AUTOMATED CORRECTIVE AND PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE SYSTEM

• US 20110137697A1
• Filed: 11/01/2010
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Applied Materials Incorporated
• Inventors: Prescott, John, Bhatia, Deepak, YEDATORE, MANJUNATH
• Granted Patent: US 8,660,875 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24019 Computer assisted maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0283 Predictive maintenance, e.g. involving the monitoring of a system and, based on the monitoring results, taking decisions on the maintenance schedule of the monitored system; Estimating remaining useful life [RUL] preventive maintenance, i.e. planning maintenance according to the available resources without monitoring the system G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group

Abstract

A method and system for automated corrective and predictive maintenance is described herein. In one embodiment, a failure notification associated with a tool is received, wherein the failure notification indicates one or more failure events for the tool. Maintenance data associated with the tool is obtained, wherein the maintenance data includes one or more maintenance events for the tool. An optimal schedule is created for the tool by merging the failure notification and the maintenance data.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, a failure notification associated with a tool, wherein the failure notification indicates one or more failure events for the tool;

obtaining, by the computing device, maintenance data associated with the tool, wherein the maintenance data includes one or more maintenance events for the tool; and

creating, by the computing device, an optimal schedule for the tool by merging the failure notification and the maintenance data.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the optimal schedule to a user using a user interface.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein merging the failure notification and the maintenance report comprises:

determining an overall earliest date associated with the failure notification and the maintenance data;

adding an earliest event associated with the overall earliest date to the optimal schedule;

for each failure event included in the failure notification,

determining a date associated with the failure event,

determining whether the date associated with the failure event falls within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date, and

adding the failure event to the optimal schedule if the date associated with the failure event does fall within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date; and

for each maintenance event included in the maintenance data,

determining a date associated with the maintenance event,

determining whether the date associated with the maintenance event falls within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date, and

adding the maintenance event to the optimal schedule if the date associated with the maintenance event does fall within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically notifying a vendor of a part associated with the tool that the part needs to be replaced in accordance with the optimal schedule.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically updating forecasting data associated with the part in accordance with the optimal schedule.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the optimal schedule provides a set of maintenance events and a set of failure events to be performed by the overall earliest date.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically notifying a support team of the tool of the optimal schedule.

8. A computer-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions to cause a processor to perform operations, the instructions comprising:

receiving a failure notification associated with a tool, wherein the failure notification indicates s one or more failure events for the tool;

obtaining maintenance data associated with the tool, wherein the maintenance data includes one or more maintenance events for the tool; and

creating an optimal schedule for the tool by merging the failure notification and the maintenance data.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise:

presenting the optimal schedule to a user using a user interface.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions for wherein the instructions for merging the failure notification and the maintenance report comprise:

determining an overall earliest date associated with the failure notification and the maintenance data;

adding an earliest event associated with the overall earliest date to the optimal schedule;

for each failure event included in the failure notification,

determining a date associated with the failure event,

determining whether the date associated with the failure event falls within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date, and

adding the failure event to the optimal schedule if the date associated with the failure event does fall within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date; and

for each maintenance event included in the maintenance data,

determining a date associated with the maintenance event,

determining whether the date associated with the maintenance event falls within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date, and

adding the maintenance event to the optimal schedule if the date associated with the maintenance event does fall within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise:

automatically notifying a vendor of a part associated with the tool that the part needs to be replaced in accordance with the optimal schedule.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise:

automatically updating forecasting data associated with the part in accordance with the optimal schedule.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the optimal schedule provides a set of maintenance events and a set of failure events to be performed by the overall earliest date.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise:

automatically notifying a support team of the tool of the optimal schedule.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions further comprise:

automatically notifying a support team of the tool of the optimal schedule.

16. A computer system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor configurable by instructions stored in the memory to;

receive a failure notification associated with a tool, wherein the failure notification indicates one or more failure events for the tool;

obtain maintenance data associated with the tool, wherein the maintenance data includes one or more maintenance events for the tool; and

create an optimal schedule for the tool by merging the failure notification and the maintenance data.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the processor is further to:

present the optimal schedule to a user using a user interface.

18. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the processor is to create the optimal schedule for the tool by:

determining an overall earliest date associated with the failure notification and the maintenance data;

adding an earliest event associated with the overall earliest date to the optimal schedule;

for each failure event included in the failure notification,

determining a date associated with the failure event,

determining whether the date associated with the failure event falls within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date, and

adding the failure event to the optimal schedule if the date associated with the failure event does fall within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date; and

for each maintenance event included in the maintenance data,

determining a date associated with the maintenance event,

determining whether the date associated with the maintenance event falls within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date, and

adding the maintenance event to the optimal schedule if the date associated with the maintenance event does fall within a predetermined period of time of the overall earliest date.

19. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the processor is further to:

notify a vendor of a part associated with the tool that the part needs to be replaced in accordance with the optimal schedule.

20. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the processor is further to:

update forecasting data associated with the part in accordance with the optimal schedule.

21. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the optimal schedule provides a set of maintenance events and a set of failure events to be performed by the overall earliest date.

22. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the processor is further to:

notify a support team of the tool of the optimal schedule.