Selective Log Distribution for Confidential Factory Failure Diagnosis

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Solution Overview

Problem

When outsourcing facility diagnosis to external support centers, existing techniques unconditionally transmit operation state data, risking leakage of confidential manufacturing data and compromising its confidentiality.

Innovation Solution

A data distribution control method that stores time difference information between apparatuses and estimates the operational period of relevant apparatuses upon failure, transmitting only the corresponding log data to maintain confidentiality.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If log data from all apparatuses is unconditionally transmitted to external support centers, then failure diagnosis capability is improved, but data confidentiality is compromised

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvefailure diagnosis capabilityVSAvoiddata confidentiality
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments log data transmission by apparatus and by time period. Instead of transmitting all log data from all apparatuses, it selectively transmits only the log data from specific apparatuses (those with operational relevance to the failed apparatus) and only for the specific time period surrounding the failure occurrence. This segmentation approach maintains diagnostic effectiveness while minimizing confidential data exposure.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies local quality by transmitting different amounts of data for different apparatuses based on their operational relevance to the failure. Apparatuses with high operational relevance (determined by positional relationships and time difference information) have their log data transmitted, while apparatuses with low relevance do not have their data transmitted. This selective approach ensures diagnostic quality where needed while protecting confidentiality where not needed.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Loss of information

If time difference information and operational relevance analysis are implemented, then data confidentiality is improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata confidentialityVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements preliminary action by pre-storing time difference information between apparatuses and pre-establishing operational relevance relationships before failures occur. When a failure happens, the system can quickly determine which apparatuses are relevant and transmit their log data without needing to perform complex real-time analysis. This pre-computation reduces the complexity burden during actual failure diagnosis.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP4123403B1Data distribution control device, method, and program
Publication Date: 2024.04.24 NTT COMM CORP
  • EP4123403B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4123403B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4123403B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

The confidentiality of data is maintained in a case where analysis of an operation state of a facility is entrusted to the outside. Time difference information in operation between the manufacturing apparatuses (RB1), (RB2), ..., arranged on the production line (LN) is stored for each of the apparatuses, in an inter-apparatus time difference information storage unit (33). At the occurrence of a failure in one of the manufacturing apparatuses (RB1), (RB2), ..., the operation estimation unit (13) selects, from among the peripheral apparatuses on the upstream side and the downstream side with respect to the manufacturing apparatus concerned, one on the upstream side and one on the downstream side, estimates an operation period of each selected peripheral apparatus associated with the failure, reads log data corresponding to the estimated operation period from the operation history storage unit (31), and transmits the read piece to the external support center (SC) .