JP2003029819A - Maintenance device, maintenance system and maintenance method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a maintenance device, a maintenance system and a maintenance method, that can quickly and inexpensively update software stored in a controller into modified software. SOLUTION: The modified software are supplied to user factories 100, 400 and 500 through the Internet 300, so that it is possible to shorten a time and drastically reduce cost as compared to the conventional manner that the maintenance staff of a vender office 200 visits each user factory 100, 400 and 500 in order to update the software. Also, when the modified software is supplied, the software stored in the controller for controlling objective equipment are updated into the modified software only when permission to update the software is applied from the user.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a maintenance device for updating software stored in a controller for controlling a device installed in a user factory into modified software as necessary, a maintenance system including the device, and a maintenance system. It is about the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, after a variety of equipment manufactured by equipment manufacturers, for example, equipment for manufacturing semiconductor devices and liquid crystal display devices, is installed in a user factory, the equipment manufacturer or sales company (hereinafter referred to as "vendor"). Is performing maintenance on the device. Specifically, for maintenance such as equipment trouble response and periodic maintenance, vendor maintenance personnel respond by telephone or facsimile when trouble occurs, or maintenance personnel regularly or urgently visit the equipment installation factory and perform maintenance. I was going.

As such a conventional technique, for example, there is an invention (remote maintenance system for industrial equipment) described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-97966. In this conventional system, the host computer installed in the user factory monitors the operating status of the industrial equipment in the factory, and when there is a problem, for example, collects information on the status of the equipment,
It reports operating information to the vendor via the Internet. On the other hand, the vendor's host computer stands by for 24 hours for communication from the host computer installed in each factory, and when the host computer at the user's destination sends operating information related to the trouble, Appropriate measures are taken based on operation information. For example, in the case of a software-related trouble, it is examined whether the software stored in the controller in question can be corrected or updated, and if possible, the vendor creates the corrected software. And
Maintenance personnel on the vendor side visit the user factory to update the software.

[0004]

By the way, when a trouble occurs in one user factory as described above and the software needs to be corrected accordingly, the software is updated to the controller of the user factory. This is not sufficient, and it is necessary to update the software even for the controller that controls the same device delivered to the same user factory or another user factory. Therefore, the maintenance personnel on the vendor side need to visit all the user factories to which the controller targeted for software update has already been delivered and update it to the corrected software. It took time and money.

Further, even if maintenance personnel on the vendor side visit the user factory, it is not possible to immediately execute the software update work, and it is necessary to perform the update work at the timing when the production line of the user factory is stopped. There is. In particular, in the manufacturing lines of semiconductor devices and liquid crystal display devices, the frequency of line stop is generally low, and maintenance personnel on the vendor side must wait in the user factory until the next line stop, which is very inefficient. there were.

Further, the urgency and importance of software update are not always constant. For example, it is desirable to execute software update as soon as possible for a controller in which a trouble has occurred, but the same software operates. Even if the controller does not have any trouble at present, it may be sufficient to update the software at the time of the next regular maintenance. Therefore, if there is information such as the content of the correction by the correction software and the urgency of the update, the software update timing can be accurately determined based on such information, and the software update can be optimized. No maintenance system has been provided so far to satisfy such demands.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a maintenance device, a maintenance system, and a maintenance method capable of updating software stored in a controller with modified software quickly and at low cost. This is the first purpose.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a maintenance device, a maintenance system and a maintenance method capable of updating software according to the circumstances of the user factory.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above first object, the present invention uses software stored in a controller for controlling equipment installed in a user factory to maintain equipment as needed. Update to the modified software supplied from the vendor via the communication line (claim 1).

In the invention thus constructed, the modified software is supplied to the user factory through the communication line, so that the maintenance staff on the vendor side visits the user factory to update the software as in the conventional case. Compared with the case, the time can be shortened and the cost can be significantly suppressed.

Here, when the correction software is supplied from the vendor as described above, the software stored in the controller is updated to the correction software only when the user gives the update permission. Which may achieve the second objective. That is, the software can be updated according to the circumstances of the user factory, for example, the operation schedule of the factory (claim 2).

When a plurality of controllers are installed in the user factory, it may be necessary to update the software for all the controllers, or only some of the controllers need to be updated. There are cases. Particularly, in the latter case, the software stored in the controller may be updated to the modified software by using the update permission from the user as the update condition (claim 3).

In a user factory where a plurality of controllers are installed, a plurality of correction software may be supplied from a vendor. In this case, it is desirable to configure so that it is possible to select whether or not to update each of the plurality of modified software, and this makes it possible to select the execution timing of software update according to the circumstances of the user factory. It is possible and user-friendly (claim 4).

