Description

The invention relates to a system and method for improved collaboration, messaging and information exchange between engineering tools and engineers.

The engineering of plants in manufacturing, power, chemical and/or process industry is characterized by a strong phase and tool separation. The separation has been formed in history because of the complexity of the plants and the need for work sharing. The separation is visible in different industries, education and institutes and in a strong separation of engineering tools. In each engineering phase, different engineers with different professions perform engineering tasks supported by multiple engineering tools. Different aspects of engineering data are created, hosted and owned by these tools. Additionally, same engineering information is shared among them.

Due to the growing complexity and amount of engineering data, modern engineering tools provide object oriented techniques for efficient data management. Following this concept, real objects are modeled by data objects and corresponding information belonging to that object. For instance, a device "pump P1" is modeled by a data object "P1" of type "pump". Hence, the modeling of a factory cell, a production line, a unit or a plant requires a logical decomposition and identification of its elements and its topology with their individual objects representing the elements of the cell, line, unit or plant, e.g. a "tank", "pump", "conveyor", "PLC" or "robot". The individual data objects are characterized by attributes, interfaces, behavior, relations etc. . Individual and concrete data objects are called "instances", whereas abstract data objects are e.g. called "classes", "object types", "base objects" etc. .

If multiple engineering tools are used in order to engineer different aspects of the same object, they need to exchange and share engineering data objects. This requires a data exchange procedure.

State of the art

The exchange of engineering data between engineering tools which is fundamental for the functionality of such a system today is managed by different approaches.

According to a first approach the related engineering tools are connected to the same common data model stored in common data storage. Here the data are designed for cooperation and - in the ideal case - all engineering data are being stored only one time. This avoids redundancies and additional consistency checks. Any change of engineering data performed in one tool immediately is reflected by the other connected tools. The common database represents the current status of the project data.

This approach leads to a set of dependent engineering tools which are designed for cooperation. Accordingly they are linked together and act as a tool suite. They are characterized by a deep integration level; they belong together and have at least implicit knowledge about each other. As long as all related tools share the same data model and the same data base, no separate data exchange between them is necessary.

In a second approach any engineering tool has its own private data model and data storage (see Fig. 1) and does not share data in a common data model and data base. Such tools are not explicitly designed to cooperate with each other and need to exchange their data in separate processes. Any change of data in one tool is not automatically reflected by the other tools since changes need to be explicitly transferred to the other tools by means of electronic data containers like files. Accordingly such data exchange procedure requires approval steps which perform consistency checks.

This second approach keeps the independency of the corresponding engineering tools. The integration between those tools can be achieved by means of a loose cou- pling with a separate data exchange process. In this case, the engineering tools need to provide data exporters and importers and furthermore need to exchange electronic data containers.

According to a third approach the engineering tools have their own data storage for their private data, but additionally they share a common database for the common data. This represents a combination of the first and second approach.

Since most engineering tools in industry are independent from each other, the second approach is the most common. Only a few software vendors provide tools corresponding to the first approach or the third approach.

According to the state of the art, the data exchange between independent engineering tools (see Fig. 1) can be processed manually, semi-automatically or automatically. Established techniques are exchanging specific formats of files or providing dedicated software interfaces, e.g. web services. A dedicated data exchange system which is separate from the engineering tools has been described in PCT/EP2009/008648.

Beside the data exchange between the engineering tools, there is a need for collaboration between the corresponding engineers - they need to share information, goals and background information. Engineers need to exchange information with each other, especially if they work on different tools and/or locations. Typical subjects of the information exchange are mentioned data objects and their characteristics as e.g. their internal architecture, their relations to each other, related documents about them and ownership properties.

The term "collaboration" comprises "collaboration requests" on one hand, e.g. questions, remarks, hints, requests or complaints. On the other hand, it comprises "collaboration responses" which provide the counterpart to the corresponding "collaboration requests". These may be texts, illustrated explanations, documents, diagrams, references or guidelines with the goal to provide hints and answers.

A typical file based data exchange procedure is illustrated in Fig. 2 where tool A exports data from its private database A into a data exchange file. The data object "PLC02" (1 ) representing a certain PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) in the plant is hence exported and represented by "PLC02" (2) in the data exchange file. After importing it into Tool B it is represented by the engineering object "PLC02" (3) in the database B of Tool B.

