Methods for planning production processes of orders on printing material processing machines

Abstract

Method for planning production sequences of orders on printing machine processing equipment, at least one of which is a printing press, with an order management system and a data processing system, wherein the at least one printing press is connected to the data processing system and the technical parameters and setup times of the at least one printing press, as well as printing-related sorting criteria, are entered into the data processing system, and the order management system or the data processing system has an interface with which orders with assigned deadlines can be recorded or are recorded, wherein in a first step sub-orders with assigned intermediate deadlines are generated from the recorded orders and initial groups are formed from the sub-orders depending on the intermediate deadlines.such that each first group comprises sub-orders for a printing press and the intermediate deadlines of the sub-orders of the respective first group lie within a predetermined or predeterminable time period, wherein in a second step the data processing system subdivides at least one of the first groups, which comprises sub-orders for a printing press, into second groups according to printing-related sorting criteria, so that each second group only comprises sub-orders that correspond to a respective printing-related sorting criterion, and wherein in a third step the data processing system determines a sequence for all sub-orders assigned to a respective second group such that the summed setup times of the at least one printing press for the order changes corresponding to the sequence on the at least one printing press are shorter.as the summed setup times for job changes of all other possible sequences, wherein the printing-related sorting criteria are prioritized differently by an operator via an input interface, so that a higher-priority printing-related sorting criterion is applied before a lower-priority printing-related sorting criterion to form second groups, and in the third step, the required setup steps for all job changes of a respective possible sequence are determined by the data processing system, and from the determined setup steps and the setup times entered into the data processing system in relation to the setup steps, a summed setup time for all job changes of the respective possible sequence is determined by summation, and the sequence determined in the third step is automatically transmitted to at least one printing press or a control station of the printing press.

Description

The invention relates to a method for planning production sequences of orders on printing substrate processing machines, at least one of which is designed as a printing machine.DE 196 31 469 C1 discloses a method and a printing press for carrying out print orders. The printing press comprises a printing forme generating device which is assigned to a printing forme cylinder. When successive print jobs are processed, respective print forms are produced from image contents / image data and setting values required for executing the print job are fed to the control devices of the printing press. In this case, the image contents belonging to the print orders are compared with one another and the working steps necessary for changing the printing form and for setting the printing press are determined. Subsequently, an order of the print jobs from the entirety of the working steps is determined. The order of the print jobs may be determined such that the time required for the change is minimal. Alternatively, the order of the print jobs can be determined such that the number of settings required on the printing press is minimal.DE 103 39 571 B4 discloses a method for optimizing a job change in a printing press. The printing press comprises a control computer which compares the data of a first print job with the data of a subsequent print job and uses the comparison to generate a sequence of the works due to the job change. The sequence of the work sequences calculated for carrying out the job change is displayed visually and the operating personnel are guided through the individual steps of the sequence of the work sequences created by means of a display device.DE 10 2012 007 369 A1 discloses a method for operating a printing press. The printing press comprises a computer, in whose associated memory the machine settings for different print orders can be stored. To implement further print passes within the same print job, settings are carried out on the printing press by the computer or working steps are initiated or proposed which are required for the subsequent pass of the sheets already printed. The computer generates a query requesting inputs to the further print passes within the same print job.EP 1 466 734 B1 describes a controller for a printing press which contains a comparator by means of which input preset values of a print job to be executed anew are comparable with the values of the data sets of print jobs already executed contained in the memory. For the print job to be executed anew, the control unit determines that stored print job which has the greatest possible similarity. The entered preset values of the print job to be executed anew are supplemented with the values of the determined stored print job with the greatest possible similarity or modified by these. The comparator uses a comparison criterion. The comparison criterion is executed in the comparator in the form of filters realized as software. These filters can be parameterized, i.e. the comparison criteria for determining a print job that is as similar as possible or of its data record can be modified.DE 10 2014 114 731 A1 discloses a method for optimizing the production sequences of a plurality of print orders assigned to a printing system. The print orders assigned to the printing system are ordered automatically in their sequence and thus in the sequence of processing with respect to at least one sorting criterion.DE 10 2017 205 471 A1 discloses the weighted application of criteria for defining an optimum sequence during the processing of print jobs.DE 10 2017 205 469 A1 describes the determination of an optimum sequence during the processing of print orders with the aid of the selection of subsets.DE 10 2017 205 470 A1 discloses a method in which selection criteria are used in chronological order in order to define an optimum sequence when processing print orders.The disadvantage of the known processes is that their effect is limited to the optimization of the production sequences for exactly one printing machine.JP 3 361 867 B2 describes a planning system for distributing a plurality of print jobs to a plurality of print systems, taking into account the specifications of the print jobs and of the print systems.JP 2019-215 619 A describes a printing process management device and a printing process management program with which printing processes are divided into a plurality of steps, displays representing the processing status of the printing processes being generated from these steps in conjunction with further information.The object of the invention is to provide