Dynamic manufacturing process control

A process design system, used in conjunction with a production process, having at least one product parameter, that dynamically links data, related to the quality of a product being produced by said process, with the production process data, comprising:

• means for creating and for storing said quality data in a first database;
• means for mapping said quality data into a frame type representation and storing said mapped quality data in a knowledge database;
• means for creating and for storing said production data in a second database;
• means for inserting, at least one pointer, into said mapped quality data to relate said quality data with said production data;
• and
• means for providing said quality data to said production process such that said at least one product parameter is changed based on said quality data.

A process design system, used in conjunction with a production process, that dynamically links quality data, including customer need and product property information, of a product being produced by said process, with production process data including product parameter information, ownership information, test results information, analysis method information and customer survey information, comprising:

• means for creating and for storing said quality data in a first database;
• means for creating and for storing said production data in a second data base;
• means for mapping said quality data into a frame type representation including at least one frame with a slot field for storing description and relational information regarding said quality data, and a value field for storing information referencing at least one other frame, and for storing said mapped quality data in a knowledge database, said means for mapping including:
• means for storing templates representative of said at least one frame in a third database;
• means for placing said customer need quality data into the slot and value fields within corresponding customer needs frame templates, thereby creating customer needs frames;
• means for placing said product property quality data into the slot and value fields within corresponding product property frame templates, thereby creating product property frames;
• and
• means for linking at least one of said product property frames with at least one other of said product customer needs frames, and for searching for a common scalar name in the value field of said at least one other of said product property frames or at least one of said customer needs frames;
• and
• means for inserting at least one pointer into said mapped quality data to relate said quality data with said production data, including means for searching for the corresponding product property frame having a frame name identical to a property name field within said analysis methods information, and for referencing said analysis methods information in said corresponding product property frame by placing a method name field from the analysis methods information in a value field of a method slot in the corresponding product property frame.

A method, implemented on a computer system for creating a production process, that dynamically links quality data, including customer need and product property information, of a product being produced by said process, with production process data including product parameter, ownership, test results, analysis method and customer survey information, said method comprising the steps of:

• creating and storing said quality data in a first database on said computer system;
• creating and storing said production data in a second data base on said computer system;
• mapping said quality data into a frame type representation including at least one frame with a slot field for storing description and relational information regarding said quality data, and a value field for storing information referencing at least one other frame, and for storing said mapped quality data in a knowledge database on said computer system, said step of mapping including the steps of:
• storing templates representative of said at least one frame in a third database;
• placing said customer need quality data into the slot and value fields within corresponding customer needs frame templates, thereby creating customer needs frames;
• placing said product property quality data into the slot and value fields within corresponding product property frame templates, thereby creating product property frames;
• and
• linking at least one of said product property frames with at least one other of said product customer needs frames, and for searching for a common scalar name in the value field of said at least one other of said product property frames or at least one of said customer needs frames;
• and
• inserting, at least one pointer, into said mapped quality data to relate said quality data with said production data, including the steps of searching for the corresponding product property frame having a frame name identical to a property name field within said analysis methods information, and referencing said analysis methods information in said corresponding product property frame by placing a method name field from the analysis methods information in a value field of a method slot in the corresponding product property frame.