Method And Apparatus For Generating An Engineering Workflow

• US 20140310052A1
• Filed: 06/04/2013
• Published: 10/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Horn, Stefan, Foehr, Matthias, Jager, Tobias, Muhlhause, Mathias, Seidel, Heiko
• Granted Patent: US 9,600,792 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work

Abstract

Computer system configured to generate an engineering workflow, said system comprising a first database which stores a library of engineering patterns and a second database which stores a library of engineering tool functions of an engineering tool, wherein a sequence of automatically concatenated workflow steps forming said engineering workflow is generated by mapping for each workflow step a selected engineering pattern to a selected tool function of said engineering tool.

Claims

1. Computer system configured to generate an engineering workflow, the computer system comprising:

a first database which stores a library of engineering patterns, and

a second database which stores a library of engineering tool functions of an engineering tool,

wherein a sequence of automatically concatenated workflow steps forming said engineering workflow is generated by mapping for each workflow step a selected engineering pattern to a selected tool function of said engineering tool.

2. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein by mapping the selected engineering pattern to the selected tool function the engineering pattern is automatically linked to the respective tool function of said engineering tool by a linking mechanism provided by said engineering tool.

3. The computer system according to claim 1, comprising a user interface provided to map for each workflow step a selected engineering pattern to a selected tool function of said engineering tool.

4. The computer system according to claim 3, wherein said user interface is configured to display a mapping matrix to a user.

5. The computer system according to claim 4, wherein the mapping matrix displayed by said user interface comprises:

engineering pattern categories, each including a set of predetermined engineering patterns stored in said first database, and

tool function categories, each including a set of predetermined tool functions stored in said second database.

6. The computer system according to claim 5, wherein said mapping matrix comprises:

a plurality of input matrix fields for each combination of an engineering pattern, and

a tool function into which a sequence number of a workflow step within said engineering workflow is input to map the respective engineering pattern to the respective tool function.

7. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein each concatenated workflow step of the generated engineering workflow is configured to control a corresponding task of a process.

8. The computer system according to claim 4, wherein said mapping matrix is a configurable matrix loaded from a memory of said computer system.

9. The computer system according to claim 3, wherein the generated workflow comprising the concatenated workflow steps is displayed by said user interface to said user.

10. The computer system according to claim 4, wherein an associated mapping matrix is provided for each root object of a domain.

11. A method for generating an engineering workflow, the method comprising:

(a) selecting for each workflow step an engineering pattern from a library;

(b) selecting for each workflow step an engineering tool function of an engineering tool from a library; and

(c) generating a sequence of automatically concatenated workflow steps forming said engineering workflow by mapping for each workflow step the engineering pattern selected for the respective workflow step to the tool function of said engineering tool selected for the respective workflow step.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the mapping is performed using a mapping matrix displayed to a user via a user interface of a computer system.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the displayed mapping matrix comprises:

engineering pattern categories, each including a set of predetermined engineering patterns stored in a first database of the computer system, and

tool function categories, each including a set of predetermined tool functions stored in a second database of said computer system.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the displayed mapping matrix comprises:

a plurality of input matrix fields for each combination of an engineering pattern, and

a tool function into which a sequence number of a workflow step within said engineering workflow is input to map the respective engineering pattern to the respective tool function.

15. The method according to claim 11, wherein each concatenated workflow step of the generated engineering workflow controls a corresponding task of a process.

16. An engineering tool comprising:

an engineering workflow generation tool comprising computer instructions stored in non-transitory computer-readable media and executable by a processor to generate an engineering workflow by;

(a) selecting for each workflow step an engineering pattern from a library;

(b) selecting for each workflow step an engineering tool function of an engineering tool from a library; and

(c) generating a sequence of automatically concatenated workflow steps forming said engineering workflow by mapping for each workflow step the engineering pattern selected for the respective workflow step to the tool function of said engineering tool selected for the respective workflow step.