a method for planning production sequences of orders on printing substrate processing machines, which takes into account the interaction of the printing substrate processing machines when processing the orders.The object is achieved according to the invention by the features of claim 1.The advantages which can be achieved with the invention consist in particular in the fact that material flows and production capacities required for processing orders by improved information supply and utilization can be evaluated more easily. More preferably, in particular, a more precise termination of orders is made possible, which leads to a more efficient execution of orders when the termination is implemented.The invention can in particular achieve a saving of setup times and an optimization of setup times based on machine- and job-specific parameters. The increased transparency (traceability), evaluability and planability results in optimization along the entire supply chain.Exemplary embodiments of the invention are described in more detail below.The method for planning production sequences of orders on printing substrate processing machines, at least one of which is designed as a printing machine, is carried out with an order management system and a data processing system. The job management system can be designed, for example, as an MIS system (management information system) or as an ERP system (enterprise resource planning system).The printing material processing machines can be configured as punching machines and / or folding machines and / or printing machines and / or coating machines and / or cutting machines and / or collecting machines and / or film forming machines of packaging machines. The at least one printing press is preferably a sheet-processing printing press, in particular an offset printing press of aggregate construction.The job management system preferably has an interface with which jobs with associated end deadlines can be detected or are detected. Preferably, a plurality of orders are acquired. Orders are to be understood in particular as the processing orders typically occurring in a printing shop, for the processing or execution of which a printing material or an intermediate product passes through a sequence of sub-processes that are in technological association with one another. The individual sub-processes are preferably executed with different types of printing material processing machines, also with respect to their type. The various printing substrate processing machines are to be understood in particular as cost centers in the sense of planning the production sequences.The at least one printing machine is preferably connected or connectable to the data processing system. The connection can be implemented wirelessly or by cable. If the at least one printing press comprises a control station, a connection of the data processing system to the at least one printing press can also be formed indirectly via the control station of the at least one printing press.The data processing system can have, in addition or as an alternative to the job management system, an interface with which jobs with associated end deadlines can be detected or are detected.The technical parameters and the setup times of the at least one printing press and printing-technology sorting criteria are input to the data processing system. In addition to the technical parameters and the setup times and the printing-technology sorting criteria of the at least one printing press, the data processing system can also be input with the technical parameters and the setup times of those printing-material-processing machines which are not printing presses. At least one printing press is understood to mean both a single printing press and a plurality of printing presses, in particular two, three or four printing presses.The method for planning production sequences of orders comprises a plurality of steps which are preferably processed successively in time.In a first step, sub-orders with associated intermediate deadlines are generated from the recorded orders with the end deadlines assigned to them, and first groups are formed from the sub-orders as a function of the intermediate deadlines. A respective first group comprises sub-orders for a respective printing substrate processing machine. The sub-orders of a respective first group invariably have intermediate deadlines which lie in a predetermined or predeterminable period of time.The first groups are preferably order lists per cost center.Preferably, in the first step, the entire production processes are pre-scheduled until delivery and global termination is performed over all cost centers to create time slots in which production must take place. The selection of a respective cost center takes place according to optimization criteria while observing the intermediate deadlines. The intermediate deadlines are in particular completion deadlines internal to the printing industry.In the formation of first groups, the processes from the pre-press can also be taken into account. Further preferably, the sub-orders in the first groups are sorted according to the intermediate deadlines assigned to them. This improves the clarity of the first groups when displaying them to an operator.The first step can be executed by a job management system that is superordinate to the data processing system.If the first step is executed by the higher-order job management system, the job management system preferably generates sub-jobs from the jobs according to rules entered by it, wherein the rules can each comprise at least one job type and a temporal sequence of sub-jobs associated with the respective job type in association with sheet-processing machines that differ from one another.Alternatively, the first step may be performed by the data processing system. In this case, the data processing system generates sub-orders from the orders according to rules input to it, wherein the rules can each comprise at least one order type and a temporal sequence of sub-orders assigned to the respective order type in association with sheet processing machines that differ from one another.For implementing the method, it is immaterial whether the first step is carried out by the job management system or the data processing system.Accordingly, the data processing system can also be designed as a computer which is spatially separate from the job management system.In a second step, which preferably follows the first step in time or is arranged downstream of the first step in time, at least one of the first groups, which comprises sub-orders for a printing press, is divided into second groups according to printing-technology sorting criteria. The subdivision into second groups is effected in such a way that each second group comprises only sub-orders which correspond to a respective printing-technology sorting criterion. The second groups can be formed by application groups.The printing-technology sorting criteria are preferably formed from the group of contiguous signatures and / or type of varnish and / or varnish manufacturer and / or type of varnish and / or format of a varnish plate and / or type of varnish plate and / or type of color