System for quality control and operations management

• US 20070088634A1
• Filed: 07/11/2006
• Published: 04/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Matsumoto, Kazuhiko, Suzuki, Kei, Aritsuka, Toshiyuki
• Application Number:
  US11/483,612
• Publication Number:
  US 20070088634A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A conventional problem with commodity quality control in a traceability system is inability to appropriately change settings for quality measurement according to environmental changes. The present invention provides a system which solves the problem and realizes real-time quality control with low power consumption. In the system for commodity quality control and operations management according to the present invention, an IC tag and a sensor node for quality measurement are attached to each commodity. The system has a mechanism for detecting either one or both of a change in the location of the commodity and a change in the work performed for the commodity. The sensor node for quality measurement can appropriately change settings for quality measurement according to a change in the location of the commodity or in the work performed for the commodity.

Claims

1. A quality control system for commodities, comprising:

at least one sensor node which is attached to a commodity, which has at least one sensor, and which transmits data collected by the sensor; and

a management server which stores information obtained from the sensor node,

wherein the sensor node changes a state thereof from a sleep state to an operative state responding to one of a first interruption caused by a clock signal and a second interruption caused by a trigger resulting from an external change, and

wherein a period of the clock signal is made different between before and after the second interruption is made.

2. The quality control system according to claim 1, wherein the sensor node has a trigger detecting sensor which detects a prescribed external change.

3. The quality control system according to claim 1, wherein the sensor node has a power generation mechanism which detects a prescribed external change.

4. The quality control system according to claim 1, further comprising a mechanism for notifying a worker of, out of plural articles, a target article of a work.

5. The quality control system according to claim 4, further comprising a mechanism for selecting and summoning one or more workers to be in charge of the target article of the work.

6. The quality control system for commodities according to claim 4, wherein the mechanism for notifying the worker of the target article of the work notifies the worker by doing one of the following operations:

flashing a light emitting diode included in the sensor node attached to the article;

displaying a target article indication on a liquid crystal display included in the sensor node;

sounding a buzzer included in the sensor node;

displaying a location of the target article on a display terminal held by the worker;

displaying the location of the target article on a display terminal installed near the location; and

doing a combination of two or more of the above operations.

7. The quality control system according to claim 5, wherein the mechanism for notifying the worker of the target article of the work notifies of a work procedure to be used for the target article.