WO2021043405A1

WO2021043405A1 - Method for operating an automation facility and automation facility

Info

Publication number: WO2021043405A1
Application number: PCT/EP2019/073701
Authority: WO
Inventors: Christian Bauer; Steffen Lamparter; Mathias Maurmaier; Fabio Perna
Original assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 2019-09-05
Filing date: 2019-09-05
Publication date: 2021-03-11

Abstract

A method for operating an automation facility for an automated production of a product including a number of production apparatuses, wherein each production apparatus is defined by a skillset including its skills, the method comprising: a) providing a sequence of production steps (for producing the product to be produced, b) creating a production plan to produce the product, c) determining upgrade candidates from the number of production apparatuses which can be upgraded in order to include the new skill in their respective skillset, and d) upgrading one of the determined upgrade candidate production apparatuses to include the new skill in its skillset. This method has the advantage that it possible to automatically check whether or not a new product can be produced with an existing automation facility, and/or which upgrades are necessary for producing the new product.

Description

Method for operating an automation facility and automation facility

The present invention relates to a method for operating an automation facility and an automation facility.

There is a desire of the market and consumers to have indi vidualized or specialized products, which are to be produced as individual units or in small numbers. For such products, traditional production schemes which require individual tools and production planning are too expensive. Therefore, to meet the demand at competitive cost, a higher flexibility of the production facilities is required.

Flexibility can be increased by use of computer-controlled production apparatuses, which can be used to perform certain production steps within a range of parameter values.

However, even if only small changes to a production facility or one production apparatus are necessary for producing a product with the production facility, it is required that hu man operators check the feasibility of such changes of the production facility manually, which is time-consuming and may involve many operators. A further problem arises when an op erator does not have much experience and comes to a false conclusion that a change is not feasible, although it is fea sible from an objective point of view.

It is one object of the present invention to provide an im proved method for operating an automation facility.

According to a first aspect, a method for operating an auto mation facility for an automated production of a product is suggested. The automation facility includes a number of pro duction apparatuses, wherein each production apparatus is de fined by a skillset including its skills. In a first step a), a sequence of production steps for producing the product to be produced is provided. In a second step b), a production plan which includes assigning each of the production steps to at least one production apparatus whose skillset includes the skill for performing the production step is created. In a third step c), if the sequence of production steps includes a production step which requires a new skill, upgrade candi dates from the number of production apparatuses which can be upgraded in order to include the new skill in their respec tive skillset for performing the production step are deter mined, based on a respective ability description of each of the production apparatuses. In a fourth step d), one of the determined upgrade candidate production apparatuses is up graded to include the new skill in its skillset.

This method has the advantage that it possible to automati cally perform a check whether or not a new product can be produced with an existing automation facility or production facility, and/or which changes or upgrades are necessary such that the automation facility is fit or capable of producing the new product. In particular, the method is based on data, such as the skillsets of the production apparatuses, that is gathered when the automation facility is set up and/or when a change or an upgrade is performed. Thus, the judgement is made from an objective point of view and does not rely on an assessment by human operators.

The automation facility is preferably embodied as a fully au tomated production facility or robotic plant, which is con figured for fully automated production of products, starting from raw materials. The automation facility includes a number of production apparatuses, each of which is capable of per forming certain production steps. The production apparatuses may be referred to as autonomous machines, robots or automa tion devices, and are preferably computer-controlled. There may be a production apparatus for each production step that can be automated. Examples of production apparatuses are drills, mills, pumps, saws, grinders, mixers, welding robots, transporters, packagers, and so on.

Each one of the production apparatuses is defined by its skillset, which includes the skills the respective production apparatus is capable of performing. For example, a milling machine may be capable of milling and drilling, wherein the precise skills may depend on the exact configuration of the milling machine and the tools which are provided for the milling machine. For example, the milling machine may be equipped with an electric engine that has a maximum revolu tion per minute (RPM) of 5000, a milling head that may be moved in an x-y-plane measuring 50 cm by 50 cm, a milling tool for milling aluminum and a drill with a diameter of 5 mm providing a maximum drilling depth of 50 mm. Then, the skill- set of this milling machine may include the two mentioned skills, which are defined by the mentioned parameters.

