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US 2020/0027173 A1Published application
Method and apparatus for estimating throughput of production line
AssigneeABB Schweiz AG
InventorsHeqing Sun, Cheng Li, Hao Gu, Xinyu Fang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present application relates to a method and apparatus for estimating throughput of a production line, the method including: a data obtaining step, a bottleneck work station selecting step, a first correcting step, a second correcting step as well as a throughput estimating step.
Claims8
A method for estimating throughput of a production line that comprises multiple work stations, the method comprises:
- obtaining a process time parameter of each of the multiple work stations, a travel time parameter between two neighboring work stations, as well as the number of buffers between the two neighboring work stations;
- selecting a bottleneck work station in the production line according to a preset criterion;
- calculating bottleneck sub-throughput of a bottleneck subline, upstream sub-throughput of an upstream subline and downstream sub-throughput of a downstream subline according to the process time parameter, the travel time parameter and the number of buffers, wherein the bottleneck subline includes the bottleneck work station, at least one upstream work station of the bottleneck work station, and at least one downstream work station of the bottleneck work station, the upstream subline comprises a first work station of the bottleneck subline and at least one upstream work station of the first work station, the downstream subline comprises a last work station of the bottleneck subline and at least one downstream work station of the last work station;
- calculating a corrected process time of the first work station of the bottleneck subline according to the process time parameter of the first work station, the bottleneck sub-throughput and the upstream sub-throughput;
- calculating a corrected process time of the last work station of the bottleneck subline according to the process time parameter of the last work station, the bottleneck sub-throughput and the downstream sub-throughput;
- and
- calculating the bottleneck sub-throughput as the throughput of the production line according to the corrected process time of the first work station and the corrected process time of the last work station.
4 more elements
An apparatus for estimating throughput of a production line that comprises multiple work stations, the apparatus comprises:
- a data obtaining module for obtaining a process time parameter of each of the multiple work stations, a travel time parameter between two neighboring work stations, as well as the number of buffers between the two neighboring work stations;
- a bottleneck work station selecting module for selecting a bottleneck work station in the production line according to a preset criterion;
- a sub-throughput calculating module for calculating bottleneck sub-throughput of a bottleneck subline, upstream sub-throughput of an upstream subline and downstream sub-throughput of a downstream subline according to the process time parameter, the travel time parameter and the number of buffers, wherein the bottleneck subline includes the bottleneck work station, at least one upstream work station of the bottleneck work station, and at least one downstream work station of the bottleneck work station, the upstream subline comprises a first work station of the bottleneck subline and at least one upstream work station of the first work station, the downstream subline comprises a last work station of the bottleneck subline and at least one downstream work station of the last work station;
- a first correcting module for calculating a corrected process time of the first work station of the bottleneck subline according to the process time parameter of the first work station, the bottleneck sub-throughput and the upstream sub-throughput;
- a second correcting module for calculating a corrected process time of the last work station of the bottleneck subline according to the process time parameter of the last work station, the bottleneck sub-throughput and the downstream sub-throughput;
- and
- a throughput estimating module for calculating the bottleneck sub-throughput as the throughput of the production line according to the corrected process time of the first work station and the corrected process time of the last work station.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.