This invention relates in general to the field of information management. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method of real-time monitoring and visualizing of manufacturing processes and other key business processes.
Managing daily business activities efficiently is very important to keep operating costs low and customers satisified. In today's business world, it is very difficult and complicated to obtain real-time information necessary to manage business processes and monitor assets. Using incomplete or inaccurate data can lead to strategic and tactical mistakes, long lead times, high work in progress (WIP), and quality problems. These problems cost businesses time and money due to higher capital expenses, decreased cash flow through lower inventory turnover, higher saftey/buffer stocks, and decreased availability.
Conventional systems do not provide an efficient, flexible and reliable system to monitor the daily, and short and long term activities of an enterprise in real-time. Thus, in view of the foregoing, there is a need for systems and methods that overcome the limitations and drawbacks of the prior art. In particular, there is a need for system that can monitor the activities of an enterprise in real-time to address the limitations of the prior art and provide decision makers with the information they need. The present invention provides such a solution.
The present invention provides a system for visually displaying real-time enterprise management information. In accordance with an aspect of the invention, there is provided methods and systems for visually displaying bottlenecks in a real-time and other enterprise status information. The systems include an application integration platform that receives plural types of data from manufacturing and information systems, the application integration platform analyzing plural types of data to determine bottleneck conditions, a process control server that receives the barcode and sensor information from at least one work center and forwards the barcode and sensor information to the application integration platform, a database containing barcode and sensor information, and a graphical user interface that interfaces with the application integration platform to provide a visual display of bottlenecks determined based on the barcode and sensor information.
In accordance with a feature of the invention, the application integration platform may further determine key performance indicators, such as, throughput time, manufacturing hours, work center utilization, man-hour capacity, planned vs. actual hours for work orders, and work in process. The key performance indicators may be determined in accordance with at least one of a work order number, a work station identifier, a start time, an end time, an activity code, a problem code, employee information, a material code, a planned start time, and a planned completion time.
In accordance with another feature, the graphical user interface may further provide reports generated in response to user inputs, the user inputs including at least one of: a range of dates, a range of times, a selection of work station, a selection of work center, a selection of work unit, and an employee identifier. Bottlenecks may be identified in the graphical user interface in accordance with a level of utilization of a particular resource, and detailed information regarding the particular resource may be displaying in response to a user request. In addition, a meantime between failure analysis maybe provided, and user-selectable control parameters may be provided to adjust the meantime between failure analysis. Also, the system may provide a work in progress analysis.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of visually displaying bottleneck information in an enterprise manufacturing system. The method includes obtaining barcode and sensor data from at least one work center having at least one manufacturing machine; storing the barcode and sensor data in a database containing information related to manufacturing processes performed at the at least one work center; analyzing the manufacturing data to determine key performance indicators and bottlenecks; and presenting differing ones of the key performance indicators and bottlenecks to different classes of end users in accordance with user-selected input parameters.
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the method may include identifying bottlenecks in a graphical user interface in accordance with a level of utilization of a particular resource and providing additional information regarding the particular resource in response to a user request. The method may further include performing a meantime between failure analysis and providing user-selectable control parameters to adjust the meantime between failure analysis. Still further, the method may include providing a work in progress analysis.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be made apparent from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments that proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there is shown in the drawings exemplary constructions of the invention; however, the invention is not limited to the specific methods and instrumentalities disclosed. In the drawings:
In a manufacturing shop floor, some resources will have greater relative load than other resources. Heavily loaded resources tend to be the bottleneck resource. In today's manufacturing world, bottlenecks become a very important hurdle overcome in order to increase the throughput of a manufacturing system. In a traditional approach, operations personnel mostly concentrate on non-bottleneck elements in the manufacturing floor. This type of improvement efforts will not improve the throughput unless bottleneck resources is also optimized.
Although, there are many researches and applications in industry related to managing and controlling bottleneck resources, there is no solution to an efficient, flexible, and reliable system to monitor daily activities of a bottleneck resource in real-time. Because the operations managers do not get timely information from the shop floor, it is very difficult to manage and control the bottleneck resource. The present invention provides a system that will aid operations personnel to improve throughput, flow, and lead time by managing bottleneck resource visually.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to systems and methods for monitoring whole enterprise processes and key performance indicators (KPI) both locally and remotely. Classes of users (e.g., managers, engineers, operators, etc.) are able to monitor KPIs, such as financial indicators, market activities, overall company conditions, throughput, available capacity, machine status, quality information, etc. Decisions can be made on day-to-day activities, and short and long term activities based on the monitored results. The present invention includes software that is based on an object-oriented architecture to provide a platform that can be easily configured and scaled to increase functionality and enterprise growth.