Further, it is desirable to display the contents of the correction by the correction software (Claim 5) or to display the update urgency of the correction software (Claim 6) prior to updating the correction software. Because these display contents are the criteria for the user's permission to update,
This is because the user will be able to determine the update permission more accurately.

The present invention also provides a maintenance device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, which is installed in a user factory.
It is provided with a management device installed in a vendor to manage the device, and software can be supplied from the management device to the maintenance device through a communication line (claim 7).

In the invention thus constructed, the software is supplied from the management device to the maintenance device through the communication line, so that the maintenance staff on the vendor side visits the user factory to update the software as in the conventional case. The time can be shortened and the cost can be significantly suppressed as compared with the case of performing the operation.

Further, the maintenance method is to update the software stored in the controller for controlling the equipment installed in the user factory to the modified software as needed, and to achieve the first object, the equipment is And a step of supplying the correction software to the user factory via the communication line from the vendor performing the maintenance, and a step of updating the software stored in the controller to the correction software.

In the invention configured as described above, after the vendor supplies the modified software to the user factory through the communication line, the user factory updates the software stored in the controller with the modified software. Since the software is supplied to the user factory via the communication line in this way, the time can be shortened compared to the case where the maintenance staff on the vendor side visits the user factory to update the software as in the past. At the same time, the cost can be significantly reduced.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a maintenance system according to the present invention.
Reference numeral 100 in the figure indicates a user factory. In this user factory 100, a manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device as a device, for example, a coating apparatus, a heat treatment apparatus,
A developing device is installed. Here, for convenience of explanation, in the figure, the manufacturing line 110 equipped with the device A is shown.
And a production line 120 including the equipment B and the equipment C are shown.

The production line 110 is provided with a system control bus 111, and the controller 11 for controlling the device A is controlled by the system control bus 111.
2 and the system controller 113 are connected. Further, the controller 112 is connected to the notebook terminal 114 by wireless communication. The controller 112 stores software for controlling the device A in a non-volatile, rewritable memory such as FRAM (not shown), and can be updated with correction software as necessary as described later. ing.

Further, the manufacturing line 120 is basically constructed in the same manner as the manufacturing line 110. That is, in the production line 120, the system control bus 121 is provided, and the system control bus 1
21 to the controller 122 that controls the device B
The controller 123 for controlling the device C and the system controller 124 are connected to each other. Further, in the manufacturing line 120, one notebook type terminal 125 is provided for the controllers 122 and 123, and they are connected by wireless communication. The controller 12
In the case of 2, 123 as well as the controller 112,
Software for controlling each of the devices B and C is stored in a memory (not shown) such as a non-volatile and rewritable FRAM, and can be updated to the correction software as needed as described later.

Further, the user factory 100 is provided with a maintenance router 130. The system control buses 111 and 121 are electrically connected to the maintenance router 130, and the maintenance router 130 of the present invention is provided. The corresponding maintenance terminal 140 is connected by wireless communication. Therefore, the maintenance terminal 140 passes the maintenance router 130 to each of the controllers 112, 113, 122, 12 and 12.
3, 124 can be accessed to monitor operating information indicating the operating status of each of the devices A to C, and software can be updated as necessary as described later. The operation information in the user factory 100 is the following three types of maintenance information (sensor information, communication information, and recipe information) (1) Sensor information: limit switches and flow meters provided in each of the devices A to C. (2) Communication information (log information) between each controller 112, 122, 123 and a host computer (not shown) that controls the entire user factory 100, (3) ) Recipe information indicating operation procedures, process conditions, and the like set by the user in advance for each of the devices A to C is included.

The system also includes user factories 400 and 500, as shown in FIG. Like these user factories 100, these user factories 400 and 500 are each equipped with a manufacturing device for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device, such as a coating device, a heat treatment device, and a developing device, and are stored in the memory of the controller. The device operates according to the software, and the maintenance terminals 440 and 540 can access the controller to monitor the operation information indicating the operation status of the device and update the software as necessary as described later. Has become.

On the other hand, the above devices A to C are installed in the user factory 10
As shown in the figure, a management apparatus 201 for performing management work of the devices A to C is installed in the vendor business office 200 that delivers 0,400,500 and performs maintenance of the devices A to C. Has been done. The management device 201 is a maintenance terminal 1 installed in each user factory 100, 400, 500 via a communication line, for example, the Internet 300.
It is possible to bidirectionally communicate with 40, 440, 540,
As will be described below, various information is exchanged with the maintenance terminals 140, 440, 540 to perform maintenance on the devices A to C.

