Patent Application
20190034458
The technical field generally relates to manufacturing processes, and more particularly relates to designing a manufacturing process using a rules generation process based on business intelligence.
Manufacturing is continually becoming more sophisticated reflecting the drive to reduce size, weight and therefore, cost of products while maintaining and improving quality. For example, the typical architecture in the automotive industry utilizes thousands of components that are assembled in a complex order. Coupling these vast numbers of components with a myriad of unique constrained operations is a cumbersome task to design an efficient manufacturing process. Consequently, creation of rules for the manufacturing process design may be very lengthy and difficult. Additionally, many rules are sometimes incorrect and not applicable to specific plants, lines or processes.
Accordingly, it is desirable to automate the process of rules generation for design of manufacturing process with a method that allows rules generation using business intelligence. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.
A method is provided for using business intelligence for generating rules for a manufacturing process design. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes extracting product properties from a product lifecycle management/product data management (PLM/PDM) system(s) and storing the properties in a data mining database; extracting process data from a manufacturing database (independent or PLM/PDM based) and storing the process data in the data mining database; extracting manufacturing production data from the PLM/PDM system(s) and storing the manufacturing production data in the data mining database; analyzing the contents of the data mining database and extracting a decision tree for use in creating manufacturing process rules; creating manufacturing process rules with an automatic rule generator based on the analysis of the decision tree; and storing the manufacturing process rules in a process rules database for retrieval by an automated process design engine.
A system is provided for automatically designing a manufacturing process. In one embodiment, the method includes: a system that extracts, product properties from a computer aided design (CAD) data (most likely stored in PLM/PDM system), process data from a process database, and manufacturing production data from a product lifecycle management/product data management (PLM/PDM) system(s), where the properties and data are stored in a data mining database; a data mining system that analyzes the contents of the data mining database and generates process design decision tree; an automatic rule generator that creates process rules based on the analysis of the decision tree; a rules database manager that stores the rules in a process rules database; and a process design engine that retrieves the process rules from the process rules database and uses the process rules to design a manufacturing process(es).
The exemplary embodiments will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the following drawing figures, wherein like numerals denote like elements, and wherein:
The following detailed description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the application and uses. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding technical field, background, brief summary or the following detailed description. As used herein, the term module refers to an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and memory that executes one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable components that provide the described functionality.
A system and method for designing a manufacturing process using a rules-based engine has been developed. The rules engine allows the automatic generation of a manufacturing process where the rules are generated by analyzing existing manufacturing processes and extracting product and manufacturing properties. Embodiments of the method allow automatic generation and/or verification of manufacturing process. Additionally, embodiments of the method allow for ongoing and continuous optimization, maintenance and refinement of the process.
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Embodiments of the present disclosure may be described herein in terms of functional and/or logical block components and various processing steps. It should be appreciated that such block components may be realized by any number of hardware, software, and/or firmware components configured to perform the specified functions. For example, an embodiment of the present disclosure may employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, digital signal processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, or the like, which may carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or more microprocessors or other control devices. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced in conjunction with any number of systems, and that the systems described herein is merely exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments are only examples, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the disclosure in any way. Rather, the foregoing detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient road map for implementing the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments. It should be understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the scope of the disclosure as set forth in the appended claims and the legal equivalents thereof.
