1. Technical Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept relate to manufacturing process visualization, and more particularly, to manufacturing process visualization enabling users to easily understand a current status of a manufacturing process.
2. Description of the Related Art
To understand the flow of a manufacturing process, various pieces of information including information regarding an operational status such as an apparatus operation rate, stoppage and failure, production information and a digitalized line of balancing (LOB) need to be combined and interpreted.
However, such an interpretation requires a worker having broad experience in a manufacturing process field or know-how of analysis.
Therefore, there have been attempts to present a manufacturing process in visual forms. A Gantt chart has been typically used to graphically illustrate a product plan and a result so as to conduct process management. Recently, as an advanced form of the Gantt chart, a display device may display thereon the Gantt chart.
The Gantt chart is a graphical representation using two elements of a target and a time. The Gantt chart has been frequently used in a process management in a production process for manufacturing products through the use of production apparatuses. This is because the Gantt chart has merits of simplicity and clarity enabling both a plan and a result to be simultaneously recorded and shown on a chart.
However, the Gantt chart has limitations in expressing changes in manufacturing processes, and thus may not precisely show a process status. In addition, the Gantt chart may not clearly illustrate an organic relationship between tasks, making it difficult to understand a relationship between the information on a plurality of printed circuit board (PCB) substrates being produced and corresponding apparatus in a process of an inline production system such as a surface mount technology (SMT) process.
Furthermore, there exists a need for a system that allows even novice users to intuitively understand a current status of a manufacturing process without needing to derive the current status of the manufacturing process through an interpretation of complicated numerical values, and provides information on the status of the manufacturing process being visually displayed with minimized error, thus enabling active and prompt countermeasures to various situations such as process failures rather than roughly identifying the process status.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds