Claims
- 1. A computer controlled system for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for automated reconfigurable manufacturing systems having a plurality of modules with a plurality of alternative capabilities, the system comprising:
a system controller for controlling system modules to automatically reconfigure operation of the plurality of modules within the reconfigurable manufacturing system, wherein said controller includes models of the capabilities of each one of the plurality of modules in the reconfigurable manufacturing system, and wherein said models of the capabilities include at least one member selected from the group consisting of timing constraints, feature constraints, and commands; at least one planning function for planning utilization of selected module capabilities in the production of jobs having not less than one work unit; at least one scheduling function for scheduling utilization of said selected module capabilities in the production of said jobs having not less than one work unit; and at least one logging and integration function for automatically logging and reporting to said system controller execution reports incrementally in real time from each one of the plurality of modules, wherein said execution reports comprise actual values for model variables, wherein said actual values include at least one member selected from the group consisting of execution times, work unit attributes, and resource uses.
- 2. The system for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for automated manufacturing systems according to claim 1, wherein said logging function comprises:
means for receiving reports from the plurality of modules; and means for logging information contained in said reports from the plurality of modules in a schedule-compatible format.
- 3. The system for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for automated manufacturing systems according to claim 1, wherein said at least one scheduling function comprises means for structuring schedules with a plurality of information representations.
- 4. The system for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for automated manufacturing systems according to claim 3, wherein at least one of said plurality of information representations comprises work units contained within the automated manufacturing system.
- 5. The system for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for automated manufacturing systems according to claim 3, wherein at least one of said plurality of information representations comprises modules contained within the automated manufacturing system.
- 6. The system for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for automated manufacturing systems according to claim 3, further comprising at least one module for cross-linking said plurality of information representations.
- 7. The system for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for automated manufacturing systems according to claim 1, wherein said logging function comprises:
means for receiving reports from the plurality of modules; means for comparing module performance information contained in said reports from the plurality of modules with at least one module performance schedule developed by said scheduling function; and means for identifying module performance information that deviates from the module performance specified in said at least one module performance schedule; and means for logging said module performance information that deviates from the module performance specified in said at least one module performance schedule in a schedule-compatible format.
- 8. The system for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for automated manufacturing systems according to claim 1, wherein said logging function comprises:
means for receiving reports from the plurality of modules; means for comparing module performance information contained in said reports from the plurality of modules with a first module performance schedule developed by said scheduling function; and means for identifying module performance information that deviates from the module performance specified in said a first module performance schedule; and means for updating said at least one module performance schedule utilizing said module performance information that deviates from the module performance specified in said first module performance schedule.
- 9. The system for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for automated manufacturing systems according to claim 1, wherein said logging function comprises:
means for receiving reports from the plurality of modules; means for noting differences between module execution performance contained in said reports from the plurality of modules and a first module execution performance specified in a first module performance schedule developed by said scheduling function; and means for updating system models.
- 10. A method for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for automatic computer controlled reconfigurable manufacturing systems having at least one system controller and a plurality of modules with a plurality of alternative capabilities, the method comprising:
planning the work flow for at least one reconfigurable manufacturing system having a plurality of modules; scheduling the capabilities for said at least one manufacturing system; providing performance commands to the plurality of modules within said at least one manufacturing system; and logging and integrating performance reports received from the plurality of modules within said at least one manufacturing system, wherein said performance reports are automatically logged and reported incrementally in real time from each one of the plurality of modules to the at least one system controller, and wherein said performance reports comprise actual values for performance variables, wherein said actual values include at least one member selected from the group consisting of execution times, work unit attributes, and resource uses.
- 11. The method for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for computer controlled manufacturing systems according to claim 10, wherein scheduling the capabilities for said at least one manufacturing system comprises scheduling capabilities according to a plurality of capability representations.
- 12. The method for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for computer controlled manufacturing systems according to claim 11, wherein not less than one of said capability representations comprises work units included within said at least one manufacturing system.
- 13. The method for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for computer controlled manufacturing systems according to claim 11, wherein not less than one of said capability representations comprises modules included within said at least one manufacturing system.
- 14. The method for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for computer controlled manufacturing systems according to claim 10, wherein logging said performance reports comprises:
receiving performance reports from the plurality of modules; and logging information contained in said reports from the plurality of modules in a schedule-compatible format.
- 15. The method for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for computer controlled manufacturing systems according to claim 10, wherein logging said performance reports comprises:
receiving reports from the plurality of modules; comparing module performance information contained in said reports from the plurality of modules with at least one module performance schedule developed by said scheduling function; and identifying module performance information that deviates from the module performance specified in said at least one module performance schedule; and logging said module performance information that deviates from the module performance specified in said at least one module performance schedule in a schedule-compatible format.
- 16. The method for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for computer controlled manufacturing systems according to claim 10, wherein logging said performance reports comprises:
receiving reports from the plurality of modules; comparing module performance information contained in said reports from the plurality of modules with a first module performance schedule developed by said scheduling function; identifying module performance information that deviates from the module performance specified in said a first module performance schedule; and updating said at least one module performance schedule utilizing said module performance information that deviates from the module performance specified in said first module performance schedule.
- 17. The method for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for computer controlled manufacturing systems according to claim 16, further comprising generating a revised performance schedule utilizing said module performance information that deviates from the module performance specified in said first module performance schedule.
- 18. The method for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for computer controlled manufacturing systems according to claim 10, wherein logging said performance reports comprises:
receiving reports from the plurality of modules; noting differences between module execution performance contained in said reports from the plurality of modules and a first module execution performance specified in a first module performance schedule developed by said scheduling function; and updating system models.
- 19. The method for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for computer controlled manufacturing systems according to claim 10, further comprising generating a system report.
- 20. An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied in said medium which, when said program code is executed by said computer causes said computer to perform method steps for monitoring and reporting incremental job status for automatic computer controlled reconfigurable manufacturing systems having at least one system controller and a plurality of modules with a plurality of alternative capabilities, said method comprising:
planning the work flow for at least one reconfigurable, manufacturing system having a plurality of modules; scheduling the capabilities for said at least one manufacturing system; providing performance commands to the plurality of modules within said at least one manufacturing system; and logging and integrating performance reports received from the plurality of modules within said at least one manufacturing system, wherein said performance reports are automatically logged and reported incrementally in real time from each one of the plurality of modules to the at least one system controller, and wherein said performance reports comprise actual values for performance variables, wherein said actual values include at least one member selected from the group consisting of execution times, work unit attributes, and resource uses.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The following copending applications, Attorney Docket Number D/A3059, U.S. application Ser. No. ______, filed Apr. 28, 2003, titled “Planning and Scheduling for Failure Recovery System and Method” and Attorney Docket Number D/A3060, U.S. application Ser. No. ______, filed Apr. 28, 2003, titled “Predictive and Preemptive Planning and Scheduling for Different Job Priorities System and Method”, are assigned to the same assignee of the present application. The entire disclosures of these copending applications are totally incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.