In the maintenance system configured as described above, the maintenance terminals 140, 440 and 540 installed in the user factories 100, 400 and 500 are periodically operated by the respective controllers from the operating information (sensor information, communication information and Recipe information) is acquired and the operating status of each device is monitored. Then, when it is confirmed that a trouble has occurred, countermeasures for the trouble are executed according to the operation flow shown in FIG. Below, 100 user factories
It is assumed that a trouble has occurred in the above, and a trouble response operation (maintenance operation) will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a trouble response operation in the maintenance system of FIG. In this maintenance system, as described above, the maintenance terminal 1
When the 40 confirms the trouble, the contents of the trouble are notified to the management device 201 of the vendor business office 200 via the Internet 300 to request the vendor business office 200 for maintenance (step S11). As described above, in this embodiment, the maintenance terminal 140 automatically notifies the trouble content, but the maintenance staff of the user factory 100 confirms the trouble message appearing on the display (not shown) of the maintenance terminal 140. The content of the trouble may be manually notified to the vendor office 200 side by telephone, FAX transmission, electronic mail, or the like.

On the other hand, in the vendor office 200, the management device 201 receives 24 communications from the user factory 100.
When the trouble notification (maintenance request) is received in step S21 while waiting on time, if the trouble is a software trouble, correction / update of the software stored in the controller that is the trouble target If possible, the vendor office 200 creates the modified software, and then, via the Internet 300, each user factory 100, 400,
It transmits to the maintenance terminal 140,440,540 of 500 (step S22). Here, if it is difficult to determine the trouble content only from the trouble notification from the user factory 100, the maintenance information necessary for analyzing the trouble content should be transmitted before creating the correction software. Request to user factory 1
The trouble content may be analyzed based on the operation information sent from the maintenance terminal 140 of No. 00, and the correction software for solving the trouble may be created.

In this step S22, the correction software is sent to the user factory 1 which has reported the trouble occurrence.
00 as well as the user factories 400 and 500 for which no trouble has been reported, the reason is that these user factories 400 and 500 are also sent to the user factories 100 and 500.
Since the same equipment has been delivered to the user factory 100
This is because there is a possibility that the same troubles as in 1. If the same equipment is not delivered to the user factories 400 and 500, the transmission of the modified software may be stopped.

In the user factory 100 to which the correction software has been transmitted as described above, the maintenance terminal 140 receives the correction software (step S12). Then, on the display screen 141 (FIG. 3) of the maintenance terminal 140, information about the modified software supplied from the vendor is displayed, and as shown in FIG. 3, “The following modified software has been sent from the vendor. Would you like to update the software? "Is also displayed. Here, in this embodiment, as information about the correction software, a) software name, b) target device, c) correction content: trouble content corrected by the correction software, and d) urgency: necessity of software update Is displayed on the display screen 141. Also, as is apparent from the figure, here, two types of correction software (“BCAE001A” for device A and “BCC for device C”
E003A ") is being supplied at the same time.

Display screen 1 for displaying such messages and information
By displaying on the screen 41, the maintenance personnel of the user factory 100 can determine whether to permit the software update, that is, the software currently stored in the controller.
A determination is made as to whether or not to permit updating to the corrected software requested by the vendor (step S13).

If the maintenance person determines in step S13 that the software update is permitted, the "update" button for the software name for which the software update is permitted is displayed on the screen of FIG. After selecting, the software to be updated is selected by clicking the send button with a mouse (not shown). Then, the maintenance terminal 140 updates the software stored in the controller of the target device selected in step S13 with the modified software selected in step S13 (step S14).

On the other hand, at the same time as the user factory 100, another user factory 40 to which the correction software has been transmitted.
Also at 0,500, software update is executed as necessary in the same manner as the operation in the user factory 100 (steps S12 to S14). That is, when the maintenance terminals 440 and 540 receive the correction software (step S31), the information regarding the correction software supplied from the vendor side is displayed on the display screen of each maintenance terminal 440 and 540, and "the following from the vendor is displayed". A correction software has been sent. Do you want to update the software? ”Is also displayed.
As a result, whether the maintenance personnel of the user factories 400 and 500 are permitted to update the software, that is, whether the software currently stored in the controller is updated to the corrected software requested by the vendor is determined. (Step S3)
2).

Then, the maintenance staff looks at the operating status of the manufacturing line, selects the "update" button for the software name for which the software update is permitted, and then clicks the send button with the mouse (not shown). When the software to be updated is selected, the maintenance terminal 440,
540 is the software stored in the controller of the target device selected in step S32,
The correction software selected in 2 is updated (step S33).