Thus, it can be said that the skills may defined by parame ters, such as a maximum drilling depth or a minimum drilling depth, a maximum RPM, a diameter of a drill, and so on. Pa rameters to define a skill include all limitations that a re spective skill may have, such as a limitation of materials with which the skill may be used, performance parameters such as a time required, an energy consumption, a precision and/or a wear incurred, a limitation with respect to geometrical factors, and so on. Further, specific skills may be implicit in more generally defined skills. For example, a drill for drilling steel may be employed for drilling all substances that are weaker than steel. Skills of the same kind may be considered as belonging to a skill-class, such as drilling, milling, grinding, polishing, and so on.

The product to be produced includes discrete products, such as an solid object made from wood, metal, plastics, or the like, and/or electronic articles, and further includes formu lated products that are obtained by a process (product-by- process products), such as chemical substances, cream, food, and the like. The product includes complex products which comprise a plurality of parts, each part being a product it self.

The sequence of production steps may be called a bill of pro cess and may include a bill of materials, that is, the raw materials or intermediate products required to produce the product. The sequence of production steps, when fully con ducted by the automation facility, leads to the product to be produced. In particular, the sequence of production steps in cludes all details that are required for a specific automa tion facility or production apparatus to be capable of per forming each of the production steps. The sequence of produc tion steps may be provided, for a given product, by a custom er of the product. It may also be provided by an operator based on a description or specification of the product to be produced.

The automation facility preferably includes a control unit or the like, which controls operation of each of the production apparatuses. The control unit may be implemented in hardware and/or in software. If the control unit is implemented in hardware, it may be embodied as a device, e.g. as a computer or as a processor or as a part of a system, e.g. a computer system. If the control unit is implemented in software, it may be embodied as a computer program product, as a function, as a routine, as a program code or as an executable object. For example, the control unit creates a production plan based on the sequence of production steps provided. The production plan may be considered a mapping of each one of the produc tion steps included in the sequence to at least one of the production apparatuses, in the correct order, and may include intermediate steps such as transporting an intermediate prod uct from one production apparatus to another production appa ratus.

The production plan is created based on the skillsets of the production apparatuses included in the automation facility and the sequence of production steps. In particular, each production step may require one or more skills. It can be said that each production step has corresponding skills, which are required to perform the production step. For exam ple, a step of gluing two parts together requires holding the two parts together in the correct position and with the cor rect pressing force, and further requires that the correct glue is applied on the contacting parts. Thus, a production apparatus that includes both skills (holding and gluing) with the correct parameters (for example pressing force and kind of glue) may be selected to perform this production step. Al ternatively or additionally, two production apparatuses may be selected, wherein one production apparatus holds the two parts and the other one applies the glue. It is noted that the skills included in the skillset of a production apparatus may not cover all skills the production apparatus is capable of. That is, the skillset may be a subset of all skills the production apparatus is capable of.

In embodiments, the production plan is created as a function of predetermined parameters or requirements, such as a pro duction time, duration, energy consumption, material use, and the like. These parameters or requirements may be referred to as optimization parameters.

If the sequence of production steps includes a production step which involves a corresponding skill that is not availa ble in the automation facility based on the skillsets of the number of production apparatuses, the product cannot be pro duced by the automation facility in its current configura tion. Then, the new skill needs to be implemented or learned by at least one of the production apparatuses. To do so, up grade candidate production apparatuses are determined. An up grade candidate production apparatus can be considered as be ing basically capable of including the new skill and perform ing the production step, but is currently not configured cor respondingly. For example, a drilling machine may be lacking the drill required for a specific production step, or may be limited in that it is only capable of drilling holes up to 30 mm depth, but a hole of 50 mm depth is required.

The determination of the upgrade candidate production appa ratuses is performed based on a respective ability descrip tion of each production apparatus. The ability description preferably includes all skills that the respective production apparatus can be configured to perform. For example, a drill ing machine may be configured for all kinds of drilling tasks, but not for painting tasks. The ability description is preferably provided by a manufacturer of the respective pro duction apparatus, or it may be derived from a user manual or specification sheet of the production apparatus. The ability description may be derived automatically from the hardware of the production apparatus. For example, a drilling machine may be registered as such in the automation facility and from de vice IDs, such as of an electric drive, a drill head, a tool set, or the like, the components may be identified and the skills of the drilling machine consisting of these components may be derived. Preferably, the ability description for each of the production apparatuses is stored in a respective data base, which is kept updated whenever a production apparatus is upgraded.

Finally, one of the determined upgrade candidate production apparatuses is upgraded to include the new skill in its skillset. The upgrade may involve software and/or hardware changes. For example, change of a parameter of a skill may be sufficient, such as setting a maximum drilling depth to 50 mm. In other cases, a hardware change may be necessary, for example, the required drill needs to be added to the toolbox of the drilling machine. Depending on the kind of upgrade, the upgrade may be performed fully automatic, in particular in the case of software upgrades, or may involve human inter action, in particular when a hardware change is necessary. However, there may assisting robots which are configured for automatically performing hardware changes to production appa- ratuses, in which case also upgrades involving hardware changes may be performed fully automatic.

After the upgrade, the upgraded production apparatus includes the new skill in its skillset, and the automation facility is then configured to produce the new product to be produced fully automatic.

According to an embodiment of the method, step b) comprises a number of sub-steps. In a step bl), a digital representation of the product to be produced is compared with corresponding digital representations of formerly produced products that were formerly produced by the automation facility. In a step b2), the sequence of production steps of the most similar formerly produced product is selected as a candidate se quence. In a step b3), a new production step is determined based on a difference in production steps between the se quence of production steps for producing the product to be produced and the candidate sequence. In a step b4), the pro duction plan corresponding to the most similar formerly pro duced product is selected as a candidate production plan. In a step b5), the candidate production plan is adapted to in clude the determined new production step.

This embodiment has the advantage that it is not necessary to create a new production plan each time a new product is to be produced, but to use a production plan of a formerly produced product. This has the advantage that, since it is known that the candidate production plan does work, that is, lead to the desired product, failures can be reduced. This embodiment is particularly useful for the production individual products, which are relatively similar, such as slightly different em bodiments of the same product. Further, creating the produc tion plan is much simpler in this embodiment, since only the differences need to be included the candidate production plan. Additionally, when checking if the automation facility is capable of producing the desired product, it is only nec essary to check if the automation facility includes produc- tion apparatuses that include the skills corresponding to the new production step. A number of checks to be performed, and/or a number of possible configurations of the automation facility that need to be checked, is greatly reduced. There fore, the method is less complex and can be implemented much easier.

The digital representation of the product may be derived from the sequence of production steps and/or may be provided sepa rately. For example, the digital representation may be given as a CAD file. For example, the digital representation of all products that are produced with the automation facility are stored in a database, from where the digital representations of the formerly produced products may be loaded.

The new production step may be a production step that is pre sent in the candidate sequence, but with different parame ters, such as drilling a hole with a larger diameter, or may be a completely new production step, that is not present in the candidate sequence.

According to a further embodiment of the method, step bl) in cludes generating a similarity score for each pair of digital representations of products, wherein a pair of digital repre sentations of products consists of the digital representation of the product to be produced and the digital representation of one of the formerly produced products.

Based on the similarity score, the most similar product is quickly identified. The similarity score may be generated based on aspects of the products, which are included in the digital representation. For example, geometric aspects, choice of material, tolerances, methodical aspects, in par ticular in the case of chemical products, and so on may be considered.

The similarity score is preferably generated by evaluating a function to which the respective digital representations are provided as an input. The function according to which the similarity score is generated may be defined individually for each product.

According to a further embodiment of the method, step c) in cludes obtaining an ability description for each one of the production apparatuses of the automation facility from an ex ternal entity and/or from another automation facility.

The external entity may be a server of a manufacturer of the respective production apparatus and/or automation facility.

It may advantageous to obtain the ability description from other automation facilities, which include the same or simi lar production apparatuses. For example, it can be that an operator adapted a production apparatus to include an unlike ly skill in its skillset. As an example, a milling machine might be used for polishing, when a respective tool is fitted and parameters set properly. Therefore, by obtaining the ability description from other automation facilities, more or other skills may be available.

According to a further embodiment of the method, step d) in cludes providing a hardware assembly instruction to an opera tor if the new skill requires a hardware change of the candi date production apparatus to be upgraded with the new skill.

This embodiment has the advantage that the operator does not need to be an expert of all the production apparatuses in the automation facility to perform the hardware change, since the instruction will provide all necessary details.

The hardware assembly instruction may be provided by a manu facturer of the production apparatus to be upgraded or a technical expert. The hardware assembly instruction may be generated automatically from a digital representation of the production apparatus. According to a further embodiment of the method, step d) in cludes downloading an upgrade software package and installing the downloaded upgrade software package on a control device of the upgrade candidate production apparatus.

This embodiment has the advantage that the upgrade can be performed instantly, without the need to request and wait for a service operator to come to the automation facility and perform the upgrade, or the like. The control device is, for example, a microcontroller that controls the operation of the respective production apparatus, preferably according to a software program.

According to a further embodiment of the method, step c) in cludes selecting one of a plurality of determined upgrade candidate production apparatuses based on a quality measure, an efficiency measure, an energy measure, a utilization meas ure, and/or a wear measure.

Since there may be more than one upgrade candidate production apparatuses determined, it is preferable to select one of these as a preferred upgrade candidate. Here, the selection is based on at least one of a number of different measures, which are preferably defined in advance. In embodiments, the measures considered in the selection process may be different for different kinds of skills, or classes of skills.

For example, two upgrade candidates are determined. One of the upgrade candidates is known to be utilized by 80% - 90% in the production, the other one is known to be utilized by 40% - 50%. Then, it is preferred to perform the upgrade with the production apparatus that has the lower utilization, such that none of the production apparatuses is over-utilized, which might create a bottleneck in the automation facility.

According to a further embodiment of the method, step c) in cludes simulating the production of the product to be pro duced based on a digital representation of the automation fa- cility including a virtualization of the production apparat uses and a virtualization of the upgraded upgrade candidate production apparatus. When the product is successfully pro duced in the simulation, the upgrade candidate production ap paratus is upgraded.

This embodiment has the advantage that complex production plans, which may include a number of upgrades to be per formed, may be simulated before the upgrades are carried out. The digital representation of the automation facility in cludes a virtualization of the production apparatuses accord ing to their respective skillsets, wherein the upgrade candi dates are considered to be upgraded for the purpose of the simulation.

The digital representation may be provided by a human opera tor, a manufacturer of the automation facility, or may be generated automatically based on the skillsets of the produc tion apparatuses.

According to a further embodiment, one of a plurality of pos sible configurations of the automation facility for producing the product is selected.

Here, a configuration of the automation facility denotes a specific set of production apparatuses and their respective skillsets. For example, two new skills are required to pro duce a new product, for which four upgrade candidates were determined. Then, there are 16 possible configurations which all include the two new skills. By simulating each one, or at least a subset, of these possible configurations, the most efficient one may be selected. The selection may be based on different criteria, in particular business considerations.

According to a further embodiment of the method, at least one of the production apparatuses is configured for manual opera tion by an operator, and when an operator manually operates the production apparatus out of the range of the skills in- eluded in its skillset, a trained skill is added to the skillset.

This embodiment has the advantage that skills may be added or learned simply by performing them. For example, an operator may command a drilling machine to drill a hole with 50 mm depth manually, although the respective skill in the skillset of the drilling machine is limited to a maximum depth of 30 mm. By drilling the 50 mm hole successfully, the correspond ing skill in the skillset may be updated by the new parame ter, that is, a maximum depth of 50 mm. In embodiments, the production apparatus may be configured to issue a warning prior to performing the command, which the operator can over ride manually.

According to a further embodiment of the method, when no up grade candidate production apparatus from among the number of production apparatuses is determined, a list of additional production apparatuses that may be included in the automation facility such that the product can be produced is provided.

In this embodiment, an upgrade is not possible, because no upgrade candidate was determined. However, by providing the list with the additional production apparatuses, the automa tion facility may be adapted to overcome the issue. The addi tional production apparatus may be a new production apparatus that is to be integrated in the automation facility. It may also be a more powerful or sophisticated version of one of the production apparatuses, which includes all skills of the production apparatus and the new skill, and which can replace the older production apparatus.

Any embodiment of the first aspect may be combined with any embodiment of the first aspect to obtain another embodiment of the first aspect.

According to a second aspect, a computer program product com prising a program code for executing the method according to the first aspect when run on at least one computer is sug gested.

A computer program product, such as a computer program means, may be embodied as a memory card, USB stick, CD-ROM, DVD or as a file which may be downloaded from a server in a network. For example, such a file may be provided by transferring the file comprising the computer program product from a wireless communication network.

According to a third aspect, an automation facility for an automated production of a product is suggested. The automa tion facility comprises a number of production apparatuses, wherein each production apparatus is defined by a skillset including its skills. The automation facility further in cludes a control unit which is configured for performing the method according to the first aspect.

