Patent ID: 7043321

Claim:
A method for performing exception handling within a computer controlled multi-step production system for producing objects, wherein said system includes a system controller, within which reside a planner/scheduler and at least one module controller, wherein the system controller receives a stream of object specifications for objects to be produced including the jobs to which they belong, wherein the planner/scheduler plans and schedules the jobs incrementally, and wherein the system controller sends commands to the at least one module controller directing production of the planned and scheduled objects by production system modules, the method comprising: receiving notice in the system controller of a problem situation present within the multi-step production system, wherein said problem situation includes at least one member selected from the group consisting of equipment operational issues and bad objects, wherein said bad objects include misproduced, out-of-order, or missing objects; halting planning for the production of subsequent objects; canceling plans for all objects that have not begun production; marking all objects affected by said problem situation as bad objects; applying at least one of system controller planned exception handling/recovery or module controller directed exception handling/recovery, wherein said system controller planned exception handling/recovery comprises: specifying by the system controller the recovery plan based on a model of the production system, wherein said model includes the capabilities and default exception handling actions of each module in the production system; informing the at least one module controller of the identity of said bad objects; informing the affected at least one module controller of said recovery plan for said bad objects; and computing the plans and canceling and resending the plans for objects whose plans have been changed; and resuming normal operation.