A known industrial approach according to the state of the art regarding collaboration is a customer feedback tracking system. This allows participants to enter feedback information and to track the change status of the information. However, this is a separate and additional tool which is executed independently from the original engineering tools. Hence, the subjects of collaboration and the collaboration content are not bound together. This approach is commonly used in software development, but not supported by industrial engineering tools in the manufacturing or process industry.

Another known collaboration approach in the office world is provided by dedicated collaboration software which allows multiple people to type text in the same document at the same time. Today this approach is not supported by industrial engineering tools in industry.

Another known collaboration concept in the consumer market is social networking, known by techniques like blogs. Those techniques allow the easy-to-use sharing of messages, comments, videos, photos to a broad audience. Further it allows short term feedback from the receivers. These concepts focus on extended and global communication between human beings and are well accepted by consumers. Though first approaches are made in industrial marketing, these techniques are not implemented in industrial engineering tools in today's industry.

Corresponding to today's state of the art engineering tools, there is no systematic and structured collaboration system or method known that supports collaboration functionality between different engineers and their individual engineering tools. Today's engineering tools do not provide means for a dedicated handling of collaboration requests or responses between engineers.

Instead, the collaboration of engineers is done individually by human interactions where the quality and efficiency strictly depends on the engineer's ability to communicate. Typical collaboration activities are phone calls, conversations, meetings, discussions, emails or written documents which are exchanged between the engineers. Especially in distributed engineering environments with engineers spread in different departments, sub-contractors or locations, using different engineering tools, the need for collaboration becomes more and more relevant. The drawbacks of the mentioned human collaboration techniques are:

• Personal talks are efficient, but they belong only to the involved persons and are hardly documented and inaccessible to others.

• Emails are efficient, but only accessible by the involved persons.

• Exchanged information is not explicitly associated with the corresponding data objects in a structured and transparent way.

• Written documents comprise bulk information and do barely support questions, feedback or corrections without contacting the author which revises and reprints or redistributes the written document.

• The status of information being exchanged with the above mentioned techniques cannot be tracked efficiently in this way. All changes, acknowledgments, rejections or even the type of information remain undocumented and untraceable.

• There is no systematic way for the identification of a responsible person which is authorized and able to participate or accomplish the collaboration role.

Hence, there is no structured way established or known within today's engineering tools in order to systematically identify the owner or creator of engineering data. Finally, questions, hints, complains, inconsistencies, warnings or their status cannot be shared or tracked systematically.

Objective of this invention

Based on these facts, the main objective of the invention is an improved collaboration, messaging and exchange of information between engineering tools and engineers at hand which is preferably substantiated as a system and as well as a method. In detail the objective of this invention is to overcome the mentioned issues and to provide a simplified and systematic collaboration system and method.

In order to accomplish this objective, a system for a guided and smart collaboration, preferably for automation engineering in the area of e.g. manufacturing, power, chemical and/or process industry, is being provided. In difference to the state of the art, the invented collaboration system and method comprises a messaging system that provides collaboration functionality that is bound to the engineering objects and not to the engineers. Therefore, the collaboration becomes more independent from the individual network of human beings but becomes an essential part of a guided collaboration system.

The invention comprises an electronic data processing unit being combined with or comprising a source engineering tool with a engineering data storage that is provided to exchange data with a target engineering tool with another engineering data storage whereat the creator of an engineering object in the source engineering tool is called "owner" who provides the engineering data to the target engineering tool which owner is called "receiver". Related to this invention, the owner of the engineering object is known to the object itself. The owner can be a specific person, or a role that can be fulfilled by different persons.

The system and method according to the invention provides means to enter mentioned "collaboration requests" as questions, messages, hints, requests, complaints etc. and to automatically send it to the subject of the collaboration - the engineering object itself - instead of sending it directly to the owner. Hence, related to this invention, it is no longer necessary to identify the owner of the object or to have a relation to that person. Instead, the collaboration request becomes part of the object and is accessible by all persons dealing with that object. Thus, the collaboration content is bound to the object. It does not have to be sent directly to the owner or is sent and afterwards hidden in the owner's personal mail box.

