JP2613090B2 - Instruction to input work - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a method for instructing the input of a work in a production process, in particular, when reworking a mixed work line to rework a work, or completing a previous process. The present invention relates to a method for instructing the input of a work, which can maintain both the leveling of the work and the line capacity rationally when the work is input to a subsequent process.

[Related Art] In a factory, for example, a vehicle manufacturing process, a plurality of types of products are often manufactured on the same line in each process. In recent years, with the diversification of consumer preferences,
2. Description of the Related Art Multi-product low-volume production, in which the types of products manufactured on the same manufacturing line are particularly increased, has become common.

Therefore, in the production process, for example, in the painting or assembling process of a vehicle, to optimize the production progress management of the equipment or work and improve the overall work efficiency, the transfer order of the vehicle work is optimized according to each process. A vehicle work must be supplied to each process as a perfect combination.

For example, in an automobile assembly factory that produces a plurality of vehicles and models, in each process, the order of vehicles flowing on the line needs to be equalized in order to equalize the time required for the assembly work and the interval between parts consumption. There is. For this reason, an optimal sequence for each process is planned in advance at the time of production planning, and assembly is started from the body welding process in that sequence.

However, despite such initial settings, frequent removals from the line and re-injection into the line are frequently performed due to repairs of poor quality vehicles in the middle of the painting process, returned vehicles, two-turn vehicles, etc. Since the order at the start of construction is disturbed, it is not possible to flow without changing to the final process in the same order.

Therefore, when a vehicle once excluded for masking a bad car or a two-ton car is re-entered in the middle of the line, or re-entered into a post-process, or when the initial order is changed due to a reworked vehicle, the same level is applied to the post-process. It is necessary to re-enter the position that does not disturb the conversion.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a mixed production line of a vehicle to which a conventional work input instruction method is applied.

In FIG. 1, the work line of the work 10 of the vehicle is divided into a pre-process line and a post-process line. According to the conventional example, the painting line 12 is the pre-process line, and the assembly line is
14 forms a post-process line, which is controlled by a line control panel (not shown).

Between the two lines 12, 14, a holding line having an appropriate size, according to the embodiment, three holding lines 16a, 16b, 16c are provided as a holding place for reworking the work or holding the line input. Used. Therefore, when rework is required in the painting line 12, the work 10 removed from the feeding position or the middle of the line is sent to the holding line 16 after necessary reworking, or the reworking work is directly performed in the holding line 16. Is done.

Therefore, the input of the work 10 from the painting line 12 or the holding line 16 in the preceding process to the assembly line 14 in the subsequent process must be instructed in consideration of the above-described change in the arrangement order. Input instruction control unit 18
Is provided. The input instruction control unit 18 is an instruction generation unit.
20 and a predetermined input instruction is given to each line while exchanging information with the instruction terminal 22.

In order for the instruction generation unit 20 to perform a desired insertion operation, the insertion instruction control unit 18 stores a vehicle arrangement data memory 24 for sequentially updating the arrangement order of vehicles in each line and stores specifications of these vehicle works. Vehicle specification data memory 26
A work constraint data memory 28 in which work constraints for determining necessary leveling in post-process work are stored, and from these memories 24, 26, 28, desired data is sent to the instruction generation unit 20. Supplied.

In addition, the vehicle and the data memory 24 input vehicle recognition data from the vehicle recognition units 30, 32, 34, 36a, 36b, and 36c from each line in order to store and hold the arrangement order of each line described above. .

As described above, according to the conventional input instruction device, the input instruction control unit 18 fetches necessary data, and the instruction generation unit 20 directs the vehicle work 10 sent from the painting line 12 to the assembly line 14. The vehicle work 10 from the painting line 12 or the holding line 16 instead of the vehicle work 10 from the painting line 12.
Then, a predetermined instruction is given by judging the rearrangement order of whether or not to send the work to the assembly line 14.

An example of the work constraint conditions stored in the work constraint condition data memory 28 is shown in Table 1. In order to level the post-process, the order in which these are arranged in accordance with the specifications of each vehicle work is shown. The instruction generating unit 20 makes a predetermined determination so that the job satisfaction condition is satisfied.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of a work input instruction method in the above-mentioned conventional instruction device.

