International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Juniper Networks, Inc.

Solectron Corporation

Norman Ken Ouchi

James W Eldridge

David T Wang

Martin Aureliano Hassner

James T Brady

Michael Anthony Ko

Yoram Novick

Chan Y Ng

Paul Hodges

Miguel M Blaum

Oded Cohn

Joe-Ming Cheng

Richard Francis Freitas

Uwe Schwiegelshohn

Yitzhak Dishon

Wellington C Yu

Marshall I Schor

Danit Segev

David A Plomgren

Richard Fairbanks Arnold

Luke C Lang

Joseph C Awad

David G Foote

John S Eggenberger

The invention relates to information exchange when a design organization sends a design document to a manufacturer. The design documents may have errors and, once detected, the errors may not be corrected by the design organization. The documents may be resent with a small number of changes or perhaps no changes at all, but may have errors that have been seen before. The documents may have many items that are not important to the receiving organization. A dictionary is used to validate and correct the documents. Changes in the dictionary may require changes in the information used by the manufacturer. The invention provides a system and method for use with a computer that aids in the validation and correction of the information contained in the document, in that it detect changes in the document when resent so that the changes are validated or corrected, filters the document so that only relevant information is processed, detects changes in the dictionary so that only changes are processed, and filters the dictionary so that only relevant information in the dictionary is processed. In addition, the invention provides means to initialize the information that are in use and assumed to be valid to avoid the validation and correction of the information.

Systems and methods for organizing and validating data in documents

A memory leveling system updates physical memory blocks, or blocks, to maintain generally even wear. The system maintains an update count for each block, incrementing a wear level count when the update count reaches a wear level threshold. The system compares a wear level of blocks to determine whether to update a block in place or move data on the block to a less-worn physical block. The system groups the blocks into wear level groups identified by a common wear level to identify blocks that are being worn at a faster or slower than average rate. If an empty block count of a least worn group drops below a threshold, the system moves data from one of the blocks in the least worn group to an empty block in a most worn group.

Updating a memory to maintain even wear

The present invention relates to workflow systems and methods. In one embodiment, the invention relates to integration of a calendar system with a workflow system where a calendar event can initiate a workflow by sending a message to a form route manager. The completion of a workflow or step in the workflow can result in sending a message to a calendar system to generate an event. In another embodiment, the invention relates to the integration of workflow with a project management system that includes project segments, which are processes that can be defined and controlled by workflow routes. The project management system sends a message to the workflow system to initiate workflow and the workflow system sends a message to the project management system, for example, at the completion of the workflow route. The relationship between the workflow routes can maintain the relationship between the project segments. If the relationships between project segments change, the relationship between the workflow routes changes without added effort.

Workflow systems and methods for project management and information management

This invention is related to electronic information transfer between trading partners and more particularly to the use of a physical item identifier affixed to a physical item for tracking the item using physical identification systems. The invention further discloses the catalogs, catalog queries and processes to provide the information to initialize the item in the physical identification systems. In the present invention, a machine-readable item identifier is affixed to a physical item. The identifier is unique and is used to identify the item. The item identifier has three segments: 1) catalog identifier, 2) item description identifier, and 3) physical item identifier. The catalog identifier is used to determine the catalog that provides the item description and a description specific to the physical item. The item description identifier is used to query the catalog, which returns the description of the item. The physical item identifier is used to query the catalog, which returns a more detailed description of the physical item. The item identifier and the item description are used to initialize item in the physical identification system. The description specific to the item is added to the physical identification system and associated with the item identifier.

Catalog, catalog query, and item identifier for a physical item

In the present invention, items are described with a compact item descriptor where two items with the same compact item descriptor are interchangeable. The compact item descriptor can be generated for an item using a classification process and a set of parameters with values that describe the item. An organization assigns an identifier, a part number, to an item. The compact descriptor for the part number is stored in the item description field of the materials planning system and in the Approved Manufacturing List, AML. The AML identifies the supplier and supplier part number that may be ordered as the item. The Bill of Materials, BoM, for a product, is the parts list to build the product. The AML is used to identify the suppliers and supplier part number to purchase items needed to build the product The AML may contain errors and must be validated by the contract manufacturing company, called an EMS, Electronic Manufacturing Service provider. The EMS can use the compact item descriptor to validate or change the AML for a product quotation, for the ordering parts or components on the BoM.

