초록 ▼

A system and method for managing welding consumable(s) is provided. The invention includes a welder having a consumable(s) monitor, a customer system and/or a remote system. The invention further provides for monitoring of welding consumable(s) usage and ordering of welding consumable(s) from suppli

A system and method for managing welding consumable(s) is provided. The invention includes a welder having a consumable(s) monitor, a customer system and/or a remote system. The invention further provides for monitoring of welding consumable(s) usage and ordering of welding consumable(s) from suppliers, distributors and/or manufacturers. The invention further provides for an optional arc/weld quality monitor that provides information regarding weld quality. The invention further provides for invoicing a customer for welding consumable(s) as the consumable(s) are used by the customer. The invention further provides for invoicing of customers for welding consumable(s) that produce acceptable welds. The invention further provides for remote management of customer welding consumable(s) inventory based at least in part upon information received regarding welding consumable(s) usage. The invention further provides for communication with a production component, financial accounting component and/or materials management component in order to facilitate automation of welding consumable(s) management.

대표청구항 ▼

What is claimed is: 1. A system for managing at least one welding consumable, comprising: a welder, comprising: a consumables monitor that monitors an amount of at least one consumable consumed; and an arc/weld quality monitor that monitors quality of at least one weld; and a remote system communic

What is claimed is: 1. A system for managing at least one welding consumable, comprising: a welder, comprising: a consumables monitor that monitors an amount of at least one consumable consumed; and an arc/weld quality monitor that monitors quality of at least one weld; and a remote system communicatively coupled to the welder via a network, the remote system comprising: a production control component that receives information from the consumables monitor regarding the amount of the at least one consumable consumed or the amount of the at least one consumable remaining and measures a consumable demand rate based at least in party upon a production control policy and the received information; a financial account component that receives information from the consumables monitor regarding the amount of the at least one consumable consumed or the amount of the at least one consumable remaining and performs accounting tasks based at least in part upon the received information; a materials management component that receives information from the consumables monitor regarding the amount of the at least one consumable consumed or the amount of the at least one consumable remaining and performs inventory control based at least in part upon the received information; an inventory management component that maintains data regarding an inventory of the at least one consumable at a customer location, adjusts the inventory based at least in part on the information received from the consumables monitor regarding the amount of the at least one consumable consumed or the amount of the at least one consumable remaining and charges the customer for an amount of the at least one welding consumable used by the customer based at least in part upon the change in inventory. 2. The system of claim 1, the inventory control includes ordering or purchasing the at least one consumable based at least in part upon the information received from the consumables monitor. 3. The system of claim 1, the at least one consumable is at least one of: wire, gas, flux, contact tip or consumable electrode. 4. The system of claim 3, the wire is used for at least one of gas metal arc welding, flux cored arc welding, metal cored arc welding, submerged arc welding, narrow groove welding, hot wire filled TIG welding, cold wire filled TIG welding, plasma arc welding, electron beam and laser welding, or hardface welding. 5. The system of claim 3, the consumable electrode is used for at least one of: arc gauging or manual shielded arc welding. 6. The system of claim 1, the inventory control is further based at least in part upon an ordering model stored on the remote system. 7. The system of claim 1, the inventory control is further based at least in part upon a vendor managed replenishment contract. 8. The system of claim 7, ownership of the at least one consumable remains with a supplier, distributor or manufacturer until the at least one consumable has been used by a customer. 9. The system of claim 1, the welder is leased to a customer and enforcement of the lease is performed at least in part based upon information received from the consumables monitor. 10. The system of claim 1, the remote system enforces at least one of: a welding equipment maintenance contract, a welding software maintenance contract, a welding service contract, or a welding upgrade contract. 11. The system of claim 1 the remote system produces an invoice for the at least one consumable based at least in part upon the information. 12. The system of claim 1, the network employs at least one of: Ethernet, Wireless Ethernet, PPP (point-to-point protocol), point-to-multipoint short-range RF (Radio Frequency), WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), Bluetooth, IP, IPv6, TCP, User Datagram Protocol (UDP), PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol), L2TP (Layer Two Tunneling Protocol), IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) or SOCKS. 13. The system of claim 1, information includes at least one of: HTML, SHTML, VB Script, JAVA, CGI Script, JAVA Script, dynamic HTML, ASP, ActiveX, XML, PDF, EDI and WML format. 14. The system of claim 1, the welder and the remote system are communicatively coupled via at least one of: a LAN, a phone connection or a gateway. 15. The system of claim 1, the network is at least one of: a local computer network, an extranet or the Internet. 16. The system of claim 1, the remote system generates an invoice for the at least one consumable based at least in part upon information regarding weld quality received from the arc/weld quality monitor. 17. The system of claim 16, the remote system tracks patterns of usage of the at least one consumable or inventory levels of the at least one consumable. 18. The system of claim 16, the remote system facilitates Just-In-Time (JIT) raw material inventory management to achieve low inventory of the at least one consumable or high service level objectives in production. 19. The system of claim 1, the remote system performs at least one of: enterprise resource planning, production capacity planning or forecast planning based at least in part upon the information. 20. The system of claim 1, the remote system charges for the at least one component as the at least one component is used by the welder based at least in part upon the quality of the at least one weld. 21. The system of claim 1, ownership of the at least one consumable remains with a supplier until the at least one consumable is used by the customer. 22. A method for managing welding consumables, comprising: employing a processor to execute computer readable instructions stored in a computer readable medium to perform the following acts: monitoring an amount of at least one consumable consumed through a consumables monitor; monitoring quality of at least one weld through a remote system communicatively coupled to the welder via a network; receiving information from the consumables monitor regarding the amount of the at least one consumable consumed or the amount of the at least one consumable remaining and measuring a consumable demand rate based at least in party upon a production control policy and the received information; receiving information from the consumables monitor regarding the amount of the at least one consumable consumed or the amount of the at least one consumable remaining and performing accounting tasks based at least in part upon the received information; receiving information from the consumables monitor regarding the amount of the at least one consumable consumed or the amount of the at least one consumable remaining and performing inventory control based at least in part upon the received information; maintaining data regarding an inventory of the at least one consumable at a customer location, adjusting the inventory based at least in part on the information received from the consumables monitor regarding the amount of the at least one consumable consumed or the amount of the at least one consumable remaining and charging the customer for an amount of the at least one welding consumable used by the customer based at least in part upon the change in inventory; determining whether supply of each of the at least one welding consumable has fall below a predefined ordering threshold amount based at least in part on the information regarding consumption of each of the at least one welding consumable; and ordering each of the at least one welding consumable based at least in part upon the determination that the supply of each of the at least one welding consumable has fall below the predefined ordering threshold. 23. The method of claim 22, further comprising aggregating information regarding the usage of each of the at least one welding consumable from one or more welders. 24. The method of claim 22, further comprising aggregating information regarding the ordering of each of the at least one consumable. 25. The method of claim 22, wherein the threshold ordering amount is based at least in part upon at least one of: a vendor managed replenishment contract, a supplier's lead time for the consumable, a consumable forecast usage rate, availability of the consumable or pricing data for the consumable. 26. The method of claim 22, wherein the threshold ordering amount is updated continuously and in real-time.