INTELLIGENT PRODUCTION STATION AND PRODUCTION METHOD

摘要

One aspect related to design of systems and methods for manufacturing products that include technology in skilled areas is configuring a production station for use by an operator without specialized skills. The present invention contemplates an approach to designing a station configurable to perform one or more of incoming inspection, assembly, testing, and branding. A preferred approach includes verifying data associated with units prior to accepting them for incorporation, preventing incorporation of an incorrect unit, and guiding an operator in possible remedial action. This approach includes storing data in a server and making such data substantially instantly accessible to production stations once written in the server. Such data preferably includes software to configure the production station such that the operator need not have specialized skills. A production station designed using this approach is particularly useful in the manufacture of an outdoor unit of a split-mount microwave radio system.

主权项

1. A production station for processing a product to be manufactured, the product including two or more units, the production station comprising:
a data retrieval component configured to retrieve data from a first unit of the two or more units to be included in the product, the data from the first unit including installed software information regarding software installed on the first unit; a data access component operative to obtain, from a server, data associated with the first unit, the associated data including desired software information; a data verification component operative to compare the retrieved data with the obtained data to verify that the software installed on the first unit is acceptable based on a comparison with the desired software information, and to generate an output based on the comparison, the output indicating whether the first unit should be accepted for processing and included in the product, further processing of the first unit being allowed based on the output; and a data writing component operative to write new software to the first unit if the verification of the data verification component indicates that the software installed on the first unit is not acceptable.