WO2021155904A1

WO2021155904A1 - System and method to support troubleshooting for a plant for processing containers for pourable products

Info

Publication number: WO2021155904A1
Application number: PCT/EP2020/052614
Authority: WO
Inventors: Emilio CEPOLLINA
Original assignee: Sidel Participations
Priority date: 2020-02-03
Filing date: 2020-02-03
Publication date: 2021-08-12

Abstract

A machine-implemented troubleshooting-assistance system (1) for a container processing plant with a number of processing machines cooperating in processing of containers for pourable products, implemented as a remotely-accessible cloud platform (2), having a web portal (5) accessible by an operator seeking technical troubleshooting assistance via a communication electronic device (4), wherein: a conversational service module (6) provides a conversational virtual assistant, guiding the operator along a conversational flow (26) for verification and correction of a reported issue affecting a container processing machine; and a search service module (8) provides search functionality, allowing to search for documentation and technical information relevant to the same reported issue. The conversational service module (6) interacts with the search service module (8) during the conversational flow (26) to automatically provide the operator with relevant documentation and technical information.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD TO SUPPORT TROUBLESHOOTING FOR A PLANT FOR PROCESSING CONTAINERS FOR POURABLE PRODUCTS

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a machine-implemented troubleshooting-assistance system, and to a corresponding method, for a plant for processing containers for pourable products.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, the present solution may be implemented in plants for processing any type of containers, such as bottles (or other kinds of receptacles) made of glass, plastic (PET), aluminium, steel and composite materials, that are to be filled with a pourable product, in particular a food product, including sparkling liquids, such as sparkling water, non alcoholic beverages and beer; non-effervescent liquids, such as natural water, milk, juices, tea, integrators for sport activities or wine.

As it is known, a plant for processing containers comprises a number of processing machines arranged so as to form a container processing line, amongst which: a forming machine, for example a blower, configured to form, for example by blowing, containers to be filled starting from so-called preforms; a filling machine, configured to fill the containers with a pourable product, for example a sparkling beverage; a capping machine, configured to cap the filled containers; a labelling machine, configured to label the filled containers; and a packaging machine, configured to perform suitable packaging of the containers, at the end of the container processing line for their subsequent transport.

The container processing plant may also include further processing machines, such as product preparation machines, a sterilising machine, a pasteurizer, a palletizer, a bottle washer, a crate washer, etc. The plant may also include package transportation equipment such as LGV's, product preparation machinery and equipment, and even storage equipment such as automated warehouses.

In a known manner, faults, malfunctions or desired performance not reached (in general denoted in the following as "issues") in any of the processing machines of the container processing plant may impair the container processing operations; when any of such issues occurs, it is important to take suitable and timely actions (so called troubleshooting operations) in order to restore the correct operation of the container processing machine and plant.

In order to assist troubleshooting operations, it is common practice for the manufacturer of the processing machines to provide on-site specialist technicians and a centralized support service (which in practice may be located at one site or at a number of interconnected sites), with a service team of highly skilled personnel providing remote assistance in order to assist verification and identification of the faults and restoring of correct operation of the processing machines.

Technicians, customers or other operators at the site of the container processing plant therefore usually send service requests (via e-mail or voice contact) to the centralized support service requiring assistance for the troubleshooting operations.

The present Applicant has realized that there are a number of problems affecting known solutions for troubleshooting assistance.

In particular, these solutions are dependent on the ability by the operators (who may have a highly variable skill and experience) at the site of the container processing plant to understand the problems and faults and to correctly report the same problems and faults, by conveying all relevant technical information.

Verbal dialogue and/or e-mail exchanges between operators and centralized support team may be affected by misunderstandings, misinterpretations, also due to possible differences in languages and expressions used.

Moreover, the present Applicant has realized that although a manufacturer may provide a remotely-accessible technical portal for storing and sharing technical documentation, it may often prove difficult for the technicians both on-site and at the centralized support to search and extract information relevant to the issue to be solved (a high knowledge being required to find information); this is due mainly to the bulk of the available documentation to be searched, but also to different languages, different document formats, different file classifications used, which may hinder the search and retrieval of information.

