Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Product assembly or manufacturing
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-09
2001-06-12
Sheikh, Ayaz (Department: 2781)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Product assembly or manufacturing
C700S115000, C700S117000, C700S118000, C700S095000, C700S121000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06246919
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a device for product data management during the lifetime of a product.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
If a product requires accompanying documentation during its lifetime, the relevant data must be stored during pre-manufacturing, manufacturing, assembly, material preparation and servicing up to and including the recycling process. It has been customary to record the product lifetime data on accompanying papers and test reports on site and archive them at a central or decentralized location. One archiving method used is microfilming. Accessing this data, however, is difficult if not impossible.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to keep production and product data available on an electronic product pass during manufacturing, assembly, servicing, and recycling, in compliance with the requirements of the quality systems. Compatibility with quality systems such as ISO 9000 must be ensured.
This object is achieved according to the present invention with a device by assigning the product a chip card-like electronic data medium that is permanently write- and read-enabled but not easily erased, also having both basic product data and the respective optically readable plain text ID, where the basic product data can be supplemented with additional data associated with product lifetime events, such as manufacturing, final testing, rework, shipping, user operation, service and maintenance, disassembly and recycling, using electronic read-write devices.
Thus product quality and configuration are documented during the lifetime of the product in a very simple manner and can be tracked at any time.
The present invention provides the user with particular advantages, such as:
reduced-paper or paperless documentation and manufacturing control;
guaranteed product quality trackability during manufacturing, assembly, service, and recycling;
documentation of test results, rework and maintenance work in the different phases of the product's lifetime;
ensuring product serviceability and maintainability by documenting modified components (component variants, retrofitting, etc.) or the charge codes used;
documentation of test results and defective parts for rework control;
evidence in the case of product liability issues;
facilitating maintenance work through individual product documentation of the component variants used;
facilitating the recycling process through documentation of the available spare parts and materials used.
The first exemplary embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that, thanks to special encryption, the read-write devices assigned to lifetime segments only have access to the basic product data and specifically definable subsets of additional data. This ensures security against unauthorized access to the data.
Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that the data of the data medium can be archived in mass storage devices at predefinable points of the product's lifetime, and, for the subsequent life cycle segments, the original data medium can be replaced by a new, similar data medium, which can receive an additional subset of the basic product data and the previous additional data that is still significant for the remaining life of the product. Thus it can be ensured that no data that is irrelevant to the user of a product is stored on the chip card given to said user. Thus not only is the unnecessary use of data storage space avoided, but also confidential manufacturing data that is irrelevant to the user of the product is fully eliminated.
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Birch Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP.
Jean Frantz B.
Sheikh Ayaz
Siemens AG
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