JPH07200680A - Production sales management system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] Even if you are not fully familiar with production and sales,
To provide a production and sales management system capable of promptly, accurately and efficiently scheduling a production plan by accurately inputting necessary information. [Structure] A knowledge base 4 for storing information obtained by converting predetermined knowledge into rules, a database 5 for storing various necessary data, and integration and operation of knowledge stored in the knowledge base 4,
And an inference engine 6 including a predetermined program having a mechanism for performing inference, and a production plan creation means 7 for creating a predetermined production plan by applying the knowledge base 4 and the database 5 to the inference engine 6. An operator adjusts the production plan document in a predetermined pattern and displays the result on the screen and the production plan document displayed on the screen by an operator by an interactive method to obtain a final production instruction document. Production plan correction means 9 for determining,
It is equipped with.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a production / sales management system for managing production and sales of various articles.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in each industry or individual company, when carrying out a normal corporate activity of manufacturing a unique product and selling the manufactured product, generally, a sales and sales department is in charge. , The extent to which a given product produced by the company can be sold or must be sold in a given period, such as a short-term, medium-term, or long-term period. The sales target and the appropriate inventory quantity that should be secured at all times are determined, and the result is used as sales plan information and the production department of the company is notified.

On the other hand, the production department which has received the information makes a production plan of the article on a daily, weekly, seasonally, monthlyly, seasonally or annually basis based on the sales plan information, that is, Daily plan, weekly plan, monthly plan, seasonal plan,
Or, a short-term, medium-term, and long-term production plan corresponding to the sales plan, such as an annual plan, is drafted and put into practice.

At that time, the sales department has a plurality of departments, and each department independently sells the same product and the same product type, and the essential parts of the product are almost the same. For example, each department produces products with some differences in shape, color, or accessories.
If they are sold individually, there is a risk that the sales plan will be complicated and the contents will not be unified.

On the other hand, the production department is often unfamiliar with the situation of the sales department, and therefore, it is almost the case that the production plan of the product concerned is made up entirely depending on the sales plan which has been contacted. Is. Therefore, for example, when a production factory has a plurality of production lines, or when factories manufacturing the same or similar products are dispersed in different regions, the same production type or alternative production can be used. Inefficient and inefficient operation of producing products of the same variety in different factories while it is more efficient to produce different types of products or to produce them in the same production plant. There were many dangers of going there.

[0006] Furthermore, since the communication between the sales department and the production department is insufficient, for example, if the inventory information is not accurately included in the sales plan, a plurality of sales of the same product are sold. There are departments, and in one department,
If a request is made to the production department to increase the production of the product due to the fact that the product is out of stock in a short period of time, the sales performance will not increase in another department and therefore the inventory will be planned. When the number exceeds the number, it is possible that the excess inventory is accommodated to the department in which the inventory is exhausted, thereby eliminating the need for extra production. However, if such information is not disclosed to a third party, extra production will be carried out, and eventually inventory will be overstocked, leading to an increase in selling costs.

[0007] In general, such a sales plan is made, and based on the sales plan, which production variety, at what time, including the allowance for raw materials, and at what factory and in what amount, what amount? It is extremely important to judge whether or not to manufacture, that is, to determine the optimum condition, that is, whether the manufacturing can be performed under the conditions of being efficient and minimizing the manufacturing cost. However, since it requires a lot of experience and judgment, not everyone can easily and quickly determine such sales and production plans. Therefore,
There is a problem that it takes time because it takes a considerable amount of time for a skilled person to create it.

In order to solve such a problem, in recent years, a computer has been introduced, and the work of the above-mentioned part requiring the knowledge of the expert has been put into practical use in the direction of mechanization and automation, but it is still complete. A complete production and sales management system has not been completed, and a considerable part, that is, a working part that requires the judgment and experience of a skilled person, is still in the existing state.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to improve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art by accurately inputting the necessary information even by a person who is not sufficiently familiar with production and sales. An object of the present invention is to provide a production / sales management system capable of quickly, accurately and efficiently scheduling a production plan.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is based on the basic concept of combining the scheduling by the computer using artificial intelligence and the scheduling performed by human interaction. The technical configuration as described is adopted.
That is, the production and sales management system according to the present invention includes a production instruction information creating unit that creates production instruction information by predetermined arithmetic processing based on sales plan information, ordering information, and inventory information, and the production instruction information. Separately prepared at least production capacity (throughput) by machine and product type
A machine allocating means for allocating a production instruction to each machine by a predetermined arithmetic processing based on the production constraint condition information including the above, and a scheduling for scheduling each machine by a predetermined arithmetic processing based on the output information from the machine allocating means. In the production and sales management system for creating a desired production plan, the scheduling means stores a knowledge base for storing predetermined rule-based knowledge of an expert in scheduling, and a facility for scheduling. A database for storing various necessary data such as data, product data, etc., an inference engine having a predetermined program having a mechanism for integrating, operating, and inferring and executing the knowledge stored in the knowledge base; and the knowledge base. And the database By applying to the logical engine,
A production plan document creating unit for creating a predetermined production plan document, and a production plan document displaying unit for configuring the production plan document created by the production plan document creating unit into a predetermined display pattern and displaying the result on a screen. The production and sales management system is characterized by further comprising: a production plan correction means for an operator to adjust the production plan displayed on the screen by an interactive method to determine a final production instruction.