The control unit may be a separate unit, such as a computer or server, or may be implemented in at least one of the pro duction apparatuses. The control unit may be implemented in hardware and/or in software. If the control unit is imple mented in hardware, it may be embodied as a device, e.g. as a computer or as a processor or as a part of a system, e.g. a computer system. If the control unit is implemented in soft ware, it may be embodied as a computer program product, as a function, as a routine, as a program code or as an executable object.

According to an embodiment of the automation facility, the automation facility is configured for automatically producing a discrete product or a formulated product. For example, the automation facility is an automated car production line or an automated chemical laboratory.

The embodiments and features described with reference to the method of the present invention apply mutatis mutandis to the automation facility of the present invention. Further possible implementations or alternative solutions of the invention also encompass combinations - that are not ex plicitly mentioned herein - of features described above or below with regard to the embodiments. The person skilled in the art may also add individual or isolated aspects and fea tures to the most basic form of the invention.

Further embodiments, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent descrip tion and dependent claims, taken in conjunction with the ac companying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an example of a method for operating an automation facility;

Fig. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of an example of a production apparatus with its skills;

Fig. 3 shows a schematic block diagram as an example of a se quence of production steps for producing a product;

Fig. 4 shows a schematic block diagram as an example of a production plan for producing a product;

Fig. 5 shows a schematic block diagram of a further example of a method for operating an automation facility;

Fig. 6 shows a schematic block diagram of a further example of a method for operating an automation facility; and

Fig. 7 shows a schematic block diagram of an example of an automation facility.

In the Figures, like reference numerals designate like or functionally equivalent elements, unless otherwise indicated. Fig. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an example of a method for operating an automation facility 100 (see Fig. 5 or 7). The automation facility 100 includes a number of pro duction apparatuses 10a - lOf (see Fig. 2 or 4 - 7), wherein each production apparatus 10a - lOf is defined by a skillset SKS (see Fig. 2) including its skills SK (see Fig. 2 or 4 - 7). In a first step S10, a sequence BOP (see Fig. 3, 5 or 6) of production steps PSa - PSf (see Fig. 3) for producing the product P (see Fig. 3, 4 or 6) to be produced is provided. In a second step S20, a production plan PP (see Fig. 4) which includes assigning each of the production steps PSa - PSf to at least one production apparatus 10a - lOf whose skillset SKS includes the skill SK for performing the production step PSa - PSf is created. In a third step S30, if the sequence BOP of production steps PSa - PSf includes a production step PSa - PSf which requires a new skill nSK (see Fig. 5 or 6), upgrade candidates from the number of production apparatuses PSa - PSf which can be upgraded in order to include the new skill nSK in their respective skillset SKS for performing the production step PSa - PSf are determined, based on a respec tive ability description aSK (see Fig. 2 or 5) of each of the production apparatuses 10a - lOf. In a fourth step S40, one of the determined upgrade candidate production apparatuses is upgraded to include the new skill nSK in its skillset SKS.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of an example of a production apparatus 10a with its skills SK. For example, the production apparatus 10a is a milling machine. The milling machine 10a has three skills SK, which are, for example, milling of metal, drilling of wood, drilling of plastic. The different skills SK are here depicted by different symbols. The three skills SK mentioned form the skillset SKS for the milling machine 10a. A fourth skill SK is shown with a dashed line, which corresponds to drilling of stone of minerals. The milling machine is currently not capable of performing this skill, and therefore it is part of the ability description aSK, but not of the skillset SKS. It is noted that the men tioned skills are merely examples. In an actual production apparatus 10a - lOf, the skills SK may be defined with a much higher level of detail. Essentially, each specific set of pa rameters may be defined as a skill SK, and a number of skills SK with different parameters but relating the same kind of skill SK may be referred to as a skill class. For example, "drilling" may be called skill class, and skills SK in the skill class "drilling" may be different according to the ma terials which can be drilled, a width of a hole, a maximum depth of a hole, a maximum RPM, a maximum speed of the drill ing, a minimum speed of the drilling, an accuracy, and others more. Similar parameters can be found or defined for other skill classes or production apparatuses 10a - lOf.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic block diagram as an example of a se quence BOP of production steps PSa - PSf for producing a product P. The BOP is preferably a full definition of how to produce the product P. The level of detail may vary between different BOPs.

