JP2003271762A - Transportation instruction system for broken-down article - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently give an instruction for the transportation of a broken- down article when the repair of the broken-down article is applied for. <P>SOLUTION: A reception server 3 receives an application for repair of a broken-down article from a user through the Internet, etc. Once an application processing part 32 receives information on the type, etc., of the broken-down article, a box size specification part 33 specifies the size of a box for packing the broken-down article and a repair base determination part 34 determines a base where the broken-down article is repaired. Further, a collection time determination part 35 determines collection time when a transporter can collect it according to user's desired collection time. Then a physical distribution information generation part 36 generates information needed to collect and transport the broken-down article to the repair base to instruct the transporter to transport it. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for accepting a repair request in a repair service for a defective product, and more particularly to a system for instructing the transportation of a defective product for which a repair request has been accepted.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In a repair service for a defective product, the user may bring the defective product to a dealer or an agent for repair by himself, or the carrier may contact the user by telephone or the like to make the user a user. They go to their homes and collect defective products. The defective product collected here is delivered to the repair base where the repair is performed and repaired.

When a carrier or the like goes to a user's house to collect a defective product, conventionally, an operator accepts a repair request by telephone or the like, and further specifies a repair base manually.
I was instructing the carrier etc. In addition, the user has to prepare the packaging box for transporting the defective product by himself / herself, or selects an appropriate box on the spot from a plurality of types of boxes brought by the transportation company for packaging.

[0004] At the repair base, the condition of the defective product carried in is analyzed and repaired. At this time, the details of the failure and the details of the repair are recorded by the repair worker manually filling in the repair slip. Then, the request for the repair cost was made based on the slip.

Further, although it is useful to improve the product by grasping the status of the trouble caused by the defective product, it takes time because the totaling is a manual work.

An object of the present invention is to provide a system for efficiently instructing the transportation of a defective product when a request for repairing the defective product is made.

[0007]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for instructing the transportation of a defective product, a means for receiving information on a pick-up location of the defective product and model information of the defective product, and the model. Means for specifying the type of a packaging container for packaging the defective product based on the information, and means for generating and outputting transfer instruction information including the information regarding the pick-up location of the defective product and the type of the packaging container Equipped with.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of a product repair service management system according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied. The repair service managed by the present system is, for example, when a product owned by the user breaks down, the defective product 6 is taken from the user's house and repaired at the repair base based on the repair request from the user, and the repaired product is repaired. 7 is a service for delivering the data to the user's house. Malfunction 6 between repair base and user's house
The delivery of the repaired product 7 and the repaired product 7 is performed by, for example, a carrier. The user may bring the defective product to the repair base directly to a store or an agent and collect the defective product via the store.

In order to provide the above-described product repair service, this system is provided with a repair information system 1 at a repair base for repairing the product, and a user terminal for which the user who requests the product repair makes an application or the like. 2, a reception server 3 that receives a repair application, and a logistics server 4 of a transportation company,
They are connected to each other via a network 9 such as the Internet.

The repair information system 1, the user terminal 2, the reception server 3, and the physical distribution server 4 are all configured by, for example, a general-purpose computer system, and the individual components or functions described below are, for example, computer programs. It is realized by executing.

When a user's own product breaks down, the user accesses the reception server 3 from the user terminal 2,
Apply for repair of defective products. The user terminal 2 is, for example, W
It may be replaced by a general-purpose personal computer that operates a WW (World Wide Web) browser, a mobile phone that can connect to the Internet, a personal digital assistant, or the like.

The acceptance server 3 performs processing for accepting a repair application for a defective product. The reception server 3 performs a process for instructing a carrier to convey a defective product based on the received request for repair. On the reception server 3, for example, a WWW server is operating, and a reception screen 100 described later can be provided on a web page.

The reception server 3 controls the communication with the network 9, as shown in FIG. 2, for example.
And a repair application screen 100, which will be described later, is displayed on the user terminal 2, and the application processing unit 22 that accepts an input thereto
And a box size specifying unit 33 that specifies the size of the box to be packed when the defective product 6 is picked up, a repair base determining unit 34 that determines a repair base for repairing the defective product, and a date and time when the repair product is taken from the user home. A pickup date and time determination unit 35 for determining
It has a physical distribution information generation unit 36 that generates physical distribution information to be transmitted to the physical distribution server 4, and a model table 38.