As described above, according to this embodiment, since the correction software is supplied to the user factories 100, 400 and 500 via the Internet 300, the maintenance personnel of the vendor office 200 as in the conventional case. Compared with the case of visiting each user factory 100, 400, 500 to update software, the time can be shortened and the cost can be greatly suppressed, and equipment troubles can be promptly performed at low cost. Can be dealt with.

Further, when the correction software is supplied as described above, the target device is controlled only when the update permission is given from the user (when "YES" is determined in steps S13 and S32). Since the software stored in the controller is configured to be updated to the modified software, the software can be updated according to the circumstances of the user factory, for example, the operation schedule of the factory. For example, in the above embodiment,
Although two types of modified software are supplied from the vendor office 200, only the modified software with high urgency can be updated.

Further, prior to updating the correction software, the display screen 141 of the maintenance terminals 140, 440, 540 is displayed.
(Fig. 3) shows the correction contents by each correction software and the update urgency of the correction software. Therefore, the maintenance personnel of the user factory 100, 400, 500 permits the update based on these display contents. Therefore, it is possible to more accurately determine the update permission.

Further, in the above embodiment, since the correction software necessary for solving the trouble is transmitted all at once, the following operational effects can be obtained. That is, as described above, the production line is composed of a plurality of devices,
Moreover, the operations of those devices are closely related to each other,
There are cases in which software stored in controllers provided corresponding to those devices must be updated at the same time and with the same version. Even in such a case, according to the present embodiment, since the correction software of the same version is automatically transmitted collectively, it is possible to prevent the human error of providing only one of the correction software to the user factory. You can

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications other than those described above can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in the above embodiment, the Internet 300
Is configured to perform information communication between the user factory 100, 400, 500 and the vendor office 200, but the communication line is not limited to the Internet 300, and for example, a dedicated communication line can be used for bidirectional communication. It may be configured to communicate.

Further, in the above embodiment, the maintenance terminal 14
Although 0, 440, and 540 function as the "maintenance device" of the present invention, other control devices such as the user factory 100
The host computer of may function as a "maintenance device".

Further, although the software is stored in the FRAM of each controller in the above embodiment, the software may be stored in an external storage medium instead of the non-volatile and rewritable memory.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, the correction software is supplied to the user factory through the communication line, and the software stored in the controller is updated to the correction software. Therefore, the software can be updated quickly and at low cost.

When the vendor supplies the modified software, the software stored in the controller is updated to the modified software only when the user gives the update permission. Software can be updated according to the circumstances.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a maintenance system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a trouble response operation in the maintenance system of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on a maintenance terminal during the trouble response operation of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

100,400,500 ... User factory 140, 440, 540 ... Maintenance terminal (maintenance device) 200 ... Vendor office 201 ... Management device 300 ... Internet (communication line) A to C ... Equipment

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) H04L 12/28 100 H01L 21/30 562 F term (reference) 5F046 AA28 DA29 DD06 JA22 LA18 5H215 AA06 BB10 CC09 CX04 HH03 KK03 5H223 AA05 CC08 DD03 DD07 DD09 EE19 5K033 BA03 BA08 DA01 DA06

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. Updating software stored in a controller for controlling equipment installed in a user factory to modified software supplied through a communication line from a vendor who performs maintenance of the equipment as needed. Maintenance device characterized by. 2. The maintenance according to claim 1, wherein when the correction software is supplied from the vendor, the software stored in the controller is updated to the correction software only when the user gives an update permission. apparatus. 3. A plurality of the controllers are installed in the user factory, and the maintenance device is configured so that the maintenance device is operated by a user for the controller to which the correction software is supplied from the vendor. 3. The maintenance device according to claim 1, wherein the software stored in the controller is updated to the modified software by using update permission as an update condition. 4. The maintenance device according to claim 3, wherein when a plurality of correction software is supplied from the vendor, the maintenance device can select whether to update each of the plurality of correction software. . 5. The maintenance device according to claim 1, wherein the contents of the correction by the correction software are displayed prior to the update of the correction software. 6. The maintenance device according to claim 1, wherein the update urgency of the correction software is displayed prior to the update of the correction software. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the user factory is installed.
The maintenance device according to any one of 1 to 6 and a management device installed in the vendor to manage the device, and software can be supplied from the management device to the maintenance device through the communication line. A maintenance system characterized by that. 8. A maintenance method for updating software stored in a controller for controlling a device installed in a user factory to correction software as needed, in which a vendor performing maintenance of the device transmits the software via a communication line. A maintenance method comprising: a step of supplying modified software to a user factory; and a step of updating software stored in the controller to the modified software.