SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR THE UNIVERSAL INTEGRATION OF PLANT FLOOR ASSETS AND A COMPUTERIZED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20080271057A1
• Filed: 04/26/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aspentech Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mtelligence Corporation (Aspentech Corporation)
• Inventors: RAHILLY, Paul, BROOKS, Gordon, BATES, Alex, MACNAB, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 8,380,842 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/418 Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] or computer integrated manufacturing [CIM]
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31391 Administration tasks and factory control tasks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

A server platform and a method to integrate a plurality of diverse plant floor equipment with at least one computerized management system in a manufacturing operational or maintenance system. The server platform includes a plurality of plant floor drivers adapted to communicatively interface with a plurality of diverse plant floor data sources. The server platform further includes at least one computerized management system driver adapted to communicatively interface with the at least one computerized management system. The server platform also includes a message translator adapted to broker communication between the plant floor data sources and the at least one computerized management system using an open standard. The server platform, using the open standard, enables a universal enterprise type taxonomy across the plant floor data sources and the at least one computerized management system.

Claims

1. A server platform for integrating a plurality of diverse plant floor equipment with at least one computerized management (CM) system, said server platform comprising:

a plurality of plant floor drivers adapted to operationally interface with a plurality of diverse plant floor data sources to at least receive information from said plant floor data sources;

at least one CM system driver adapted to operationally interface with said at least one CM system to at least receive information from said at least one CM system; and

a message translator adapted to broker communication between said plant floor data sources and said at least one CM system using an open standard.

2. The server platform of claim 1 wherein said message translator includes a semantic model forming an open object metadata registry capable of enabling a universal enterprise type taxonomy across said plant floor data sources and said at least one CM system.

3. The server platform of claim 1 further comprising a mapper database adapted to store semantic mappings and non-semantic mappings between said plant floor data sources and said CM system such that said message translator is capable of accessing said mappings to facilitate said brokered communication.

4. The server platform of claim 1 wherein said CM system comprises one of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and an enterprise asset management (EAM) system.

5. The server platform of claim 1 wherein said plant floor data sources includes at least one of an asset health system, condition monitoring sensors, and a plant historian system.

6. The server platform of claim 1 wherein said open standard comprises the MIMOSA open standard.

7. The server platform of claim 1 further comprising a discovery application adapted to automatically discover and import defined device objects and types from said plant floor data sources via said plant floor drivers and adapted to automatically discover and import defined management objects and types from said at least one CM system via said CM system driver.

8. The server platform of claim 7 further comprising a contextualizing application adapted to semantically map said management types to pre-defined open standard universal type identifiers and adapted to semantically map said device types to said pre-defined open standard universal type identifiers.

9. The server platform of claim 7 further comprising an assigning application adapted to assign first universal object identifiers to said device objects and second universal object identifiers to said management objects.

10. The server platform of claim 9 further comprising a mapping application adapted to non-semantically map said first universal object identifiers to said second universal object identifiers, thereby relating said device objects to said management objects.

11. The server platform of claim 7 wherein said defined objects comprise at least one of assets, segments, agents, measurement points, enterprise, and site.

12. The server platform of claim 7 wherein said defined types comprise at least one of asset types, work types, priority types, asset priority types, alarm severity types, ordinal health types, work priority types, and problem code types.

13. The server platform of claim 1 further comprising a condition based maintenance application adapted to generate maintenance work orders in response to information collected from said plant floor data sources and said at least one CM system.

14. The server platform of claim 1 further comprising a performance measurement application adapted to track key performance indicators in response to information collected from said plant floor data sources and said at least one CM system.

15. The server platform of claim 1 wherein communication with said plurality of plant floor data sources is accomplished via at least one of open communication protocols and proprietary communication protocols.

16. The server platform of claim 1 wherein communication with said at least one CM system is accomplished via a web services protocol.

17. A method of integrating a plurality of diverse plant floor equipment with at least one computerized management (CM) system, said method comprising:

establishing first communication links between a server platform and a plurality of diverse plant floor data sources via a plurality of plant floor adapters of said server platform to at least receive information from said plant floor data sources;

establishing a second communication link between said server platform and at least one computerized management (CM) system via at least one CM system adapter of said server platform to at least receive information from said CM system;

discovering defined device objects and types of said plurality of plant floor data sources via said first communication links and importing said discovered device objects and types into said server platform;

discovering defined management objects and types of said at least one CM system via said second communication link and importing said discovered management objects and types into said server platform; and

mapping said discovered objects and types to universal identifiers within said server platform, wherein said universal identifiers are defined in an open standard.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said mapping includes semantically contextualizing said device types and said management types to pre-defined open standard universal type identifiers within said server platform.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein said mapping includes assigning said device objects and said management objects to globally unique identifiers within said server platform.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein said mapping includes semantically associating said management objects to universal type identifiers within said server platform.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein said CM system comprises one of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and an enterprise asset management (EAM) system.

22. The method of claim 17 wherein said first communication links are adapted to use at least one of open communication protocols and proprietary communication protocols.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein said protocols include at least one of an open connectivity protocol, a modbus protocol, an XML web services protocol, and a proprietary protocol.

24. The method of claim 17 wherein said second communication link is adapted to use a web services protocol.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein said web services protocol includes a MIMOSA OSA-EAI Tech-XML-services web services protocol.

26. The method of claim 17 wherein said defined objects include at least one of assets, segments, agents, measurement points, enterprise, site.