In step 1, when the vehicle work 10 arrives at the exit of the painting line 12, it is determined whether or not a predetermined work restriction condition is satisfied when the work 10 is made to go straight to the assembly line 14 in a subsequent process. If it is possible to go straight, it is immediately instructed in step 5 to go straight to the assembly line 14.

On the other hand, if the work constraint conditions are not satisfied in step 1 and it is impossible to go straight, the process proceeds to step 2 and the reserved line
Once the vehicle work at the beginning of 16 is sandwiched, it is determined whether or not the work constraints are observed.

Then, if the work restriction conditions are observed when the work from the holding line 16 is sandwiched, an instruction to go straight to the assembly line 14 from the painting line 12 after inputting from the holding line 16 in step 4. I do.

In step 2, if the work restriction conditions are not maintained even by the loading, an instruction is given to hold the vehicle work 10 sent out from the painting line 12 in the holding line 16 in step 3.

As described above, according to the conventional insertion instruction method, the rearrangement of the insertion order is performed based on the work constraint.

The above-mentioned conventional input method has already been filed by the present applicant as follows.

(1) Japanese Patent Application No. 61-207277 (Japanese Patent Application No. 60-49956) (2) Japanese Patent Application No. 62-191275 (Japanese Patent Application No. 61-31076) (3) Japanese Patent Application No. 62-319326 (Japanese Patent Application No. (No. 159143) (4) Japanese Patent Application No. 63-45389 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-222832) [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, according to the above-described conventional input instruction method, all of the input conditions are for the work. If workpieces are loaded one after another under the conditions that satisfy the leveling of the post-process, the capacity of the line will overflow and the production line will not function properly in practice. Was.

Such a problem occurs when a post-process line, for example, an assembly line is overflowing with a workpiece,
If such a line capability is ignored and the instruction is given only by the constraint condition of the single work as in the related art, the post-process line may stop functioning.

Further, as another problem, even when the number of reserved lines is large, if an excessive reserve instruction is similarly issued from the previous process line to the reserved line, the function of the line also stops.

Such a problem is caused by the fact that the input instruction has conventionally considered only the constraint condition of the work, and the present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problem. It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved input instruction method capable of giving an optimum input instruction for a work that is approximately the same as the input capability.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method in which a plurality of works to be subjected to different machining or assembling operations are flown on a lie in a predetermined order, and the works are rearranged on this line. In the method for instructing the input of a work in a mixed production line performed under a predetermined work constraint condition, a condition that defines a state of the work in the line is held in advance as a line constraint condition, and the line is set according to a line condition. It is characterized in that one of the input instruction plans satisfying both the constraint condition and the work constraint condition is selected, and the input instruction is performed based on the selected input instruction plan.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of an apparatus to which the input instruction method according to the present invention is applied.

The input instruction control unit 40 includes an instruction generation unit 42, and an instruction terminal unit.
The exchange of the input instruction is performed with the 44 as in the past.

In the same manner as in the prior art, the instruction generating unit 42 supplies respective input instruction data from the work arrangement data memory 46, the work constraint data memory 48, and the work specification data memory 50, and the work arrangement data memory 46 receives data from the line. Desired work data is supplied by the work recognition unit 52.

A characteristic of the present invention is that not only the above-described work constraints but also line constraint data is supplied from the line constraint data memory 54 to the instruction generation unit 42. 3 shows an example of the line constraint condition.

This line constraint condition means that when the state of the work in the line conforms to the predetermined condition j, a predetermined instruction plan S is instructed, and each of these instruction plans S is given a priority n. ing.

Therefore, in the present invention, the instruction generation unit 42 determines both the work constraint data and the line constraint data described above, and issues an input instruction that satisfies both at the same time.
Give to.

[Operation] Therefore, according to the present invention, the determination is performed in consideration of not only the constraint condition of the work but also the constraint condition of the line, and the input instruction that satisfies both conditions is prioritized. Although the conversion efficiency is slightly reduced, the overall production efficiency can be increased since the line capacity is not exceeded.

FIG. 1 shows an input instruction method according to the present invention using the apparatus shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, the relationship between the constraint conditions of the present invention is determined by first selecting a possible input instruction plan based on line constraint conditions and selecting an instruction plan that satisfies the work constraint condition.

In step 10, all the line constraints shown in Table 2 are determined. As a result, it is determined in step 11 whether or not any of the line constraints is satisfied.

If it does not correspond to the line constraint, step
Proceeding to the fifteen conventional insertion instruction actions, line constraints are not considered.