Here, for example, a wooden table including metal stands is the product P to be produced. In a first production step PSa, the wooden plate is sawed from a precursor. In a second pro duction step PSb, two materials M are provided, which is met al for the metal stand and a plastic sheet for laminating the wooden plate. In a production step PSc the plastic sheet is laminated to the wooden plate. In a production step PSd the metal is formed into the metal stands by milling and in a following production step PSe the metal stands are painted. Production steps PSd and PSe are performed in parallel to production step PSc. In a final production step PSf the metal stands are mounted or fixed to the wooden plate, such that the product P is finished.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic block diagram as an example of a production plan PP for producing a product P. The production plan PP is specific for a respective automation facility 100 (see Fig. 5 or 7). The production plan PP corresponds to an exact mapping of each production step PSa - PSf (see Fig. 3) to exactly one production apparatus 10a - lOf of the respec tive automation facility 100. The production plan PP, shows the sequence of the production apparatuses 10a - lOe employed in the production of the product P, in the correct order and with their respective skills SK, which are used at each stage of the production. For example, the production plan PP shown here corresponds to or was created from the sequence BOP of production steps PSa - PSf described with reference to Fig.

3.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic block diagram of a further example of a method for operating an automation facility 100. Here, starting with the sequence BOP of production steps PSa - PSc, each of which corresponds to a skill SK, it is checked if the automation facility 100 including the production apparatuses 10a - 10c is ready to produce the product P (see Fig. 3 or 4) defined by the sequence BOP. For this, the skillsets SKS of the production apparatuses 10a - 10c are compared with the skills SK required for each of the production steps PSa - PSc. If each skill SK required is available, the product P may be produced directly.

In this example, production step PSb requires a skill SK which is not available in the automation facility 100. There fore, this skill SK is determined as a new skill nSK. Next, the ability description aSK of all the production apparatuses 10a - 10c is checked to determine upgrade candidates to be upgraded with the new skill nSK. Two upgrade candidate pro duction apparatuses 10a, 10c are determined. Then, one of the upgrade candidates, here production apparatus 10a, is select ed to be upgraded with the new skill nSK. After the upgrade, production apparatus 10a includes the new skill nSK in its skillset SKS, such that the automation facility 100 is now ready to produce the product P to be produced.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic block diagram of a further example of a method for operating an automation facility 100 (see Fig. 5 or 7). In this example, a digital representation of the product P to be produced is compared with respective dig ital representations of formerly produced products. Here, the digital representation of the products is given in the form of the sequence BOP of production steps PSa - PSf (see Fig.

3) that leads to the product P. In this example, the sequence BOP is compared to three sequences OLD of products that were produced earlier. Of the three sequences OLD, the sequence that has the highest similarity is selected as a candidate sequence cBOP.

The difference between the sequence BOP and the candidate se quence cBOP is one new production step nPS that is included in the sequence BOP.

Now, instead of creating a new production plan PP, the pro duction plan PP that was used in accordance with the candi date sequence cBOP is used as a candidate production plan cPP. Starting from the candidate production plan cPP, the new production step nPS is assigned to a production apparatus 10a - lOd, if possible. In this case, however, the new production step nPS corresponds to a new skill nSK that is not yet available in the automation facility 100, and which therefore needs to be added to one of the production apparatuses 10a - lOd by way of upgrade. The upgrade may be performed as de scribed with reference to Fig. 5.

Production apparatus 10b is determined as upgrade candidate and is upgraded with the new skill nSK, such that the adapted candidate production plan cPP, in which production apparatus 10b is assigned with performing the new production step nPS using the new skill nSK is the production plan PP for produc ing the product accord to the sequence BOP.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic block diagram of an example of an automation facility 100 with a number of production apparat uses 10a - lOf. A control unit 200 is also part of the auto mation facility 100. The control unit 200 is configured for controlling the production apparatuses 10a - lOf, in particu- lar according to one of the methods explained with reference to Figs. 1 - 6. The control unit 200 is embodied as a server in this example. The control unit 200 may optionally communicate via a network connection NET, for example a local area network or a mobile communication connection, with external entities 300. The ex ternal entities 300 may include servers, computers, automa tion facilities, and so on. By using this communication con- nection NET, the control unit 100 may obtain data, such as ability descriptions aSK, software upgrade packages, and/or hardware assembly instructions, from the external entities.

In particular, the external entities 300 are servers operated or provided by a manufacturer of the automation facility 100 or one of the production apparatuses 10a - lOf included therein.

Although the present invention has been described in accord ance with preferred embodiments, it is obvious for the person skilled in the art that modifications are possible in all em bodiments.

