A method and system for sharing process links

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and system for sharing process steps. A basic process library including multiple independent process steps is constructed; a private process library based on projects is constructed, and the private process library includes several processes, and the process steps of the processes are allowed to be configured for sharing; several required process steps are obtained through query in a privacy protection manner; a process flow is formed based on the several required process steps. The present invention shares independent process steps in different projects in a privacy protection manner on the premise of protecting trade secrets. On the one hand, it avoids disclosing the trade secrets and privacy information of the process provider, and on the other hand, it avoids disclosing the privacy information of the querying party and uses the existing process steps to establish its own process library while protecting trade secrets. Each project can make full use of the ready-made process steps in other projects, avoid repeated research and development, repeated experiments, directly utilize the results, improve efficiency, and reduce development costs.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of Privacy-Preserving, and particularly to a method and system for sharing process steps. Background Art

[0002] Outsourced scientific research manufacturers, especially scientific research outsourcing service providers in fields such as chemistry and pharmaceuticals, serve multiple customers simultaneously. Each customer may have multiple projects. Although different projects are all completed by the same outsourcing manufacturer, each project requires confidentiality and commercial secrets cannot be leaked to parties outside the project. That is, even within the same company, different projects need to be confidential to each other. For outsourced scientific research manufacturers, there is a large amount of repetitive labor, which increases costs and risks.

[0003] If scientific research results can be shared while protecting the commercial secrets of each project, R & D costs can be reduced and risks can be minimized. Currently, all relevant outsourced scientific research manufacturers are unable to solve this problem. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In view of the problems existing in the prior art, the present invention provides a method and system for sharing process steps, which can share process steps between different projects without disclosing the commercial secrets of customers.

[0005] To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for sharing process steps, including:

[0006] Forming a database from process steps allowed to be shared, and allowing queries of the process steps through a privacy protection method;

[0007] Querying the database through a privacy protection method to obtain a number of required process steps;

[0008] Forming a process flow based on the number of required process steps.

[0009] Further, the formation of the database from process steps allowed to be shared includes:

[0010] Constructing a basic process library containing multiple independent process steps;

[0011] Constructing a private process library based on projects, where the private process library contains a number of processes, and the process steps of the processes are allowed to be configured for sharing.

[0012] Further, the process steps are allowed to configure a sharing level, and according to the sharing level of the querying party, queries of process steps with a sharing level lower than or equal to that of the querying party are allowed through a privacy protection method.

[0013] Further, after forming a process based on a number of the required process steps, it further includes sharing the configured process steps of the formed process.

[0014] Further, the query through a privacy protection method includes: private information retrieval PIR or private set intersection PSI.

[0015] Further, the querying party is allowed to send a cooperation request to the provider of the required process steps through a privacy protection method.

[0016] Further, after the cooperation request is approved, the information of the provider of the required process steps is provided to the querying party, and the information of the querying party is provided to the provider of the required process steps.

[0017] On the other hand, a process step sharing system is provided, including a database and a privacy protection query platform;

[0018] The database includes process steps allowed to be shared;

[0019] The privacy protection query platform queries the database based on the received query information to obtain a number of required process steps.

[0020] Further, the database includes:

[0021] A basic process library containing multiple independent process steps and a private process library based on projects;

[0022] The private process library contains a number of processes, and the process steps of the processes are allowed to be configured for sharing.

[0023] Further, the process steps are allowed to configure a sharing level, and according to the sharing level of the querying party, it is allowed to query the process steps whose sharing level is lower than or equal to that of the querying party through a privacy protection method.

[0024] Further, the process formed based on a number of the required process steps is added to the corresponding private process library, and the sharing level of the process steps is configured.

[0025] Further, the privacy protection query platform adopts private information retrieval PIR or private set intersection PSI.

[0026] Further, the privacy protection query platform includes a cooperation request module, which receives a cooperation request from the querying party and sends the cooperation request to the provider of the required process steps through a privacy protection method.

[0027] Further, after the provider of the required process step returns the cooperation request approval information, the cooperation request module provides the information of the provider of the required process step to the querying party and provides the information of the querying party to the provider of the required process step.

