Abstract:
An apparatus for processing items of electronic equipment, such as downloading software to and/or testing PC system units, includes a rack having a plurality of cells each for accommodating a respective unit to be processed. Each location has a visible indication, e.g. a colored light, of the instantaneous processing state of the location, such as: cell empty, processing in progress, processing successfully completed, processing failed and unable to commence processing. Each cell also includes a timer to measure the period of time for which the cell has been in the state indicated by the visible indication.

Description:
This application shares inventorship with U.S. application Ser. No. 09/237,761, filed Jan. 26, 1999, now abandoned, U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,156, issued Aug. 21, 2001 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,155, issued Aug. 21, 2001. The application and patents are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety, and are assigned to the assignee of the present application. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     The disclosures herein relate to an apparatus for processing items of electronic equipment, especially but not exclusively to downloading software onto and testing a personal computer (PC) system unit. 
     The final stages of the manufacture of a personal computer (PC) with pre-loaded software require the software to be downloaded onto the PC system unit and for the PC system unit to be extensively tested. To this end, a number of PC system units are placed in individual docking stations (herein referred to as cells) in a so-called “burn rack”. The cells are connected via a network to one or more servers and software is downloaded from the servers to the client system units and tested via the network. 
     In build-to-order (BTO) operations individual PC system units are built to the customer&#39;s hardware and software specifications from a range of available options. In such a case each system unit may occupy the rack for a different length of time, according to the amount of software to be downloaded and the tests required to be performed. One of the biggest challenges to BTO operations is to optimize the burn rack traffic, by reducing the time units spend in the burn rack, which in turn enhances the success of the BTO model to deliver a better quality service with respect to time and cost per unit. 
     The task is non-trivial and indeed represents the core of a high capacity, high velocity manufacturing process, as high speed manufacturing is required in order to cope with the desired high volume production (400-800 PC/h per line). 
     Therefore, what is needed is a burn rack which can facilitate such optimization. 
     SUMMARY 
     One embodiment, accordingly, provides an apparatus for processing items of electronic equipment. The apparatus includes a rack having at least one location for accommodating a respective item to be processed. The location has a visible indication of the instantaneous processing state of that location. 
     A principal advantage of this embodiment is that the dwell time over one hour of production in one factory can be substantially reduced, as will be explained further. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a burn rack according to one embodiment. 
     FIG. 2 is a state diagram of the burn rack. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In FIG. 1, a burn rack  10  has a plurality of individual cells  12 , in this embodiment five cells, although the rack may have more or less cells including, in an extreme case, just a single cell. Each cell  12  can accommodate a respective PC system unit  14 , which can be plugged into the cell for software download and/or system unit testing. 
     On the front of each cell  12  there is a group  16  of four indicator lamps, each of which glows a different color when lighted, e.g. gray, green, red and blue respectively. In FIG. 1 the circle indicated by the reference  16  refers to the group of four lamps and the legend within the circle indicates the lamp which is currently lighted within the group, e.g. Gry (gray), Grn (green), Red or Blue. Blk (black) means that none of the four lamps is lighted. The group of lamps  16  is referred to herein as the Cell Status Indicator (CSI). 
     Monitoring software within or associated with each cell  12  monitors the network traffic between the cell and the server(s) which supplies the downloaded software, performs the tests, and lights the appropriate lamp within the CSI  16  according to the instantaneous state of the cell: 
     
       
         
               
               
             
           
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                 CSI = Black: 
                 the cell is free (empty) 
               
               
                 CSI = Gray: 
                 the cell is occupied with a system unit which is 
               
               
                   
                 unable to or has not yet established connection to 
               
               
                   
                 the server and therefore unable to commence 
               
               
                   
                 processing (downloading and/or testing). This is 
               
               
                   
                 referred to as “Out of Scope”. 
               
               
                 CSI = Red: 
                 the cell is occupied with a system unit whose 
               
               
                   
                 processing has failed (i.e. unsuccessful download 
               
               
                   
                 and/or testing). 
               
               
                 CSI = Blue: 
                 the cell is occupied with a system unit that is 
               
               
                   
                 successfully undergoing processing. 
               
