Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system – Performance or efficiency evaluation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-02
2002-04-30
Hoff, Marc S. (Department: 2857)
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system
Performance or efficiency evaluation
C700S017000, C700S083000, C700S110000, C700S115000, C345S215000, C345S639000, C345S619000, C345S594000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06381556
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a system and method for analyzing data, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for analyzing data derived from a manufacturing control environment in which large amounts of raw data are generated in the course of controlling a manufacturing facility.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of the basic component parts of the workstation described in co-pending and commonly assigned application Ser. No. 09/006,443 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,402), filed Jan. 13, 1998, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. A workstation
100
generally includes a computer terminal
101
and test equipment
102
. The computer
101
has a display
103
for display of a variety of graphical user interfaces (GUI's) of the invention, as well as the usual input devices such as a mouse
104
, a keyboard
105
and a bar code reader
106
. In addition, cable connectors
107
provide a mechanism for interfacing the computer
101
with the test equipment
102
. In addition, the workstation includes an assembly platform
108
, which may include automated manufacturing equipment
109
and/or sensors and actuators for the assembly of component parts by the assembler
110
. Any automated manufacturing equipment is also under control of the computer
101
via cables
107
.
Generally, as shown in
FIG. 2
, a plurality of workstations
100
will be arranged in multiple rows in a manufacturing facility. In most cases, a device will be assembled in stages starting at the first station
100
of a row. The device is passed down the row from station-to-station at the completion of each assembly stage. Each assembly stage will typically include multiple assembly steps and one or more test measurements. A unique serial number may be fixed to the device or its carrier to trace its progress through the manufacturing cycle.
Each work station is characterized by the inclusion of software for interactively providing work instructions to the user and for integrating the test and measurement functions, thus providing a mechanism for forced reading by the worker and cross-checking of worker steps. The software may be resident at the workstation computer, but is preferably download over an assembly plant network. Networking provides a number of advantages, including global downloading of instructional updates and ease in tracing the progress of individual assemblies.
Assume by way of example that a workstation is configured for the splicing of an optical fiber to an optical amplifier. This process stage might consist of multiple process steps. A graphical user interface of the computer
101
displays each of the steps in sequence as they are completed. Further, in the case where a test and measurement function is called for upon the completion of a step, the computer
101
is programmed to setup the test, perform the test and verify that the testing has indeed been completed and that the test results are within acceptable parameters.
FIG. 3
is a diagram for describing a communications network which may be employed and is described in co-pending and commonly assigned application Ser. No. 09/020,512, filed Feb. 9, 1998 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,401), the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. A local area network (LAN)
302
serves users (i.e. workstations), typically within the confined geographic area of an assembly plant. That is, the LAN
302
is made up of a server
304
, the workstations
306
, a database server
304
, a network operating system
310
, and a communications link
312
.
The network operation system
310
is the controlling software in the LAN
302
, such as the well-known NetWare or UNIX operating systems, and a component part of this software resides in the workstations
306
. The operating system
310
allows the application program running in each workstation
306
to read and write data from the server
308
as if it were resident in at the workstation
306
. The communications link
312
is implemented by cable, such as fiber, coax or twisted pair, and physically interconnects the server
304
and workstations
306
via network adapters (not shown). It is noted that multiple types of LAN configurations and transport protocols may be used to implement the network and are well known in the networking art.
The database server
304
includes the database management system DBMS
316
and the database
314
. The DBMS
314
accepts requests from the application programs (which may be resident at the server
304
or the workstations
306
), and instructs the operating system
310
to transfer requested data to and from the application programs. The DBMS
316
also controls at least the organization, storage and retrieval of the data stored in the database
314
.
A salient feature of the manufacturing control network resides in the data structure in which the work instructions and related information are stored in the database. In particular, the network is preferably a relational data base driven system providing process flexibility. The data structure allows for the alteration and/or addition of products, serial numbers and process step, as well as the work instructions, test files and automated manufacturing steps associated with each product, serial number and work instruction, without having to rewrite or alter the underlying code of the manufacturing control station. In other words, the operational code functions independently of the content presented to the user in the form of graphical interfaces and applied to the work station, as well as independently of the content of the automated tests and manufacturing functions.
This aspect is explained further with reference to FIG.
4
. The upper cube is representative of a three-dimension tracking table of the database. The table is said to have three dimensions in that there are three related pieces of information stored therein in table form. In particular, the tracking table identifies the type of product (e.g., amplifier), the serial number of the product, and the process steps associated with the product. To retrieve a given process step for the workstation, the input selected product and process, as well as the scanned-in serial number, are used to link to the selection of action items contained in an action table of the database. The action table, which also may also be represented as a three-dimensional table, is shown as the bottom cube in FIG.
4
and contains works instructions, graphics, video and other media, test files, and automated manufacturing files. The underlying code of the manufacturing control station of the invention is essentially driven by the data retrieved from the tracking and action tables. Thus, the contents of the tables may be freely updated without reworking the program code itself. For example, graphics may be changed or work instructions updated by changing the table contents, without any additional programming effort.
The manufacturing control system may use time stamped action and tracking tables for use in selectively pulling data for any networked workstation. That is, an additional pointer may be used that is locked to the date for every entry in the tracking and action tables. This allows the most recent data to be extracted in execution of the assembly processes.
The communications system described above allows for any workstation within the manufacturing control system to be configured for the new, reworked or restarted optoelectronic assemblies. Also, the system controls data traffic for the multiple networked workstations so that reconfiguration of any one work station for a modified or new process is feasible from both the workstation or a remote location.
The manufacturing control system described above in connection with
FIGS. 1-4
generates an enormous amount of raw data. This raw data includes data describing the pass/fail performance of each board associated with each pro
Csipkes Andrei
Kazemi Niakam
Raza Muhammad
Cammarata Michael R.
CIENA Corporation
Daisak Daniel N.
Soltz David L.
Vo Hien
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