[0028] The above technical solution of the present invention has the following beneficial technical effects:

[0029] (1) On the premise of protecting trade secrets, the present invention shares the privacy protection method of independent process steps among different projects. On the one hand, it avoids disclosing the trade secrets and privacy information of the process provider, and on the other hand, it avoids disclosing the privacy information of the querying party and uses the existing process steps to establish its own process library while protecting trade secrets.

[0030] (2) Each project of the present invention can make full use of the ready-made process steps in other projects, avoiding repeated research and development and repeated experiments, directly using the results, and integrating them into this project, improving efficiency and reducing development costs. At the same time, other projects cannot know the process situation in this project, realizing the control of trade secrets.

[0031] (3) The present invention allows a cooperation request to be sent to the provider of the process step in a privacy-protected manner. After the provider of the process step approves it, the information of each other is provided to both parties, realizing the cooperative development of similar technologies.

[0032] (4) Through the flexible configuration of the sharing level of the process steps in the project, the present invention realizes hierarchical management and ensures the safe control of trade secrets. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033] Figure 1 is a flowchart of process flow sharing provided in an embodiment;

[0034] Figure 2 is a flowchart of the steps of sending and processing a cooperation request;

[0035] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the composition of the process flow sharing system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0036] To make the purpose, technical solution and advantages of the present invention clearer, the present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the specific embodiments and with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that these descriptions are merely exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. In addition, in the following description, the descriptions of well-known structures and technologies are omitted to avoid unnecessarily confusing the concepts of the present invention.

[0037] A process step is usually a set of relatively independent operations. A process refers to the synthesis of one or a group of operators continuously conducting production activities on one or several labor objects at a workplace, and it is the basic unit that constitutes the production process. According to different natures and tasks, it can be divided into process operations, inspection operations, transportation operations, etc. Each process can be further divided into individual work steps according to the processing technological process, and can be further divided into several operations according to its labor process. The factors restricting the division of processes include: the characteristics of production technology and equipment, the specific requirements of production technology, the labor division, and the conditions provided by labor productivity. A scientific research project may have multiple technological processes, and each technological process usually includes several or even hundreds of process steps.

[0038] Each process has special required parameters. In each scientific research project, it is composed of several processes. Different projects may have the same process, and the same process may have different parameter requirements in different projects. For example, in two projects A and B, there is a purification process. The purification requirement in project A is 96%, and the purification in project B is 98%. The other parameters of this process in both projects are the same. The purification process and the purification requirement are both trade secrets of their respective projects and cannot be leaked.

[0039] Generally, a project includes many process steps. Most of these process steps can exist independently and can be reused in different projects. Usually, a single process step does not constitute an independent trade secret, but the complete process, that is, the connection relationship of each process step, and the parameters of each process step are trade secrets. The parameters of process steps include, for example, temperature, precision, the model of the instruments or tools used, etc. For temperature, precision, and the model of the instruments or tools used, protection can be achieved by means of deletion, hiding, generalization, or replacing specific data or codes.

[0040] If the independent process steps can be shared among different projects, and other projects including the platform do not know specifically which steps are shared, the purpose of protecting the trade secrets of the project can be achieved.

[0041] In some embodiments, a method for sharing process steps is provided, in combination with Figure 1 , including the following steps:

[0042] S100 allows the sharable process steps to form a database and allows querying the process steps through a privacy protection method.

[0043] In one embodiment, allowing the sharable process steps to form a database includes:

[0044] Construct a basic process library containing multiple independent process steps; and construct a project-based private process library, where the private process library contains several processes, and the process steps of the processes are allowed to be configured for sharing. Establish a privacy-preserving computing connection between the basic process library and the private project private process library.

[0045] Identify reusable independent process steps and establish a basic process library. In one embodiment, a scientific research company decomposes existing processes into independent process steps, and each process step records information such as process parameters, time period, yield rate, and economic cost. A basic process library is formed, and the basic process library includes process step 1, process step 2... process step N.

[0046] The basic process library can be set to be shared with all query parties who query through privacy-preserving means, or it can be hierarchically managed. Hierarchical management can, for example, set different sharing levels for each internal process step, so that personnel at different levels can query process steps with different sharing levels.

