JP2002024437A - Maintenance and fault recovery system for industrial machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a smooth and speedy fault recovery system in a working for various industrial machines. SOLUTION: This system consists of a general management base 5 for storing service information for the fault recovery of an industrial machine, work sites 1A and 1B, the maintenance staff 7 for performing recovery and repair and a service base 3 for presiding the maintenance staff as needed, the job site or service base and the general management base are connected to the Internet or Internet 2, the maintenance staff has a mobile terminal 9 with character or image information receiving function, and maintenance or recovery is performed while instructing work or returning job site information from the general management base side through the two-way communication of still picture, moving picture or character information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the maintenance staff or service company staff (hereinafter referred to as maintenance staff) contracted in advance in the event of breakdown of an industrial machine such as a forklift or power shovel or bulldozer (hereinafter referred to as a forklift). The present invention relates to a maintenance and failure recovery system for industrial machines, such as forklifts, which can quickly perform repairs and repairs on a business trip.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, private cars are often sold on the Internet, but when industrial vehicles such as forklifts are sold on the Internet, service centers for forklifts are not located throughout the country. Often, it is unevenly distributed in large cities, so failure of a forklift greatly affects the progress of subsequent work, so it cannot be easily purchased on the Internet etc. It is a purchase form that emphasizes. For this reason, periodic inspections of forklifts and the like can be carried out systematically, so that personnel at remote locations can respond. However, a sudden event such as a failure cannot be responded for a short period of time, and the user has trouble in business. For this reason, forklift manufacturers and distributors are trying to set up dealers and maintenance factories in order to increase their sales, but these installations are costly and inevitably have to be installed mainly in urban areas. Nationwide deployment is difficult.

[0003] On the other hand, in recent years, there has been a strong demand for cost reduction of forklifts not only in Japan but also overseas, and it is important to improve the quality of the vehicle body while suppressing maintenance and sales expenses. Many factories where forklifts operate are located in remote areas in terms of traffic, and forklift work bases are scattered in remote locations in Japan and overseas. For this reason, it has become difficult for conventional service centers around large cities to quickly respond to troubleshooting and regular maintenance, and how to solve this has become a major issue. Also, with the spread of service bases, maintenance information stays at each service base,
There is also a problem that the sharing of information beyond each service base becomes sparse, making it difficult to make use of past trouble experiences.

[0004] In view of the drawbacks of the prior art, the present invention sets up a service base for a manufacturer and installs a professional service man even at work bases for forklifts and various industrial machines, even if they are scattered in remote places in Japan and overseas. It is an object of the present invention to provide a smooth and quick failure recovery system without burdening the request.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention comprises a database in which technical information of industrial machines such as forklifts and service information for failure recovery are stored. A general management base such as a maintenance center, a work site for forklifts, etc. (hereinafter referred to as local), a maintenance staff who performs repairs and repairs when the local forklift, etc. breaks down, and a service base that supervises maintenance staff as necessary In addition to connecting the local forklift site or service base and the general management base to the Internet or an intranet network (hereinafter referred to as a net network), the maintenance personnel should have a mobile terminal with a character or image information receiving function. Via a terminal base station connected to the network, Work instructions and on-site information returns a static image of from the base side-conclusion, and performing maintenance or restoration while performing at the two-way communication with the moving image or character information / voice.

According to the invention, since the service base side performs a two-way communication with the maintenance staff via the Internet of the mobile network, the maintenance staff who can respond quickly and technically and on a timely basis. Can be selected, and it is possible to go straight to the site efficiently. In addition, since it is via the Internet using a mobile wireless network, signals can be easily exchanged even when the fixed communication network at the service base is busy (BUSY) due to a catastrophic event such as an earthquake. In addition, maintenance personnel and work bases from the headquarters and the reply of site information can be transferred to moving images and still images /
Since maintenance or restoration is performed while performing bidirectional communication using character information or voice, even if the level of mastery of the machine is low, repair can be easily performed. In this case, by transmitting a still image or animation moving image of disassembly / maintenance based on the three-dimensional CAD drawing to the maintenance staff performing the failure repair, the repair can be easily performed even with low expertise.

