| CPC G05B 19/4155 (2013.01) [G05B 2219/31449 (2013.01)] | 12 Claims |
|
1. A method for automatically assisting a user in a creation of a manufacturing workflow (WF) for manufacturing a product, the method comprises:
receiving a graphical user input in an editing area configured for creating the manufacturing WF, wherein the graphical user input having at least a WF starting node;
automatically selecting in a meta-workflow (MWF) library, in response to the graphical user input received and in dependence on the graphical user input, at least one meta-workflow (MWF), wherein the at least one selected MWF is a graphical pattern starting with the WF starting node and ending with a WF ending node, the WF starting node and the WF ending node being connected to each other through a sequence of interconnected decision and/or activity nodes, each of the at least one selected MWF containing a different sequence of the interconnected decision and/or activity nodes, wherein the MWF library being automatically created by abstracting an existing manufacturing WF of a manufacturing execution system (MES system), the abstracting of the existing manufacturing WF from the MES system being performed by the further steps of:
automatically selecting the manufacturing WF from a MES database, wherein the manufacturing WF defines a sequence of manufacturing operations involving resources of a manufacturer, wherein the sequence of manufacturing operations starts with a first manufacturing operation and ends with a last manufacturing operation, and contains in between a pattern of manufacturing operations configured for defining a flow of the manufacturing operations from the first manufacturing operation to the last manufacturing operation;
automatically determining an industrial domain of the manufacturing WF, and automatically determining a set of semantic tags for the manufacturing WF;
automatically creating the MWF that is a graphical representation of the manufacturing WF, wherein the first manufacturing operation is represented by a starting node, the last manufacturing operation is represented by an end node, and the pattern of manufacturing operations is represented by a sequence of interconnected nodes, wherein a manufacturing operation involving a decision is represented by a decision node and a manufacturing operation involving an action is represented by an activity node, and an interconnection between all the nodes is configured for modeling the pattern of manufacturing operations and the workflow;
automatically determining whether the MWF already exists in the MWF library; and:
if yes, automatically associating to an already existing MWF the industrial domain and the set of semantic tags if not already associated, and optionally storing, for the industrial domain and the set of semantic tags, the manufacturing operation that is associated to each of the nodes of the MWF if not already stored for a concerned node; and
if not, storing the MWF in the MWF library and associating to the MWF library the industrial domain and the set of semantic tags, and optionally storing, for the industrial domain and the set of semantic tags, the manufacturing operation that is associated to each of the nodes of the MWF;
automatically displaying the at least one selected MWF in a display box;
receiving a selection of the at least one displayed MWF;
automatically displaying the at least one selected MWF in the editing area; and
creating the manufacturing WF from the at least one selected MWF displayed in the editing area, wherein an auto-suggestion process is used for associating each node of the at least one MWF to a manufacturing operation, wherein for each said activity node, a manufacturing operation involving an action is automatically suggested, and for each said decision node, a manufacturing operation involving a decision is automatically suggested.
|