Method and system for predicting process sequence for a vehicle manufacturing process

A method of predicting sequence for a manufacturing process to assemble a product, the method comprising:

• obtaining a target plan for the manufacturing process, wherein the target plan defines a process segment to be performed during the manufacturing process using one or more components, wherein the process segment is defined by a plurality of a process steps provided in a sequential order for performing the process segment, wherein for the process segment, the target plan includes a target process data and a target component data that identifies the one or more components to be employed for the process segment;
• retrieving, from a historical process database, a plurality of surrogate process segments based on the target process data, wherein the historical process database stores a plurality of historical process segments for known manufacturing processes using one or more known components, each historical process segment is defined by a plurality of known process steps provided in sequential order for performing the historical process segment, wherein the plurality of surrogate process segments are selected from among the plurality of historical process segments, and the historical process segment includes a known process data, a known component data, and an allocated workstation data;
• determining, for each surrogate process segment from the plurality of surrogate process segments, a segment similarity value based on a data analysis model, wherein the data analysis model is configured to provide a quantitative value representing a textual similarity and a sequence similarity between the surrogate process segment and the process segment of the target plan;
• and
• generating a target process defining a process sequence for performing the manufacturing process based on the segment similarity values of the plurality of surrogate process segments and a sequence inference model that classifies the process segment of the target plan to sequences defined by the plurality of surrogate process segments, wherein the target process includes data that defines a plurality of selected process steps and one or more workstations for the process segment of the target plan.