Further, according to the present invention, the production and sales management system further changes the parts replacement time of the machine and the type of raw material so that the latest production plan corresponds to the final production instruction as much as possible. A final production instruction sheet correction means for correcting the final production instruction sheet while preventing changes is provided.

[0012]

In the production and sales management system according to the present invention, the production plan preparation means allows the computer to automatically perform scheduling comparable to that of an expert. Further, the production plan correction means makes it possible to manually correct a portion of the production plan preparation means that cannot be handled by computer scheduling.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A specific example of the production and sales management system according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the basic configuration of the production and sales management system according to the present invention. In this figure, the production instruction information creating means 1 is means for producing the production instruction information by a predetermined calculation process based on the sales plan information, the ordering information, and the inventory information. The machine allocating means 2 has at least the production capacity (throughput) for each machine / product type prepared separately from the production instruction information.
It is a means for allocating a production instruction to each machine by a predetermined calculation process based on the production constraint condition information including. The production constraint condition information means, for example, a machine operable time. The scheduling means 3 is means for scheduling each machine by a predetermined arithmetic processing based on the output information from the machine allocation means 2. The knowledge base 4 stores information in which predetermined knowledge possessed by an expert is made into a rule at the time of scheduling. The database 5 stores various necessary data such as facility data and product type data at the time of scheduling. The inference engine 6 incorporates a predetermined program having a mechanism for integrating, operating, and inferring the knowledge stored in the knowledge base 4. The production plan preparation means 7 is means for preparing a predetermined production plan by applying the knowledge base 4 and the database 5 to the inference engine 6. The production plan document display unit 8 is a unit that forms the production plan document created by the production plan document creating unit 7 into a predetermined pattern and displays the result on the screen. Production plan correction means 9
Is a means for the operator to adjust the production plan displayed on the screen by an interactive method to determine the final production instruction. The final production instruction sheet correction means 10 prevents the change of the parts replacement time of the machine and the change of the raw material type while making the latest production plan correspond to the final production instruction sheet as much as possible. Is a means for correcting the, and is preferably provided.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a production and sales management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, reference numeral 11 is a CPU, reference numeral 12 is a main storage device, reference numeral 13 is an input device, reference numeral 14 is an output device,
Reference numeral 15 indicates an external storage device, and reference numeral 16 indicates a display device. Then, in such a hardware environment, each means in the above basic configuration is realized by running software as described below.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a software configuration of the production and sales management system. As for the relationship between each means in the basic configuration and each subsystem in this figure, the production instruction information creating means 1 is the sales / production cooperation system 23, and the machine allocating means 2 is the total quantity adjusting system 2.
4. The scheduling means 3 corresponds to the advanced platforming system 25. Then, the processing procedure of the system is roughly as follows. First, the sales person in charge of sales planning system 21
The sales plan is entered in. Required data of the ordering information and the inventory information stored in the external storage device 15 is the sales system 22.
Extracted by. Based on the above information and, the production / production cooperation system 23 calculates the production instruction amount. The production instruction amount is adjusted to the producible amount by the total amount adjustment system 24, and the distribution machine is determined. In the advanced distribution system 25, the total amount adjustment system 24
Based on the results of "computer placement using artificial intelligence"
And the "dialogue placement by expert" determines the placement plan. Based on the distribution plan created by the advanced distribution system 25, the procurement plan for the materials and raw materials necessary for production, and the specific production work order plan, the work order material procurement system 2
Created by 6. Further, the distribution plan created by the advanced distribution system 25 is returned to the external storage device 15 as receipt information via the production progress grasping system 27. In this embodiment, by constructing the system as described above, a closed loop of input / output inventory information is formed between production and sales, and direct connection between sales information and production information is realized.

Next, the processing of the scheduling means 3 that is the feature of the present invention, that is, the processing of the advanced distribution system 25 will be described in detail. The total amount adjustment system 24 performs machine allocation. The production sequence has not yet been determined after this allocation. The advanced distribution system 25 determines the type of product to be produced by each machine (scheduling (specifically referred to as "disposition" in this embodiment)).
Is the role of. The distribution system according to the present invention is divided into a computer distribution system using artificial intelligence and an interactive distribution system performed by humans. The computer pedestal corresponds to the knowledge base 4, the database 5, the inference engine 6, and the production plan preparation means 7 in the basic configuration, and the interactive pedestal is the production plan display means 8 and the production plan correction means. Equivalent to 9. These will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, machine allocation data is input from the total amount adjustment system 24 (step 102). Then
Computer placement is performed based on the input data (step 104). This computer pedestal has a capability close to that of a pedestal specialist, and is used as a problem solving support system.
I scheduling system (artificial intelligence system) is used. The system is composed of a knowledge base, a database, and an inference engine. The knowledge base stores information that is a rule of knowledge possessed by experts, and the database stores equipment data, product type data, etc. Various data necessary for are stored. The inference engine also has a mechanism for integrating, manipulating, and inferentially executing the knowledge stored in the knowledge base. Then, by applying this knowledge base and database to the inference engine, a platform equivalent to an expert is executed as a computer process.

