In the present invention, a heating plate is divided into a plurality of
regions. Integrated values of temperature fluctuations in each of the
regions when a substrate is mounted on the heating plate in a normal
state without extraneous matter are collected. A Mahalanobis reference
space in the discriminant analysis method is formed based on the
integrated values at normal time. During actual heat processing, an
integrated value of temperature fluctuation of each of the regions when
the substrate is mounted on the heating plate is then detected, so that a
Mahalanobis distance about the integrated value during the processing is
calculated based on the integrated value during the processing and the
Mahalanobis reference space obtained in advance. Whether or not there is
extraneous matter on the heating plate is determined by comparing the
calculated Mahalanobis distance to a predetermined threshold value.