               
                 CSI = Green: 
                 the cell is occupied with a system unit that has 
               
               
                   
                 finished processing and is ready to leave the rack. 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     It will be understood that in FIG. 1 each of the cells  12  is shown in a different state (i.e. the CSIs are all different) for the sake of explanation. Obviously, in practice there will be periods when there are two or more cells simultaneously in the same state while one or more states will not occur in any of the cells. 
     The state monitoring software also has a timer which measures the period of time for which each cell  12  has been in the state indicated by its CSI  16 . This time period is preferably displayed on a clock  18  located on the front of each cell next to the CSI  16 . The time periods shown on the clocks  18  in FIG. 1 are solely by way of example and an explanation of the CSI status and associated time period for each cell is given on the right hand side of the rack. It will be recognized that the provision of cell state monitoring software to drive the CSIs  16  and clocks  18  is well within the capabilities of those skilled in the art. 
     FIG. 2 is a state diagram of a single cell  12  (the time periods shown are for illustration only). In FIG. 2, blocks  42  to  48  should be ignored for the moment. The cell status  20  is either free (block  22 ) or occupied (block  24 ). If free, the CSI remains Black until a system unit arrives at the cell (block  26 ), whereupon the CSI will change to Gray (block  28 ) or Blue (block  30 ) according to circumstances. If the CSI is Gray the monitoring software waits for client-server (C-S) communications (block  32 ) and if C-S communications is established the CSI changes to Blue (block  30 ). From Blue the CSI can change to Green (block  34 ) if the processing is successfully complete or Red (block  36 ) if the processing has failed at any point. In the latter case the system unit is revisited (block  38 ), either to reconnect it, if it is thought that the connections may have come loose, or to remove it. 
     The rack  10 , including the CSIs  16  and clocks  18 , provides a substantially enhanced of level of intersection between the rack and the rack operator, making it easy for the operator to recognize the status of a system unit on the rack and to react immediately to address any issues. However, further benefit is achieved in this embodiment by supplying the state and time period data determined by the state monitoring software to a data determined by the state monitoring software to a data analyzer (herein referred to as a Traffic Performance Analyzer, or TPA)  40 , FIG.  1 . 
     Thus, referring again to FIG. 2, when the CSI  16  of a cell  12  changes from CSI=Black (block  22 ) to Gray (block  28 ) or Blue (block  30 ), the change of state and the time period for which the cell was in state CSI=Black (free time) is reported (block  42 ) by the state monitoring software to the TPA  40 . Likewise, the state change from CSI=Gray and the time period for which the cell was in state CSI=Gray (dwell time) is reported at block  44 , and the state change from CSI=Red and the time period for which the cell was in state CSI=Red (fail time) is reported at block  46 . Finally, at block  48  the monitoring software also reports the total burn time for a successfully processed system unit, i.e. the total time spent in states CSI=Blue and CSI=Green. 
     The TPA  40  uses standard statistical techniques to derive statistical data useful for management. For example, the distribution of free, dwell and fail times over a shift, or longer period, can provide useful information regarding operator efficiency and identify congested periods for network traffic. Such statistical data can promote full utilization of the burn rack cells by identifying the exact utilization of the burn racks over a certain period of time, i.e. the ratio of the system units in process to all system units in the rack (finished, failed, and those not being able to establish connection with the network). Such data can also promote a homogenous traffic flow between the build cells (locations where the PCs are physically assembled) and the burn rack by identifying the average time for pushing a new unit to a free cell in the burn racks. 
     As an example of the benefit to be obtained by this disclosure, suppose that the average dwell time, over a certain period of time, is 20 minutes. If by improving the network traffic conditions we can reduce this time to 10 minutes, for example, and if we have 7 lines each running at 200 units per hour (uph), then we can eliminate 233 hours (200×10×7≅233) dwell time over one hour of production in one factory. 
     As another example, reducing the average time required to load units to cells from 15 minutes (for example) to 5 minutes, will speed up the traffic and cut down on the processing time by 10 minutes. 
     Although illustrative embodiments have been shown and described, a wide range of modification, change and substitution is contemplated in the foregoing disclosure and in some instances, some features of the embodiment may be employed without a corresponding use of other features. Accordingly, it is appropriate that the appended claims be construed broadly and in a manner consistent with the scope of the embodiments disclosed herein.