Discrete resource management

• US 10,223,167 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2009
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Kaufman, Philip John, Walker, Marcia Elaine
• Primary Examiner(s): Zare, Scott A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Danzig, Reva R
• Application Number:
  US12/429,814
• Publication Number:
  US 20100274611A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,602 Days
• Field of Search: 700 99, 700295, 705 739, 705 8, 705 10, 707 1, 707 5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 80/10 Efficient use of energy, e.g. using compressed air or pressurized fluid as energy carrier
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/82 Energy audits or management systems therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/84 Greenhouse gas [GHG] management systems

Abstract

Discrete resource tracking systems (and corresponding methodologies) that collect, tag and store resource consumption and usage values associated with industrial environment processes are provided. The specification can track water, air, gas, electricity, or steam consumption and usage view of a discrete (or batch) processes. Emissions and/or effluents associated with processes and sub-processes can also be collected, tagged and stored as desired. These stored resource consumption and usage and/or emissions and/or effluents data elements can be used for a variety of purposes including, but not limited to, simulation, planning, forecasting, valuating, optimizing, etc.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates discrete resource management, comprising:

at least one processor coupled to memory retaining instructions carried out by the at least one processor, in operation, for;

a collection component that, in operation, obtains a plurality of process-related resource data elements from a plurality of autonomous sensor components disposed at a plurality of locations within an industrial environment, wherein each process-related resource data element comprises a value quantifying a water consumption, an energy consumption, or both of one of a plurality of defined processes of the industrial environment, wherein each of the plurality of defined processes is configured to contribute to production of a product;

a marking component that, in operation, associates each of the plurality of process-related resource data elements with descriptive data, wherein the descriptive data comprises environmental conditions, a rate of production, a duration of production, or any combination thereof for at least one manufacturing process of the plurality of defined processes configured to contribute to the production of the product; and

an analysis component that, in operation;

quantifies a subset of the plurality of process-related resource data elements to produce a bill of materials (BOM) per unit comprising a cost associated to the water consumption, a cost associated to the energy consumption, or both as a function of an amount of the product produced by the at least one process of the plurality of defined processes, wherein the subset of the plurality of process-related resource data elements is quantified with respect to the descriptive data;

adjust the BOM per unit to reduce the cost associated to the water consumption or a cost associated to the energy consumption, or both; and

automatically adjusts the rate of production or the duration of production for the at least one manufacturing process by automatically adjusting at least one load associated with the process based at least on the adjusted BOM per unit, wherein the at least one load comprises a water consumption load, an energy consumption load, or both.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of process-related resource data elements is initiated within its respective defined process within the industrial environment.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a storage component that, in operation, facilitates retaining the plurality of process-related resource data elements and the descriptive data.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the storage component is located in at least one of a local, remote, distributed or cloud-based store.

5. The system of claim 3, further comprising an indexing component that, in operation, records a location of each of the plurality of process-related resource data elements within a store.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a detection component that comprises the plurality of autonomous sensor components and, in operation, monitors the industrial environment to gather the plurality of process-related resource data elements.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an association component that, in operation, associates each of the plurality of process-related resource data elements with the descriptive data based at least upon production level.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the marking component comprises:

an analysis component that, in operation, determines one or more relationships between the descriptive data and each of the plurality of process-related resource data elements; and

a tagging component that, in operation, marks each of the plurality of process-related resource data elements with descriptive data based on the one or more relationships.

9. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium comprising executable code comprising instructions to:

receive a plurality of process-related resource data elements from a plurality of autonomous sensor components disposed at a plurality of locations within an industrial environment, wherein each process-related resource data element of the plurality of process-related resource data elements comprises a value quantifying an energy consumption, water consumption, or any combination thereof, of a manufacturing process of a plurality of discrete processes of the industrial environment, wherein each of the plurality of discrete processes is configured to contribute to production of a product;

receive a plurality of process-related contextual data elements comprising descriptive data comprising environmental conditions, a time of production, an utility rate, or any combination thereof for the manufacturing process;

associate each of the plurality of process-related resource data elements with the plurality of process-related contextual data elements;

quantify the plurality of process-related resource data elements to produce a bill of material (BOM) per unit, wherein the BOM per unit comprises a cost associated to energy consumption, water consumption or both as a function of a rate of production, a duration of production, or both of the manufacturing process, and wherein the plurality of process-related resource data elements is quantified with respect to the descriptive data;

adjust the BOM per unit to reduce the cost associated to the water consumption, a cost associated to the energy consumption, or both; and

automatically adjust the rate of production, the duration of production of both of the manufacturing process by automatically adjusting at least one load associated with the process based on the adjusted BOM per unit, wherein the at least one load comprises a water consumption load, an energy consumption load, or both.

10. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions configured to store the plurality of process-related resource data elements.

11. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions configured to index each of the plurality of process-related resource data elements.

12. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions configured to relate a subset of the plurality of process-related contextual data elements to each of the plurality of process-related resource data elements.

13. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions comprise automatically adjusting the time of production to reduce the cost associated to the energy consumption or the water consumption of the BOM per unit.

14. A method, comprising:

obtaining resource data comprising one or more values quantifying emissions, effluents, or any combination thereof, of at least one manufacturing process of a plurality of processes within an industrial environment from a plurality of autonomous sensor components disposed at a plurality of locations within the industrial environment, wherein each of the plurality of processes is configured to contribute to production of a product;

obtaining contextual data describing a time of production, an environmental condition, or any combination thereof for at least one of the plurality of processes;

associating a subset of the resource data with a subset of the contextual data based on one or more relationships between the subset of the resource data and the subset of the contextual data;

quantifying the subset of the resource data to produce a bill of materials (BOM) per unit as a function of a rate of production, a duration of production, or both for the at least one manufacturing process, wherein the subset of the resource data is quantified with respect to the subset of the contextual data and at least one regulatory requirement, and wherein the BOM per unit comprises a regulatory cost per unit;

adjust the BOM per unit to reduce the regulatory cost per unit; and

automatically adjusting the rate of production, the duration of production, or both for the at least one manufacturing process by automatically adjusting at least one load associated with the process based on the adjusted BOM per unit, wherein the at least one load comprises a water consumption load, an energy consumption load, or both.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising tagging the subset of the resource data with the subset of the contextual data.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising storing the subset of the resource data in at least one of a local, remote, distributed or cloud-based store.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising indexing the subset of the resource data.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising monitoring the plurality of processes to facilitate obtaining the resource data or the contextual data.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the regulatory cost per unit comprises a Cap and Trade/Tax system.