Appeal No. 1999-2761
Application No. 08/790,322
controller 1014 for each fastening machine (col. 7, lines 7 to
35). With regard to the rejection here at issue, the relevant
disclosure of Speller concerning the functions of control 1038
is as follows:
Controller 1038 has five major functions,
and a first is equipment monitoring which allows
controller 1038 to track and record the current
status of all equipment within the assembly cell
and display it on request to an operator at a
central station which can be either near to or
remote from the cell thereby extending
capability to monitor several pieces of
equipment and take corrective action whenever
needed. For example, individual equipment can
be moved on and off line via means command
issued by controller 1038. A second function is
fault monitoring wherein controller 1038 detects
and records error conditions, classifies them
according to user-defined severity levels,
response [sic: responds] to errors by shutting
down malfunctioning equipment, and reroutes work
in process. [col. 7, lines 42 to 56]
* * * * *
A fourth function is production control
including tracking work in process and assigning
work stations to maximize production. . . .
Controller 1038 continually tracks the progress
of each manufacturing step, recording production
history data for later evaluation of overall
cycle times, manufacturing problems and
bottlenecks. Controller 1038 also maintains and
evaluates completed product test results and
tracks the number of rejected as compared to
acceptable parts produced in the assembly cell.
There is provided a complete record of number of
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