[0007] Therefore, the maintenance staff is not an employee of a forklift manufacturing company (supervised management base) or a company (sales company) under the forklift, but may be one who has been trained based on the manual of the supervised management base. As a result, a wide range of maintenance personnel can be secured, and services equivalent to those of experienced maintenance personnel can be received regardless of region. In addition, the maintenance staff and service bases are independent business entities, and can be repaired in a timely manner even in areas far from their own dealerships and maintenance contract factories in each region, so that users can purchase and use forklifts with peace of mind.

[0008] Also, the service base is a gas station, a car repair shop, a motorcycle repair shop, a bicycle repair shop, or the like, which has a different management form from a forklift manufacturing company (supervising management base) or a company (sales company) under its control. Various vehicle maintenance sites may be used. As a result,
Product sales can be expanded without increasing the number of dealers and contract factories, and sales can be further expanded by reducing costs and reducing sales prices through mass production.

[0009] In addition, the service base can be a control base for not only a forklift but also a competing manufacturer of the same type or a service base for a plurality of types of industrial machinery even if the manufacturer is the same. Business scope expands and management stabilizes.

In addition, since the headquarters base can have many service bases other than its own, the maintenance staff can be directly grasped, so that failure information can be centrally managed in real time in a centralized manner. The service base that can be used for inventory management and service bases can also operate as a franchise-type convenience store in the maintenance field by expanding support for other products and incorporating products from other companies, while reducing overall costs and expanding business. In addition, it is possible for the headquarters to prevent the demand for replacement products from being missed. In addition, as the number of maintenance staff and bases increases, the number of customers will also increase with the expansion of maintenance staff and bases, which can be used for infrastructure when IT is adopted in the future, creating opportunities for new business orders such as logistics / operations outsourcing.

In particular, the fact that the maintenance staff management base is directly connected via the Internet means that the maintenance staff who has completed the recovery work on the local forklift or the like can send a file in which necessary information such as the recovery work time and replacement parts is written via the Internet. By transmitting the bill to the headquarters or service base to prompt the issuance of the invoice, the customer can accurately confirm the repair cost on the spot, and there is no trouble with the charge later. Further, the cost is distributed among the maintenance staff, service bases, or control bases based on the created invoice, so that there is no later charge trouble among the three parties.

[0012] Also, the monitoring device at the central management base is provided with a homepage that is open to the public by access from the Internet, while a local forklift or the like or a maintenance staff has an access right to the homepage, and the homepage is accessed via the Internet. It is good to have a browser for browsing the technology / service information published in.
According to the invention, even if the maintenance staff arriving at the local forklift or the like does not know the individual IP address, for example, by selecting the local forklift name or the like on the browser screen, the maintenance staff can access the corresponding homepage of the central management base. Easy access.

Further, according to the present invention, a mobile terminal for continuously transmitting maintenance information of the local forklift or the like is connected to the Internet, and an integrated management base determines a failure based on the maintenance information sent from the mobile terminal. After the failure is determined, the primary failure information is sent to the mobile terminals of the maintenance staff group, and the responding maintenance staff is urged to return a mail. This allows the headquarters / management base to keep track of the operating status of the user's local forklifts, etc., via the Internet from time to time, while maintaining the operating status and maintenance status of other local The maintenance information can also be fed back to other forklifts or the like by referring to the information from a forklift or the like or a service base.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings. However, the types, connection states, relative arrangements, and the like of the constituent units described in this embodiment are not merely intended to limit the scope of the present invention, but are merely illustrative examples, unless otherwise specified. . FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of a system configuration of a maintenance and failure recovery system for a forklift or the like using the Internet according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of main parts thereof, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure thereof. is there.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, a local site 1A,
1B may be a user of an industrial machine handled by the manufacturer when the headquarters 5 is a manufacturer. For example, the site 1B is divided into a plurality of types such as a site 1A for a forklift and a site 1B for a small generator. And these industrial machines 1
0 is a P that transmits information from a detector that detects the operation state and process variables, for example, as a maintenance contract option.
A mobile terminal 11 such as an HS may be attached so that the mobile terminal 11 can be constantly transmitted to the central management base 5 via the public line 14 or the Internet 2 depending on the operation status.

When a failure occurs in the site sites 1A and 1B, the failed part is captured by a digital camera 21 and transmitted to the control base 5 and the service base 3 via a WWW server device 22 using a personal computer. It is configured. Note that the server device 22 enables communication via the Internet 25 by using TCP / IP as a communication protocol.

