Production control with capability and/or manufacturer comparison

1 . A method for controlling sheet metal processing of a sheet metal component to be manufactured with a plurality of processing steps, wherein the method comprises:

A) reading in machine tool data and data of the sheet metal component to be manufactured, wherein the following operations are carried out in any desired order or simultaneously in step A):

a) reading in the plurality of processing steps of the sheet metal component to be manufactured;

b) reading in property parameters of the sheet metal component to be manufactured;

c) reading in at least one basic processing capability of machine tools; and

d) reading in capability parameters of the machine tools;

B) creating a machine tool matrix comprising the machine tools suitable for manufacturing the sheet metal component, and carrying out the following operations:

e) comparing the processing steps of operation a) with the at least one basic processing capability of operation c),

f) for cases in which the at least one basic processing capability fulfils the processing steps, comparing the property parameters of operation b) with the capability parameters of operation d), and

g) including one or more of the machine tools in the machine tool matrix based on a determination that the one or more machine tools have capability parameters that fulfil the property parameters,

wherein operations e), f) and g) are carried out successively or simultaneously for the machine tools;

C) determining an optimized processing sequence in a form of a sequence of machine tools from the machine tool matrix; and

D) causing the sheet metal component to be manufactured based on the optimized processing sequence,

wherein the processing steps in operation a) are based on tolerances of the sheet metal component taken from a 3D model of the sheet metal component to be manufactured or tolerances of the sheet metal component which are saved in a drawing of the sheet metal component to be manufactured.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the processing steps are subdivided hierarchically into a main group and at least one subgroup.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the optimized processing sequence in step C) is effected by a neural network trained machine learning.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step D) comprises outputting the optimized processing sequence to a manufacturing execution system.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein reading in data of the sheet metal component to be manufactured in step A) comprises detecting a position of the sheet metal component to be manufactured by an indoor localization system.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the optimized processing sequence in step C) is effected on the basis of minimized total processing costs, minimized total processing time of the sheet metal component to be manufactured and/or minimized total material consumption.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of the machine tools are assigned to different manufacturers, the machine tool data comprising manufacturer data.

8 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein the manufacturer data are taken into account when determining the optimized processing sequence in accordance with step C).

9 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein the manufacturer data comprises one or more of:

a single part manufacturer or assembly manufacturer;

a manufacturer for commodity sheet metal components;

a manufacturer for welding assemblies;

a manufacturer for assemblies with purchased parts;

a machinery of the manufacturer;

a quality of previously manufactured sheet metal components;

a delivery reliability;

a delivery speed;

a price of previously manufactured sheet metal components;

a speed during the production of previously manufactured sheet metal components;

a certification of the manufacturer;

an industrial sectors of the manufacturer's customers;

a number, kind and/or qualification of the manufacturer's employees;

a purchased service of the manufacturer;

a capacity of the manufacturer;

a material stock of the manufacturer; and/or

a general preference of the manufacturer.

10 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein the method comprises:

E) supplementing the manufacturer data on the basis of an assessment of the manufactured sheet metal component.

11 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein outputting the optimized processing sequence in step D) comprises outputting the total processing costs,

the total processing costs being determined on the basis of a comparison with actual market prices of identical or similar sheet metal components manufactured previously; and/or

on the basis of an algorithm-based price calculation of the sheet metal component to be manufactured.

12 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein step D) comprises ordering material for producing the sheet metal component and/or shipping the sheet metal component to be manufactured after a processing step.

13 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the method according to claim 1 .

14 . The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 13 , wherein the instructions being further configured such that when the computer executes the instructions the computer is caused to provide an online platform, the online platform comprising an input interface for inputting machine tool data and/or data of the component to be manufactured.

15 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of the machine tools are situated at different production sites.

16 . A method for controlling sheet metal processing of a sheet metal component to be manufactured with a plurality of processing steps, wherein the method comprises:

A) reading in machine tool data and data of the sheet metal component to be manufactured, wherein the following operations are carried out in any desired order or simultaneously in step A):

a) reading in the plurality of processing steps of the sheet metal component to be manufactured;

b) reading in property parameters of the sheet metal component to be manufactured;

c) reading in at least one basic processing capability of machine tools; and

d) reading in capability parameters of the machine tools;

B) creating a machine tool matrix comprising the machine tools suitable for manufacturing the sheet metal component;

C) determining an optimized processing sequence in a form of a sequence of machine tools from the machine tool matrix; and

D) causing the sheet metal component to be manufactured based on the optimized processing sequence,

wherein the processing steps in operation a) are based on tolerances of the sheet metal component taken from a 3D model of the sheet metal component to be manufactured or tolerances of the sheet metal component which are saved in a drawing of the sheet metal component to be manufactured, and

wherein the method is carried out with a plurality of sheet metal components to be manufactured, at least one processing step of one or more of the plurality of sheet metal components to be manufactured being delayed in order to be processed or shipped jointly with other sheet metal components to be manufactured.