Manufacturing productivity scoreboard
OwnerJeff Hamelinkinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for displaying manufacturing productivity information, including a controller connected to a display device, a momentary actuator and a display. The controller records a plurality of cycle times between sequential actuations of the actuator and stores the cycle times in a library. The controller maintains a count of actuations that have occurred since reset of the timer and records time passed since the reset. The controller determines a median value of the cycle times and multiplies the median value of cycle times by the count of actuations to obtain a resulting value and subtracts the resulting value from the total time since the last reset to determine a value for total downtime. The controller activates the display to show the value for total downtime.
Claims23
A system for displaying indicia representing manufacturing productivity information, comprising:
- a computer controller operably connected to a display device;
- a timer operably connected to the controller;
- an event sensor to sense events for a plurality of events, including a first event, operably connected to the controller;
- the controller being operable to record time intervals that pass between paired sequential events and to store a plurality of the time intervals, to calculate a median time interval between the paired sequential events sensed by the event sensor, to keep a count of paired sequential events and intervals and to multiply the median time interval by the count of intervals to obtain a resulting value and to subtract the resulting value from total time since the first event to determine a value for total downtime;
- and
- the controller being further operable to activate the display to show the value for total downtime following each event.
A method of monitoring productivity in a manufacturing environment, the method comprising:
- counting manufacturing events, including a first event, with an event sensor operably coupled to a manufacturing device and operably coupled to a controller, the event sensor sensing each event for a plurality of events, the controller being programmed with an algorithm to perform the following;
- recording time intervals that pass between paired sequential events and storing a plurality of the time intervals;
- calculating a median time interval between events;
- multiplying the median time interval by the count of intervals to obtain a resulting value;
- subtracting the resulting value from the total time since the first event to determine a value for total downtime;
- and
- activating the display to show the value for total downtime following each event.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.