The Applicant has realized that currently a very high amount of resources (in terms of personnel, facilities and allocated time) is spent for troubleshooting assistance and support, with results that are not always satisfactory both for the manufacturers and the clients.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The aim of the present invention is to provide a solution that will enable the problems highlighted previously to be solved.

According to the present invention a machine- implemented troubleshooting-assistance system and method are provided, as defined in the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the present invention, preferred embodiments thereof are now described, purely by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the attached drawings, wherein:

- Figure 1 is a general block diagram of a machine- implemented troubleshooting-assistance system according to an embodiment of the present solution;

- Figure 2 shows a schematic flowchart of operations performed in the system of Figure 1;

- Figure 3 is a schematic depiction of the implementation of a conversational flow service module in the system of Figure 1;

- Figure 4 shows an exemplary display of search results provided by a search service module in the system of Figure i;

- Figure 5A shows an exemplary fishbone diagram based on which the conversational flow service module operates;

- Figure 5B shows a diagram operation flow to translate the fishbone diagram of Figure 5A into a machine-implemented conversational flow; and

- Figure 5C shows an exemplary display of the resulting machine-implemented conversational flow.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

As will be discussed in detail in the following, the present solution provides a machine-implemented troubleshooting-assistance system, made available to technicians (or other operators) to improve verification and correction of problems and malfunctions (in general, issues) occurring on processing machines of a container processing plant.

In particular, the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system is implemented as a cloud platform, allowing technicians or other operators to verify in a simple and reliable manner possible causes related to reported issues and guide the resolution of the same issues, implementing, in a single operating and working environment, a mix of "textual search" and "conversational flow" technologies, exploitable through interaction with the cloud platform.

The virtual troubleshooting-assistance system allows an efficient and complete use of an available knowledge base, in particular including: experience built up by technical support team in solving past problems and malfunctions; documentation and technical information (such as manuals, data sheets, application notes, and so on); and, moreover, mailbox used by the technical support team and operators to share technical and procedure information relating to the verification and correction of past issues.

As schematically shown in Figure 1, the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system, denoted as a whole with 1, is implemented as a remotely-accessible cloud platform 2, which can be accessed by a technician or any other operator seeking technical troubleshooting assistance via a communication electronic device 4, such as a desktop or laptop computer via a web browser or a mobile electronic device (e.g. a smartphone, a phablet, a tablet) via a suitable software application ("app").

In the cloud platform 2, authentication to a web portal 5 allows access to the services offered by the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1.

In particular, the operator may access, through the web portal 5, to a conversational service module 6 and to a search service module 8.

As will be discussed in details in the following, the conversational service module 6 is configured to provide a conversational virtual assistant (a so-called "chatbot"), guiding the operator along a conversational flow for verification and correction of the reported issue.

The search service module 8 is configured to provide search functionality, allowing to search for documentation and technical information relevant to the same reported issue. Again, as it will be discussed in details in the following, the search service module 8 is further configured to provide the operator with a textual search functionality and also to implement specific search steps during the execution of, and interacting with, the conversational flow implemented by the conversational service module 6.

In particular, the search service module 8 comprises: a first search engine 8a, configured to search ("crawl") through a first storage unit 10 of the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1, storing structured problem verification and correction data; and a second search engine 8b, configured to search through a second storage unit 12 of the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1, storing destructured (or non-structured) problem verification and correction data.

According to an aspect of the present solution, the first storage unit 10 stores official technical data (such as manuals, data sheets, issues analysis-and-fix procedure documents, and so on) relating to the container processing machines and is typically part of a technical portal provided by the same manufacturer; and the second storage unit 12 is a mailbox (typically in a cloud storage) storing past e- mails communications, in particular exchanged between technicians of the support team and operators relating to past troubleshooting assistance procedures.

The data stored in the first storage unit 10 are structured, in the sense that they are organized and arranged according to set and known criteria, according to which the same data can be searched and retrieved; while the data stored in the second storage unit 12 are de-structured, in the sense that they are not organized according to specific criteria, being instead arranged according to several and variable formats, both in terms of the content and the form of presentation of the same content.

The first and second search engines 8a, 8b are generally configured to implement a categorization of the documents and their occurrences with metadata, which are used during the search. In particular, it is possible to restrict the set of results using the categorization enhancements in a manner consistent with the search objectives, customizing the search engines in order to extract metadata information based on rules on the documents path and filters functionality .