Exemplary Computing Environment
The invention is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
The invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network or other data transmission medium. In a distributed computing environment, program modules and other data may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.
With reference to
Computer 110 typically includes a variety of computer readable media. Computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer 110 and includes both volatile and non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by computer 110. Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media.
The system memory 130 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or non-volatile memory such as ROM 131 and RAM 132. A basic input/output system 133 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer 110, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 131. RAM 132 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 120. By way of example, and not limitation,
The computer 110 may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer storage media. By way of example only,
The drives and their associated computer storage media, discussed above and illustrated in
The computer 110 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 180. The remote computer 180 may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer 110, although only a memory storage device 181 has been illustrated in
When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 110 is connected to the LAN 171 through a network interface or adapter 170. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 110 typically includes a modem 172 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN 173, such as the Internet. The modem 172, which may be internal or external, may be connected to the system bus 121 via the user input interface 160, or other appropriate mechanism. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 110, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. By way of example, and not limitation,
Exemplary Distributed Computing Framework and Architecture
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for monitoring whole enterprise processes and key performance indicators (KPI) that provides for decoupling of functionality into individual, standalone, reusable subsystems. The present invention provides small, simple interfaces between components, and similarity of concepts within the architecture. The decomposition of the system into reusable components is performed in such a way, that the system can be adapted to changes in requirements via an exchange of a minimal set of components. To accomplish these goals, the present invention is preferably implemented using VB coding standards.
The Theory of Constraints (TOC) developed by Goldratt focuses attention on the capacity constraint or bottleneck parts of the operation. After bottleneck is identified, initial efforts are concentrated to remove or control the bottleneck, then the next constraint is identified. By continuously focusing this approach, a manufacturing plan can increase throughput, and reduce lead time. The present invention provides a robust and easy way to assess a bottleneck status of work stations in the shop floor in real time and take action if necessary.
As will be described below, the present invention has a component for data collection that includes sensors and barcode technology and associated software to collect manufacturing data from shop floor in real time. Referring to
Data related with manufacturing will be gathered from feedback points in the plants using sensors and a barcode system. While sensors will detect a machine on/off status, the barcode system will used to follow the manufacturing order and operator activities. When sensor signals are sent to OPC server 202 by the controller 233, AIP 200 or Web interface will be used to obtain data and display the information to the user. The AIP 200 will also have interface with the SQL database 228, which stores data collected by barcode system.
Users interact with the system by logging on to the AIP 200 locally, or remotely using a WWW interface via the Internet. Preferably, two interfaces are implemented, an AIP Thin Client 204 for the BA view, and an AIP Client 206 for the BAU view. The BAU shows a Business Area Unit (e.g., a manufacturing facility or business), whereas the BA view shows a Business Area (a group of common BAUs). The AIP Thin Client 204 and AIP Client 206 may be implemented on, e.g., computer 110 to connect to various components via a LAN 236 and/or corporate intranet 240. In addition, other components may communicate with each other via the LAN 236 or wireless access points 238 and bridges 239. Business activity can be graphically monitored by the system in real-time to allow users to react and make critical business decisions based on performance information.
Manufacturing status data 214 may be gathered via a barcoding system or machine sensors and/or other controls from, e.g., a coil winding machine 216, core stacking machine 218, drying/filling machine 220, active part assembly machine 222, tank/final assembly machine 224 and/or test machine 226. It is noted that the present invention is not limited to such machines and/or data, and may be utilized to capture and analyze data from other types of machines and information sources. Barcode data gathering techniques are well know to those of ordinary skill in the art and equipment therefor is available from, e.g., Symbol Technologies, Holtsville, N.Y.
Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that OPC is a series of standards specifications. The first standard (called the OPC Specification and now called the Data Access Specification) resulted from the collaboration of a number of leading worldwide automation suppliers working in cooperation with Microsoft Corp. Originally based on Microsoft's OLE COM (component object model) and DCOM (distributed component object model) technologies, the specification defined a standard set of objects, interfaces and methods for use in process control and manufacturing automation applications to facilitate interoperability. The COM/DCOM technologies provided the framework for software products to be developed. There are now hundreds of OPC Data Access servers and clients.
When sensor signals are sent to the OPC Server 202, the Aspect Integrator Platform (AIP) 200 or Web Interface will be used to gather the data and display the information to the end users. This data will include operator activities from the data feedback points in the manufacturing plant. Manual machines 232 may have optical and voltage sensors to measure status of the manufacturing, which are sent to a controller 233 for transmission to the OPC Server (OLE for Process Control) 202. For highly automated machines 234, which have the built in controller, the signals are sent directly to the OPC server 202. The AIP 200 may extend across a single or multiple disparate locations to extent the value chain and enable real-time correlation.
