1, wherein the component mixed transfer means and the assembly transfer means are arranged in parallel or in parallel. 5. The assembly line according to claim 4, wherein the U-shaped article transfer means is arranged so as to surround the I-shaped part mixed transfer means. 6. The assembly line according to claim 4, wherein said I-shaped part-mixing / transporting means has I-shaped parts-to-be-assembled article transferring means arranged on both sides thereof. 7. The assembly line according to claim 1, wherein the work-specific parts station is configured to be movable. 8. The assembly line according to claim 1, wherein the component mixed transfer means and the assembled article transfer means are constituted by a conveyor. 9. A component supply chamber, a component-mixing / transporting means connected to the component-supplying chamber, and a work-specific component station provided along the component-mixing / transporting means. Assembly parts supply line. 10. A component-supplying chamber, a component-mixing / transporting means connected to the component-supplying chamber, and a work-specific component station provided along the component-mixing / transporting means. The means comprises: a supply transfer means for transferring a component box loaded with components in a direction from the component supply chamber toward the assembly target transfer means; and a return transfer means for transferring an empty component box in the reverse direction. An assembly parts supply line characterized by: 11. A component supply chamber, component mixed transfer means provided in connection with the component supply chamber, assembled product transfer means juxtaposed to the component mixed transfer means, and the component mixed transfer. An assembly part supply control device in an assembly line comprising means and a work-specific part station provided between the assembly-specific article transfer means, wherein a sensor and an operator for determining whether or not a part exists in the work-specific part station. Provided with an operation button operated by the user, a component box or a platen carried out of the component supply chamber, and a platen used for transporting the component by the component-mixing / transporting means, with an information medium having component identification number information. At least one of a reading device and a writing device for the information medium is provided in a separate component station, and an output terminal of the sensor and the operation button is provided. Assembly supply control apparatus characterized in that a computer connected to the control terminal of the component supply chamber. 12. A component supply chamber, a component-mixing / transporting means connected to the component-supply chamber, an assembling-object transporting means arranged in parallel with the component-mixing / transporting means, and the component-mixing / transporting means. An assembly part supply control device in an assembly line comprising means and a work-specific part station provided between said assembly-target article transfer means, wherein said part supply chamber and said work-specific part station of said part mixed transfer means A part temporary stocker for temporarily storing parts is provided between the parts, and a sensor for determining the presence or absence of parts and an operation button operated by an operator are provided in the work-specific parts station. An information medium having component identification number information is provided on a platen used when the unloaded component box or component is transported by the component consolidating and transferring means. An assembly part provided with at least one of a reading device and a writing device for the information medium, and a computer connected to an output terminal of the sensor and the operation button and a control terminal of a component supply chamber. Supply control device. 13. The computer according to claim 1, wherein the computer has a database of a relationship between a number or a symbol for recognizing a type of each component stored in the component supply chamber and a storage position in the component supply chamber. 12. The assembly component supply control device according to claim 11, wherein: 14. The computer stores the number of parts per one component box and the assembly line tact, predicts a component request signal time for each type of component, and requests a component request at the same neighborhood time. It is determined whether or not the component discharge time by the stacker crane or the like from the storage position of the component supply chamber to the component mixed transfer means can be performed within the component request signal interval. 13. The assembly component supply control device according to claim 12, further comprising a scheduler function for planning a payout. 15. The parts-mixed transfer means includes a supply transfer means for transferring a parts box loaded with parts in a direction from the parts supply chamber to the assembling-part transfer means, and an empty parts box in an opposite direction. 15. The assembly component supply control device according to claim 11, further comprising return transfer means for transferring the assembled component.