Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Product assembly or manufacturing
Reexamination Certificate
1995-04-27
2001-05-29
Elmore, Reba I. (Department: 2187)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Product assembly or manufacturing
C700S096000, C700S097000, C700S100000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240328
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates generally to methods for assembling products and, in particular, to manufacturing methods for assembling a number of products by generating and scheduling dynamically a number of assembly instructions from modeling information.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A conventional and common approach to manufacturing a configurable product is to prioritize components of the product and one by one manually lookup a placement and/or configuration of the component itself in paper-based tables. In addition to the tables, a set of static work instructions may be provided to give basic guidelines on how to assemble the product.
An advanced version of the conventional approach is to have electronic tables and electronic instructions. This approach still requires the assembler to determine which table to use, which placement and/or configuration to use, and how to apply the general guideline or instruction to the specific case. Some of the deficiencies of these conventional methods are the number of opportunities for human error, the extra time involved to determine proper assembly of a product, and the limitation of the scope of the product line. The scope of the product line would be limited because (based on the tables) there would be exactly one overall assembly for any collection of components. Therefore, there is a significant need for a manufacturing method which overcomes these deficiencies.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention allows exact assembly instructions to be generated for the full theoretical scope of the product line. In the present invention, there may be greater than a trillion possible assemblies for a given collection of components. The generated instructions do not require any human lookup or inference. Even exact instructions for configured components of the final product are generated. Which instructions are required to build the final product are derived from a “model” of the product.
Thus, it is an advantage of the present invention to generate dynamically step-by-step assembly instructions on a per configuration basis for each product being manufactured in a manufacturing facility.
Another advantage of the present invention is to schedule dynamically assembly instructions across one to any number of different assembly stations.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is to provide step-by-step assembly instructions in a human readable form along with detailed annotated picture quality images.
It is also an advantage of the present invention to allow a user to customize a product and to assemble the final product according to the customized requirements without any additional documentation or human intervention.
Another advantage of the present invention to schedule dynamically the assembly instruction for assembling a number of different products across multiple assembly stations based on workload or priority of which product needs to be built first.
Another advantage of the present invention is to lower the level of technical expertise required for assembling products.
It is also an advantage of present invention to remove all paperwork and human intervention required for assembling customized product configurations.
A manufacturing method is provided that is executed by a computer as part of a computer program for assembling a product from a plurality of assembly instructions. The computer is coupled to a plurality of assembly stations. The method comprises the steps of (a) generating dynamically the assembly instructions for building the product from modeling information; and (b) scheduling dynamically the assembly instructions among the assembly stations.
REFERENCES:
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patent: 5014208 (1991-05-01), Wolfson
patent: 5088045 (1992-02-01), Shimanaka et al.
patent: 5089970 (1992-02-01), Lee et al.
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patent: 5241482 (1993-08-01), Iida et al.
patent: 5341304 (1994-08-01), Sakamoto et al.
Cucuzella David
LaLonde John D.
MacDonnell Craig A.
Elmore Reba I.
Motorola Inc.
Pickens Scott Kevin
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