System and method of monitoring and quantifying performance of an automated manufacturing facility

A system for quantifying and identifying a constraint in an automated manufacturing facility, said automated manufacturing facility having sequentially linked, automated workstations for automatically processing workpieces, the system comprising:

• a plurality of signal converters, each of said plurality of signal converters continuously receiving starved, blocked and EOC signals collected at a respective automated workstation, and transforming said starved, blocked and EOC signals to time and count data, said time and count data including a measured cycle time spent by said respective automated workstation processing a workpiece during each process cycle, an overcycle time spent by said respective automated workstation during said each process cycle and a workpiece count;
• data accumulators for accumulating said time and count data received from said each signal convertor, said accumulated time and count data including an accumulated overcycle time, an accumulated ideal processing time and a total workpiece count over an accumulation period;
• a historical data database for storing said time and count data and said accumulated time and count data;
• a data modeling engine communicating with said plurality of signal converters and said historical data database;
• said each signal converter including a computing unit, said computing unit calculating a throughput capability measure of said respective automated workstation upon completion of said each process cycle at said respective workstation, said throughput capability measure being calculated from a ratio of said accumulated ideal processing time to an accumulated overcycled processing time;
• and
• said data modeling engine receiving from said plurality of signal converters said throughput capability measures and identifying a workstation having the smallest throughput capability measure as the constraint,
• wherein said overcycle time is a non-negative quantity derived from a difference between said measured cycle time and an ideal cycle time, wherein said accumulated ideal processing time is a product of said ideal cycle time and said total workpiece count, and wherein said accumulated overcycled processing time is a sum of said accumulated ideal processing time and said accumulated overcycle time.

A method of monitoring and managing performance of an automated processing facility, said method comprising the steps of:

• continuously receiving state and event signals automatically collected from workstations in the automated processing facility;
• converting said state and event signals to time and count data, said time and count data of each of said workstations including at least an overcycle time, said overcycle time being a non-negative quantity derived from a difference between a measured cycle time and an ideal cycle time;
• accumulating said time and count data over an accumulation period for said workstations, said accumulated time and count data including at least a total count of workpieces processed by said each workstation during said accumulation period and an accumulated overcycle time accumulated from said overcycle time;
• continuously computing a throughput capability measure for each workstation upon said each workstation completing processing a workpiece, said throughout capability measure being computed from said total count, said accumulated overcycle time and said ideal cycle time;
• and
• identifying a constraint in the automated manufacturing facility from the throughput capability measures of said workstations, said constraint being a workstation having the smallest throughput capability measure.