Patent ID: 6108887
Filing Date: 2000-08-29
Classification: G05B,Y02P,Y10T

Abstract:
A method for use in the mass production of a product that is produced by the performance of a nominal sequence of manufacturing operations, the sequence being modified for individual instances of said product in response to the results of at least one inspection or test performed during production, the method comprising the steps of:modifying the nominal sequence of manufacturing operations to create a new sequence of manufacturing operations for an individual instance;analyzing a plurality of modified nominal sequences of manufacturing operations used to produce a corresponding plurality of individual instances of the product using a data processor; andmass producing further the products in accordance with a new nominal sequence of manufacturing operations as a function of the way in which the nominal sequence was modified for an individual instance of the product.wherein the step of analyzing a plurality of modified sequences of manufacturing operations comprises the steps of:(a) encoding each of a plurality of manufacturing operations of a modified sequence that are performed on an individual instance of a product into respective tokens indicative of the operations and their attributes;(b) assembling a plurality of tokens into a token string;(c) processing the token string to determine if the token string contains a predetermined pattern; and(d) repeating steps (a)-(c) for a plurality of instances of the product.