Automatic work allotment system for EDS fabrication machines

• US 6,263,254 B1
• Filed: 06/19/1998
• Issued: 07/17/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Yazaki Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yazaki Corporation
• Inventors: Yamada, Hidenobu, Nishimura, Hisato
• Primary Examiner(s): Grant, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): CABRERA, ZOILA E
• Application Number:
  US09/100,082
• Time in Patent Office: 1,124 Days
• Field of Search: 700/117, 700/96, 700/97, 700/99, 700/100, 700/101, 700/102, 297/03, 297/29
• US Class Current: 700/117
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41865 characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32118 Loading, allocates operations and tools to selected part type
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32289 Determine number of components, start of their production, allocate processor
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45097 Cable harnessing robot
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

An EDS production system includes a material supply section for supplying electric wires and terminals, an EDS fabrication section having identified machines for processing electric wires to prefabricate circuits employable to fabricate EDS products, covering work regions for cutting electric wires in lengths, for stripping cut wires of insulating covers over lengths at either wire end or both wire ends and for applying terminals to stripped wire ends, and a production control section for controlling quantities of circuits to be prefabricated by completion dates therefor in consideration of quantities of ordered EDS products to be completed within delivery terms thereof, a master controls data on specifications for the electric wires, a combination of masters control data on specifications for the performances and work regions of the identified machines, and a processor processes a combination of data from the respective masters and data from the production control section covering the circuit quantities and the completion dates, to have allotted, to the identified machines, fractions of an entirety of circuit fabrication work to be done within an arbitrary time section in a concerned term to provide necessary types of circuits in required quantities by specified completion dates.

Claims

1. An automatic work allotment system for an EDS (electrical distribution system) production system including:

a material supply section for supplying

a plurality of types of electric wires and

a plurality of types of terminals;

an EDS fabrication section for fabricating a plurality of kinds of EDS products, the EDS fabrication section having a plurality of identified machines each adaptive for one or more performances to automatically execute one or more sub-regions of a work region for processing one or more types of electric wires to prefabricate one or more types of circuits employable, alone or in combination, to fabricate one or more kinds of EDS products, the one or more sub-regions of the work region including one of

a first sub-region for cutting one or more specified types of electric wires in a variable wire length,

a combination of

the first sub-region and

a second sub-region for stripping a cut wire of an insulating cover thereon over a variable strip length at one of either end and both ends thereof, and

a combination of

the first sub-region,

the second sub-region and

a third sub-region for applying a specified terminal to a stripped end of the cut wire; and

a production control section for controlling a circuit quantity of a respective type of circuit to be prefabricated by a specified completion date therefor in consideration of a production quantity of a respective ordered EDS product to be completed within a delivery term thereof,

the automatic work allotment system comprising;

first master means for controlling a first set of data on specifications for the plurality of types of electric wires;

second master means for controlling a second set of data on specifications for the one or more performances and the one or more sub-regions of the work region of each identified machine; and

processor means cooperative with the first and second master means and the production control section for processing a combination of

a subset of the first set of data,

a subset of the second set of data and

a third set of data covering the circuit quantity of the respective type of circuit and the specified completion date therefor to have allotted, to the plurality of identified machines, a plurality of fractions of an entirety of circuit fabrication work to be done within an arbitrary one of time sections of a concerned term to provide one or more necessary types of circuits in required circuit quantities by specified completion dates therefor, respectively.

2. The automatic work allotment system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more sub-regions of the work region further include a fourth sub-region interrupting work in one of the first, second and third sub-regions and a combination thereof, with a delay for applying an accessory to a semi-prefabricated circuit.

3. The automatic work allotment system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the entirety of circuit prefabrication work is defined in terms of a total of respective numbers of circuits of the one or more necessary types of circuits to be prefabricated within the arbitrary time section.