[0047] The process steps of the private process library are allowed to be configured with sharing levels for easy hierarchical management. According to the sharing level of the query party, querying process steps with a sharing level lower than or equal to the sharing level of the query party through privacy-preserving means is allowed.

[0048] S200 queries the database through privacy-preserving means to obtain several required process steps.

[0049] When the query party queries the database through privacy-preserving means, the queried party cannot obtain the information of the query party, which realizes privacy protection and trade secret protection for the query party. Only the process steps that match the query are provided to the query party, and the queried party will not know what process steps the queried party has and the information of the query party either, which realizes privacy protection and trade secret protection for the queried party.

[0050] In some embodiments, the privacy-preserving query method is to query through a privacy-preserving query platform.

[0051] In one embodiment, the privacy protection method adopts private set intersection. Private Set Intersection (PSI) allows multiple parties holding their respective private data sets to compute the intersection of their data while not revealing any information outside the intersection. Among two or more entities, each entity has a private data set, and these entities hope to compute the common intersection among all entities without revealing the content of their respective private sets to each other. The two parties input their respective private sets and obtain their intersection. At the end of the protocol interaction, one party or both parties should obtain the correct intersection and will not obtain any information in the other party's set outside the intersection. PSI only protects the privacy of information outside the intersection, that is, both parties in the intersection operation will obtain which parts in the other party's data set are the same as their own data sets, and cannot obtain the different parts.

[0052] In one embodiment, the privacy protection method adopts private information retrieval. Private Information Retrieval (PIR) is a method for a client to retrieve information from a database and is a technology for protecting the privacy of user queries. When a user submits a data query request to a data service provider to obtain data, the specific query request will not be leaked to the data service provider, that is, during the process, the data service provider does not know the specific query information and the retrieved data items of the user. In addition, the data service provider generally also requires that the user can only obtain the data items requested by himself, and other data items of the data service provider are not visible to the user.

[0053] In one embodiment, the process steps are hierarchically managed based on the sharing level, and it is allowed to query the process steps whose sharing level is lower than or equal to the sharing level of the querying party through a privacy protection method. For example, the sharing levels are divided into public, secret, and confidential. The process steps at the public level can be queried and used by all querying parties, the process steps at the secret level can be queried and used by the querying parties at the secret level and the confidential level, and the process steps at the confidential level can only be queried and used by the querying parties at the confidential level. The secret level is, for example, personnel within the same company, and the confidential level is, for example, personnel within the same project team. By restricting the permissions of the querying party, the scope of knowledge of the process steps is controlled.

[0054] S300 forms a process based on a number of the required process steps.

[0055] Based on each process step, the final process is formed, and the private process library of this project is updated. The sharing levels of each process step are set to realize the sharing of process steps.

[0056] In one embodiment, it further includes the step of sending a cooperation request. When similar process steps are queried, but the effects of the process steps do not fully meet the requirements of this process, or further research and development are still needed, a cooperation request needs to be sent to the other party.

[0057] Combined with Figure 2 , the querying party is allowed to send a cooperation request to the provider of the required process step in a privacy-protected manner. After the cooperation request is approved, the information of the provider of the required process step is provided to the querying party, and the information of the querying party is provided to the provider of the required process step. If the cooperation request is not approved, a rejection message is fed back to the querying party, and any privacy information of the querying party will not be disclosed.

[0058] Embodiment

[0059] A pharmaceutical research and outsourcing company has two research projects, Project A and Project B, which need to be kept confidential respectively. For Project A, one of the process steps, X-A1, is to purify ethanol to 95%-98%; for Project B, one of the process steps, X-B1, is to purify ethanol to 75%-78%.

[0060] There are multiple existing sharable processes in this pharmaceutical research and outsourcing company that are similar to the purification of ethanol. They are respectively:

[0061] Process step X-LIB1 purifies ethanol to 99%-100% with a cost coefficient of 2;

[0062] Process step X-LIB2 purifies ethanol to 80%-90% with a cost coefficient of 1;

[0063] Process step X-LIB3 purifies ethanol to 40%-90% with a cost coefficient of 0.1;

[0064] Process step X-LIB4 purifies ethanol to 50%-80% with a cost coefficient of 0.4;

[0065] Process step X-LIB5 purifies ethanol to 70%-80% with a cost coefficient of 0.3.