The Internet 2 is a wide area network (WAN) which is connected to a local area network (LAN) via a public telephone line and further connects a plurality of local area networks to each other. Is the corresponding local site 1A,
A service base 3 that controls the local site 1B is connected to a central management base 5 as a manufacturer that centrally manages the machines of all the local sites 1A and 1B.

Further, for the Internet 2, a base station 8
The wireless mobile terminals 9 owned by the respective maintenance personnel 7 can be connected by the mobile terminal wireless line provided with the mobile terminal 9. A setting is made so that mails and images between the wireless portable terminals 9 can be received using a corresponding communication protocol. In particular, in recent years, W-CDMA mobile phones have been proposed that can freely handle voice, video, and large-volume data in a mobile environment. According to such a system, charts, graphs, moving images, and the like can be displayed. This enables visual interactive communication, which is preferable because it enables close communication with the maintenance staff supporter at the headquarters site at the site site.

The service base 3 does not need to be a base specialized in forklifts if it is possible to have a certain parts supply system, as well as a gas station, various vehicle maintenance shops, car dealers, etc. It is preferable to use a franchise-type agent having a different management form from the general management base because the burden on the manufacturer is reduced. The service base 3 does not require any special technology as long as it can only have a function of merely performing maintenance and calling maintenance personnel. Therefore, a non-exclusive franchise that simultaneously connects a plurality of franchises, in other words, a plurality of A manufacturer or a service base 3 for a plurality of types of industrial machines is preferable because the management base is stable.

In the service base 3, a personal computer 13 similar to the one described above is connected to a forklift customer,
The customers of small generators and the like are classified and stored for each machine, and information of maintenance personnel in charge is also stored. The information is stored in a corresponding general control via a WWW server device also serving as the computer 13. It can be sent to a base or maintenance personnel via the Internet 3 or the base station 8.

For example, the site 1 of the forklift 10
If a failure occurs in A and the corresponding service base 3 receives the notification via the public line 14, it is checked whether it is a forklift customer under its own jurisdiction. In accordance with a predetermined manual, the digital camera 21 is used to take an image of the failure location and to prompt the user to transmit the image information to the service base or the control base via the Internet 2.

On the other hand, the maintenance staff 7 is not an employee of the company affiliated with the machine maker, but is an independent entity that has been trained based on the manual of the general control base, and also belongs to the service base 3. The maintenance staff 7 may be used. For example, since the maintenance staff 7 can perform repairs based on a restoration manual accompanied by images sent from the headquarters base 5, if he has mechanical knowledge, his specialty is not particularly limited. Not only maintenance personnel who belong to, but also maintenance personnel such as bicycles are sufficient. In short, a technician who has some experience in repairing machines is enough.

The maintenance personnel 7 may not necessarily be full-time technicians but may be part-time workers only on holidays. These maintenance personnel 7 may be divided into a plurality of groups according to the technical types or working hours of the maintenance personnel and registered at service bases. I just need. Further, when a failure request is sent from the local site 1A such as a local forklift to the monitoring device of the service base 3 via the public telephone line 14 or the Internet 2, for example, the maintenance including the technical type and the time zone can be performed. It is set so that a plurality of portable terminals 9 of a group of personnel 7 are called and an alarm signal and a mail of a failure content are transferred via the Internet 2.

Further, the personal computer of the service base 3 searches for a plurality of maintenance staffs 7 in a responsive state at the time of a repair request. There is autonomous mail transmission / reception software that multicasts primary failure information obtained based on the failure image information of the local site 1A together with the navigator information, and the maintenance software checks the reception of the mail software from the maintenance staff 7 group. 7 is also provided.

The central management base 5 also has a personal computer and the like and a WWW server device 50 similar to the above, and the WWW server device 50 has a machine type for each customer (local generator) and forklift. Along with customer data, technical information of each machine and its restoration manual are provided as image data and character data, check sheets for each failure state, past failure history 51, 52, etc.
Is stored.

On the other hand, in the personal computer 50, the technical service information stored in the databases 51 and 52 is grouped for each industrial machine, or the service base 3 is grouped as an upper hierarchy and the local site 1 is grouped as a lower hierarchy. There is a homepage that is formed. In addition, the personal computer 50 is connected to the Internet 2 at the time of restoration and repair of the maintenance staff 7 dispatched to the local site 1.
The repair data sequentially sent via the database is read out from the database, the contents of the corresponding repaired file are checked, and the work time, replacement part price, travel expenses, etc. are automatically accumulated, and the accumulated file data is used as the basis. Invoicing software for creating invoices, distribution software for distributing the created invoice amounts to service bases, maintenance personnel and control bases based on their own database usage time and supply parts or repair time, Check the transfer software and the contents of the invoice to transfer the repair amount, which was transferred to the account after a predetermined date based on the bill, to the service account, the maintenance staff, and the general office based on the distribution ratio, respectively. Electronic approval software.