The communication control unit 31 is, for example, the user terminal 2
The information related to the repair application input from is received, and the physical distribution information generated by the physical distribution information generation unit is transmitted to the physical distribution server 4.

The application processing unit 32 performs processing for accepting a repair application for a defective product from the user terminal 2. The application processing unit 32 displays, for example, a repair application screen 100 as shown in FIG. 3 on the user terminal 2 and accepts input of necessary items. The repair application screen 100 is information (name, zip code, address, telephone number) about the user who applies.
Input areas 101 to 104, input areas 105 and 106 for information (model name, serial number) relating to the defective product, and an input area 107 for the desired date and time for collecting the defective product. When the OK button 108 is pressed after the user inputs necessary information on the screen 100, the application processing unit 32
Accepts the information input on this screen 100. The application processing unit 32 assigns a reception number for uniquely identifying the repair application received here, and the communication control unit 31 uses the reception number and the received repair application information as temporary registration information.
To the repair information system 1 via. As will be described later, the repair information system 1 uses this information to temporarily register the repair application.

The model table 38 has information for each model of the product to be repaired. The model table 38 includes a box size specifying unit 33 and a repair base determining unit 3 which will be described below.
4 is referred to in the processing performed.

In the model table 38, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, a model name 381, a box size 382, a repair base 383, and a postal code 384 are associated with each other. The box size 382 is the size of the packing box corresponding to the model name 381.

Here, the packing box is a packing container used for packing when a defective product and a repaired product after repair are transported. Usually, the user who requests repair does not have a box for packing, so this repair service will bring the box used by the shipping company for packing when picking up the defective item, and the size of the box for each model. Has been decided in advance. In addition,
This box will be picked up by the carrier for reuse after use.

The repair base 383 is a base in charge of repairing the model indicated by the model name 381. When there are a plurality of repair bases nationwide, the repair base 383 may be defined by a combination of the model name 381 and the postal code 384. At this time, the whole country may be divided into as many areas as the number of bases, each repair base may be in charge of one of the divided regions, and the postal code 384 may determine the region in charge of each base.
The postal code may be replaced with a combination of the area code and the area code of the telephone number.

The box size specifying unit 33 specifies the box size based on the repair application received by the application processing unit 32 from the user. For example, the box size identification unit 33 identifies the box size by referring to the model table 38. That is, the box size specifying unit 33, based on the model name 107 accepted by the application processing unit 32, selects the box size 3 corresponding to the model name.
82 is specified.

The repair base deciding unit 34 decides a repair base based on the repair application received from the user by the application processing unit 32. For example, the repair base determination unit 34 determines the repair base by referring to the model table 38. More specifically, the repair base determination unit 34 determines the model name 381 and the postal code 3 based on the model name 107 and the user's postal code 105 received by the application processing unit 32.
The repair base 383 corresponding to 84 is specified. For a specific model, the repair base 383 may be determined only by the model name 107.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the collection date and time determining unit 35.
Determines the date and time of receipt of the defective product from the user's house. For example, the take-back date and time determination unit 35 determines the desired take-back date and time 10 of the user.
8 determines whether the delivery company can pick up the delivery date and time, determines the delivery date and time, and notifies the distribution information generation unit 36. More specifically, the take-back date and time is, for example, if the desired take-back date and time 108 is after the date and time when a predetermined predetermined date and time has passed from the application date and time, the date and time as the user's request is taken, and if not The user may be presented with the date and time when the item can be collected, and the user may be allowed to select one of them. Alternatively, when the application is accepted by a predetermined time in the evening, the take-back date and time may be determined to be the afternoon of the next day.

The physical distribution information generating unit 36 generates information for instructing to carry the defective product. The transfer instruction information includes, for example, information about the delivery destination of the defective product (for example, address, telephone number, user name, etc.), information about the repair base of the delivery destination (for example, repair base name, address, etc.), and other delivery information. It includes the model name of the defective product, serial number, and box size for packing. The physical distribution information generation unit 36 also generates take-back date and time information for notifying the user terminal 2 of the take-back date and time of the defective product. The generated collection date and time information includes the collection date and time and is notified to the user terminal 2 via the communication processing unit 31.

