Generating a reliability analysis by identifying causal relationships between events in an event-based manufacturing system

Abstract

Analyzing an event chronology record to permit identification of periods of a production sequence that correspond to a high probability of failure. Systems and methods include receiving an event chronology for a particular machine in the production sequence and for a particular time interval. A reliability analysis system accesses process flow information to determine whether a particular event in the event chronology is related to a subsequent adverse event within a predefined event window.

1 . A system for enabling a reliability analysis for a production sequence, said system comprising: 
 a chronology tool for building an event chronology from data collected from an event-based manufacturing system, said event chronology including a chronologically ordered sequence of event records pertaining to delay data and material usage data; and    a reliability analysis tool for producing a report from the event chronology built by the chronology tool, said report including the event chronology, said report further including a plurality of dimensions, said dimensions including a measure of reliability during machine start, a measure of reliability of a running operation, and a measure of reliability per asset in the production sequence and per time frame.    
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the chronology tool builds the event chronology from data related to the manufacture of an absorbent article.  
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the reliability analysis tool further produces a subsection report for a machine section, said subsection report representing a cross-tabulation of a plurality of stop events to identify one or more delay subsections for the machine section.  
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the reliability analysis tool further produces a material converting report for a machine section, said material converting report representing a cross-tabulation of a plurality of stop events for the machine section to identify one or more material identifiers related to the plurality of stop events.  
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the reliability analysis tool further produces a material converting report for a subset of machine sections, said material converting report representing a cross-tabulation of a plurality of stop events for the subset of machine sections to identify one or more material identifiers related to the plurality of stop events.  
   
   
       6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the dimensions further include a measure of reliability of specific materials converted to a product.  
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the measure of reliability of the running operation comprises one or more of the following: splice event transient information for a machine section and splice-induced failure data for another, subsequent machine section in the event-based manufacturing system.  
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the event chronology further includes a chronologically ordered sequence of event records pertaining to waste data.  
   
   
       9 . In a computer system having a user interface including a display and a user interface selection device, a method for enabling a reliability analysis of a production sequence, said method comprising: 
 displaying the user interface to a user on the display, the user interface defining a time interval form and a target location form;    receiving from the user via the user interface selection device a time interval value from the time interval form;    receiving from the user via the user interface selection device a target location value from the target location form;    receiving an extraction command from the user via the user interface selection device;    extracting, in response to the received extraction command, delay data and raw material usage data from one or more data tables as a function of the received time interval value and the received target location value;    merging the extracted delay data and raw material usage data into an event chronology, said event chronology comprising a plurality of chronologically ordered event records, each of the plurality of chronologically ordered event records having a machine section associated therewith;    identifying an adverse event record in the event chronology; and    if the machine section of the identified adverse event record and the machine section of at least one previous event record in the event chronology are related, incrementing a value on the display, said value being representative of a correlation between the identified adverse event record and the previous event record.    
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising determining whether the identified adverse event record has a correlation to the previous event record by comparing a machine section value associated with the identified adverse event record with a machine section value associated with the previous event record, and wherein determining the relationship comprises determining whether the identified adverse event record and the previous event record are within a predefined event window.  
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein incrementing the value comprises incrementing the value if the machine section of the identified adverse event record and the machine section of the previous event record are the same.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising: 
 displaying the event chronology on the display; and    displaying on the display the value representing a correlation between the identified adverse event record and the previous event record.    
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising receiving from the user via the user interface selection device a data set selection, and wherein extracting the data from the one or more data tables further comprises extracting the data from the one or more data tables as a function of the received data set selection.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising extracting delay data, raw material usage data, and waste data from the one or more data tables as a function of the received time interval value and the target location value.  
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein extracting the data from the one or more data tables further comprises: 
 generating a query as a function of the received time interval value and the received target location value; and    submitting the generated query to the one or more data tables to obtain the data.    
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein receiving the target location value comprises receiving one or more of the following: a mill identifier, a machine section identifier, and a machine identifier.  
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising: 
 receiving a drill-down command from the user via the user interface selection device, said drill-down command including a machine section value;    extracting, in response to the received drill-down command, subsection data from the one or more data tables as a function of the received machine section value; and    displaying on the display the extracted subsection data, wherein the extracted subsection data represents a cross-tabulation of a plurality of stop events to identify one or more delay subsections within the production sequence that account for the plurality of stop events in the machine section corresponding to the machine section value.    
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising exporting the merged data to an analytical environment for further processing.  
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein extracting the data from the one or more data tables comprises one or more of the following: extracting waste data collected from an event-based manufacturing system, extracting delay data collected from an event-based manufacturing system, extracting material usage data collected from an event-based manufacturing system, and extracting data related to the manufacture of an absorbent article.  
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the incremented value is associated with one or more of the following: the machine section of the identified adverse event record, and the machine section of the previous event record.