As will be discussed in detail in the following, the first and second search engines 8a, 8b of the search service module 8 are configured to perform searches in the first and second storage units 10, 12 upon receiving search queries from the operator; and, moreover, by interacting with the conversational service module 6, at certain steps of the implemented conversational flow (during the execution of the same conversational flow by the conversational service module 6), in order to present to the user relevant information for verification and correction of the reported problem.

The conversational service module 6 and the search service module 8 are advantageously implemented with AI

(Artificial Intelligence) enhanced features, so as to learn (so-called "machine learning") from previous executions and thus progressively enhance the operation of the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1.

For example, the conversational service module 6 may be configured to modify the implemented conversational flow based on previous resolutions of similar issues (e.g. removing one or more steps that have proven not to be useful or adding other steps to provide information that have proven to be relevant for solving the issues); while the search service module 8 may be configured to modify the implemented search engines based on previous search results and previous interactions with the conversational service module 6 (just as an example, the search engines may consider also variations and modifications of queried search terms, e.g. a machine serial code or name, that have proven to be used as well, e.g. in different geographic areas or by different operators).

Operation of the conversational service module 6 and the search service module 8 therefore progressively improves and increases the knowledge base on which the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1 is based, in particular by: storing the queries sent to the conversational service module 6 and the progress and outcome of the conversational flow, in particular in case they relate to issues not previously dealt with; collecting operator feedback relating to the progress and outcome of the conversational flow, in particular in order to introduce further steps in the same conversational flow for future use in solving similar issues; verifying, at each step of the conversational flow, the presence and completeness of the documents and technical information stored in the technical portal (possibly providing alerts and requests to add information that are found to be missing).

The virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1 may therefore comprise, as shown in the same Figure 1, a storage module 14 to store a history of conversational flows and queries submitted to the same system (in view of aggregated analysis, statistics, e.g. to detect more common requests and, as previously discussed, progressively improve the system with suitable AI machine learning algorithms).

Operation of the conversational service module 6 (with interaction of the search service module 8) is now discussed in more details.

As schematically shown in Figure 2 at step 20, the conversational flow first envisages identification by the operator of the processing machine in which the issue is occurring. This identification may envisage input of the serial code or identification name of the processing machine by the operator.

The conversational service module 6 is advantageously configured to understand possible variations in the input code or name (e.g. due to input errors or local/regional variations) and correctly determine the associated processing machine; it is noted that use of AI machine learning algorithms allows to progressively improve the knowledge of the conversational service module 6 and capability to automatically determine the above variations.

Moreover, an automatic completion/suggestion feature may be provided during input of the code or name by the operator, again based on the knowledge base of the conversational service module 6; advantageously, the automatic completion/suggestion feature may also be based on the location and/or identification of the operator (e.g. the knowledge of the plant location may allow to determine the processing machine associated to the query).

As an alternative, the operator, using the communication electronic device 4 (or any other suitable electronic device), may be able to scan a machine-readable code associated with the processing machine, to automatically send to the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1 the identification of the same processing machine.

Advantageously, scanning of the QR code by the operator may enable automatic generation of the troubleshooting assistance request and automatic communication to the conversational service module 6 of a structured data set, including the above identification and, in addition, further data associated to the processing machine and relevant to the resolution of the issue.

This structured data set may include static and dynamic data associated with the processing machine, the static data relating to fixed characteristics of the processing machine 2 (such as name of the machine, name of the customer, identification code, position in the container processing plant, contact person on site and so on); and the dynamic data relating to the dynamic operation of the processing machines during processing of the containers, in particular relating to past faults and malfunctions, and possibly including a functional history of issues and machine generated alarms for the same processing machine.

The same structured data set may combine the static and dynamic data related to the relevant processing machine with the dynamic data, possibly including further data related to activities performed on-site to recover and restore the correct operation of the processing machine; the same structured data set may be formatted according to standard, uniform and pre-set criteria, for the data communication towards the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1.

The conversational flow is configured to present to the operator a verification message, including the code, name type and location of the identified processing machine, and to request a confirmation by the operator before continuing the conversational flow.