and / or color manufacturer and / or type of color and / or hue and / or operating mode of a turning device and / or type of printing material and grammar of the printing material and / or format of the printing material and / or layer height and / or quality level.By applying the printing-technology sorting criterion, coherent signatures are taken into account that a plurality of sub-orders can involve intermediate products or end products that differ only by their printing motif. An example of coherent signatures are the individual pages of a book.By applying the printing-technology sorting criterion paint type, it is taken into account that different paint types such as dispersion paint or UV paint can be used, which necessitates a setup process in the form of a large paint change when the paint type is changed.By applying the printing-technology sorting criterion of paint manufacturers, it is taken into account that paints from different manufacturers can be used, which necessitates a setup process in the form of a small paint change in the event of a change.By applying the printing-technology sorting criterion of lacquer plate, it is taken into account that lacquer plates of different types and / or with different formats can be used, which necessitates a setup process in the form of a lacquer plate change.By applying the printing-technology sorting criterion, the ink manufacturer is taken into account that ink can be used by different manufacturers, which, in the event of a change, requires a setup process in the form of an ink change per unit of the printing press.By applying the printing-technology sorting criterion Chroma, it is taken into account that colors of different color systems such as CMYK or special colors can be used, which, during a change, requires a setup process in the form of a color change per unit of the printing press.By applying the printing-technology sorting criterion of color type, it is taken into account that colors of different color types such as oxidative drying colors, radiation drying colors or hybrid colors can be used, which, in the event of a change, requires a setup process in the form of a color change per unit of the printing press.By applying the printing-technology sorting criterion color tone, it is taken into account that colors should always be changed from light to dark during color change, which requires a setup process in the form of an inking unit washing process or makes it objectless during a change.By applying the printing-technology sorting criterion operating mode of a turning device, it is taken into account that printing presses can print in perfecting or perfecting, which necessitates a setup process in the form of a changeover of the turning device of the printing press when changing.By applying the printing-technology sorting criterion format of the printing material, the different size of the printing material formats used is taken into account, which necessitates a setup process in the form of printing cylinder washing in the event of a change.Preferably, the printing-technology sorting criteria can be parameterised by an operator via an input interface of the data processing system.Parameterization could be effected, for example, in the form of an input of a format, a format range, a grammar or a grammar range.The printing-technology sorting criteria can alternatively or additionally also be determined by an operator via an input interface of the data processing system by selection for use. In particular, printing-technology sorting criteria already entered can be entered or can be entered by an operator via an input interface of the data processing system in addition to the data processing system.The printing-technology sorting criteria can preferably be prioritized and / or can be prioritized differently from one another by an operator via an input interface. A prioritization has the effect that a higher-prioritized printing-technology sorting criterion is used before a lower-prioritized printing-technology sorting criterion for forming second groups.Preferably, printing-technology sorting criteria and associated prioritization in the delivery state are input to the data processing system as standard values.In the second step, a further first group, which comprises sub-orders for a printing material processing machine, which is not a printing machine, can also be divided into second groups according to technological sorting criteria. The subdivision into second groups is effected in such a way that each second group comprises only sub-orders which correspond to a respective technological sorting criterion. The second groups can be formed by application groups. The technological sorting criteria are machine-specific.In a third step, which preferably follows the second step in time or is arranged downstream of the second step in time, a sequence is defined for all sub-orders for printing presses assigned to a respective second group in such a way that the summed setup times of the at least one printing press for the order changes on the at least one printing press corresponding to the sequence are smaller than the summed setup times for the order changes of all other possible sequences.In the third step, in particular, the alignment within the second groups is optimized with the aid of machine-dependent calculations of the setup times, also as a function of parallel processes.To form the summed setup times, the required setup steps are determined by the data processing system for each job change of a respective possible sequence. Subsequently, the set-up times given to the data processing system are determined and summed up for the determined set-up steps.In the third step, an order can also be established for sub-orders which are comprised by second groups which relate to printing material processing machines which are not printing machines.The first, second, and third steps may be performed by the data processing system. Alternatively, the data processing system can also be configured only for executing the second and the third step, and the first step can be executed by the job management system.Preferably, the sequence defined in the third step is automatically transmitted to the at least one printing press or to a control station of the printing press.Further preferably, the at least one printing press is automatically started by an automatic starting system after the transmission of the defined sequence of sub-orders.The defined sequence of sub-orders can be visually displayed on the at least one printing press or a control station of the printing press.In addition to the first groups for sheet-processing machines, first and second groups of sub-orders for machines of the preliminary stage, in particular for printing plate exposers, can also be formed. Also, the order of sub-orders in such second groups may be set in the third step.The first, second and third steps can also be carried out for respective first and respective second groups of sub-orders of machines of the preliminary stage. In this case, the sequence defined in the third step can also be transmitted to the machines of the preliminary stage, in particular in the form of plate exposers.