As described above, when the acceptance server 3 receives an application for repairing a defective product from the user, it is possible to efficiently instruct the location for picking up the defective product, the delivery destination, the packaging box size, and the like.

Referring again to FIG. 1, when the physical distribution server 4 receives the physical distribution information from the reception server 3, the carrier brings the packing box of the size specified on the basis of this information and is specified. Collect defective products from the collection site. Then, the collected defective product is delivered to the designated repair base.

The repair information system 1 is installed in each repair site, and manages the overall repair work performed at the repair site from reception of the repaired product to management of the repair content and billing of the cost required for the repair.

As shown in FIG. 5, the repair information system 1 is connected to a display device 31 such as a CRT or a liquid crystal monitor and an input device 32 such as a keyboard and a pointing device. The repair information system 1 has, as its internal functions, a communication processing unit 11 that controls communication with the outside, a reception processing unit 12 that receives defective products, and a repair record management unit 13 that inputs repair details. , A billing processing unit 14 that performs processing related to billing for the cost required for repair, a shipping processing unit 15 that performs shipping processing for returning repaired repaired products to the user, and a repair database 18 An aggregation processing unit 16 that aggregates the states, a repair database 18 that stores a failure state (a failure event and a cause of the failure) of the product to be repaired, a repair content, and the like, and a customer database 19 that stores information about customers. Equipped with.

The communication processing unit 11 receives the temporary registration information sent from the reception server 3 and sends the sales information to a sales totaling system (not shown).

The repair database 18 has data items as shown in FIG. 6, for example. That is, the repair database 18 includes a receipt number 1801 and a model name 1802.
Manufacturing number 1803, repair acceptance date 1804, repair completion date 1805, shipping date 1806, and repair sales date 18
07, failure status 1808, diagnosis result 1809, processing content 1810, replacement part 1811, and charge 1812
A worker 1813, a quotation waiting flag 1814, and a quotation reply date 1815. By referring to such a database, it is possible to centrally manage the faulty product for which the repair request has been accepted and the content of the repair for the faulty product.

The reception number 1801 is information assigned by the reception server 3 or the reception processing unit 12 for uniquely identifying each repair case. Repair acceptance date 1804
Indicates the date when the repair base actually received the defective product. The shipping date 1806 indicates the date when the repaired product was shipped for returning to the user. The repair sales date 1807 indicates the day on which the fee 1812 for repair is billed. The failure status 1808 indicates a malfunction that occurs in a failed product or an event that is considered to be a failure. For example, “print blur” or
For example, "Cannot feed". The diagnostic result 1809 is
An operator at the repair site diagnoses the defective product and indicates the cause of the identified failure, and "head clogging" and "feed roller wear"
and so on. The processing content 1810 indicates the content of the processing performed for repairing the failure, for example, "disassembly / cleaning",
There are "replacement of parts" etc. The replacement part 1811 indicates the ID of the part when the part is replaced for repair. The charge 1812 indicates the cost required for this repair. The estimate waiting flag 1814 is a flag indicating that the estimate amount of the repair cost is transmitted to the user and waiting for an answer as to whether or not to perform the repair. The estimate reply date 1815 indicates the date when the reply to the estimate is whether or not to repair.

The customer database 19 stores the personal information of customers. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, user ID 1
91, reception number 192, owner 19A, delivery destination 19B,
And the information of the billing destination 19C is stored. Owner information 19
A has, for example, a postal code 193a, an address 194a, a name 195a, a telephone number 196a, a FAX number 197a, a department 198a, and a person in charge 199a. Delivery information 1
9B and billing address information 19C also have the same items as the owner information 19A. Registration in the customer database 19
For example, a customer registration screen (not shown) is displayed on the display device 31, and the operator at the repair site inputs necessary information. An individual repair case stored in the repair database 18 can be associated with the reception number 192.

The acceptance processing unit 12 accepts information about the defective product and registers it in the repair database 18. For example, when the reception processing unit 12 receives the temporary registration information from the reception server 3, the reception processing unit 12 temporarily registers the information in the repair database 18. Further, the reception processing unit 12 displays the reception input screen 200 shown in FIG. 8 on the display device 31, and receives the input by the operator at the repair base.