In case the operator confirms the correctness of the identification, the conversational flow envisages, step 22, requesting the operator to input the issue affecting the processing machine.

Advantageously, the conversational service module 6 may be configured to assist the operator in the description and presentation of the issue, for example presenting a list of known issues that may affect the machine and/or implementing an auto-completion feature based on the text input by the operator.

Once the issue is entered (and confirmed) by the operator, the conversational flow continues, as schematically shown at step 24, with a number of conversational steps subsequently presented to the operator by the conversational service module 6, based on a so called "fishbone" approach.

As it is known, and is schematically shown in Figure 3, the fishbone approach envisages use of cause-and-effeet fishbone diagram (denoted with 25 in the same Figure 3) to track down the causes for a problem. The fishbone diagram looks just like a fish skeleton with the problem at its head and the root causes for the problem feeding into the spine; the defect is shown as the fish head, facing to the right, with the causes extending to the left as fishbones, with the ribs branching off the backbone for major causes and sub branches for root-causes, to as many levels as required.

It is noted that fishbone diagrams for any of the known issues affecting the processing machines are based on the knowledge and expertise built-up by the technicians of the support team.

In particular, and as shown in the same Figure 3, the conversational service module 6 is configured to machine- implement a conversational flow (denoted with 26 in Figure 3) corresponding to the fishbone diagram 25 for any of the issues affecting the processing machine; in particular, the conversational service module 6 is based on a diagram flow (denoted with 27 in the same Figure 3), representing a translation from the fishbone diagram 25 to the machine- automated conversational flow 26.

During each step of the conversational flow, the conversational service module 6 poses a question to the operator and waits for the answer to the same question from the user, based on which to evolve the conversational flow.

Moreover, during the same conversational flow, the conversational service module 6 is configured to interact with the search service module 8 in order to retrieve data relevant to the same conversional flow, both from the first storage unit 10 storing the official technical data and from the second storage unit 12 storing past e-mails communications (e.g. in order to retrieve manuals or technical diagrams of a part to be checked, e-mails relating to issues affecting the same part, text or images and also video tutorials).

Moreover, a general search feature is made available to the operator during the whole assisted procedure and conversational flow, in order to allow retrieval of all data stored for the identified processing machine and relevant to the issue affecting the same processing machine, again both from the first storage unit 10 and from the second storage unit 12. The operator has thus available a complete set of documentation, which can be accessed and examined in order to understand and better determine the issue and possibly find a solution to the same issue.

As schematically shown in Figure 4, a single-page approach may be used to display the search results to the operator (on a display or monitor of the respective communication electronic device 4), so that in a single page 30 all principal results can be displayed. In particular, the main results retrieved from the first storage unit 10 are displayed in a first box (or tab) 31 and the main results retrieved from the second storage unit 12 are displayed in a second box 32 (each listed result being accessible for further and in-depth consultation). Moreover, a third box 33 may display search criteria used to retrieve the results and possible search filters to use for filtering the results (in a per-se known manner, the results may be ordered according to desired ordering criteria and further sub-searches may be carried out according to desired search criteria); while a fourth box 34 may display so-call "keymatches", i.e. results that are considered to be particularly relevant, based on the questions and answers during the conversational flow.

As shown in the above discussed Figure 2, each step of the conversational flow (including, clearly, the last step according to the fishbone-based diagram flow) may lead to resolution of the issue (if the suggested checks and operations allow to determine and solve the same issue), as shown at step 28, so that the conversational flow ends; or it may lead to determining the impossibility to solve the issue, so that the conversational flow ends and the troubleshooting request is transferred to a support technical team, as shown at step 29.

In the latter case, advantageously, the content of the conversational flow (including the checks, operations performed, the questions posed to the operator and the answers to the same questions), as stored in the storage module 14, may be communicated to the support technical team to assist them in the resolution of the issue.

Moreover, as previously discussed, in case the technical support team is able to solve the issue, feedback may be provided to improve the virtual troubleshooting- assistance system 1, e.g. introducing further steps in the conversational flow implemented by the conversational service module 6, or introducing further data and information in the technical documentation searched by the first and second search service module 8, or improving the search engines 8a, 8b implemented by the same search service module 8.

