Patent ID: 7318012

Claim:
A computer implemented method of selecting historical problem/solution cases for a design of an end product having a case base, comprising the steps of: a) creating an arrangement of anchor points that combine observed deviations of the end product from functional specifications based on predefined measurement parameters of the design; b) storing, in memory, a set of historical problem/solution cases associated with the design; c) modifying the arrangement of the anchor points by a binning process and extracting a dynamic problem signature describing the current problem from the modified arrangement in bins; d) retrieving the historical problem/solution cases and ranking the cases according to their similarity to the extracted signature, generating a rank score for each case, wherein the rank score is computed using data from the dynamic problem signature and problem signatures of historical cases; e) repeating steps c) and d) until the rank score of a highest ranked case is equal to or greater than a pre-specified quality, where the quality is a function of selection probabilities of the cases in the case base; f) selecting a problem/solution case that has a highest ranked score; g) evaluating the selected problem/solution case based upon its divergence from the functional specifications; h) repeating steps c) through g) until a specified number of problem/solution cases applicable to the design of the end product are selected; and i) saving the selected problem/solution cases in a file.