Compact item descriptor, catalog system and item part number validation

In the past, storage unit (disk drive) failures were the primary cause of data loss in a storage system. With higher unit reliability and higher bit density, random bit errors have become the primary cause of data loss. Most data recovery mechanisms treat reconstruction of redundant information on the same level as data reconstruction. In reality, data reconstruction is more important and asymmetry between data protection and redundant information protection provides trade-offs of data recoverability against performance. The present invention provides data recovery from both a first number of data block failures due to random bit failures and a second number of storage unit failures while providing update write performance equivalent to data protection mechanisms with lower data recovery capabilities. The level protection from number of data block failures, the number of unit failures, and update write performance are parameterized to select a desired combination.

Data recovery from multiple failed data blocks and storage units

In the present invention, a product is manufactured in a manufacturing process controlled and tracked using a manufacturing execution system or MES. An engineering change is made to the product specification while units of the product are in the manufacturing process. The product unit is reworked to match the changed specification. The engineering change implementation function of the manufacturing execution system identifies the products units to be reworked, provides instructions for the rework, and tracks that all affected product units are reworked to the changed specification.

Method and system for engineering change implementation

A business process is defined as a sequence of process steps where each process step is performed by an assigned user. A workflow route to support the business process provides a sequence of steps where each step corresponds to a business process step and has an associated user to execute the step. The user can be a set of users or an automated program. A workflow system can implement the business process by executing the corresponding route. A route is defined before the route is executed. However, the routes for some business processes cannot be completely defined before start of execution because of organizational boundaries, complexity of business process, number of choices, etc. The execution of a route can be adapted to a business process through use of a step in the route where the user associated with the step can specify subsequent steps and associated users for execution in the route.

Method and system for adapting the execution of a workflow route

The invention is related to electronic information transfer between trading partners and more particularly to the use of a catalog, catalog query, and item identifier to specify an item that has a number of configurations or features. The item identifier is used in business transactions between the trading partners. In the present invention, a configured item is associated with a two-part item identifier where one part is a systematically assigned, fixed length field that provides systematic identification of the catalog and the second part is a variable length field to identify the item in the catalog. A catalog and catalog query provide a means to generate the two-part item identifier based on the description of the configured item identifier. A catalog query with the item identifier can query the catalog to determine the description of the item.

Catalog, catalog query, and item identifier for configurable items

The invention relates to systems and methods to validate data in a design document transmitted over a computer network from a design organization to a contract manufacturer for manufacturing a product. The computer implemented system includes computer software for storing a past version of the design document, receiving and storing a new version of the design document, storing a dictionary, comparing the new version to the past version of the design document to detect a change in the data. If there is no change, the program stops. If there is a data change, the software sets the past version to the new version of the design document, and uses the dictionary to correct and validate the data that has changed between the past and new version which results in a design document with data to use for the contract manufacturer only.

This invention is related to electronic product description transfer between a trading partner that designs a product and a trading partner that manufactures the product and more particularly to the organization and use of a catalog of component information used in the generation of process documents and programs to adapt an assembly process to assemble the product as specified in the electronic product description. In the present invention, a consolidated component catalog provides the information for a component used in the assembly of a product in two sections: an assembly process independent section and an assembly process dependent section. The assembly process independent information is used to correct and validate the product description information. The assembly process dependent information is used to generate the programs and documents to adapt an assembly process to assemble the product described in the product description. A component is identified using a part number from a part number system in the product description and the consolidated component catalog. Another product description using the same component may identify the component with a second part number from a second part number system. The consolidated component catalog relates the first part number and second part number to the component so that redundant component information is not created.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Norman Ken Ouchi