JPH0528163A - Decentralized tracking method for information collection system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To offer a decentralized trecking method for an information collection system that checks the propriety for input of the worker information and returns an answer at a high speed for collection of the information on the result of production where the fine process progress control is carried out. CONSTITUTION:An information collection system is used for the production process of semiconductors and consists of a main computer 1 which contains the master information on all production processes and the progress information on each lot, plural follower computers 2 which have the conditional value information on a certain process only, and plural information input terminals 3 which inputs the information on each production process. These computers 1 and 2 and the terminals 3 are connected to each other vie the communication circuits 4 and 5. Then the information on the following production processes are previously down-loaded in each computer 2 and the decentralized tracking processing is carried out.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tracking technology for an information collecting system, and more particularly, in an information collecting system in a semiconductor manufacturing process, it is possible to improve the responsiveness of information exchange and reduce the dispersion of the response. The present invention relates to a technique effectively applied to a tracking method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in collecting performance information in a semiconductor production process, for example, a large computer is used as a host computer, a plurality of terminal groups are connected to the host computer through communication lines, and performance information is input from a keyboard. There is one. In this case, the tracking check for all input information is performed by the host computer.

[0003]

However, in the prior art as described above, when the input is concentrated, the response becomes slow, and the input point of the production record information is inevitably coarse due to the keyboard input. The system is difficult to manage.

Further, in a system in which the input method is simplified by using a bar code or the like instead of the keyboard and the input points are made fine, the probability of simultaneous information input is high, and a computer having only a main computer and an information input terminal is provided. Responsiveness is becoming increasingly difficult for systems.

Therefore, in the conventional centralized system using a main computer, there is a problem in that when information input occurs simultaneously in a plurality of steps, there are cases where the information is processed quickly and slowly.

In particular, when synchronizing the actual production progress with information and finely controlling the process progress, unless the tracking check response of the input information is output to the worker at high speed, the actual production work is hindered. It will be.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to collect information on the production results that can synchronize the actual production progress and information and perform fine process progress management, and justify the information input by the operator. An object of the present invention is to provide a distributed tracking method for an information collection system that can check and return a response at high speed.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will be apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[0009]

Among the inventions disclosed in the present application, a brief description will be given to the outline of typical ones.
It is as follows.

That is, the distributed tracking method of the information collecting system of the present invention is a distributed tracking method of an information collecting system in which a main computer and a plurality of slave computers are connected through a communication means, and the main computer is for each product type. It has a sequence table of all production processes, a condition value table to be checked when information is input in each process, master information of layout information indicating which slave computer collects information of each process, and progress information of each lot. The slave computer temporarily holds condition value information to be checked only in a certain process.

In this case, the slave computer has condition value information for a plurality of steps.

Also, having a plurality of the main computers,
A computer is connected to each of these main computers.

Further, the function of the main computer is incorporated into one of the slave computers.

[0014]

According to the above-described distributed tracking method of the information collecting system, the production information in a certain process can be obtained by connecting the master computer having the master information and the progress information and the slave computer having the condition value information temporarily. If is input, the next production process information is downloaded to the slave computer corresponding to the layout information in advance, and the information input from the information input terminal is checked based on the download information to this slave computer. Can reply to the person.

That is, even when the production record information is intensively input from a number of production processes within a short time and input from the information input terminal, the slave computers are made to execute the tracking check process and the response process in a distributed manner. You can As a result, the time until confirmation of the information input result by the operator can be stabilized in a short time with relatively little variation.

Further, since the slave computer has condition value information for a plurality of processes, it is possible to reduce the frequency of download and reduce the input / output between the master computer and the slave computer. This can improve the responsiveness of information exchange.

Furthermore, by having a plurality of main computers, the traffic per computer can be improved. Thereby, the responsiveness can be further improved.

By incorporating the function of the main computer into one of the slave computers, the main computer can be eliminated. This allows the information collection system to be inexpensive.