Claims

Patent claims

1. A method for operating an automation facility (100) for an automated production of a product (P) including a number of production apparatuses (10a - lOf), wherein each produc tion apparatus (10a - lOf) is defined by a skillset (SKS) in cluding its skills (SK), the method comprising: a) providing (S10) a sequence (BOP) of production steps (PSa

- PSf) for producing the product (P) to be produced, b) creating (S20) a production plan (PP) which includes as signing each of the production steps (PSa - PSf) to at least one production apparatus (10a - lOf) whose skillset (SKS) in cludes the skill (SK) for performing the production step (PSa

- PSf), and, if the sequence (BOP) of production steps (PSa - PSf) includes a production step (PSa - PSf) which requires a new skill (nSK), c) determining (S30) upgrade candidates from the number of production apparatuses (10a - lOf) which can be upgraded in order to include the new skill (nSK) in their respective skillset (SKS) for performing the production step (PSa - PSf) based on a respective ability description (aSK) of each of the production apparatuses (10), and d) upgrading (S40) one of the determined upgrade candidate production apparatuses (10a - lOf) to include the new skill (nSK) in its skillset (SKS).

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein step b) comprises: bl) comparing a digital representation of the product (P) to be produced with corresponding digital representations of formerly produced products formerly produced by the automa tion facility (100), b2) selecting the sequence (BOP) of production steps (PSa - PSf) of the most similar formerly produced product as a can didate sequence (cBOP), b3) determining a new production step (nPS) based on a dif ference in production steps (PSa - PSf) between the sequence (BOP) of production steps (PSa - PSf) for producing the prod uct (P) to be produced and the candidate sequence (cBOP), b4) selecting the production plan (PP) corresponding to the most similar formerly produced product as a candidate produc tion plan (cPP), and b5) adapting the candidate production plan (cPP) to include the determined new production step (nPS).

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein step bl) includes generating a similarity score for each pair of digital representations of products, wherein a pair of digital representations of products consists of the digital representation of the product (P) to be produced and the dig ital representation of one of the formerly produced products.

4. The method according to one of claims 1 to 3, wherein step c) includes obtaining a ability description (aSK) for each one of the production apparatuses (10a - lOf) of the au tomation facility (100) from an external entity (300) and/or from another automation facility.

5. The method according to one of claims 1 to 4, wherein step d) includes providing a hardware assembly instruction to an operator if the new skill (nSK) requires a hardware change of the candidate production apparatus (10a - lOf) to be up graded with the new skill (nSK).

6. The method according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein step d) includes downloading an upgrade software package and installing the downloaded upgrade software package on the up grade candidate production apparatus (10a - lOf).

7. The method according to one of claims 1 to 6, wherein step c) includes selecting one of a plurality of determined upgrade candidate production apparatuses (10a - lOf) based on a quality measure, an efficiency measure, an energy measure, a utilization measure, and/or a wear measure.

8. The method according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein step c) includes simulating the production of the product (P) to be produced based on a digital representation of the auto mation facility (100) including a virtualization of the pro duction apparatuses (10a - lOf) and a virtualization of the upgraded upgrade candidate production apparatus (10a - lOf), and when the product (P) is successfully produced in the sim ulation, the upgrade candidate production apparatus (10a - lOf) is upgraded.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein one of a plurality of possible configurations of the automation facility (100) for producing the product (P) is selected.

10. The method according to one of claims 1 to 9, wherein at least one of the production apparatuses (10a - lOf) is configured for manual operation by an operator, and when an operator manually operates the production apparatus (10a - lOf) out of the range of the skills (SK) included in its skillset (SKS), a trained skill (SK) is added to the skillset (SKS).

11. The method according to one of claims 1 to 10, wherein when no upgrade candidate production apparatus from among the number of production apparatuses (10a - lOf) is de termined, a list of additional production apparatuses that may be included in the automation facility (100) such that the product (P) can be produced is provided.

12. A computer program product comprising a program code for executing the method according to one of claims 1 to 11 when run on at least one computer.

13. An automation facility (100) for an automated production of a product (P) comprising a number of production apparatus es (10a - lOf), wherein each production apparatus (10a - lOf) is defined by a skillset (SKS) including its skills (SK), and a control unit (200) which is configured for performing the method according to one of claims 1 to 11.

14. The automation facility according to claim 13, wherein the automation facility (100) is configured for automatically producing a discrete product or a formulated product.