Industry-specific workflows in a manufacturing execution system with premier integration

• US 9,953,280 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2012
• Issued: 04/24/2018
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): Barnes-Bullock, Crystal J
• Application Number:
  US13/677,039
• Publication Number:
  US 20130123965A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,987 Days
• 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 manufacturing and execution system (MES) device, comprising:

a memory that stores executable components; and

a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the executable components, the executable components comprising;

a graphical interface configured to receive first input selecting a parameter of an activity template selected from a plurality of activity templates stored in a template database and defining generalized activity sets, and second input identifying a controller tag of an industrial controller to map to the parameter of the activity template to yield a bound activity set, wherein the graphical interface has a conditionally enabled interface that facilitates browsing of controller tags in the industrial controller in connection with generating the second input;

an activity set database configured to store the bound activity set as one of a plurality of activity sets, the plurality of activity sets defining respective workflows capable of execution by one or more manufacturing and execution systems (MES);

a verification component configured to determine whether the industrial controller supports a data type indicative of an equipment vendor that is common to the MES device and the industrial controller; and

an enable component configured to;

in response to a determination by the verification component that the industrial controller does not support the data type, prevent operation of the conditionally enabled interface, and

in response to a determination by the verification component that the industrial controller supports the data type, enable the operation of the conditionally enabled interface and allow 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.

2. The MES device of claim 1, wherein the executable components further comprise a polling component configured to send request data to the industrial controller requesting confirmation information that indicates whether the industrial controller supports the data type.

3. The system MES device of claim 2, wherein the verification component is further configured to determine whether the industrial controller supports the data type based on a response to the request data received from the industrial controller.

4. The MES device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of activity sets respectively execute at least one of a business-level operation or a control-level operation to facilitate fulfillment of a defined business objective.

5. The system MES device of claim 4, wherein the MES device is further configured to translate a workflow defined by one of the plurality of activity sets into at least one control instruction and to deploy the at least one control instruction to the industrial controller.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the enable component is further configured to, in response to the determination by the verification component that the industrial controller supports the data type, enable one or more security features in the MES device.

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

receiving, by the MES device, first input selecting a parameter of an activity template selected from a plurality of activity templates representing respective generalized activity sets, and second input identifying a controller tag of an industrial controller to map to the parameter of the activity template to yield a bound activity set, wherein the receiving the second input comprises;

determining whether the industrial controller recognizes a data type associated with a specified equipment vendor,

enabling a conditionally enabled interface of the MES device in response to determining that the industrial controller recognizes the data type, wherein the conditionally enabled interface facilitates remote browsable searching of data tags located on the industrial controller from the MES device and enables referencing of data items on the MES device and the industrial controller using a common namespace, and

disabling the conditionally enabled interface of the device in response to determining that the industrial controller does not recognize the data type; and

storing, by the MES device, the bound activity set as one of a plurality of activity sets, the plurality of activity sets defining respective workflows capable of execution by one or more MES systems.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising sending request data to the industrial controller requesting information indicative of whether the industrial controller recognizes the data type.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising enabling one or more security features of the MES device in response to determining that the industrial controller recognizes the data type.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising enabling, by the MES device, a feature that facilitates discovery of the data tags on the industrial controller by the MES device in response to determining that the industrial controller recognizes the data type.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising executing, by the MES device, at least one of a business-level operation or a control-level operation defined by one of the plurality of activity sets to facilitate fulfillment of a defined business objective.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

translating, by the MES device, a workflow defined by one of the activity sets into at least one control instruction; and

deploying, by the MES device, the at least one control instruction to the industrial controller.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

translating, by the MES device, a workflow defined by one of the plurality of activity sets into at least one instruction for exchanging data with a business-level device; and

deploying, by the MES device, the at least one instruction to the business-level device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the translating comprises translating the one of the plurality of activity sets into at least one of a business-level reporting instruction, a verification request directed to an employee, or a request to access a business-level database.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable components that, in response to execution, cause a manufacturing and execution system (MES) device comprising a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving first input selecting a parameter of an activity template selected from a plurality of activity templates that respectively define generalized activity sets, and second input identifying a controller tag of an industrial controller to may to the parameter of the activity template to yield a bound activity set, wherein the receiving the second input comprises

receiving, at the MES device, information indicating that the industrial supports a data type associated with an equipment vendor of the MES device,

enabling use of a conditionally enabled interface in the MES device in response to the information indicating that the industrial controller supports the data type, wherein the conditionally enabled interface facilitates browsing of data tags in the industrial controller from the MES device and enables referencing of data items on the MES device and the industrial controller using a common namespace, and

disabling the use of the conditionally enabled interface in the MES device in response to the information indicating that the industrial controller does not support the data type; and

storing the bound activity set as one of a plurality of activity sets, the plurality of activity sets defining respective workflows capable of execution by an MES system.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the operations further comprising enabling a feature that facilitates discovery of data items on the industrial controller by the MES device in response to the information indicating that the industrial controller supports the data type.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the operations further comprising enabling one or more security features of the MES device in response to the information indicating that the industrial controller supports the data type.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the activity sets respectively execute at least one of a business-level operation or a control-level operation to facilitate fulfillment of a defined business objective.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

translating a workflow defined by one of the plurality of activity sets into at least one control instruction; and

deploying the at least one control instruction to the industrial controller.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the operations further comprising sending request data to the industrial controller requesting confirmation information that indicates whether the industrial controller supports the data type.