[0019]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an information collecting system which is an embodiment of a distributed tracking method of an information collecting system of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a file and a database possessed by a main computer in the information collecting system of the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing files and databases of subordinate computers in the information collecting system of this embodiment, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an information transfer flow in the information collecting system of this embodiment.

First, the configuration of the information collecting system of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

The information collecting system of this embodiment is an information collecting system used in, for example, a semiconductor production process,
A master computer 1 having master information of all production processes and progress information of each lot, a plurality of slave computers 2 having condition value information of only a certain process, and a plurality of information input terminals for inputting information in each production process. 3, the main computer 1 and the slave computer 2, and the slave computer 2 and the information input terminal 3 are communicatively connected by communication lines 4 and 5, respectively. The information input terminals 3 are laid out and arranged at locations convenient for information input in the production process.

As shown in FIG. 2, for example, the main computer 1 has a master file 6 for storing master information of all production processes and a lot file 7 for storing progress information of each lot. The product name master 8 showing the model of all products flowing through the production process, the process master 9 showing the process sequence for each product name, the set value master 10 for checking the input information in each process, and which production process is shared by which slave computer. It is composed of each database of the sub computer layout master 11 which stores whether or not.

On the other hand, the lot file 7 is provided with each database of lot No. 12 showing the progress of all lots, product name 13, work-in-progress process 14 and quantity 15.

As shown in FIG. 3, for example, the slave computer 2 receives the lot number 12, the product name 13, the work-in-progress process 14, and the quantity 15 of the lot file 7 sent from the master computer 1, and the set value master of the master file 6. 10
The partial process file 16 is provided for temporarily storing the data of the set value 10 '.

Next, with respect to the operation of this embodiment, an information transfer flow among the main computer 1, the slave computer 2 and the information input terminal 3 will be described with reference to FIG.

First, when the work input data S1 is input from the information input terminal 3 in step 401, it is checked in step 402 by the partial process file 16 held by the slave computer 2, and then the information input terminal 3 responds to the start data S2. Is returned.

Further, in step 403, actual processing is performed. When the processing is completed and the completion data S3 is input from the information input terminal 3 in step 404, the completion data S3 is checked in the sub-process file 16 of the slave computer 2 in step 405, and then the completion data S3 is input to the information input terminal 3. A response S4 is returned.

At the same time, the actual start / finish data S5 is transferred from the slave computer 2 to the master computer 1, and in step 406, the lot file 7 is processed by the product name master 8 and the process master 9 of the master file 6 in the master computer 1. Update process 14 and quantity 15. Further, the sub computer number which is in charge of the next process is taken out from the sub computer layout master 11 of the master file 6, and the partial process file 16 of the corresponding sub computer 2 is transferred in step 407 (S6).

Further, in step 408, the slave computer 2 temporarily stores the partial process file 16 in the memory. Then, in step 409, the lot moves to the next process, and from the information input terminal 3 in the next process, step 4 again.
The exchange of information from 01 to 409 is repeated. In this manner, the information exchanged from the information input terminal 3 can be checked and returned as a response between the information input terminal 3 and the slave computer 2 connected thereto.

Therefore, according to the information collecting system of the present embodiment, by connecting the slave computer 2 having the condition value information of only a certain process to the master computer 1 having each information of all the manufacturing processes, Since it is possible to previously download each information of the next production process to the slave computer 2 corresponding to the computer layout master 11, check the information input from the information input terminal 3 based on the downloaded information, and return a response, Instead of the conventional method of intensively performing the check and response processing in the main computer 1, each of the slave computers 2 can be made to perform the tracking processing in a distributed manner, so that the response time of information exchange can be shortened and It is possible to reduce variations in response time.

Although the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically described based on the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Needless to say.

For example, in the information collecting system of this embodiment, three slave computers 2 are connected to the master computer 1, and two slave computers 2 are connected to each slave computer 2.
Although the case of connecting a plurality of information input terminals 3 has been described, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and includes, for example, a plurality of main computers 1, and each of these main computers 1 is a slave computer 2. The present invention is widely applicable to system configurations of various numbers and combinations, such as when connecting more than one slave computer 2 and more information input terminals 3.

