US 5,636,144 A · Evaluation and ranking of manufacturing line non-numeric information

Abstract

An apparatus and method for quantitatively ranking the performance of each attribute contributing to a manufacturing process. Various signals representing the measure (i.e., quality or yield) of a manufacturing run and representing the attributes that contributed to each manufacturing run are recorded. An iterative process is commenced whereby numeric weights are assigned to each attribute. In a first iterative step, the weight of each attribute is determined to be the weighted average of the measure of each manufacturing run to which that attribute contributed. In subsequent iteration steps, a refined weight for each attribute is determined by computing the ratio between the normalized measure and the product of all other weights associated with that manufacturing run. The iterations are continued until the weights determined for each attribute converge or become self consistent. In this manner, the performance of non-numeric or attribute parameters such as operators and tools can be measured and defined in terms of a numeric quantity.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for quantitatively ranking the performance of a plurality of non-numeric attributes of a manufacturing line, said method steps comprising:

(a) recording in a computer processor database a measure signal for each of a plurality of manufacturing runs on the manufacturing line, wherein each said measure signal comprises a data signal representing an output measure of the manufacturing line, and said data signals are obtained by operating the manufacturing line to produce a product;
(b) recording in said computer processor database attribute ID signals associated with each of said plurality of manufacturing runs, wherein each of said attribute ID signals identifies a non-numeric attribute that contributed to the manufacturing run;
(c) normalizing said recorded measure signal for each of said plurality of manufacturing runs;
and
(d) using a convergent iterative process to deconvolute said normalized recorded measure signals and said attribute ID signals to generate a quantitative numeric measure signal for the non-numeric attributes.

2 more elements

A computer program product for quantitatively determining the performance of a plurality of non-numeric attributes of a manufacturing line, said computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium for quantitatively determining the performance of a plurality of non-numeric attributes of a manufacturing line, said computer readable program code means having:
computer readable program code means for causing a computer to record in a computer processor database a measure signal for each of a plurality of manufacturing runs on the manufacturing line, wherein each said measure signal comprises a data signal representing an output measure of the manufacturing line and said data signals are obtained by operating the manufacturing line to produce a product;
computer readable program code means for causing said computer to record attribute ID signals associated with each of said plurality of manufacturing runs, wherein each of said attribute ID signals identifies a non-numeric attribute that contributed to the manufacturing run;
computer readable program code means for causing said computer to normalize said recorded measure signal for each of said plurality of manufacturing runs;
and
computer readable program code means for causing said computer to deconvolute said normalized recorded measure signals and attribute ID signals using a convergent iterative process to generate a quantitative numeric measure signal for the non-numeric attributes.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Evaluation and ranking of manufacturing line non-numeric information

Life of this patent

Evaluation and ranking of manufacturing line non-numeric information

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims11