This paper develops a modeling approach to address the
end-of-batch
product quality prediction problem for batch processes with limited
batch-cycle data. Generally, those batch processes that have multiple
phases are the focus of the present paper. Different from the traditional
multiway/phase-based partial least-squares (PLS) method, which unfolds
the three-way data set through the batch direction, the proposed method
unfolds the data set through the variable direction, in order to generate
more training data samples. Reproducing the product quality data with
the noise injection method allows a statistical model to be developed
in each phase of the batch process. This, however, does not remove
the nonlinearity of the batch process data, as practically addressed
by the typical batch normalization. Therefore, a nonlinear regression
model is subsequently introduced to handle this problem for product
quality prediction modeling. To compare the performance of linear
and nonlinear statistical models, phase-based PLS and relevance vector
machine models have both been developed for prediction of product
quality in an industrial injection molding process.