×

Time-based, demand-pull production

  • US 10,417,595 B2
  • Filed: 05/05/2017
  • Issued: 09/17/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2017
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A method for managing time-based demand-pull production of work orders, the method comprising:

  • identifying, by a processor at a server, a plurality of connections between the server and a plurality of electronic devices, each of the electronic devices respectively corresponding to a work center from among a plurality of work centers, each work center having a corresponding work order queue; and

    controlling, by the processor, authorizing new work orders at the work centers by;

    storing, by the processor, status information from the electronic devices and company databases regarding the state of the work centers, including a subject work center and adjacent work centers that are immediately upstream of the subject work center, the status information comprising status of work orders for the subject and adjacent work centers, the capacity of the subject and upstream adjacent work centers, and the transit times between the subject and upstream adjacent work centers;

    querying, by the processor, data from a database to identify a next work order to be authorized for production at one of the upstream adjacent work centers based on a priority-setting rule;

    determining, by the processor, need time comprising an amount of time until the subject work center is available to start work on the next work order in accordance with an amount of time to clear the corresponding work order queue of the subject work center, and an amount of time to clear authorized work orders of the upstream adjacent work centers;

    determining, by the processor, arrival time comprising an amount of time until the next work order will arrive at the subject work center if immediately authorized in accordance with one or more of;

    (i) remaining clear time for the upstream adjacent work center in which the next work order is located;

    (ii) an amount of time to clear any previously authorized work orders in the corresponding work queue of the upstream adjacent work center in which the next work order is located;

    (iii) an amount of time needed to process the next work order through the upstream adjacent work center in which the next work order is located; and

    (iv) an amount of time to transit the next work order from the upstream adjacent work center in which the next work order is located to the subject work center;

    determining, by the processor, for each work center, in accordance with time-based demand pull authorization, whether the arrival time is greater than or equal to the need time of the subject work center;

    transmitting, by the processor, an authorization signal to authorize production of the next work order at the upstream adjacent work center if the arrival time is greater than or equal to the need time of the subject work center;

    modifying, by the processor, the corresponding work order queue of the upstream work center in response to the authorization signal; and

    repeating the controlling step upon a change of state of at least one work center, for repetitively generating signals to dynamically authorize the movement of work orders across multiple work centers.

View all claims
  • 1 Assignment
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×