Evaluation and ranking of manufacturing line non-numeric information
First Claim
1. A computer operated method for quantitatively determining the performance of a plurality of non-numeric attributes of a manufacturing line, comprising the steps of:
- (a) recording in a computer processor database a measure signal for each of a plurality of manufacturing runs on the manufacturing line, wherein each said measure signal comprises a data signal representing an output measure of the manufacturing line, and said data signals are obtained by operating the manufacturing line to produce a product;
(b) recording in said computer processor database attribute ID signals associated with each of said plurality of manufacturing runs, wherein each of said attribute ID signals identifies a non-numeric attribute that contributed to the manufacturing run;
(c) normalizing said recorded measure signal for each of said plurality of manufacturing runs; and
(d) using a convergent iterative process to deconvolute said normalized recorded measure signals and said attribute ID signals to generate a quantitative numeric measure signal for the non-numeric attributes.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for quantitatively ranking the performance of each attribute contributing to a manufacturing process. Various signals representing the measure (i.e., quality or yield) of a manufacturing run and representing the attributes that contributed to each manufacturing run are recorded. An iterative process is commenced whereby numeric weights are assigned to each attribute. In a first iterative step, the weight of each attribute is determined to be the weighted average of the measure of each manufacturing run to which that attribute contributed. In subsequent iteration steps, a refined weight for each attribute is determined by computing the ratio between the normalized measure and the product of all other weights associated with that manufacturing run. The iterations are continued until the weights determined for each attribute converge or become self consistent. In this manner, the performance of non-numeric or attribute parameters such as operators and tools can be measured and defined in terms of a numeric quantity.
23 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A computer operated method for quantitatively determining the performance of a plurality of non-numeric attributes of a manufacturing line, comprising the steps of:
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(a) recording in a computer processor database a measure signal for each of a plurality of manufacturing runs on the manufacturing line, wherein each said measure signal comprises a data signal representing an output measure of the manufacturing line, and said data signals are obtained by operating the manufacturing line to produce a product; (b) recording in said computer processor database attribute ID signals associated with each of said plurality of manufacturing runs, wherein each of said attribute ID signals identifies a non-numeric attribute that contributed to the manufacturing run; (c) normalizing said recorded measure signal for each of said plurality of manufacturing runs; and (d) using a convergent iterative process to deconvolute said normalized recorded measure signals and said attribute ID signals to generate a quantitative numeric measure signal for the non-numeric attributes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system for quantitatively determining the performance of a plurality of non-numeric attributes of a manufacturing line, comprising:
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(a) means for recording a measure signal for each of a plurality of manufacturing runs on the manufacturing line, wherein each said measure signal comprises a data signal indicating an output measure of the manufacturing line and said data signals are obtained by operating the manufacturing line to produce a product; (b) means for recording attribute ID signals associated with each of said plurality of manufacturing runs, wherein each of said attribute ID signals identifies a non-numeric attribute that contributed to the manufacturing run; (c) means for normalizing said recorded measure signal for each of said plurality of manufacturing runs; and (d) means for deconvoluting said normalized recorded measure signals and attribute ID signals using a convergent iterative process to generate a quantitative numeric measure signal for the non-numeric attributes. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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Specification