Patent Document ID: 5546329
Application ID: 08456816
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer operated method for quantitatively determining the performance of a plurality of non-numeric attributes of a manufacturing line, comprising the steps of: (a) recording in a computer processor database a measure signal for each of a plurality of manufacturing runs on the manufacturing line, wherein each said measure signal comprises a data signal representing an output measure of the manufacturing line, and said data signals are obtained by operating the manufacturing line to produce a product; (b) recording in said computer processor database attribute ID signals associated with each of said plurality of manufacturing runs, wherein each of said attribute ID signals identifies a non-numeric attribute that contributed to the manufacturing run; (c) normalizing said recorded measure signal for each of said plurality of manufacturing runs; and (d) using a convergent iterative process to deconvolute said normalized recorded measure signals and said attribute ID signals to generate a quantitative numeric measure signal for the non-numeric attributes.