Further, due to the system configuration, the slave computer 2
It is also possible to incorporate the function of the main computer 1 into one of the above. In this case, an inexpensive system configuration can be achieved by reducing the number of constituent elements.

Further, it is possible to store the condition value information for a plurality of steps in the slave computer 2. In this case, the frequency of downloading can be reduced, so that the responsiveness can be further improved. .

In the above description, the case where the invention mainly made by the present inventor is applied to the information collecting system used in the semiconductor production process, which is the field of use of the invention, has been described, but the invention is not limited to this. It is also widely applicable as an information gathering system for production processes.

[0036]

The effects obtained by the typical ones of the inventions disclosed in the present application will be briefly described as follows.
It is as follows.

(1). The master computer has master information and progress information, the slave computer temporarily holds condition value information to be checked only in a certain process, and the production information in a certain process is transferred to the master computer through the slave computer. When input, the next production process information is downloaded from the master information and the progress information to the corresponding slave computer, which is calculated from the layout information, and the information is input from the information input terminal connected to this slave computer. By checking the download information in the slave computer and returning a response to the worker at times, even if the production record information is concentrated and input from the information input terminal from a large number of production processes within a short time, the slave computer It is possible to make each of them perform tracking check processing and response processing in a distributed manner. Therefore, the time until confirmation of the information input result by the operator can be stabilized in a short time with relatively little variation.

(2). By having condition value information for a plurality of processes in the slave computer, the frequency of download can be reduced,
Since the input / output between the main computer and the slave computer can be reduced, the responsiveness of information exchange can be improved.

(3). By having a plurality of main computers and connecting each of these main computers with a slave computer, the traffic per unit can be improved, so that the responsiveness can be further improved. Becomes

(4). By incorporating the function of the main computer into one of the slave computers, the main computer can be dispensed with, and the information gathering system can be inexpensive.

(5) Due to the above (1) to (4), it is efficient and highly functional in a production process in which a large number of information input points are provided and information is randomly input by a large number of workers. It is possible to obtain a distributed tracking method for an information collection system that enables collection of production results.

(6) By the above (1) to (4), a decentralized tracking method of an information collecting system which can minimize various obstacles to the original production activity and can provide various real-time information can be obtained. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an information collecting system which is an embodiment of a distributed tracking method of the information collecting system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing files and databases of a main computer in the information collecting system of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing files and databases of a slave computer in the information collecting system of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an information transfer flow in the information collection system of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 main computer 2 subordinate computers 3 Information input terminal 4 communication lines 5 communication lines 6 master files 7 lot files 8 Product name master 9 process master 10 Setting value master 10 'setting value 11 Subordinate computer layout master 12 lot NO 13 Product name 14 In-process 15 quantity 16 Partial process file

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A distributed tracking method for an information collection system in which a master computer and a plurality of slave computers are connected through communication means, wherein the master computer comprises:
Sequence table of all production processes for each product type, condition value table to be checked when entering information in each process, master information of layout information indicating which slave computer collects information of each process, and progress for each lot Information, the slave computer temporarily holds condition value information to be checked only in a certain process, and when the production information in a certain process is input to the master computer through the slave computer, the master information and progress From the information, the next production process information is downloaded in advance to the corresponding slave computer calculated from the layout information, and when the information is input from the information input terminal connected to the slave computer, the download information in the slave computer is used. A distributed tracking method for an information collection system, which is characterized by checking and returning a response to an operator. 2. The distributed tracking method for an information collection system according to claim 1, wherein the slave computer has the condition value information for a plurality of steps. 3. The distributed tracking method for an information collecting system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the main computers are provided, and the slave computers are connected to each of the main computers. 4. The distributed tracking method for an information collecting system according to claim 1, wherein the function of the main computer is incorporated into one of the slave computers.