Results of Patent Research on Devices, Methods, and Software Products for Flow Production Process Planning

Taking into account the current realities of the market, a large number of Russian companies in such industries as machine tool building, heavy engineering, textile production, electronics, and medical manufacturing are concerned with ensuring their competitiveness and increasing labor efficiency through the implementation of various tools, one of which is the adoption of the lean manufacturing concept. At present, this concept is widely represented and described both in foreign sources and in domestic standardization documents. The most effective form of production that applies this concept is flow production, since it embodies the principles of specialization, straight-through processing, parallelism, continuity, proportionality, and rhythm, and is characterized by a number of fundamental parameters, namely takt time, production cycle time, and cycle time. However, when analyzing various foreign and domestic sources, discrepancies in the interpretation of these parameters are revealed, leading to their incorrect use and application in specific production environments. This article points out such issues in the analysis of terminology. The paper also reflects the patent situation in the field of devices, methods, and software products related to the parameters mentioned above, including an additional patent search by the keyword “line balancing,” due to the significant impact of this method on production process planning in accordance with takt time, which in turn depends on product demand. In this way, one can assess the real interest of domestic enterprises in the introduction and development of lean manufacturing tools and methods aimed at increasing labor efficiency in the context of flow process planning.