US 11,740,615 B2
Automated manufacturing facility and methods
Robert Anthony Hoffman, Marysville, MI (US); Steven J. Thorne, Yorktown, VA (US); and Terry Joseph Krantz, Greenville, SC (US)
Assigned to Swisslog Logistics, Inc., Newport News, VA (US)
Appl. No. 16/500,447
Filed by Swisslog Logistics, Inc., Newport News, VA (US)
PCT Filed Apr. 3, 2018, PCT No. PCT/US2018/025857
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Oct. 3, 2019,
PCT Pub. No. WO2018/187308, PCT Pub. Date Oct. 11, 2018.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/480,573, filed on Apr. 3, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2020/0192337 A1, Jun. 18, 2020
Int. Cl. G05B 19/418 (2006.01); G06Q 10/20 (2023.01)
CPC G05B 19/4188 (2013.01) [G05B 19/41805 (2013.01); G06Q 10/20 (2013.01); G05B 2219/31001 (2013.01); G05B 2219/31031 (2013.01); G05B 2219/31323 (2013.01); G05B 2219/34288 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A manufacturing system (20) comprising:
one or more stores (84; 80A-80C; 92) for raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP), and finished goods;
a plurality of manufacturing cells (40A-40F), each cell including:
one or more machines (42A-42C) for manufacturing an assembly; and
a programmable logic controller (PLC) (44) for controlling the machines;
one or more devices (60, 70) for moving raw material, WIP, and finished goods; and
one or more servers (32) for:
communicating with the PLCs and the devices, wherein the one or more servers further have programming for:
instructing (642) the plurality of manufacturing cells to assemble finished goods from the raw materials;
instructing (628, 632) the one or more devices to move said raw materials and finished goods; and
just in sequence (JIS) skipped assembly recovery steps (730) for the manufacturing cells and devices,
wherein the just in sequence (JIS) skipped assembly recovery steps comprise:
instructing (728, 730) a manufacturing cell to skip manufacture of an assembly in a sequence of assemblies while manufacturing remaining assemblies in the sequence;
instructing (728, 730) the loading of a shipping container with the remaining assemblies while leaving vacant a designated space in the container; and
instructing (728, 730) one of the devices to take the shipping container with vacant space to a WIP store.