Patent ID: 8214181

Claim:
A method for generating a model representative of a process, the process including a result variable representing a product of the process, and a plurality of process variables representing characteristics of the process other than the product of the process, the method comprising the steps of: acquiring a plurality of test values of the result variable, each test value of the plurality of result variable test values being measured at a corresponding point in time; for each process variable of the plurality of process variables, acquiring a plurality of test values of the process variable, each test value of the plurality of process variable test values being associated with a result variable value of the plurality of result variable values, each test value of the plurality of process variable test values being measured at a point in time substantially simultaneous with a point in time at which one of the test values of the plurality of result variable test values is measured; for each first coefficient of a plurality of first coefficients, providing a separate test value of the first coefficient associated with each process variable of the plurality of process variables, each separate test value of the first coefficient being a function of at least a portion of the test values of the plurality of test values of the associated process variable; and for each second coefficient of a plurality of second coefficients, providing a separate test value of the second coefficient associated with each test value of each process variable of the plurality of process variables, each separate test value of the second coefficient being a function of at least a portion of the test values of the plurality of test values of the associated process variable.