Production management system and program

The present invention defines three types of data, namely production flow data 6 , work condition data 8 , and product work condition assignment data 10 , creates manufacturing method information 1 using their data formats, and registers it so that these data can be combined to generate work record information 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a production management system according to the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the production management system comprises a server computer 3 for managing manufacturing method information 1 and work record information 2 as databases; a terminal 4 used for a manager or a worker to refer to or update the contents of the databases; a network 5 enabling the server computer 3 and the terminal 4 to exchange data. The server computer 3 has installed thereon a general-purpose database system and a production management system of the present invention. It should be noted that to store the manufacturing method information 1 and the work record information 2 , two separate databases may be employed, or alternatively a single database may be used to store both of them. Furthermore, the terminal 4 can take any form so long as it has display, input, and communication functions and is capable of running a production management program of the present invention. The terminal 4 may be a personal computer 4 a or 4 b having a CRT and a keyboard, or a portable terminal 4 c having an LCD screen and a pen input device. Similarly, the network 5 need not necessarily be a wired network 5 a . The network 5 may be a wireless LAN 5 b instead. Furthermore, these facilities need not necessarily be dedicated for the production management system. They may be shared by other systems having different purposes. The manufacturing method information 1 includes first manufacturing method information 7 , second manufacturing method information 9 , and third manufacturing method information 11 which are registered in a database so that they are associated with one another. The first manufacturing method information 7 is made up of pieces of production flow data 6 ; the second manufacturing method information 9 is made up of pieces of work condition data 8 ; and the third manufacturing method information 11 is made up of pieces of product work condition assignment data 10 . The work record information 2 , on the other hand, includes first work record information 13 , second work record information 15 , and third work record information 17 which are registered in a database so that they are associated with one another. The first work record information 13 is made up of pieces of product work record data 12 each indicating a work result for a product; the second work record information 15 is made up of pieces of process record data 14 each indicating a work result for a process; and the third work record information 17 is made up of pieces of applying condition data 16 indicating a work condition applied to work. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the structure of the production flow data 6 and an example of the first manufacturing method information 7 . As shown in FIG. 2 A, the production flow data 6 is defined as data having a structure made up of data item fields such as a production flow name field 18 , a product type name field 19 , a work process name field 20 , and a work sequence number field 21 . Each production flow name field 18 indicates the name of a respective production flow. Each product type name field 19 indicates the type name of the product manufactured through a respective production flow. Each work process name field 20 indicates the name of a work process constituting a respective production flow and is expressed using such a description as “electron beam irradiation” or “development”. The work sequence number field 21 indicates the sequence number of the process indicated by the work process name field 20 in the production flow indicated by the production flow name field 18 . In addition to the above data item fields, the present embodiment defines an insertion production flow name field 22 . This item field manages a production flow which indicates processes to be performed after the work process indicated by the work process name field 20 has failed. Some insertion production flow name fields 22 may be left blank. FIG. 2B is a diagram showing an example of the first manufacturing method information made up of pieces of production flow data 6 . As shown in the figure, a production flow named “flow A” is made up of 5 pieces of production flow data 23 , while a production flow named “flow B” is made up of 4 pieces of production flow data 24 . A production flow named “flow X” is made up of two pieces of production flow data 25 . FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of the work condition data 8 and an example of the second manufacturing method information 9 . The present embodiment defines three types of data structures for the work condition data 8 each used according to a respective type of data to be managed. FIG. 3A is a diagram showing a data structure for managing work process conditions such as temperature, duration, and pressure. The data structure is made up of data item fields such as a work condition discrimination symbol field 23 for discriminating one work condition from another, a number field 24 for facilitating management of a plurality of conditional items, a process item field 25 , and a target value field 26 . An item name such as “temperature” or “duration” is set for the process item field 25 , while numerical value data such as “65° C.” or “35 sec” is set for the target value field 26 . FIG. 3B shows second manufacturing method information 9 a made up of work condition data 8 having a structure as described above. FIG. 3C is a diagram showing a data structure for managing a specification that must be satisfied for work. The specification concerns dimensions, weight, etc., and is managed as a work condition. Its data item fields include the work condition discrimination symbol field 23 , the number field 24 , a specification item field 27 , and a required finish value field 28 . A specification item name such as “height” is set for the specification item field 27 , while a value such as “200 &mgr;m” is set for the required finish value field 28 . FIG. 3D shows second manufacturing method information 9 b made up of work condition data 8 having a structure as described above. In addition, the present embodiment defines the structure shown in FIG. 3E to manage equipment, gases, chemicals, etc. to be used, as work conditions. This data structure is made up of data item fields such as the work condition discrimination symbol field 23 , the number field 24 , an item field 29 for holding a management item name, and a value field 30 . For example, the item field 29 and the value field 30 hold data such as “gas to be used” and “CF 4 gas”, respectively. FIG. 3F shows second manufacturing method information 9 c made up of work condition data 8 having the structure described above. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of the product work condition assignment data 10 and an example of the third manufacturing method information 11 . The product work condition assignment data 10 has the data structure shown in FIG. 4A . The data structure is made up of data item fields such as a work process name field 31 , a product performance field 32 , and a work condition discrimination symbol field 33 . The present embodiment specifies and manages product performance by setting a value for the product performance field 32 as follows. A value of “H” is set for the product performance field 32 to indicate “High Performance”; “E” is set to indicate “Economical Version”; and “M” is set to indicate “Middle Version”. Furthermore, the work condition discrimination symbol field 33 is expressed by a combination of values of the work process name field 31 and the product performance field 32 . For example, when manufacturing a product having the “H”-level performance in a process &agr;, the work condition to be applied is indicated by the symbol “&agr;H”. As shown in FIG. 3 and described above, the work condition discrimination symbol identifies each piece of work condition data. FIG. 4B shows an example of the third manufacturing method information 11 made up of pieces of product work condition assignment data 10 . FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relations among the production flow data 6 , the work condition data 8 , and the product work condition assignment data 10 . As shown in the figure, the work process name field in the production flow data 6 corresponds to that in the product work condition assignment data 10 . Furthermore, the work condition discrimination symbol field in the product work condition assignment data 10 corresponds to that in the work condition data 8 . That is, given the name of a product to be produced and its product performance, it is possible to search for and obtain corresponding production flow data using the product type name as a search key. Then, the corresponding work condition discrimination symbol can be obtained by using the work process included in the obtained product flow data 6 and the product performance as search keys. Finally, by collecting each piece of the work condition data 8 indicated by the obtained work condition discrimination symbol, it is possible to obtain specific work condition items for each work process and their contents. As can be seen from the above description, the present invention is advantageous in that it does not manage a production flow as a single piece of data but as a set of pieces of data instead, and furthermore simplifies the structure of the data set as much as possible so as to eliminate duplicate registration of information as well as simplifying addition/deletion of a work process to/from a production flow. For example, consider a case in which the work condition indicated by the work condition discrimination symbol “&agr;H” is to be applied to another work process. With a conventional data structure, it is necessary to newly register and manage data including information such as the temperature “65°C.” and the time “35 sec”. However, if pieces of data having a simple structure and associated with one another are registered and managed as shown in FIG. 5 , it is possible to assign the same condition “&agr;H” to another process by inserting a single piece of product work condition assignment data 10 , eliminating the need for duplicating detailed work condition data and managing them. Furthermore, since addition, alteration, and deletion of a production flow or a work condition can be carried out by inserting or deleting a piece of data, it is not necessary to shut down the system to change the data definition. FIG. 6 is a flowchart 34 showing a manufacturing method management procedure. As shown in the figure, based on the data structure described above, manufacturing method information is registered and after a production order is issued, a corresponding work record is created and managed according to the registered manufacturing method information. Thus, it is simple to manage, register, and update manufacturing method information as necessary. Next, description will be made of work record information managed by the production management system. The present embodiment manages three types of work record information: the first work record information 13 , the second work record information 15 , and the third work record information 17 . The first work record information 13 is made up of pieces of product work record data 12 each indicating a work result for a product; the second work record information 15 is made up of pieces of process record data 14 each indicating a work result for a process; and the third work record information 17 is made up of pieces of applying condition data 16 each indicating a work condition applied to work. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the structure of the product work record data 12 and an example of the first work record information 13 . As shown in FIG. 7 A, the product work record data 12 has a structure made up of data items such as a product information discrimination symbol field 35 , a product type name field 36 , a product performance field 37 , a production order date field 38 , a production start date field 39 , a production completion date field 40 , and a “product: nondefective/defective” field 41 . A product information discrimination symbol 35 is assigned to each production order. This symbol may be automatically determined, or alternatively a symbol entered with a production order by a worker may be used as this symbol. The product type name and the product performance are entered as information constituting a production order. The production order date field 38 , the production start date field 39 , the production completion date field 40 , and the “product nondefective/defective” field 41 hold information input from the terminal 4 in FIG. 1 by a worker, etc. FIG. 7B is a diagram showing an example of the first work record information 13 made up of pieces of product work record data 12 . FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the structure of the process record data 14 and an example of the second work record information 15 . As shown in FIG. 8 A, the process record data 14 has a structure made up of data items such as a product information discrimination symbol field 42 , a work sequence number field 43 , a work process name field 44 , a work process discrimination symbol field 45 , a work start time field 46 , a work completion time field 47 , a responsible worker field 48 , and a “work: successful/unsuccessful” field 49 . FIG. 8B is a diagram showing an example of the second work record information 15 made up of pieces of the process record data 14 . The product information discrimination symbol 42 in the figure corresponds to the product information discrimination symbol 35 in FIG. 7 . On the other hand, the work sequence number field 43 , the work process name field 44 , the work process discrimination symbol field 45 hold information selected from the first manufacturing method information 7 and the third manufacturing method information 9 . The work start time field 46 , the work completion time field 47 , the responsible worker field 48 , the “work: successful/unsuccessful” field 49 hold information input from the terminal 4 in FIG. 1 by a worker. The data denoted by reference numerals 50 and 51 indicate that the process &bgr; first failed, and was carried out again after the process &agr;. Which process is to be inserted after the process &bgr; fails is determined by referring to the corresponding insertion production flow name field 22 included in the first manufacturing method information 7 in FIG. 2B . In the present embodiment, when a worker enters the information “unsuccessful”(termination) from the terminal 4 , the production management system refers to the manufacturing method information 7 . If a corresponding insertion production flow name is registered, the production management system automatically creates work record data for the work processes included in the insertion production flow. It should be noted that when the second work record information 15 is created, each insertion production flow name may be obtained and registered as the value of a data item field in the respective process record data 14 beforehand. In this case, the amount of the work record information to be recorded increases; however it is possible to shorten time it takes to obtain an insertion production flow when required. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the structure of the applying condition data 16 and an example of the third work record information. As in the case of the work condition data 8 included in the manufacturing method information, the present embodiment defines three types of data structures for the applying condition data 16 each used according to a respective type of data to be managed. FIG. 9A is a diagram showing the data structure of the applying condition data 16 for managing work process conditions such as temperature. FIG. 9B is a diagram showing an example of third work record information 17 a made up of pieces of the applying condition data 16 . The product information discrimination symbol 52 in the figure corresponds to the product information discrimination symbol 35 in FIG. 7 and the product information discrimination symbol 42 in FIG. 8 . A work sequence number field 53 , a work condition discrimination symbol field 54 , a number field 55 , a process item field 56 , and a process value field 57 each hold information selected from the second manufacturing method information. FIG. 9C is a diagram showing the data structure of applying condition data 16 for managing a specification that must be satisfied for work. The specification concerns dimensions, etc. and is managed as a work condition. FIG. 9D is a diagram showing an example of third work record information 17 b made up of pieces of such applying condition data 16 . In addition, the present embodiment defines the data structure shown in FIG. 9E which can be applied to any arbitrary management items, and FIG. 9F is a diagram showing an example of third work record information 17 c made up of pieces of applying condition data 16 having such a data structure. This completes the detailed description of information managed by the production management system according to the present embodiment and the data structures of the information. Next, description will be made of processing performed by the production management system with reference to FIGS. 10, 11 , and 12 . The flowchart 62 in FIG. 10 shows processing performed by the production management system of the present embodiment. The production management system receives a production order from the terminal 4 shown in FIG. 1 at step 101 , and obtains product information such as the type and the performance of the product to be manufactured. The production management system then obtains necessary information from the manufacturing method information database based on the obtained product information to generate work record information at step 102 . FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the process of generating work record information at step 102 . As described above, the work record information of the present embodiment comprises the first work record information made up of pieces of product work record data, the second work record information made up of pieces of process record data, and the third work record information made up of pieces of applying condition record data. Referring to the flowchart, product work record data is first generated at step 201 . Specifically, the generation step of product work record data newly creates data having a structure as described in FIG. 7 A, and sets values, one each for the product information discrimination symbol field, the product type name field, the product performance field, the production order date field, and the production start date field, respectively. For the product type name field and the product performance field, step 201 sets values obtained as manufacturing method information. The product information discrimination symbol field may hold a value entered from a terminal as a piece of manufacturing method information, or alternatively a serial number may be automatically set for the field. The production order date field and the production start date field may also each hold a date entered from a terminal as a piece of manufacturing method information, or alternatively a preset date may be automatically set for each field. For example, a date at which product work record data was generated may be regarded as the production order date and the following day as the production start date, and these dates are automatically assigned. FIG. 12A shows an example of product work record data generated as described above. No values are set for the production completion date field and the “product: nondefective/defective” field at this time point. From the first manufacturing method information, step 202 shown in FIG. 11 selects production flow data whose product type name coincides with that included in the product work record data at step 201 . This makes it possible to obtain work processes to be performed and thereby generate process record data for each work process. The process record data is generated at step 203 as follows. Step 203 newly creates as many pieces of data (process record data) having the structure shown in FIG. 8A as there are pieces of production flow data obtained at step 202 , and includes the work process name and the work sequence number of each piece of the obtained production flow data into one of the pieces of the created data. After that, data is set for each piece of the process record data as follows. From the third manufacturing method information, step 203 first selects product work condition assignment data which includes the same work process name as that included in the process record data. Then, from the obtained product work condition assignment data, step 203 selects data which includes the same product performance as that entered as a piece of product information to obtain an assigned work condition discrimination symbol, and include it into the process record data. Furthermore, the same product information discrimination symbol as that included in the product record data is included into the process record data. This procedure is repeated for each piece of the created process record data. FIG. 12B shows an example of process record data generated as described above. The work start time field, the work completion time field, the responsible worker field, and the “work: successful/unsuccessful” field are left blank at this time point. From the second manufacturing method information, step 204 shown in FIG. 11 selects work condition data whose work condition discrimination symbol coincides with that obtained at step 203 . This work condition data is used to obtain information on work conditions to be included in applying condition record data. The applying condition record data is generated at step 205 as follows. Step 205 first newly creates as many pieces of applying condition record data each having the structure shown in FIGS. 9A, 9C , or 9 E as there are pieces of the obtained work condition data. If the structure of the obtained work condition data is the same as that shown in FIG. 3 A, FIG. 3 C, or FIG. 3 E, step 205 creates applying condition record data having the structure shown in FIG. 9 A, FIG. 9 C, or FIG. 9 E, respectively. Furthermore, the same product information discrimination symbol, work sequence number, and work condition discrimination symbol as those included in the process record data are included in each piece of created applying condition record data. After that, step 205 includes the values of the number field, process item field, and target value field (or the number field, specification item field, and required finish value field, or the number field, item field, and value field) included in a respective piece of the obtained work condition data into each piece of the created applying condition record data. FIG. 12C shows an example of applying condition record data created as described above. This completes the description of generation of work record information at step 102 . Referring back to FIG. 10 , description will be made of the subsequent steps performed by the production management system. At step 103 , the work record information created at step 102 is displayed on the screen of the terminal 4 shown in FIG. 1 for each work process. More specifically, one piece of process record data (record data for a single process) and the corresponding pieces of applying condition data are displayed on the screen as a set. With this arrangement, the worker can perform production work while checking the work conditions displayed on the screen. Furthermore, at step 104 , the production management system displays work conditions on the screen and receives input of a work record at the same time. That is, the worker can input information such as values for the work start time field, the work completion time field, the responsible worker field, and the “work: successful/unsuccessful” field, which have been left blank at step 203 . More specifically, the input information is entered in blank fields in each piece of process record data 14 shown in FIG. 12 B, and the resultant process record data is registered in the corresponding database. At step 105 , if the worker has entered an instruction requesting for interruption of the work, the system receives the instruction, and proceeds to step 109 . If no instruction requesting for the interruption is entered and the message “unsuccessful” (termination) is input as the value for the “work: successful/unsuccessful” field at step 104 , it is determined whether insertion of a production flow is required, at step 106 . Whether there exists a production flow to be inserted may be determined by searching the first manufacturing method information shown in FIG. 2 B, or alternatively the production flow to be inserted may be included in the process record data at step 203 in FIG. 11 so that the process record data can be referred to at step 106 . If it is necessary to insert a production