The acceptance input screen 200 has areas for accepting, for example, an acceptance number 201, a repair acceptance date 202, a model name 203, and a manufacturing number 204.
If the information of the target repair case has already been provisionally registered, when the operator inputs the manufacturing number 204, the information of the corresponding item of the temporarily registered record using the manufacturing number as a key is displayed on the reception input screen 200. Is displayed in. Here, the operator makes additional input if there are unregistered items,
Items already registered can also be modified. When the temporary registration is not made, the operator inputs the repair acceptance date 202, the model name 203 and the serial number 204, and the acceptance processing unit 12 that accepts these pieces of information assigns the acceptance number 1801 and repair database 18 Register to.

When the acceptance process is completed, the defective product is carried to the worker who actually repairs it. The operator confirms the status of the failure (failure location and failure), takes prescribed measures, and repairs the failed product. When the repair is completed, the worker reports the repair work. The repair work report is performed, for example, by inputting predetermined items on the repair result input screen 300 displayed on the display device 31 by the repair record management unit 13.

The repair result input screen 300 is shown in FIG.
As shown in (3), it has an area for receiving an input of a reception number 301, a repair completion date 302, a failure status 303, a diagnosis result 304, a processing content 305, a replacement part 306, and a worker name 307. The failure status 303, the diagnosis result 304, and the processing content 305 may be prepared in advance so that the operator can select and input them. By allowing these items to be selected from the choices, the totaling in the totaling processing unit 16 described later becomes easy. This input screen 3
The information entered in 00 is registered in the repair database 18 using the receipt number as a key.

Further, for the user who requests the estimation of the repair cost before performing the repair, the worker estimates the repair cost and notifies the user of the amount in advance. Then, when there is a reply from the user to perform the repair, the repair is performed.

When waiting for the reply to the estimate, the operator specifies the repair case by the reception number and inputs from the input screen (not shown) that the repair case is waiting for the reply from the user. Based on this input, the repair record management unit 13 sets the estimate waiting flag 1814. Then, when there is a reply from the user as to whether or not the repair is to be performed, the reply date is input from an input screen (not shown), and the repair record management unit 13 sets the estimated reply date 1815 based on this.

Further, in the present system 1, it is possible to check the repair progress status of the product deposited by the user. As a result, for example, the progress status can be immediately confirmed when the user makes an inquiry. To confirm the progress status, for example, the repair record management unit 13 displays a progress monitor screen 400 as shown in FIG. 10 on the display device 31 and confirms it for each individual repair case. More specifically, when the operator inputs the reception number 401 into this screen 400, the repair record management unit 13 searches the repair database 18 using this reception number as a key,
Extract the applicable record. Then, the repair record management unit 13 determines the current process of this repair case based on the extracted record. Examples of the current step 402 include “waiting for reception”, “during repair”, “waiting for quotation”, “waiting for shipment”, “shipped”, and the like. In this case, when the repair acceptance date 1804 is not set, “waiting for acceptance”,
When the quotation wait flag 1814 is set "waiting for quotation", the repair acceptance date 1804 has been set, and the repair completion date 1805 and the quotation wait flag 1814 have not been set or the quotation reply date 1815 has been set. Is "under repair", the repair completion date 1805 has been set, and the repair shipping date 1806 is not set, "waiting for shipment", and the repair shipping date 1806 is set, "shipped".

The billing unit 14 carries out a process for billing the user for the repair cost. For example, the billing processing unit 14
A charge 1812 is calculated with reference to the processing content 1810 of the repair database 18 and the replacement part 1811 and registered in the repair database 18. Then, the billing processing unit 14
Search the customer database 18 using the receipt number as a key,
A bill for billing the billing destination 19C for the charge calculated here is issued. This bill may be printed out from a printer (not shown). After issuing the bill, the billing processing unit 14 sets the repair sales date 1807 to the current day.

The shipping processing section 15 carries out shipping processing for shipping the repaired product to the user. For example, the shipping processing unit 15 searches the customer database 18 using the receipt number as a key, and prints a slip for delivery to the delivery destination 19B with a printer (not shown). Shipping processing unit 15
Sets the repair shipping date 1806 and ends the shipping process.

