Patent ID: 6650953
Filing Date: 2003-11-18
Classification: G05B,H05K,Y02P

Abstract:
An apparatus for determining a configuration of a production line comprising one or more component placement machines used to place components for assembly, the apparatus comprising:a memory for storing information characterizing at least a portion of the production line; and a processor coupled to the memory and operative to implement at least a portion of a modular optimizer having a part splitter module and a plurality of different machine modules each associated with a different component placement machine type, wherein the plurality of machine modules further comprises at least a Fast Component Mounter (FCM) module and an Advanced Component Mounter (ACM) module, the modular optimizer: determining a set of precedence constraints including at least a first class of constraints that apply to only one of the component placement machine types and a second class of constraints that apply to more than one of the component placement machine types; processing each of the constraints in the first class of constraints that are associated with a given machine type in a corresponding one of the machine modules; and processing the second class of constraints in the part splitter module, the part splitter module providing inputs to one or more of the machine modules; wherein outputs of the machine modules provide information used to determine the configuration.