Method and system for enhancing the identification of causes of variations in the performance of manufactured articles

A system for helping identify causes of variations in performance of manufactured articles when the articles are manufactured by a plurality of process steps, the system comprising:

• an article tracking system for tracking orientation data for each article at each process step, wherein the orientation data comprises data selected from the group consisting of sequential data and spatial location data;
• a tester for measuring performance data for each of the articles;
• and
• a processing system for preparing surface performance characteristic maps for each of the articles from each article's performance data and for ordering the surface performance characteristic maps for each of the articles in accordance with the orientation data for each article at each given process step.

In a system wherein articles are manufactured by a plurality of process steps, a method for identifying causes of variations in performance of the manufactured articles, the method comprising the steps of:

• tracking sequential and spatial orientation data for the articles during each of the process steps;
• measuring performance data for each of the articles;
• preparing surface performance characteristic maps for each of the articles from the performance data;
• ordering the surface performance characteristic maps for each of the articles in accordance with the sequential and spatial orientation data for each article from one given process step, thereby creating an ordered surface performance characteristic map set;
• displaying the ordered surface performance characteristic map set in the orientation of the articles for the given process step;
• and
• correlating the performance data for each of the articles to known variation causes to identify a cause for the variations in the performance of each article.

A method of enhancing the identification of the causes of quality variations in articles, batches of which are manufactured by plural process steps, the method comprising:

• tracking the sequence in which the articles of each batch are subjected to each of the process steps to produce sequential data;
• tracking the orientation of each article relative to a spatial reference as it is subjected to at least one of the process steps to produce orientation data;
• measuring the quality of the articles following completion of the process steps to produce quality data;
• preparing a surface performance characteristic map for each article using the data produced in the measuring step;
• ordering the surface performance characteristic map in accordance with at least a portion of the sequence and orientation data to create an ordered set of surface performance characteristic maps;
• and
• and correlating the ordered set of surface performance characteristic maps with known variation causes to identify a cause for the variations in the performance of the articles.