Next, the interactive platform is executed (step 10).
6). In this interactive platform, humans intervene in situations where computer platforms cannot handle such situations as it is difficult to make rules, priority changes due to changes in policies and environments, and emergency response. In order to make such an interactive platform more efficient, it is preferable to prepare a man-machine interface having a large number of functions. The realization of this man-machine interface is disclosed in detail in the specification attached to Japanese Patent Application No. 5-113253, which is a patent application filed by the present applicant. Further, it is preferable to make a scheduling diagnosis to see if the result corrected by this dialogue is an unreasonable result (step 108). With the above, the scheduling process of the advanced platforming system 25 ends.

For the scheduling of the advanced delivery system 25, it is preferable to provide the final production instruction sheet correction means 10 in the basic configuration of FIG. This process will be described below. More specifically, the production plan created by the advanced delivery system 25 in this embodiment is
There are monthly production plans and weekly production plans. The monthly production plan has the purpose of incorporating strategies, whereas the weekly production plan aims to correspond to the latest sales plan as much as possible. In other words, the weekly planning means once a week that the production sequence is optimally rearranged so that the production plan corresponds to the latest sales plan as much as possible.

The procedure of the weekly production plan is shown below. Establish the scope of the weekly production plan that comes from the previous week's weekly production plan or monthly plan. The scope of weekly production planning is divided into equipment groups. If there are downward revisions, cancellations, upward revisions, etc. of the production instruction amount in the production type for each equipment group, they are removed. The downward correction, cancellation, upward correction, etc. of the production instruction amount correspond to the change data from the sale. Fill the remaining data early in the calendar day. Allocate the upward revision of the production quantity to the empty part of the schedule. The newly entered data is moved to the most suitable place according to the priority of distribution. If there are new raw materials, move them to a place where the switching loss of raw materials becomes minimum. Through the above processing, it is possible to modify the final production instruction while preventing changes in the parts replacement time of the machine and the types of raw materials in order to correspond the final production instruction to the latest sales plan as much as possible. Becomes

Although the basic concept of one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, it is easy for those skilled in the art to realize an actual system, that is, a program from this description. Of course, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and it will be easy for those skilled in the art to devise various embodiments.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In order to remedy the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, even a person who is not fully familiar with production and sales can enter the necessary information accurately to schedule production schedules accurately and efficiently. A possible production and sales management system is provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a basic configuration of a production and sales management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a production and sales management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a software configuration of a production and sales management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a scheduling procedure of the production and sales management system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Production instruction information creating means 2 ... Machine allocating means 3 ... Scheduling means 4 ... Knowledge base 5 ... Database 6 ... Inference engine 7 ... Production plan preparation means 8 ... Production plan display means 9 ... Production plan correction means 10 ... Final production instruction sheet correction means 11 ... CPU 12 ... Main storage device 13 ... Input device 14 ... Output device 15 ... External storage device 16 ... Display device 21 ... Sales planning system 22 ... Sales system 23 ... Sales / production cooperation system 24 ... Total amount adjustment System 25 ... Advanced distribution system 26 ... Work order cargo material raw material procurement system 27 ... Production progress grasping system

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Hidetaka Niwa 1-8-1 Mihama, Urayasu City, Chiba Toray Co., Ltd. Tokyo Office

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A production instruction information creating means (1) for producing production instruction information by predetermined arithmetic processing based on sales plan information, ordering information, and inventory information, and the production instruction information prepared separately. A machine allocating means (2) for allocating a production instruction to each machine by a predetermined calculation process based on the production constraint condition information including at least the production capacity (throughput) for each machine / product type, and the machine allocating means (2) In a production and sales management system for creating a desired production plan, the scheduling means (3) for scheduling each machine by a predetermined arithmetic processing based on the output information from the scheduling means (3), , A knowledge base that stores the information that the expert has ruled the given knowledge (4) , During the scheduling, equipment data, a database for storing various data required for such varieties data (5), the stored in the knowledge base (4) knowledge integration, operation,
And an inference engine (6) containing a predetermined program having a mechanism for performing inference, and a predetermined production plan by applying the knowledge base (4) and the database (5) to the inference engine (6) And a production plan document display means for forming the production plan document prepared by the production plan document preparation means (7) into a predetermined display pattern and displaying the result on the screen. (8) and production plan correction means (9) for the operator to adjust the production plan displayed on the screen by an interactive method to determine the final production instruction, and Production and sales management system. 2. The scheduling means (3) prevents the change of the parts replacement time of the machine and the change of the kind of the raw material in order to correspond the latest production plan with the final production instruction as much as possible. The production and sales management system according to claim 1, further comprising: final production instruction sheet correction means (10) for correcting the final production instruction sheet based on the change data from.