4. The automatic work allotment system according to claim 3, wherein:

the plurality of identified machines include

a first identified machine adaptive for fabricating a first number of circuits within the arbitrary time section, and

a second identified machine adaptive for fabricating a second number of circuits within the arbitrary time section; and

the processor means allots to the first identified machine the first number of circuits as a first fraction of the entirety of circuit fabrication work, before allotting to the second identified machine a number of circuits as a second fraction of the entirety of circuit fabrication work.

5. The automatic work allotment system according to claim 3, wherein:

the plurality of identified machines include

a first identified machine adaptive for fabricating a first number of circuits of a first type of circuit within the arbitrary time section, and

a second identified machine adaptive for fabricating a second number of circuits of the first type of circuit within the arbitrary time section; and

the processor means allots the first number of circuits of the first type of circuit to the first identified machine, before allotting a number of circuits of the first type of circuit to the second identified machine.

6. The automatic work allotment system according to claim 1, wherein:

the first master means comprises a first set of program files;

the second master means comprises a second set of program files;

the processor means comprise a third set of program files; and

the automatic work allotment system further comprises one or more storage media for storing therein the first, second and third sets of program files.

7. An automatic work allotment system for allotting fabrication instructions obtained by developing input order data to a plurality of EDS (electrical distribution system) fabrication machines for fabricating in lots a plurality of kinds of electric wires to constitute EDS products, the automatic work allotment system comprising:

a wire specification master for storing specified data on a variety of kinds of electric wires constituting the EDS products;

a machine master having registered wire numbers and terminal numbers set to the plurality of EDS fabrication machines and performance values thereof;

a strip length master having registered strip lengths in correspondence to the terminal numbers;

a work allotment processor for preparing fabrication instructions on a circuit basis to the plurality of EDS fabrication machines in accordance with a combination of numbers of input orders by product numbers and an input prefabrication completion date, wire specification data registered to the wire specification master, data registered to the machine master, and data registered to the strip length master; and

a cutting priority circuit master for master storing circuit configurations needing more than a usual number of days from a wire cutting to a prefabrication completion, numbers of working days therefor, and termination conditions of work to be done by cutting machines provided for the plurality of EDS fabrication machines and to be set as one of “

terminal solder-less connection”

, “

up to stripping” and

“

up to cutting”

.

8. The automatic work allotment system according to claim 7, further comprising:

the work allotment processor for preparing the fabrication instructions on the circuit basis to the plurality of EDS fabrication machines in accordance with the combination of the numbers of input orders by product numbers and the input prefabrication completion date, the data registered to the machine master, the data registered to the strip length master, and the circuit configurations, the numbers of working days and the termination conditions registered to the cutting priority circuit master.

9. The automatic work allotment system according to claim 7 or 8, further comprising a display processor for graphically displaying the fabrication instructions allotted by the work allotment processor to the plurality of EDS fabrication machines to visualize a load balance.

10. A storage medium with a stored automatic work allotment program having:

a circuit development process function for determining a number of orders, a prefabrication completion date and information on a lot number, respectively on a circuit basis, in accordance with input orders and wire specifications for a variety of electric wires constituting EDS (electrical distribution system) products;

a strip length decision process function for determining strip lengths of respective terminals with reference to a strip length master;

a termination condition decision process function for setting conditions of work to be done by cutting machines provided for a plurality of EDS fabrication machines as one of “

terminal solder-less connection”

, “

up to stripping” and

“

up to cutting”

;

a cutting date calculation process function for calculating cutting dates of respective electric wires in accordance with the determined prefabrication completion dates and termination conditions;

a cutting priority process function for storing circuit configurations needing more than a usual number of days from a wire cutting to a prefabrication completion, numbers of working days therefor, and the termination conditions; and

a work allotment process function for preparing fabrication instructions on a circuit basis to the plurality of EDS fabrication machines in accordance with the calculated cutting dates and data on electric wires, terminals and accessories to be handled by machine types and respective machines registered to a machine master.

11. The storage medium with the stored automatic work allotment program according to claim 10, further having a display process function for graphically displaying the fabrication instructions to the plurality of EDS fabrication machines to visualize a load balance.