Consequently the invention is characterized in that any owner or receiver of the related engineering object automatically receives information about corresponding collaboration requests or responses, e.g. passively by separate message lists, or subtle by means of graphical or textual hints within their engineering tool, or actively by means of automatically generated telephone calls or automatically sent e-mails respectively short-messages when any occurrence has happened and any action seems to be necessary. Consequently the result of these features of the invention is a rather simplified way of collaboration.

Herewith according to an improved embodiment of the invention any owner who has access to this object can respond to the collaboration request whereas as a result all collaboration requests and responses become part of the object. An outstanding form of the system according the invention allows reading of already posted collaboration requests and responses and thus avoids double questioning and helps to identify typical issues related to specific engineering objects.

As a further embodiment of the System according to the invention the history of collaboration requests or responses or parts of it is being stored so that it allows the reuse in other projects or provides for transfer of this collaboration information to libraries for re-use at a later date.

Advantageously the system is modified in that way that it is comprising means for classification of collaboration requests, e.g. as "Question", "Request for Update", "Remark", "Hint", "Complaint", whereas the system provides for means which indicate the status of the respective collaboration request according to the actual situation, e.g. "accepted", "rejected" or "closed" or "done".

Another preferred embodiment of the system according to the invention provides that only the owner and/or the sender are allowed to change the status of the collaboration request.

Another embodiment of the invention is characterized in that any collaboration requests and/or responses contain definite information about documents, links to documents, figures, data models or other engineering information of any kind.

Accordingly the collaboration content and its history is provided to the users in a structured and searchable way thus the engineer, who is confronted with a new question corresponding to a certain engineering object, can inform himself by reading the collaboration history before he enters a new collaboration request.

Furthermore according to a preferred embodiment of the invention the collaboration system provides statistical functionality which provides information as e.g. "number of open topics", "relation of open and closed topics", as well as lists of topics sorted against its priority or delay whereas the owners are enabled by the statistical functionality of the system to identify relevant topics in order to stimulate the collaboration between the engineers.

Preferably according to a further embodiment of the invention the collaboration system is storing the collaboration history directly in the database of the owners' engi- neering tool respectively according to a second option the system is storing the collaboration history separately from the engineering tools or the system shifts the collaboration functionality into a separate data exchange framework. This allows keeping the engineering tools independent from each other and to introduce the collaboration system without changing the engineering tools.

Likewise the system provides that the owner or the role of an object is assigned dynamically over the engineering lifecycle, e.g. in case of a change of the owner or the role of an object, and that the engineering object's lifecycle status is assigned to the engineering object. Examples are "basic planning finished", "detail planning finished", "in operation since...", "repaired at". This additionally simplifies the collaboration process and extends its usability in the operation and maintenance phase of a manufacturing or process plant.

Finally as a preferred embodiment of the invention provides that the collaboration system is characterized in that the dedicated engineering information is entered into a collaboration request, and represents interpretable or executable information from the source engineering tool to the target engineering tool, whereas once accepted by the engineer, this data is automatically imported into the target engineering tool, where it is proven and executed in order to fulfill the request. An example is the request "Rename all signals <Rob00*_Begin> to <Rob00*_Start>" which is sent from the second to the first engineering tool. This request can be automatically executed by the first engineering tool after approval from the owner of these data. Alternatively, the owner can reject this request or can request further information from the receiver.

Likewise the invention relates to a method for collaboration between engineering tools and engineers using data processing units being combined with or comprising a source engineering tool with a source engineering data storage being provided for exchange data with at least one target data processing unit comprising at least one target engineering tool with its own engineering data storage, whereas the collaboration method provides for the generation of collaboration requests or collaboration responses which automatically are assigned to the corresponding engineering data object whereas the owner and receivers of the respective engineering data objects automatically are notified as to corresponding collaboration requests or responses across engineering tools and data processing. The claimed method provides all the steps which are provided by the claimed system according to the invention. Hence these features which have been explicitly illustrated with the description of the claimed system are applicable with the claimed method according to the invention, too.Accordingly the claimed method is characterized in that a response to the collaboration request is being provided by at least one of the receivers and/or owners which have access to the respective object where as a result, all collaboration requests and responses are collected as a part of the object in order provide for reading of already posted collaboration requests and responses and for identification of typical issues related to different engineering objects whereas additionally the history of collaboration requests or responses or parts of it is stored for re-use in other projects or whereas this collaboration information is transferred to libraries for later re-use.