Claims

Method for planning production sequences of orders on printing substrate processing machines, at least one of which is designed as a printing press, having an order management system and a data processing system, wherein the at least one printing press is connected to the data processing system and the data processing system is input with the technical parameters and the setup times of the at least one printing press, and also printing-technical sorting criteria, and the order management system or the data processing system has an interface with which orders with associated end deadlines can be detected or are detected, wherein, in a first step, sub-orders with associated intermediate deadlines are generated from the detected orders and first groups are formed from the sub-orders as a function of the intermediate deadlines, such that a respective first group comprises sub-orders for a respective printing material processing machine and the intermediate deadlines of the sub-orders of the respective first group lie in a predetermined or predeterminable period of time, wherein the data processing system in a second step divides at least one of the first groups, which comprises sub-orders for a printing machine, into second groups according to printing-technology sorting criteria, such that each second group comprises only sub-orders which correspond to a respective printing-technology sorting criterion, and wherein the data processing system in a third step determines an order for all sub-orders assigned to a respective second group such that the summed setup times of the at least one printing machine for the order changes on the at least one printing machine are smaller than the summed setup times for the order changes of all other possible orders, wherein the printing-technology sorting criteria are prioritized differently from one another by an operator via an input interface, such that a higher-prioritized printing-technology sorting criterion is used before a lower-prioritized printing-technology sorting criterion to form second groups, and in the third step, the required setup steps are determined by the data processing system for all job changes of a respective possible sequence, and a summed setup time is determined by summing for all job changes of the respective possible sequence from the determined setup steps and the setup times input to the data processing system with respect to the setup steps, and the sequence determined in the third step is automatically transmitted to the at least one printing press or a control station of the printing press.Method according to Claim 1, characterized in that the printing-technology sorting criteria are formed from the group of contiguous signatures and / or type of lacquer and / or lacquer manufacturer and / or type of lacquer and / or format of a lacquer plate and / or type of lacquer plate and / or type of colour and / or colour manufacturer and / or type of colour and / or hue and / or operating mode of a turning device and / or type of printing material and grammar of the printing material and / or format of the printing material and / or layer height and / or quality level.Method according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the printing-technology sorting criteria can be parameterised by an operator via an input interface of the data processing system or are determined by an operator via an input interface of the data processing system by selection for use or are input or can be input by an operator via an input interface of the data processing system in addition to the data processing system of printing-technology sorting criteria which have already been input.Method according to Claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the at least one printing press is automatically started after transmission of the defined sequence of sub-orders.Method according to Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that the defined sequence is visually displayed on the printing press or a control station of the printing press.Method according to Claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5da, characterized in that the first step is carried out by a job management system superordinate to the data processing system, and the second and third steps are carried out by the data processing system.The method of claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, characterized in that the first step, the second and the third step are performed by the data processing system.Method according to Claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7, characterized in that the order management system or the data processing system forms first groups for sheet-processing machines which are designed as punching machines and / or folding machines and / or printing machines and / or cutting machines and / or collecting machines and / or packaging machines and / or forms first groups for a plate exposer.Method according to Claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 8, characterized in that the job management system generates sub-jobs from the jobs after rules input by it, the rules each comprising at least one job type and a temporal sequence of sub-jobs associated with the respective job type in association with sheet-processing machines which differ from one another.Method according to Claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 or 8, characterized in that the data processing system generates sub-orders from the orders according to rules input by it, the rules each comprising at least one order type and a temporal sequence of sub-orders assigned to the respective order type in association with sheet-processing machines which differ from one another.