INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC WORKFLOWS IN A MANUFACTURING EXECUTION SYSTEM WITH PREMIER INTEGRATION

• US 20130123965A1
• Filed: 11/14/2012
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Cooper, David, Chao, Kevin, Chambers, Keith, Sze, Richard, Moor, Crisler, Henning, Brandon E., Bobba, Suryanarayana Murthy
• Granted Patent: US 9,953,280 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/97
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/042 using digital processors G05B19/05 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31432 Keep track of conveyed workpiece, batch, tool, conditions of stations, cells
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2453 Query optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2465 Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations

Abstract

A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is provided that leverages industry-specific workflows to process business requests. The MES system can maintain activity sets representing industry-specific workflows that can be selected and executed in order to satisfy business-driven goals. The activity sets can comprise both business-level and control-level operations, and can be configured using an intuitive graphical interface that mitigates the need for low-level programming by the end user. Some features of the MES system are enabled or disabled based on data type compatibility with devices in communication with the MES system.

Claims

1. A system for controlling enablement of operational features based on device selection, comprising:

a verification component, in a first device having a first set of operational features and a second set of operational features, configured to determine whether a second device communicatively coupled to the first system device supports a data type compatible with the second set of operational features; and

an enable component configured to;

in response to a determination by the verification component that the second device supports the data type, enable operation of the first device according to the first set of features and preventing operation of the first device according to the second set of operational features, and

in response to a determination by the verification component that the second device does not support the data type, enable operation of the first device according to the first set of operational features and the second set of operational features.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first device is a manufacturing and execution system (MES) device relating to a manufacturing and execution system, and the second device is an industrial controller.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the second set of operational features includes enablement of an interface in the MES device that facilitates browsing of data tags in the industrial controller from the MES device.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the second set of operational features include allowance of a common namespace to be used by the MES device and the industrial controller to reference data points in the MES device and the industrial controller.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the second set of operational features relate to discovery of data tags in the industrial controller by the MES device.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a polling component configured to send request data to the second device requesting confirmation information that indicates whether the second device supports the data type.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the verification component is further configured to determine whether the second device supports the data type based on a response to the request data received from the second device.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the MES device is configured to store and execute activity sets that respectively execute at least one of a business-level operation or a control-level operation to facilitate fulfillment of a defined business objective.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the MES device is further configured to translate s workflow defined by one of the activity sets into at least one control instruction and to deploy the at least one control instruction to the industrial controller.

10. A method for selectively enabling features of a device, comprising:

determining, by a first device including a processor, whether a second device configured to exchange data with the first device recognizes a data type supported by the first device;

enabling a set of operational features of the first device in response to determining that the second device recognizes the data type; and

disabling the set of operational features of the first device in response to determining that the second device does not recognize the data type.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining comprises determining, by a manufacturing and execution system (MES) device as the first device, whether an industrial controller, as the second device, recognizes the data type.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the enabling comprises enabling an interface in the MES device configured to facilitate browsing of a set of data tags in the industrial controller.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the enabling comprises enabling referencing of data items on the MES device and the industrial controller using a common namespace.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the enabling comprises enabling, as the set of operational features, features relating to discovery of data tags in the industrial controller by the MES device.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising sending request data to the industrial controller requesting information indicative of whether the industrial controller recognizes the data type.

16. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable components that, in response to execution, cause a computer system including a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving, at a first device, information indicating that a second device communicatively coupled to the first device supports a data type compatible with a set of features supported by the first device;

enabling the set of features in the first device in response to the information indicating that the second device supports the data type.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, the operations further comprising disabling the set of features in the first device in response to a determining that the second device does not support the data type.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the enabling the set of features includes enabling an interface on the first device that facilitates browsing of data items located on the second device.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the enabling the set of features includes allowing data items on the first device and the second device to be referenced using a common namespace.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the enabling the set of features includes enabling a feature that facilitates discovery of data items on the second device by the first device.