Importance

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Abstract

A process plant has a process control system and a plurality of production lines, each production line having a predetermined equipment configuration. The process control system further includes a controller for interfacing to each production line. The process control system has information pertaining to the equipment configuration of each production line stored in an equipment data base, the operations performed by each production line stored in an operations data base, and raw materials information of the process plant stored in a raw materials data base. A method for controlling the production of a product by a production line comprises the steps of building a formula based on the product to be produced. The formula data provides information relating to relative quantities of raw materials included in the product and the manner of combining the raw materials. The formula also provides a sequence of operations for combining the raw materials compatible with production line operations and consistent with the formula data, the formula being independent of equipment. Based on the formula and a selected production line, a recipe is built for the product, the recipe being a set of procedures unique to the selected production line necessary to produce the product. The recipe is executed by the controller, causing the equipments of the production line to perform the operations in the specified sequence called for in the recipe to generate the product.

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First Claim