As shown in
In accordance with the present invention, the following exemplary key performance indicators (KPI) may be monitored by the API 200 of the present invention:
1. Throughput time (days)
Throughput time may be calculated for overall manufacturing and for each process as days spent in production for a project name, unit, and work order:
Throughput time=Completion time−start time (for work order, project name, and unit).
In accordance with the present invention, users may calculate a throughput time for given dates, project name, work order, and unit. For example, if a user wants to see all project throughput times for last 30 days, the user will be able to view a project name and its associated throughput times. If he/she wants to see a particular project or unit throughput time, he/she should be able to see the project name or unit throughput time as a whole or for individual work centers.
2. Manufacturing hours (total and by activity)
Manufacturing time may be calculated for each activity in the shop floor as hours spent on a project, work order, and unit. This KPI is similar to throughput time, except that real manufacturing hours is preferably tracked on the shop floor. Manufacturing activities may be defined as, e.g., set up, processing, and set out. Similarly, manufacturing problems may be defined as, e.g., break down, missing parts, quality issues, operator breaks, and technical clarification.
In accordance with the present invention:
Manufacturing time (overall)=end time (or current time)−start time−all problem times (e.g., employee break, technical problems, etc.)
Manufacturing time (for an activity)=end time (or current time) for an activity−start time for the activity−all problem times (e.g., employee break, technical problems, etc.). The present invention gathers information for given work center (e.g., activities and problem time), project name, and unit. Similarly, same time calculation should be performed for manufacturing problems. It is preferable that the user is able to obtain problem codes and times for break down, missing parts, quality issues, operator breaks, and technical clarification. For example, the user should be able to obtain break down times for all projects for a particular work center or all work centers for a given date interval.
3. Work Center Utilization
In accordance with the present invention, work center utilization is a measure of the actual productive time for a work center:
Utilization for a machine=(productive time on the machine)/(endtime−start time).
Machine productive hours are preferably extracted through sensor data. Other required times may come from a database storing such information. It is preferable to obtain labor hours associated with particular work center through an employee ID to calculate total hours spent on the machine. The present invention may obtain these data for a given date and work center. If a user wants to view average work center utilization (i.e., not a particular machine utilization), the present invention preferably calculates average utilization after obtaining machine utilization.
4. Man-hour capacity report
Man-hour utilization is similar to the machine utilization. The present invention calculates total labor hours for each work center as follows:
Man hour utilization=(used man hour)/(total available man hour)
Used man-hour will is preferably calculated in a similar manner as in the work center utilization (KPI 3) above. Total man-hours may be a manual entry and may be determined for user-specified dates.
5. Planned vs. Actual
As part of the project tracking purposes, it is preferable to calculate the following measures with scheduling: the difference between planned start time and actual start time, the difference between planned completion and actual completion time, and the difference between planned hours and actual hours.
Planned start and completion times for a work order are defined as the original scheduling times. Actual start time and completion time may be extracted from, e.g., a database 228. The present invention provides the user with a view of planned vs. actual time for each work station for a given project name. Users may also want to track planned vs. actual for each project for a given work center. For example, if he or she wants to see all the projects status for a winding center, he or she should be able to list all projects with planned vs. actual time in the work center.
6. Work in Process (WIP)
WIP is the number of units in each work center either waiting or processing for a given time. It is often necessary to find out how many units are waiting or processing in the work stations. In exemplary manufacturing environment 214 of the present invention, these are: a number of units in the winding process, a number of cores waiting (i.e., arrived, but not processed, thus are considered raw material), a number of active parts waiting (i.e., finished, but into the next process), a number of complete units waiting for final assembly (i.e., finished, but into the next process), a number of complete units waiting for final testing, a material weight for drums in the winding, and a number of tanks in the system.
The present invention provides WIP quantity by project name, unit, and work order for each station. For example, if user wants to see WIP quantity in the winding machine, all projects, units, and work orders assigned to winding work center are returned.
Additional KPIs may be defined in accordance with the particular needs of the enterprise manufacturing environment.
The database 228 of the present invention will now be described. Data storage and replication in database 228 is preferably implemented using SQL Server 2000, available from Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash. In the present invention, directory replication and database replication is used for performance optimization. Data is preferably stored and managed locally. The BAU level the relevant KPI are summarized and replicated daily (see,
Processing at each workstation is maintained by scanning barcodes (using barcode scanner 242) representative of a particular status at the workstation. The data is stored in the database 228 for processing of the KPIs discussed above. Table One, below, relates the KPI monitoring data requirements to determine the KPI value.
As noted above, in accordance with the present invention, data is captured using a barcode system 242 to determine and display the KPIs noted above. The structure of data items, such as databases, OPC servers, and configuration data will now be described. Table Two below defines an exemplary barcode system and type of the data collected or updated during the manufacturing operations. The scope of the claims of the present invention shall not be limited by the exemplary system described below, as other events and processes may be captured by the system of the present invention.
