System and method for managing data for an equipment calibration laboratory

• US 5,918,191 A
• Filed: 03/11/1997
• Issued: 06/29/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Certified Measurements Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Certified Measurements Incorporated
• Inventors: Patel, Tracy L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Barlow, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bui, Bryan
• Application Number:
  US08/818,787
• Time in Patent Office: 840 Days
• Field of Search: 364/571.01-571.08, 364/550, 364/551.01, 364/552, 364/554, 707/103, 707/104, 707/102, 707/100, 707/101, 702/55-91, 702/183-185, 702/117-119, 702/121-123, 379/112-113
• US Class Current: 702/84
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A system and method for managing data in calibration laboratory is disclosed. The system includes a database server, a database management system (DBMS) executing on the database server, and at least one client program coupled to the DBMS through a communication network. The client program queries the DBMS for data and sends data to the DBMS for storage on a database managed by the DBMS. The database managed by the DBMS includes at least an equipment tracking table and a work order table that may link a plurality of work orders in the work order table to a single equipment record in the equipment tracking table. This structure reduces the need for multiple identifications of a test instrument in the database. In a preferred implementation of the present invention, technical data records in a technical data table and administrative data records in an administrative data table are separately linked to a work order record in the work order table. In this way, the administrative data and technical data in the system are separately maintained. In another aspect of the preferred implementation, a standards used table contains standards used records which are linked to a work order record in the work order table to identify the calibration standards used for a calibration job on a test instrument. This structure facilitates measurement traceability for a test instrument. In a most preferred aspect of the system, an automated calibration procedure (ACP) program is implemented to use operating system interface commands for transferring data collected during a calibration procedure to the client program. The client program them sends the collected data to the DBMS for storage in the database. In the most preferred implementation, the ACP and client program use a Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) of the Windows operating system to transfer collected data from the ACP to the client program.

Claims

1. A system for managing calibration laboratory data comprising:

a database server for managing a database comprised of an equipment tracking table containing equipment tracking records, each equipment tracking record having an unique equipment identifier for each test instrument serviced by a calibration laboratory and a work order table containing calibration work order records having at least a calibration work order identifier that uniquely identifies a calibration job performed by the calibration laboratory, a plurality of said calibration work order records being linked to one of said unique identifiers for one of said test instruments serviced by the calibration laboratory so that equipment identification data for a test instrument is only entered once in the system for all calibration jobs performed on the test instrument; and

at least one client terminal for receiving data generated during calibration of a test instrument and communicating the received data with the database server so that the database server stores the received data within the equipment tracking records and the calibration work order records.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the client terminal receives technical data generated during calibration of a test instrument and administrative data for a customer corresponding to the test instrument;

and

the database server stores the technical data received from the client terminal in technical data records a technical data table; and

the administrative data received from the client terminal is stored in administrative data records in an administrative data table; and

said technical data table records and said administrative data table records for one of the calibration jobs performed by the calibration laboratory are linked to one of said equipment tracking records in said equipment tracking table by said calibration work order record having said calibration work order identifier that identifies one of said calibration jobs performed on said test instrument so that said administrative data records and said technical data records for each said calibration job performed by the calibration laboratory are maintained separately in the system.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein said database server stores unique test, measuring and diagnostic equipment (TMDE) identifiers for each type of test instrument and calibration standard stored in said system, the TMDE identifiers being stored m the TMDE records contained in a TMDE table so that technical data in said technical data tables for each test instrument and each calibration standard which corresponds to one of said TMDE identifiers may be retrieved and analyzed.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the database server stores standards work order identifiers and calibration work order identifiers in standards used records contained in a standards used table so that laboratory standards used for a calibration job on a test instrument may be traced by using standards work order identifiers and calibration work order identifiers without reference to date information.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein said database server stores unique equipment identifiers for standards used by the calibration laboratory in the equipment tracking records in said equipment tracking table;

said database server stores technical data for calibration jobs performed on said standards in the technical data records in said technical data table;

said database server stores administrative data for a calibration laboratory in administrative data records in said administrative data table; and

said database server links one of said calibration work order records in the work order table to one of said standards used records in said standards used table for each calibration work order identifier so that each laboratory standard used for a calibration job is linked to one of said calibration work orders stored in said work order table by its standards work order identifier whereby each laboratory standard may be traced to one of another laboratory standard and a "golden mean".