[0066] The pharmaceutical research and outsourcing company enters the above processes into the basic process library. Project A conducts a privacy-protected calculation query to check whether there are any processes in the basic process library that meet the requirements. Since it is a privacy-protected query, the basic private process library does not know the query content. Project A did not find a completely matching process, but found a similar process step, where process X-LIB1 purifies ethanol to 99%-100%. Based on this, Project A generates process X-A1 as an improvement. The process library of Project A's team adds process X-A1. After evaluation, X-A1 does not involve the commercial secrets of the project, so it can be shared under protection.

[0067] For Project B, a privacy-preserving calculation query is performed to check whether there are any processes in the basic process library that meet the requirements and are available for selection. Since it is a privacy-preserving query, the basic private process library does not know the content of the query. Project B finds a similar process, that is, X-LIB5 purifies ethanol to 70%-80%. Based on this, Project B generates Process X-B1 as an improvement. Process X-B1 is added to the process library of Project B's team. After evaluation, X-B1 does not involve the project's trade secrets, so it can be shared under protection.

[0068] The company adds a new Project C. One of the process steps in Project C is to purify ethanol to 74%-79%. The Project C team conducts a privacy-preserving query and can find that Process X-B1 directly meets the requirements. However, Project C does not know that this process comes from Project B, and Project B also does not know that Project C uses Process X-B1.

[0069] If there is a new Project D, and one of the process steps is to purify ethanol to 75%-85%. The Project D team conducts a privacy-preserving query and can find that there is no exactly matching process step. However, there are some process steps that partially meet the requirements, namely, X-LIB3 purifies ethanol to 40%-90%, X-LIB4 purifies ethanol to 50%-80%, and X-LIB5 purifies ethanol to 70%-80% with a cost coefficient of 0.3. Project D selects a cooperation partner according to its own needs and puts forward cooperation requirements. For example, it selects the provider of Process X-LIB5. A cooperation request is sent to the provider of X-LIB5 through a privacy-preserving method, and the provider of X-LIB5 currently does not know the privacy information of the requester. If the provider of X-LIB5 is interested in cooperation and agrees to the cooperation request, the privacy-preserving query platform provides the information of the provider of the required process step to the querying party and provides the information of the querying party to the provider of the required process step. Otherwise, the privacy-preserving query platform will not disclose any privacy information of the querying party to both parties.

[0070] In some embodiments, a process step sharing system is provided, which combines Figure 3 , including a database and a privacy-preserving query platform.

[0071] The database includes process steps that are allowed to be shared.

[0072] Further, the database includes a basic process library containing multiple independent process steps and a private process library based on projects. The private process library contains several processes, and the process steps of the processes are allowed to be configured for sharing.

[0073] The privacy-preserving query platform queries the library based on the received query information and obtains several required process steps.

[0074] In one embodiment, the privacy protection query platform adopts private information retrieval (PIR) or private set intersection (PSI).

[0075] In one embodiment, the process steps allow configuration of sharing levels. According to the sharing level of the querying party, querying of process steps with a sharing level lower than or equal to that of the querying party is allowed in a privacy-protected manner.

[0076] Furthermore, the process formed based on a number of the required process steps is added to the corresponding private process library, and the sharing levels of the process steps are configured.

[0077] In one embodiment, the privacy protection query platform includes a cooperation request module that receives a cooperation request from a querying party and sends the cooperation request to the provider of the required process steps in a privacy-protected manner.

[0078] Furthermore, after the provider of the required process steps returns information indicating that the cooperation request has been passed, the cooperation request module provides the querying party with information about the provider of the required process steps and provides the provider of the required process steps with information about the querying party.

[0079] In one embodiment, the database and the privacy protection query platform can be implemented by a computing device. The computing device can be a general-purpose computer or a computer device composed of dedicated integrated circuits, etc., and this application embodiment does not make any limitations in this regard.

