US 7,069,100 B2Granted

Automated manufacturing control system

AssigneeCogiscan Inc.

InventorsFrançois Monette, André Corriveau, Vincent Dubois

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Abstract

An automated manufacturing control system is proposed to greatly reduce the human interaction relative to the data transfer, physical verification and process control associated with the movement of components, tooling and operators in a manufacturing system. This is achieved by the use of data carriers which are attached to the object(s) to be traced. These data carriers (12) can store all the relevant identification, material and production data to required by the various elements, e.g. stations, of the manufacturing system. Various readers, integrated with controllers and application software, are located at strategic points of the production area, including production machines and storage areas, to enable automatic data transfer and physical verification that the right material is at the right place at the right time, using the right tooling.

Claims32

Dependent claims

A method of monitoring and controlling a manufacturing process having a number of stages, each one of said stages involving receipt of input materials or components, at least one processing action, and discharge of output materials or components, the method comprising the steps of:

(1) providing a manufacturing monitoring and control data system able to identify components to be processed for each of a plurality of said stages for monitoring and controlling, for each of said plurality of stages, applicable ones of:
(a) discharge routing;
(b) inventory management of said materials or components and/or raw materials to be consumed at said stage;
(c) processing equipment configuration specific to one of a plurality of input materials or components to be processed by said equipment at said stage;
(d) quality of at least one of said components;
and
(e) exposure to an environment for at least one of said components, said at least one component having a variable quality due to exposure to said environment;
wherein at least one of said plurality of stages comprises one of (c), (d) or (e);
(2) collecting monitoring and/or control data at said plurality of said stages during said manufacturing process;
and
(3) processing said monitoring and control data to provide monitoring and/or control data resulting from said plurality of stages;
whereby said monitoring and controlling is carried across said plurality of stages;
wherein said processing in step (3) comprises determining an exposure time interval of said at least one component to said environment;
and
further comprising the step of comparing said exposure time interval with a predetermined maximum exposure time value, and providing indication that said at least one component is at least one of:
expired when said exposure time interval exceeds said predetermined maximum exposure time value;
and close to expiration when said expiration time interval has approached said predetermined maximum exposure time value by a pre-selected warning period.

14 more elements

(1) providing a manufacturing monitoring and control data system able to identify components to be processed for each of a plurality of said stages for monitoring and controlling, for each of said plurality of stages, applicable ones of:
(a) discharge routing;
(b) inventory management of said materials or components and/or raw materials to be consumed at said stage;
(c) processing equipment configuration specific to one of a plurality of input materials or components to be processed by said equipment at said stage;
(d) quality of at least one of said components;
and
(e) exposure to an environment for at least one of said components, said at least one component having a variable quality due to exposure to said environment;
wherein at least one of said plurality of stages comprises one of (c), (d) or (e);
(2) collecting monitoring and/or control data at said plurality of said stages during said manufacturing process;
and
(3) processing said monitoring and control data to provide monitoring and/or control data resulting from said plurality of stages;
whereby said monitoring and controlling is earned across said plurality of stages;
wherein at least one of said plurality of stages is provided with tooling to act on said input materials and said components, said tooling being tagged with a data carrier, and wherein the step of collecting monitoring and/or control data further comprises the step of collecting data from said data carrier, and
further comprising the steps of using said data carrier to track said tooling through a treatment process thereof, and, when said input materials and said components arrive at said at least one stage, reading said data carrier to ensure that the right tooling that has seen the right treatment process is used.

11 more elements

(1) providing a manufacturing monitoring and control data system able to identify components to be processed for each of a plurality of said stages for monitoring and controlling, for each of said plurality of stages, applicable ones of:
(a) discharge routing;
(b) inventory management of said materials or components and/or raw materials to be consumed at said stage;
(c) processing equipment configuration specific to one of a plurality of input materials or components to be processed by said equipment at said stage;
(d) quality of at least one of said components;
and
(e) exposure to an environment for at least one of said components, said at least one component having a variable quality due to exposure to said environment;
wherein at least one of said plurality of stages comprises one of (c), (d) or (e);
(2) collecting monitoring and/or control data at said plurality of said stages during said manufacturing process;
and
(3) processing said monitoring and control data to provide monitoring and/or control data resulting from said plurality of stages;
whereby said monitoring and controlling is carried across said plurality of stages;
wherein said step of collecting comprises reading ID information from ID tags attached one of directly to said components and said input materials and to containers for said components and said input materials;
wherein said containers include JEDEC standard trays, wherein said ID rags include electronic data carriers, and wherein the method further comprises prior to step (2) the step of mounting one of said electronic data carriers on at least one of said JEDEC standard trays to provide ID information thereon;
and
wherein said one of said electronic data carriers is releasably mounted to one of said JEDEC standard trays with a clip.

13 more elements

A data signal embodied in a carrier wave which when loaded into a computer provides a method of monitoring and controlling a manufacturing process having a number of stages, each one of said stages involving receipt of input materials or components, at least one processing action, and discharge of output materials or components, the method comprising the steps of:

(1) providing a manufacturing monitoring and control data system able to identify components to be processed for each of a plurality of said stages for monitoring and controlling, for each of said plurality of stages, applicable ones of:
(a) discharge routing;
(b) inventory management of said materials or components and/or raw materials to be consumed at said stage;
(c) processing equipment configuration specific to one of a plurality of input materials or components to be processed by said equipment at said stage;
(d) quality of at least one of said components;
and
(e) exposure to an environment for at least one of said components, said at least one component having a variable quality due to exposure to said environment;
wherein at least one of said plurality of stages comprises one of (c), (d) or (e);
(2) collecting monitoring and/or control data at said plurality of said stages during said manufacturing process;
and
(3) processing said monitoring and control data to provide monitoring and/or control data resulting from said plurality of stages;
whereby said monitoring and controlling is carried across said plurality of stages.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/257,401Filed 20 Apr 2001
Priority: CA 230630420 Apr 2000
Published: US 2003/0102367 A15 Jun 2003
Granted: 27 Jun 2006
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

G05B 19/41865
Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible…:…
G05B 19/4183
Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible…:…
G05B 2219/31095
From computer integrated manufacturing till monitoring: read write intelligent chip on workpiece, pallet, tool for data exchange
G05B 2219/32197
Operator till task planning: inspection at different locations, stages of manufacturing