The production line configuration change system includes: an error information storage unit that stores information of an error which occurs in equipment on a production line; a work information storage unit that stores work contents required for manufacturing a product; an equipment information storage unit that stores constraint information of a tool mountable on the equipment; a production line configuration information storage unit that, in order of manufacturing processes of the product, stores a work content, work assignment equipment, a tool mounted on the equipment, and a process tact time in each of the manufacturing processes; and a production line configuration calculation unit that is activated immediately after the error occurs, prepares a change plan of assigning a work assigned to the equipment in which the error occurs to the equipment before or after the process or another equipment of the identical process and calculates a provisional production line configuration.

A system and method for reconfiguring a factory having equipment at different workstations throughout the factory includes a plurality of mobile transporters configured to engage and transport the equipment to the different workstations throughout the factory. Each mobile transporter includes a transmitter, a receiver, at least one proximity sensor, and an engagement mechanism for engaging the equipment. A factory configuration module includes a 3D model of the factory and a plurality of predetermined factory configurations. A supervisory control module is in communication with the plurality of mobile transporters, the equipment, and the factory configuration module. The plurality of mobile transporters are configured to receive instructions from the supervisory control module to engage and reposition the equipment throughout the factory based on the predetermined factory configurations and dynamic inputs.

Methods for simultaneously producing different products on a single production line are disclosed. The method may be used to produce different fluent products and other types of products including assembled products. In some cases, the method includes providing a plurality of articles which are components of the products to be produced. The method further involves providing a track system and a plurality of vehicles for the articles. At least some of the vehicles may be independently routable around the track system. The method further includes simultaneously sending one article-loaded vehicle to a unit operation station where a step in the production of a product is performed and another article-loaded vehicle to a unit operation station where a step in the production of a different product is performed.

A sideband communication system has been developed for a conveyor system. A controller card controls the operation of a conveyor zone and communicates information about each conveyor in the conveyor zone. The controller card is assigned to control and monitor the operation of one or more of these zones of conveyors. The cards of adjacent zones are daisy-chained together to facilitate communication with one another and with other systems like a programmable logic controller (PLC). In addition to the standard controller area network (CAN) communication protocol, the controller cards further communicate amongst themselves using a sideband communication protocol that is outside the realm of the standard CAN communication protocol. The sideband communication protocol allows the cards to communicate with each other without interfering with normal network communications which provides additional capabilities such as automatic card self-identification.

In a first step of a method for bundling conveying streams on a material handling element including a number of incoming conveyor segments, at least one coupling to an outgoing conveyor segment, on which the incoming conveyor segments converge, and a number of holding devices for holding a conveying stream on the incoming conveyor segments, target arrival times, at which the objects arrive as planned at a destination, are calculated for the conveyed objects. A conveyed object is released at a release time which substantially corresponds to the target arrival time minus the target pass-through time required for the conveyed object to be transported as planned from a current position to the destination. A material handling element carries out the method.

To provide a numerical controller for facilitating mass production of various types of workpieces in comparison with a prior art, by controlling a rotary index machine or the like having a plurality of machining stations. A numerical controller for a machine tool executes multi-path control for collectively controlling a plurality of paths requiring conveyance operations between the processes when each of workpieces receives a plurality of processes. The numerical controller includes an execution unit for executing a plurality of machining programs each of which is generated for each of the workpieces so as to correspond to each of the paths, the plurality of machining programs including execution commands of the processes and conveyance commands between the processes.

Methods for simultaneously producing different products on a single production line are disclosed. The method may be used to produce different fluent products and other types of products including assembled products. In some cases, the method includes providing a plurality of articles which are components of the products to be produced. The method further involves providing a track system and a plurality of vehicles for the articles. At least some of the vehicles may be independently routable around the track system. The method further includes simultaneously sending one article-loaded vehicle to a unit operation station where a step in the production of a product is performed and another article-loaded vehicle to a unit operation station where a step in the production of a different product is performed.

According to one embodiment, a data collection system includes an event data collector, a state machine generator, a state machine list, and a state machine driver. The event data collector collects sense signals respectively as a plurality of event data. The state machine generator generates a state machine as a model corresponding to the workpiece. One of the sense signals is acquired when the workpiece is fed into the processing system. The state machine generator generates the state machine and generates an ID for the state machine when the event data collector collects one of the plurality of event data corresponding to the one of the sense signals. The state machine driver drives the state machine retained in the state machine list by sending, to the state machine retained in the state machine list, an event corresponding to another one of the sense signals.

An apparatus and method for determining a target adjustment route for a preset control condition set of a production line are provided. The apparatus establishes at least one candidate adjustment route for the preset control condition set according to the historical control condition sets. Each candidate adjustment route includes at least one adjustment control condition set arranged in an adjustment order. Each adjustment control condition set is one of the historical control condition sets. Within the same candidate adjustment route, the historical yield related values corresponding to the adjustment control condition sets are all greater than the preset yield related value and increase in the adjustment order. Within the same candidate adjustment route, the numbers of the adjustment control condition(s) included in the adjustment sets increase in the adjustment order. The apparatus selects one of the candidate adjustment route(s) as the target adjustment route.

The production line configuration change system includes: an error information storage unit that stores information of an error which occurs in equipment on a production line; a work information storage unit that stores work contents required for manufacturing a product; an equipment information storage unit that stores constraint information of a tool mountable on the equipment; a production line configuration information storage unit that, in order of manufacturing processes of the product, stores a work content, work assignment equipment, a tool mounted on the equipment, and a process tact time in each of the manufacturing processes; and a production line configuration calculation unit that is activated immediately after the error occurs, prepares a change plan of assigning a work assigned to the equipment in which the error occurs to the equipment before or after the process or another equipment of the identical process and calculates a provisional production line configuration.