In a possible embodiment, the virtual troubleshooting- assistance system 1 may be operatively coupled to an automatic ticketing system to manage the requests to the support technical team, so that, in case the conversational flow does not lead to resolution of the issue, a new ticket may be automatically opened and sent to the support technical team (with all the associated conversational flow).

Figure 5A shows, purely as an example, a portion of a fishbone diagram 25, related to an issue of a processing machine, in this case a labelling issue (incorrect application of a label) in a labeller machine: a first rib branching off the backbone is shown, envisaging checking of the materials fed to the labeler, in particular if the label is under specifications and, subsequently, performing a manual test; a second rib is also shown, envisaging checking the machine parts (no further details are shown about this second rib).

Figure 5B shows, again purely as an example, a corresponding portion of the diagram flow 27 that is used to machine-implement the conversational flow, according to which the operator is first asked if the correctness of the applied label has been checked; the label specification datasheet is also retrieved from the second storage unit (technical portal) 12 and presented to the operator for a quick and easy reference.

Afterwards, the operator is asked if the problem has been solved; in the affirmative, the procedure ends, otherwise, the operator is asked to perform a manual test operation, with the labelling machine at minimum speed, to check if the label is correctly aligned. In the affirmative, it is determined that the issue cannot be automatically solved with the automatic conversational flow so that the procedure ends with the suggestion to contact the support technical team (as discussed, an automatic ticket can be opened for contacting the support technical team). Otherwise, the procedure may move to investigating the next rib branching off the backbone, e.g. relating to the parts of the machine involved in the issue (in a manner that is not discussed herein). Figure 5C shows, again purely as an example, a display

40 of the communication electronic device 4 of the operator (in the example a mobile phone), displaying some of the steps of the conversational flow 26 relating to the above discussed example (in particular the visualization of part of the label specification datasheet).

The advantages of the present solution are clear from the foregoing description.

It is in any case underlined that the disclosed virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1 allows to: improve and speed-up the discovery of issues in container processing machines; reduce engagement of the support technical team, in particular in providing information already available in the knowledge base, thanks to the provision of the conversational virtual assistant and associated search engines (configured to perform searches of relevant information both in the technical documentation and in a support service mailbox).

Technical experts may therefore be involved in actual troubleshooting activities, instead of being occupied in retrieving and providing technical documentation that should be already available; and operators may have a greater autonomy in retrieving machine documentation and procedures and overall reduced response times to access the same documentation . Moreover, the discussed solution advantageously allows to increase the knowledge base, exploiting feedback from past queries to the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1 and also to improve the same virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1, in particular the corresponding conversational flow and search engines.

Finally, it is clear that modifications and variations may be made to what has been described and illustrated herein, without thereby departing from the scope of the present invention, as defined in the appended claims.

In particular, it is underlined that the search service module 8 may comprise further search engines, configured to search through further storage units of the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1, storing structured or destructured problem verification and correction data (e.g. a further mailbox or a further technical server, for example storing local or regional technical documentation).

Moreover, the virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1 may also be configured to automatically generate alarms towards the container processing machines and plant, in case warning or dangerous situations are detected during the conversational flow based on the answers and the data provided by the operator (the virtual troubleshooting- assistance system 1 being in this case communicatively coupled to alarm and monitoring systems in the processing plant) and/or based on the interaction with the search service module.

It is also again underlined that the disclosed virtual troubleshooting-assistance system 1 can be advantageously applied irrespective of the type of processing plant or the type of containers being processed.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented troubleshooting-assistance system (1) for a container processing plant including a number of processing machines for processing of containers for pourable products, the system (1) implemented as a remotely- accessible cloud platform (2), including a web portal (5) accessible by an operator seeking technical troubleshooting assistance via a communication electronic device (4) and comprising: a conversational service module (6), configured to provide a conversational virtual assistant, guiding the operator along a conversational flow (26) for verification and correction of a reported issue affecting a container processing machine; and a search service module (8) configured to provide search functionality, allowing to search for documentation and technical information relevant to the reported issue, wherein the conversational service module (6) is configured to interact with the search service module (8) during the conversational flow (26) to automatically provide the operator with relevant documentation and technical information.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the search service module (8) comprises: a first search engine (8a), configured to search through a first storage unit (10) storing structured issue verification and correction data; and a second search engine (8b), configured to search through a second storage unit (12), storing destructured issue verification and correction data; wherein the conversational service module (6) is configured to interact with the first (8a) and the second (8b) search engines of the search service module (8) during the conversational flow (26) to retrieve documentation and technical information relevant to the conversional flow both from the first (10) and the second (12) storage units.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the first storage unit (10) is configured to store official technical data relating to the container processing machines; and the second storage unit (12) is a mailbox configured to store e- mails communications regarding troubleshooting assistance on the container processing machines.