A data collection event, as used herein, is the manufacturing activity that will occur in a particular machine or work center. During these events, data related to the shop floor is collected and updated. For example, when operator starts to work, he or she scans or enters his or her badge number, WO number, and activity code. This activates the work process in the particular workstation and the data will be sent to the database 228 until the next event, which may be, e.g., an “end work,” “pause,” etc. event. In accordance with the present invention, the AIP 200 may access the database 228 to obtain the information in Table Two for presentation to a user.
In Table Two above, the following definitions apply:
WO number: This is a number that uniquely identifies a work order that was released to shop floor to the particular workstations/work centers.
Product ID: Identifies a unique product number that was assigned by BAU.
Operation ID: Defines the detailed work instructions for a particular work order. These may be assembly instructions and/or component list.
Work Center ID: Work centers are group of machines that was identified by plant. They are usually logically grouped machines such as winding machines or assembly stations. The work center ID is the number that uniquely identifies the group. Typically, work centers are same as in ERP systems work centers.
Work Station ID: The ID of a particular machine in a work center.
Start time for WO: This indicates that work for a particular job, by a particular operator has been initiated. When the operator starts or resumes the work order, this data is updated in the database. As operator begins working in the workstation, he/she scans his/her employee ID barcode and then a barcode on the WO paper, and then finally enters an “activity code.”
End time for WO: When the operator finishes the work for that job, he/she scans the same barcodes noted above, and enters the activity code to end the job. When the operator ends the work for a work order, the end time is captured. It is preferable to capture and update this data in the database each time the operator stops or ends the work order.
Status of the work order: This data is used to trace the status of the work order. It preferably contains three statuses: “completed,” “not started,” and “started.” When the WO is in the system (e.g., the database 228), it is assigned the status of “not started.” When the operator starts to work on the work order, the status is updated to “started.” Finally, when the work is completed, the status is updated to “completed.”
Activity code: These define predetermined activities such as set up, processing, set out, etc. These codes are used to extract productive time in the shop floor.
Activity descriptions: These are the descriptions of the activity codes.
Problem codes: These are the codes that define predetermined problems such as material missing, machine breakdown, etc. These will be used to extract non-productive time in the shop floor to help point out improvement areas to the users.
Problem descriptions: These are the codes that define predetermined problems, such as material missing, machine breakdown, etc. These will be used to extract non-productive time in the shop floor. It will help the user to determine improvement areas.
Badge number: uniquely identifies an employee number.
Planned start time: This is the start time that was scheduled by the plant.
Actual start time: This is the actual start time for a particular work order. It is often different than the planned start time.
Planned completion time: This is the end time that was scheduled by the plant.
Actual completion time: This is the actual end time for a particular work order. It is often different than the planned end time.
Material code: the material code uniquely identifies a particular material or sub assembly in the work center. It may be, e.g., a number of coil drums or tanks that will be used in the stations.
Material quantity: It will be amount of material in particular workstations. Since these data will help to determine the WIP between the stations, it is preferably captured when material enter or leave the work stations
Customer Order Number: A unique customer order number assigned by plant. This number is preferably tied to a work order and product ID.
Project number: These define that a unique project belongs to a particular customer.
Quantity completed: When operator finishes a work order, he or she reports the quantity completed. This field shows the completed quantity of the WO.
Scrap quantity: These are the quantity reported to the system by operators.
Referring now to
Another component of the present invention is a data analysis and display. Data will be analyzed by AIP 200 and will be displayed to a user in real time. Referring now to
With particularity to determining bottlenecks,
Another measurement is WIP before the bottleneck resources. Operations personnel often try to make sure that bottleneck resource never starved because of material or subassembly supply. The WIP quantities show whether there is enough material or subassembly before the bottle neck station. Utilization may be tracked through charts to assess the load for the bottleneck resource. An exemplary utilization graph is illustrated in
While the present invention has been described in connection with the preferred embodiments of the various Figs., it is to be understood that other similar embodiments may be used or modifications and additions may be made to the described embodiment for performing the same function of the present invention without deviating therefrom. For example, one skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention as described in the present application may apply to any computing device or environment, whether wired or wireless, and may be applied to any number of such computing devices connected via a communications network, and interacting across the network. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that a variety of computer platforms, including handheld device operating systems and other application specific operating systems are contemplated, especially as the number of wireless networked devices continues to proliferate. Still further, the present invention may be implemented in or across a plurality of processing chips or devices, and storage may similarly be effected across a plurality of devices. Therefore, the present invention should not be limited to any single embodiment, but rather should be construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the appended claims.