The totalization processing unit 16 includes a repair database 18
The product failure stored in the or the repair result performed for the failure is totaled. For example, the totalization processing unit 16
Collects the failure points for each model. More specifically, the totalization processing unit 16 counts the number of occurrences of failures that occurred within a predetermined period for each model name 1802 and each failure status 1808. In addition, the aggregation processing unit 16 calculates, for example, a defect tendency or a defect rate for each model. The failure tendency is, for example, for each model name 1802 regarding a failure that the totalization processing unit 16 has occurred within a predetermined period,
The number of occurrences of each diagnosis result 1809 is counted. Furthermore, the model name 180 counted as a defect tendency
The defect rate for each model name 1802 is calculated from the count number for each second diagnosis result 1809 and the number of units sold during the same period.
This tabulation may be performed, for example, at a fixed cycle such as at the end of the month, or at any time at any time.

The totalization result of the totalization processing unit 16 is output from, for example, a printer (not shown) or stored in a storage device (not shown). From the result of this aggregation, it is possible to know the breakdowns that are likely to occur for each model, the rate of occurrence of breakdowns, etc., and to feed this back to the development site of the product in real time, which can be useful for product improvement and the like.

The above-described embodiments of the present invention are examples for explaining the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those embodiments. Those skilled in the art can implement the present invention in various other modes without departing from the gist of the present invention.

For example, the repair information system 1 and the reception server component server described above can be collectively realized by one computer, or can be separately realized by one computer.

[0046]

According to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently issue an instruction to convey a defective product when a repair application for the defective product is made.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of a system for managing a product repair service according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a reception server 3.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a repair application screen 100.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a model table 38.

5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a repair information system 1. FIG.

6 is a diagram showing an example of data items of a repair database 18. FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of data items of a customer database 19.

8 is a diagram showing an example of a reception input screen 200. FIG.

9 is a diagram showing an example of a repair result input screen 300. FIG.

10 is a diagram showing an example of a progress monitor 400. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Repair information system 2 ... User terminal 3 ... Reception server 4 ... Logistics server 6 ... broken product 7 ... Repaired product 9 ... Network 13 ... Repair performance management department 14 ... Claim processing unit 15 ... Shipping processing section 16 ... Totalization processing unit 32 ... Application Processing Department 33 ... Box size specification section 34 ... Repair base determination unit 35 ... Collection date and time determination unit 36 ... Logistics Information Generation Department

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A system for instructing the transportation of a defective product, comprising means for receiving information regarding the pick-up location of the defective product and model information of the defective product; A transportation instruction system for a defective product, comprising: means for specifying the type of packaging container for packing; and means for generating and outputting transportation instruction information including the information regarding the location where the defective product is collected and the type of the packaging container. 2. Information regarding the collection place of the defective product is
The information including a postal code or a telephone number is included, and the transport instruction system further comprises means for determining a base for repairing the defective product based on the model information and the postal code or the telephone number. A transportation instruction system for defective products. 3. The transportation instruction system for a defective product according to claim 2, wherein the transportation instruction information output by the output means includes information on the repair base. 4. The accepting means further accepts a desired delivery date and time of the defective product, and the transport instruction system determines whether or not the desired delivery date and time is a date and time at which a person who transports the defective product can deliver. The transportation instruction system for a defective product according to claim 1, further comprising means for making a determination and determining a pickup date and time according to the determination result. 5. A method for operating a transportation system for a defective product, the method comprising: receiving information about a pick-up location of the defective product and model information of the defective product; and the failure based on the model information. A transportation instruction for a defective product, which has a process of identifying the type of a packaging container for packaging the product, and means for generating and outputting transportation instruction information including the information about the location where the defective product is collected and the type of the packaging container. Method. 6. A process of receiving information about a take-back location of the defective product and model information of the defective product when executed by a computer, and a packaging container for packing the defective product based on the model information. A computer for instructing the transportation of a defective product, which causes the computer to execute processing for identifying a type and means for generating and outputting transportation instruction information including information regarding a location where the defective product is collected and the type of the packaging container. program.