On the other hand, when the line constraint condition is satisfied in step 11, all the instruction plans given in Table 2 are taken out, and in step 12, the one that satisfies the work constraint condition from this instruction plan is selected.

In step 13, it is determined whether or not there is an instruction plan that satisfies both of the constraint conditions. If the two do not match, the process proceeds to step 15, where a conventional input instruction operation is performed.

On the other hand, in the present invention, when both constraint conditions are satisfied in step 13, a high-priority instruction plan is selected from the selected instruction plans in step 14, and this is adopted as the input instruction.

As apparent from FIG. 1, according to the present invention, the input instruction is determined based on both the work constraint condition and the line constraint condition. Of course, in the present invention, the determination of both constraint conditions is performed regardless of the determination order. .

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 shows a case where the present invention is used for an instruction to input a vehicle work, and the same members as those in the apparatus of FIG.

What is characteristic in the present embodiment is that line constraint condition data from the line constraint condition data memory 154 is supplied to the instruction generation unit 20, whereby the vehicle work 10 has only the order of each work. Instead, it is possible to issue an input instruction in accordance with the line status of the assembly line 14 or the hold line 16 in the subsequent process.

An example of data stored in the line constraint data memory 154 is shown in Table 3.

In Table 3, the priority having a smaller value indicates a higher priority.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the insertion instruction method shown in FIG.

In step 20, all the line constraints shown in Table 3 are determined, and the assembly line 14 and the reserved line at this time are determined.
It is determined whether the line status in 16 matches the condition of the line constraint data.

In step 21, it is determined whether or not the line constraint condition is satisfied. If any of the conditions is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 22, and whether or not the instruction plan given in Table 3 satisfies the work constraint condition is determined. Is determined.

Then, in step 23, it is checked whether there is an instruction plan in which both constraint conditions are satisfied, and if there is such an instruction plan, in step 24, an instruction plan with a higher priority is adopted as an input instruction.

Therefore, the instruction plan selected from step 24 takes into account the constraints of the line and satisfies the constraints of the work, so that even if the leveling efficiency of the work on the line is lower than before, the overall production Efficiency can be significantly improved.

On the other hand, in the flowchart, when the instruction plan based on the line constraint condition in step 21 or step 23 is not selected, the input instruction based on only the line constraint condition is performed as in the related art, and these are described in steps 25 to 29. Steps 1 to 5 in FIG. 6 are the same as those in FIG.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, at the time of rearranging the workpieces, the input instruction has been determined only based on the work constraint conditions such as leveling in the post-process.
Since the input instruction can be performed in consideration of the line condition, the input instruction that overflows the processing capacity of the line does not occur, and the efficiency of the entire production line can be improved.

Further, according to the present invention, since the line condition is always considered, even when the line is changed or the production amount or the production ratio is changed, the input instruction is always performed in consideration of the newly set line condition. Thus, it is possible to obtain a mixed flow production line having excellent responsiveness.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a work input instruction method according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an apparatus to which the input instruction method of FIG. 1 is applied, and FIG. 3 is applied to a vehicle production line of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of an apparatus showing a preferred embodiment, FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an instruction method of the vehicle work input instructing device of FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional input instruction device, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for instructing the apparatus shown in FIG. 5 to be turned on. 10 (Vehicle) work 12 ... Pre-process (painting) line 14 ... Post-process (assembly) line 16 ... Reservation line 18, 40 ... Input instruction control unit 20, 42 ... Instruction generation unit 28, 48 …… Work constraint data memory 54,154 …… Line constraint data memory

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Satoru Gunji 41, Ochi-cho, Yokomichi, Nagakute-cho, Aichi-gun, Aichi Prefecture Inside Toyota Central R & D Laboratories Co., Ltd. 41 No. 1 Yokomichi Inside Toyota Central Research Laboratory Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-62-191275 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A plurality of works to be subjected to different machining or assembling operations are flowed on a line in a predetermined order, and the rearrangement of the works on the line is performed in a mixed flow production line under predetermined work constraints. In the work input instruction method, a condition that defines the state of the work in the line is held in advance as a line constraint condition, and an input instruction plan that satisfies both the line constraint condition and the work constraint condition according to the line condition is prepared. A method for instructing the input of a work, wherein one of the methods is selected, and an input instruction is performed based on the selected input instruction plan.