6. The system of claim 5 wherein said database server links one of said calibration work order records in said work order table to:

a National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST) standard record for identifying a NIST report corresponding to an equipment tracking records linked to said NIST record.

7. The system of claim 1 said client terminal further comprising:

an automated calibration procedure (ACP) having a real-time interface for sending data collected during a calibration job to a technical data record corresponding to said calibration work order record having a work order identifier that links said work order record to one of said equipment tracking records corresponding to the test instrument from which said technical data was collected.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein said real-time interface of said client terminal forwards technical data received from said ACP to said database server for maintaining the database containing said equipment tracking table and said work order table.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said client terminal includes a Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) server in which technical data collected during a calibration job is stored.

10. A method for managing calibration laboratory data comprising the steps of:

linking an equipment tracking record having an unique equipment identifier for a test instrument serviced by a calibration laboratory to a plurality of calibration work order records, said calibration work order records having at least a calibration work order identifier that uniquely identifies each calibration job performed by the calibration laboratory for the test instrument.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising the steps of:

separately linking technical data records generated from one of the calibration jobs for the test instrument and administrative data records for a customer that send the test instrument to the calibration laboratory for the calibration jobs so that said administrative data records and said technical data records for each calibration job performed on the test instrument are separately maintained.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising the steps of:

linking a standards used record having standards work order identifiers and calibration work order identifiers to each calibration work order in said plurality of work orders so that calibration standards used for one of the calibration jobs on the test unit may be identified by one of said standards work order identifiers in said standards used record.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising the steps of:

generating equipment tracking records having unique equipment identifiers for calibration standards used by the calibration laboratory; and

linking each said equipment tracking record for said calibration standards to at least one calibration work order record and a corresponding standards used record so that instrument standards used to calibrate one of said calibration standards identified by one of said equipment tracking records may be traced to a golden mean.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the steps of:

linking a National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST) standard records to said work order record for one of said equipment tracking records corresponding to one of said calibration standards to identify a NIST report for said calibration standard.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

linking a test, measuring and diagnostic equipment (TMDE) record having unique TMDE identifiers for each type of test unit and calibration standard stored by said method to a plurality of equipment tracking records so that technical data collected for calibration jobs performed on said test instruments corresponding to said equipment tracking records in said plurality may be retrieved and analyzed for predictive maintenance scheduling.

16. The system of claim 10 further comprising the steps of:

sending technical data collected during a calibration job by an automated calibration procedure (ACP) in real-time to a technical record linked to said work order record having a work order identifier that links said work order record to one of said equipment tracking records corresponding to the test unit from which said ACP collected the technical data.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

forwarding the technical data received from said ACP to a database server which stores said technical records in a relational database.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein said sending step is comprised of the steps of:

sending the technical data to a Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) server; and

forwarding the technical data from the DDE server to a database server.

19. An automated calibration procedure (ACP) for transferring data collected during a calibration procedure in real-time to a laboratory management system comprising:

a client terminal having a real-time interface for transferring data between an operating system and an application program said transferred data including a server identifier, a data value, and a data location;

a client program executing within said client terminal for communicating with a database management system (DBMS) of a database server for a laboratory management system, the client program being identified with said server identifier; and

an ACP program executing operating system commands within said client terminal to place said server identifier, a collected data value, and a location for said collected data value in said real-time interface so that said client terminal may transfer said collected data to said client program.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising:

a calibration datasheet stored within said client terminal; and

said client program executing in said client terminal stores said collected data transferred from said ACP in said calibration datasheet at a location corresponding to said location placed in said real-time interface.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein said client program executing within said client terminal is a Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) server and said operating system commands in said ACP are DDE commands.

22. A method for implementing an automated calibration procedure (ACP) for transferring data collected during a calibration procedure in real-time to a laboratory management system comprising the steps of:

identifying a client program as a server with an operating system, the client program being for communicating with a database management system (DBMS) of a laboratory management system; and

transferring data from an ACP to a real-time interface of the operating system with an identifier corresponding to said client program so that the operating system transfers said data from said real-time interface to said client program.

23. The method of claim 22, said transferring data step further comprising the steps of:

identifying a location for said transferred data in said client program.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising the steps of:

sending a calibration datasheet from the DBMS to the client program; and

said location identifying step identifies a location in the calibration datasheet.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising the steps of:

returning the calibration datasheet having data transferred from the ACP to the DBMS for storage. wherein said client program is a Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) server for said ACP and said operating system commands in said ACP are DDE commands.