flow, work record information for the production flow to be inserted is additionally generated by performing the same processes as those at steps 201 through 205 in FIG. 11 at step 107 . If there exists the next work process to be performed, the processes at steps 103 through 107 are repeated for the next process record data and the corresponding applying condition data. If all work processes have been performed, the system displays a screen prompting input of the production completion date and information indicating whether the product is defective or nondefective, and receives the product work record at step 109 . The information thus input by the worker is entered in blank fields of the product work record data in FIG. 12A . The production management system repeats the procedure described above to generate, store, and mange work record information each time a production order is issued. Incidentally, to manage the work record information, the present embodiment classifies it into three types of information: the first work record information made up of pieces of product work record data, the second work record information made up of pieces of process record data, and the third work record information made up of pieces of applying condition data. However, the work record information may be set to have a single data structure and thereby managed collectively, and only the manufacturing method information may be divided into three types of information for management. Further, the present embodiment defines a insertion production flow name as a data item of production flow data as shown in FIG. 2 A, and realizes a flow insertion function by performing steps 106 and 107 in FIG. 10 . However, the object of the present invention to efficiently manage many pieces of complicated information can be achieved without using this function. That is, the flow insertion function is not essential to the present invention. Still further, the present embodiment handles work process names, etc. as text information. However, an identification symbol may be assigned to each work process so as to manage work processes using identification symbols. In this case, the corresponding relationships between the identification symbols and the text names indicating the work processes may be stored separately, and the text may be output onto the screen based on the corresponding relationships when work conditions are displayed on the screen. It should be noted that the present embodiment indicates, in addition to a production management system of the present invention, a production management method, a computer-readable medium storing production management information, a production management program, and a computer-readable medium storing the production management program according to the present invention. For example, the flowchart shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 shows a production management method of the present invention. Furthermore, a program incorporated into the server computer 3 and the terminal 4 in FIG. 1 can be regarded as a production management program according to the present invention. The manufacturing method information 1 and the work record information 2 shown in FIG. 1 , on the other hand, show a computer-readable medium storing production management information according to the present invention. A production management system according to the present invention define three types of data such as the production flow data 6 , the work condition data 8 , and the product work condition assignment data 10 , and creates and registers the manufacturing method information 1 based on the three data formats so as to generate the work record information 2 by combining the data as necessary. This system eliminates the need for duplicating the manufacturing method information for management even when it is necessary to perform production management of a large number of products, saving the storage area and facilitating updating of the database. Furthermore, it is possible to manage a number of various production flows by employing as many combinations of the data. Further, the production management system can indicate generated work record information 2 on a display apparatus before the work is started, making it possible for the worker to check the work conditions and add work records at the time of completion of the work. Thus, it is possible to register all necessary work records with the database. In addition, if not only the manufacturing method information 1 but also the work record information 2 is managed by defining three types of data, specifically the product work record data 12 , the process record data 14 , and the applying condition data 16 in the case of the work record information 2 (so as to generate the work record information 2 based on these data formats), it is possible to more efficiently manage the work record information, making it convenient to statistically process the records afterwards. Furthermore, if the production flow data 6 includes the insertion production flow name field 22 as one of its data items, which indicates processes to be inserted after the original work process in a predetermined case, it is possible to quickly determine processes to be subsequently performed when it is necessary to perform the original work process again. In this case, the system may be provided with a function to automatically regenerate work record information, making it possible for even an inexperienced worker to smoothly reexecute a process. A production management program of the present invention can be incorporated into the terminal 4 or the server computer 3 , or both shown in FIG. 1 separately by distributing it in a computer-readable medium or online, making it possible to construct the above-detailed production management system with the same effect as that described above. It is further understood that the foregoing description is a preferred embodiment of the disclosed apparatus and that various changes and modifications may be made in the invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. The entire disclosure of a Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-060527, filed on Mar. 5, 2001 including specification, claims drawings and summary, on which the Convention priority of the present application is based, are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.