According to another feature the method is characterized in that the collaboration requests can be classified, e.g. as "Question", "Request for Update", "Remark", "Hint", "Complaint", can be associated with properties like "Priority" or "Due Date", as well as the status of a collaboration request can be changed, e.g. "accepted", "rejected" or "closed" or "done" whereas the status of the collaboration request only can be changed by its owner and/or the sender.

Likewise the method provides preferably that the dedicated engineering information is included into a collaboration request, whereas an interpretable or executable information is rewarded from the target engineering tool to the source engineering tool and where this data is automatically imported into the source engineering tool, proven and executed in order to fulfill the request once it is accepted by the owner.

According to another preferred feature the method is characterized in that any change of an owner or a role of an object or any change of the engineering process, i.e. the change of an engineer's responsibility or position, is assigned to the data object dynamically over the engineering lifecycle.

A further advantageous feature of the method is characterized in that the engineering object's lifecycle status is assigned to the engineering object whereas the collaboration process is simplified and additionally its usability in the operation and maintenance phase of a manufacturing or process plant is extended. Generally the claimed method is provided for collaboration, messaging and information exchange between engineering tools and engineers whereas any owner or receivers of the related engineering object will be automatically informed about corresponding collaboration requests or answers by means of automatically dialled telephone calls or automatically sent e-mails or short-messages.

These features and further advantageous embodiments are contained in the claims and shall be illustrated by means of examples in the figures contained in a drawing attached to this specification.

The attached drawings show in

Fig. 1 independent engineering tools with individual data bases and separate data exchange relations according to the state of the art;

Fig. 2 typical data exchange by means of a file according to the state of the art according to the state of the art;

Fig. 3 Collaboration system for independent engineering tools with each an individual data storage system;

Fig. 4: Collaboration system for engineering tools with a

central and common data storage system according to the invention.

In Fig. 1 a combination of a common database and a private database according to the state of the art is shown which has been described already in the introductory part of this specification.

Fig. 2 shows another ddata exchange system according to the state of the art which has been described comprehensively likewise in the introductory part of this specification.

Fig. 3 illustrates a preferred embodiment of the collaboration system according to this invention being designed for independent engineering tools that require a separate data exchange process. It is likewise assumed that the engineer of "Tool B" has a collaboration request 4 related to the object "PLC02" 2, e.g. the question "Please provide the change document of the current PLC firmware release". The invented collaboration system provides an input system 4, e.g. a form, to the engineer and allows entering this request into the system. Accordingly this request will be related to the "Tool B".

The collaboration system automatically feeds 4 the collaboration request 2 back to its representation in the data exchange file or a suited proxy of it. From here, the collaboration request is automatically distributed to Tool A and the origin of the PLC object 5. According to this invention, the owner of "Tool A" and the object "PLC02" 5 is informed and can answer this request by means of the input system 6. E.g., the collaboration response may contain the requested document or a link to it. This answer is fed back to 3 afterwards and hence it is available to all other tools, e.g. Tool C, Tool D, which have access to the object 3. Finally, the engineer of "Tool B" will get an answer to his request.

A main advantage of this automatic collaboration system and method is that the collaboration content is associated with the respective object and that it is provided to both the owner and other receivers, e.g. Tool C and D. Hence, all receivers and owners which have access to the object can inform themselves and can read the collaboration requests related to this object.

Fig. 4 illustrates another embodiment of the collaboration system according to this invention which is designed for engineering tools that have a shared and common data model and data storage system.

It is assumed that an engineer utilizing "Tool B" 10 creates a collaboration request related to the object "PLC02" 20. According to the present invention, the collaboration system provides an input system 40, e.g. a form, to the engineer of "Tool B" 10 and allows entering the request that is related to the object 20.

The engineer of "Tool A" 30 is automatically informed about the new collaboration request and can take notice of it. The collaboration system provides another input system 50 that allows entering a collaboration response. This answer is afterwards available to all tools that have access to the object 20, so for "Tool B" 10 and its engineer. Reference List

Referring to Fig. 3 Referring to Fig. 4 object "PLC02" within the da10 Tool B

tabase of Tool B

20 object "PLC02" in the collaboration request central data base of Tool

A and Tool B

distribution

30 Tool A

information flow from Tool B to

the data exchange file 40 collaboration request object "PLC02" within the da50 collaboration response tabase of Tool A

6 collaboration response