Method for manufacturing system analysis and/or maintenance

Abstract

A method for factory analysis and/or maintenance, preferably including receiving factory information and/or associating metrics with factory components, and optionally including acting based on defect associations and/or operating factory machines. The method is preferably associated with one or more manufacturing systems and/or elements thereof.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method for manufacturing system maintenance, comprising:
 receiving information associated with manufacturing, at a manufacturing system, of a plurality of products, the information indicative of a set of metric values determined based on products of the plurality; wherein, for each metric value of the set, the metric value is associated with a respective product component;   for each metric value of the set:
 based on the respective product component, automatically determining a respective set of one or more components of the manufacturing system; and 
 for each component of the respective set, associating the metric value with the component; and 
   determining a set of values of a descriptive statistic, comprising: for each component of a subset of components of the manufacturing system, based on metric values associated with the component, determining a respective value of the descriptive statistic.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 based on the set of values of the descriptive statistic, selecting a set of one or more potentially-problematic components from the subset of components; and   presenting information to a user, wherein the information is indicative of at least one of:
 a first component of the set of one or more potentially-problematic components; or 
 the respective value of the descriptive statistic associated with the first component. 
   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein:
 the descriptive statistic is indicative of variance; and   selecting the set of one or more potentially-problematic components comprises selecting components associated with high variance.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 based on the set of values of the descriptive statistic, determining a predicted result of altering the first component; and   presenting further information to the user, the further information indicative of the predicted result.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein presenting the further information comprises:
 presenting an observed data histogram associated with the set of values; and   presenting a predicted histogram indicative of the predicted result.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising, based on the set of values, controlling maintenance of the manufacturing system. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein controlling maintenance of the manufacturing system comprises:
 based on the set of values, identifying a set of components of the manufacturing system that have an elevated probability of defective operation; and   in response to identifying the set of components, selecting the set of components for inspection.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein controlling maintenance of the manufacturing system comprises:
 based on the set of values, identifying a component of the subset that has an elevated probability of defective operation; and   in response to identifying the component, selecting the component for repair.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information comprises, for each metric value of the set: a respective set of location information indicative of the respective product component associated with the metric value, wherein the metric value is associated with the respective product component based on the respective set of location information. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the products of the plurality are printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), wherein the product components are surface-mount technology (SMT) components, wherein, for each metric value of the set, the respective set of location information comprises:
 an array position indicative of a PCBA within the manufacturing system; and   a reference designator indicative of an SMT component of the PCBA.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the set of metric values comprises a first subset associated with a first metric and a second subset associated with a second metric. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the first metric is a lateral displacement metric and the second metric is a volume metric. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein, for each metric value of the set: each component of the respective set has interacted with the respective product component. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the subset of components is a strict subset of the components of the manufacturing system. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the manufacturing system comprises a plurality of geographically-separated factories. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the manufacturing system consists essentially of a single factory. 
     
     
         17 . A method for manufacturing system maintenance, comprising:
 receiving information associated with manufacturing, at a manufacturing system, of a plurality of printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), the information indicative of a set of metric values determined based on PCBAs of the plurality; wherein, for each metric value of the set, the metric value is associated with a respective set of one or more manufacturing system components of the manufacturing system;   for each metric value of the set, associating the metric value with each manufacturing system component of the respective set; and   determining a set of values of a descriptive statistic, comprising: for each manufacturing system component of a plurality of manufacturing system components, based on metric values associated with the manufacturing system component, determining a respective value of the descriptive statistic.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the set of metric values comprises a first subset, wherein, for each metric value of the first subset:
 the metric value is associated with a respective product component; and   associating the metric value with each manufacturing system component of the respective set comprises, based on the respective product component, automatically determining the respective set of manufacturing system components such that each manufacturing system component of the respective set has interacted with the respective product component.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the information comprises, for each metric value of the first subset: a respective set of location information indicative of the respective product component associated with the metric value, wherein the metric value is associated with the respective product component based on the respective set of location information. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein:
 the product components are surface-mount technology (SMT) components; and   for each metric value of the set, the respective set of location information comprises:
 an array position indicative of a PCBA within the manufacturing system; and 
 a reference designator indicative of an SMT component of the PCBA.