4. The system according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the search service module (8) is configured to implement a general search feature made available to the operator during the conversational flow (26), in order to allow retrieval of data stored for the container processing machine and relevant to the issue affecting the same container processing machine, both from the first storage unit (10) and from the second storage unit (12).

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein a single- page approach is implemented to display the search results to the operator on a display (40) of the respective communication electronic device (4), so that in a single page (30) all principal results are displayed; wherein a first box (31) of the page (30) is configured to display results retrieved from the first storage unit (10) and a second box (32) is configured to display results retrieved from the second storage unit (12), and a further box (34) is configured to display keymatches, i.e. results that are considered to be relevant, based on questions and answers of the conversational flow (26).

6. The system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the conversational service module (6) is configured to machine-implement a diagram flow (27) based on a cause- and-effect fishbone diagram (25) relating to the reported issue; the diagram flow (27) representing a translation from the fishbone diagram (25) to the machine-automated conversational flow (26).

7. The system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the conversational service module (6) and the search service module (8) are implemented with artificial intelligence machine learning features, being configured to learn from previous operations and thus progressively enhance the operation of the virtual troubleshooting- assistance system (1).

8. The system according to any of the preceding claims further comprising a storage module (14) configured to store a history of conversational flows associated to respective reported issues, and related queries and answers provided by the operator.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the conversational service module (6) is configured to automatically generate a support request to a centralized support technical team, in case the conversational flow is not able to solve the reported issue, the support request including the history of the conversational flow, and related queries and answers provided by the operator.

10. The system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein a preliminary step of the conversational flow (26) implemented by the conversational service module (6) envisages identification of the container processing machine; wherein identification is automatically generated upon scanning by the operator of a machine-readable code associated with the container processing machine, the machine-readable code defining a structured data set including dynamic data related to the operation of the container processing machine, with a history of issues and machine-generated alarms, and static data related to fixed characteristics of the container processing machine.

11. A machine-implemented troubleshooting-assistance method for a container processing plant including a number of processing machines cooperating in processing of containers for pourable products, implemented as a remotely-accessible cloud platform (2), including a web portal (5) accessible by an operator seeking technical troubleshooting assistance via a communication electronic device (4) and comprising: providing a conversational virtual assistant, guiding the operator along a conversational flow (26) for verification and correction of a reported issue affecting a container processing machine; and providing search functionality, allowing to search for documentation and technical information relevant to the reported issue, wherein the conversational virtual assistant is configured to interact with the search functionality during the conversational flow to automatically provide the operator with relevant documentation and technical information.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein providing the search functionality comprises: implementing a first search through a first storage unit (10), storing structured issue verification and correction data; and a second search through a second storage unit (12), storing destructured issue verification and correction data; wherein the conversational virtual assistant is configured to interact with the search functionality during the conversational flow

(26) to retrieve documentation and technical information relevant to the conversional flow both from the first (10) and the second (12) storage units.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the first storage unit (10) is configured to store official technical data relating to the container processing machines; and the second storage unit (12) is a mailbox configured to store e- mails communications regarding troubleshooting assistance on the container processing machines.

14. The method according to any of claims 11-13, wherein providing the conversational virtual assistant comprises machine-implementing a diagram flow (27) based on a cause- and-effect fishbone diagram (25) relating to the reported issue; the diagram flow (27) representing a translation from the fishbone diagram (25) to the machine-automated conversational flow (26).

15. The method according to any of claims 11-14, further comprising storing a history of conversational flows, and related queries and answers provided by the operator, and wherein providing the conversational virtual assistant comprises automatically generating a support request to a centralized support technical team, in case the conversational flow (26) is not able to solve the reported issue, the support request including the history of the conversational flow and the related queries and answers provided by the operator.