Patent ID: 7286888

Claim:
A method of monitoring and controlling a manufacturing process comprising a number of stages for assembling a manufactured product, each one of said stages involving receipt of input materials or components, at least one assembling action consuming said input materials or components, and discharge of assembled output materials or components, the method comprising the steps of: (1) providing a manufacturing monitoring and control data system able to identify components or materials to be assembled for each of a plurality of said stages for monitoring and controlling, for each of said plurality of stages, applicable ones of: (a) discharge routing; (b) inventory management of said materials or components to be consumed at said stage; (c) processing equipment configuration specific to one of a plurality of input materials or components to be consumed by said equipment at said stage; (d) quality of at least one of said components; and (e) exposure to an environment for at least one of said components, said at least one component having a variable quality due to exposure to said environment; wherein at least one of said plurality of stages comprises one of (c), (d) or (e); (2) collecting monitoring and/or control data at said plurality of said stages during said manufacturing process; and (3) processing said monitoring and control data to provide monitoring and/or control data resulting from said plurality of stages; whereby said monitoring and controlling is carried across said plurality of stages.