27. The method of claim 17 wherein said defined types include at least one of asset types, work types, priority types, asset priority types, alarm severity types, ordinal health types, work priority types, and problem code types.

28. The method of claim 17 wherein said device types include at least one of alarm severity types, asset criticality types, health types, problem types, failure types, and remedy types.

29. The method of claim 17 wherein said management types includes at least one of asset types, work priority types, asset criticality types, health types, problem types, failure types, and remedy types.

30. The method of claim 17 further comprising storing said mapped universal identifiers within said server platform.

31. The method of claim 30 further comprising brokering communication between said plant floor data sources and said at least one CM system using said stored mapped universal identifiers.

32. The method of claim 17 wherein said open standard comprises the MIMOSA open standard.

33. The method of claim 31 further comprising automatically triggering at least one work flow in response to said brokered communication.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein said work flow comprises at least one of an audit work status work flow, an escalate priority work flow, a synchronize asset data work flow, a production asset capability forecast work flow, and a measure performance work flow.

35. The method of claim 31 further comprising automatically generating at least one work order in response to said brokered communication.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein said work order comprises an automated condition-based maintenance work order.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein said automated condition-based maintenance work order comprises at least one of a predictive maintenance work order, a corrective maintenance work order, a preventive maintenance work order, and an emergency maintenance work order.

38. The method of claim 31 further comprising automatically tracking at least one key performance indicator in response to said brokered communication.

39. The method of claim 18 wherein said semantic contextualizing includes:

automatically sorting said device types and/or said management types, having a first ordinal scale, by ordinality;

automatically sorting said universal type identifiers, having a second ordinal scale, by ordinality; and

automatically assigning said sorted device types and/or management types to said sorted universal type identifiers by applying an inference algorithm.

40. The method of claim 36 wherein said inference algorithm includes a histogram technique.

41. The method of claim 18 wherein said semantic contextualizing includes:

automatically sorting said device types and/or said management types, having a first nominal scale, by frequency of occurrence;

automatically sorting said universal type identifiers, having a second nominal scale, based on a pre-defined rate of occurrence; and

automatically assigning said sorted device types and/or management types to said sorted universal type identifiers by applying an inference algorithm.

42. The method of claim 38 wherein said inference algorithm includes a heuristic technique.

43. The method of claim. 38 wherein said frequency of occurrence is determined from a work history stored within said server platform.

44. A system for maintenance and asset management, said system comprising:

a plurality of plant floor data sources adapted to collect data from a plurality of plant floor equipment;

at least one computerized management (CM) system; and

a server platform adapted to integrate said plurality of plant floor data sources with said at least one CM system based on a universal enterprise type taxonomy using an open standard.

45. The system of claim 44 wherein said open standard comprises the MIMOSA open standard.

46. The system of claim 44 wherein said computerized management (CM) system comprises one of a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) and an enterprise asset management (EAM) system.

47. The system of claim 44 wherein said server platform comprises:

a plurality of plant floor drivers adapted to operationally interface with said plurality of plant floor data sources to at least receive information from said plant floor data sources;

at least one CM driver adapted to operationally interface with said at least one CM system to at least receive information from said at least one CM system; and

a message translator adapted to broker communication between said plant floor data sources and said at least one CM system using said open standard.

48. The system of claim 47 wherein said message translator includes a semantic model forming an open object metadata registry capable of enabling said universal enterprise type taxonomy across said plant floor data sources and said at least one CM system.

49. The system of claim 47 further comprising a discovery application residing in said server platform and adapted to automatically discover and import defined device objects and types from said plant floor data sources via said plant floor drivers and adapted to automatically discover and import defined management objects and types from said at least one CM system.

50. The system of claim 49 further comprising a contextualizing application residing in said server platform and adapted to semantically map said management types to pre-defined open standard universal type identifiers and adapted to semantically map said device types to said pre-defined open standard universal type identifiers.

51. The system of claim 49 further comprising an assigning application residing in said server platform and adapted to assign first universal object identifiers to said device objects and second universal object identifiers to said management objects.

52. The system of claim 51 further comprising a mapping application residing in said server platform and adapted to non-semantically map said first universal object identifiers to said second universal object identifiers, thereby relating said device objects to said management objects.

53. The system of claim 49 wherein said defined objects comprise at least one of assets, segments, agents, measurement points, enterprise, and site.

54. The system of claim 49 wherein said defined types include at least one of asset types, work types, priority types, asset priority types, alarm severity types, ordinal health types, work priority types, and problem code types.

55. The system of claim 44 further comprising a condition based maintenance application residing in said server platform and adapted to generate maintenance work orders in response to information collected from said plant floor data sources and said at least one CM system.

56. The system of claim 44 further comprising a performance measurement application residing in said server platform and adapted to track key performance indicators in response to information collected from said plant floor data sources and said at least one CM system.

57. The system of claim 44 wherein communication between said plurality of plant floor data sources and said server platform is accomplished via at least one of open communication protocols and proprietary communication protocols.

58. The system of claim 44 wherein communication between said at least one CM system and said server platform is accomplished via a web services protocol.

59. The system of claim 49 further comprising a graphic user interface operationally interfacing to said server platform and adapted to allow a user to at least manage MIMOSA-based mappings between defined device objects and types imported from said plant floor data sources and said defined management objects and types imported from said at least one CM system.