Method for establishing the working mantime in the production line

• US 5,615,138 A
• Filed: 09/11/1995
• Issued: 03/25/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kinoshita, Keiji, Miura, Ken, Hattori, Masami, Fujii, Susumu, Yoneda, Hideo, Sugiyama, Shinpei, Sakuramoto, Akira, Tanaka, Kozaburo, Yamamoto, Kimiyuki, Ryu, Akihiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MILLER, CRAIG S
• Application Number:
  US08/526,782
• Time in Patent Office: 561 Days
• Field of Search: 364/468, 364/469, 364/552, 364/581, 364/582, 364/554, 364/551.02, 364/402, 364/578, 364/401, 364/226.7, 364/227, 364/918.6, 364/227.3, 364/918.9 , 364/281.8, 364/942.5, 364/474.16, 364/551.01, 395/650, 395/925, 395/926
• US Class Current: 702/81
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of establishing working mantime in a production line comprising the steps of: numerically evaluating the work volume for the working means performed in each production process, representing the numeralized work volume as a normal work mantime, then numerically evaluating the fatigue extent of each fatigue task as a fatigue score, and adding the fatigue score to the normal work mantime.

Further, the fatigue score is assigned as a fatigue recovery mantime, and the normal work mantime which includes the fatigue recovery mantime is leveled as uniform, thereby establishing a new production process which includes the leveled fatigue recovery mantime.

Claims

1. A method of employing a plurality of working means, said method comprising the steps of:

operating a production line by performing a plurality of production processes according to a first schedule, said production processes being performed by said working means;

determining first working mantimes for said working means for said first schedule, said step of determining said first working mantimes including the step of evaluating work volumes of said production processes performed by said working means;

establishing fatigue recovery mantimes for said working means, said step of establishing said fatigue recovery mantimes including the step of evaluating the fatigue extents of said production processes;

determining a modified schedule for said production line based on said first working mantimes and said fatigue recovery mantimes; and

operating said production line according to said modified schedule, said modified schedule being different than said first schedule, said step of operating said production line according to said modified schedule being performed by said working means, and wherein the steps performed by said working means during said step of operating said production line according to said modified schedule are different than the steps performed by said working means during said step of operating said production line according to said first schedule.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein said step of establishing fatigue recovery mantimes further comprises the steps of:

entering work contents for a plurality of single tasks into a computer;

selecting a working mantime from computer memory corresponding to said entered work contents;

determining whether said entered work contents is to be subject to addition or subtraction in order to select a compensation coefficient; and

calculating said fatigue recovery mantimes based on said work contents, working mantimes, and compensation coefficients.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said step of calculating said fatigue recovery mantimes is made according to the following equation:

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">sum t=t1+t2+(t3×

n×

a)+(t4×

b)+t5;

wherein "t1" to "t5" represent said working mantimes, "n" represents a number of single tasks, "a" represents a compensation coefficient alpha, and "b" represents a compensation coefficient beta.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein said step of determining a modified schedule further comprises the steps of:

establishing a fundamental production line;

dividing said working means into a plurality of blocks along said fundamental production line; and

exchanging elementary tasks performed by each of said working means between said working means.

5. The method as in claim 4, further comprising the step of rotating said working means between said blocks according to a rotation period.