[0080] Those skilled in the art can be aware that the number of the above-mentioned computing devices can be one or more than one, and the types of multiple computing devices can be the same or different. This application embodiment does not limit the number and device types of the terminals.

[0081] In another embodiment, the database is stored in a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium can, for example, include a memory card of a smart phone, a storage component of a tablet computer, a hard disk of a personal computer, a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a USB memory, or any combination of the above storage media. The computer-readable storage medium can be any combination of one or more computer-readable storage media.

[0082] In summary, the method and system for sharing process steps provided by the present invention construct a basic process library including multiple independent process steps; construct a private process library based on projects, where the private process library contains several processes, and the process steps of the processes are allowed to be configured for sharing; query through a privacy protection method to obtain several required process steps; and form a process flow based on the several required process steps. On the premise of protecting trade secrets, the present invention shares the independent process steps in a privacy protection manner among different projects. On the one hand, it avoids disclosing the trade secrets and privacy information of the process provider, and on the other hand, it avoids disclosing the privacy information of the querying party and using the existing process steps to establish its own process library while protecting trade secrets. Each project can make full use of the ready-made process steps in other projects, avoid repeated research and development and repeated experiments, directly utilize the results, improve efficiency, and reduce development costs.

[0083] It should be understood that the above specific embodiments of the present invention are only used for exemplary illustration or explanation of the principle of the present invention, and do not constitute a limitation to the present invention. Therefore, any modifications, equivalent replacements, improvements, etc. made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention shall be included within the protection scope of the present invention. In addition, the appended claims of the present invention are intended to cover all changes and modification examples falling within the scope and boundaries of the appended claims, or equivalent forms of such scope and boundaries.

Claims

1. A method for sharing process steps, characterized in that, it includes: forming a database from process steps allowed to be shared, including: constructing a basic process library containing multiple independent process steps; constructing a project-based private process library, where the private process library contains several processes, and the process steps of the processes are allowed to be configured for sharing; wherein, the process steps are configured with sharing levels, and according to the sharing level of the querying party, it is allowed to query the process steps with sharing levels lower than or equal to the sharing level of the querying party through a privacy protection method; querying the database through a privacy protection method to obtain several required process steps; forming a process flow based on several of the required process steps.

2. The method for sharing process steps according to claim 1, characterized in that, after forming a process based on several of the required process steps, it further includes configuring the sharing of process steps for the formed process.

3. The method for sharing process steps according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, querying through a privacy protection method includes: Private Information Retrieval (PIR) or Private Set Intersection (PSI).

4. The method for sharing process steps according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, the querying party is allowed to send a cooperation request to the provider of the required process steps through a privacy protection method; after the cooperation request is approved, the information of the provider of the required process steps is provided to the querying party, and the information of the querying party is provided to the provider of the required process steps.

5. A system for sharing process steps, characterized in that, it includes a database and a privacy protection query platform; the database, including process steps allowed to be shared, includes: constructing a basic process library containing multiple independent process steps; constructing a project-based private process library, where the private process library contains several processes, and the process steps of the processes are allowed to be configured for sharing; wherein, the process steps are configured with sharing levels, and according to the sharing level of the querying party, it is allowed to query the process steps with sharing levels lower than or equal to the sharing level of the querying party through a privacy protection method; the privacy protection query platform queries the database based on the received query information to obtain several required process steps.

6. The system for sharing process steps according to claim 5, characterized in that, for the process formed based on several of the required process steps, add it to the corresponding private process library and configure the sharing level of the process steps.

7. The system for sharing process steps according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that, the privacy protection query platform uses Private Information Retrieval (PIR) or Private Set Intersection (PSI).

8. The system for sharing process steps according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that, the privacy protection query platform includes a cooperation request module, which receives the cooperation request proposed by the querying party and sends the cooperation request to the provider of the required process steps through a privacy protection method; after the provider of the required process steps returns the information that the cooperation request is approved, the cooperation request module provides the information of the provider of the required process steps to the querying party and provides the information of the querying party to the provider of the required process steps.

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