The monitoring device at the service site 3 and the monitoring device at the local site 1A of the local forklift 10 are provided with a browser as search software for browsing the homepage of the technical service information provided at the general control base 5 side. Is provided.

Here, a password is set in the browser of the monitoring device of the service base 3 and the monitoring device of the local forklift 10 via the Internet 2, and a request for accessing the homepage via the Internet 2 is issued from the local forklift 10 or the like. Upon receiving the password, the password of the predetermined read access is collated, and if the collation is obtained, the home page is made public. Therefore, it is possible to deny access to the homepage from a third party who does not know the read access password.

When the local site has a maintenance contract option, the personal computer 50 of the central control base 5 collects operation data and the like from the PHS 11 of each local forklift via the Internet 2. A failure check is performed based on the data. In addition to performing analysis and learning of technical information and service information based on the operation data, the data is edited by a homepage editor, and the information edited in a prepared homepage is concluded with a maintenance contract. A homepage is created for each local forklift, etc. For this reason, the homepage is constantly updated with the latest driving information for every 10 such as a local forklift.

On the other hand, the monitoring device provided at the local site 1 is provided with a browser and an access right management unit (not shown). The browser is search software for browsing the homepage of the integrated management base 5, and since the homepage to be browsed is predetermined, the IP address of each homepage is registered in advance.

Next, based on the flowchart of FIG.
An example of an integrated management operation of a failure monitoring system such as a forklift using the Internet 2 and the portable terminal 9 will be described. For example, local site 1A without a maintenance contract
In the case of, when a failure occurs in the forklift 10 and the corresponding service base 3 receives the notification via the public line 14, it is checked whether or not it is the forklift customer under its own jurisdiction. In this case, the user is prompted to cause the digital camera 21 to take an image of the failed part based on a predetermined manual, and to transmit the image information to the service base 3 or the control base 5 via the Internet 2. At the headquarters 5, along with capturing the image of the forklift at the site where the failure has occurred (S1), the maintenance support staff creates a primary estimate while extracting the maintenance failure history based on the image information (S2), Send to the service base via (S3) At the service site 3, after the person in charge of the local site 1 judges whether or not the repair is to be performed by referring to the above estimate (S4), when performing the repair, the personal computer of the central site 3 is sent from the local site 1 Based on the received image information, primary failure information is created and transmitted to the Internet (S5), and diagnostic information is written based on the primary alarm information and local site data, and a corresponding repair file is created.

On the other hand, the personal computer at the service base 3 searches for a plurality of groups of maintenance personnel 7 which are technically or temporally available, and
The primary alarm information is automatically transferred to the mobile terminal 9 registered with each group of maintenance personnel 7 using multicast of the Internet. (S5)

The maintenance personnel 7 having received the primary alarm information by mail at the portable terminal 9 confirms the reception, and looks at the primary alarm information. 3
An email is sent to the effect that can be handled.

The other maintenance staff 7 confirms the reception, but if it is impossible to go to the site in terms of time by looking at the contents of the received mail, Consider your current situation, such as when it is impossible, and do not send e-mail if it is not possible.

It should be noted that the central management base 5 is a maintenance staff 7
If the headquarters base 5 receives the reply mail from (S
6) Enter the name of the maintenance staff in the field of the person in charge of the corresponding repair file, and create a failure recovery manual with image information based on the primary alarm information and maintenance history data, etc. Write it down.

When the maintenance staff 7 arrives at the site (S7), the homepage of the WWW server device of the integrated management base 5 is called to read out the corresponding technical information and service information of the local forklift and the like 1 (S8), and the secondary image While the repair procedure is sequentially received as a moving image based on the failure recovery manual including information and the like and the image is viewed, the repair and the replacement of the failed part are performed based on the procedure of the image manual. (S9) In the case of the site 1A where the maintenance contract of the forklift 10 is made, the operation and abnormality information is transmitted to the central management base 5 by using a portable terminal such as the PHS11 attached to the forklift 10 (S11). And collects maintenance information on the local forklift 10 and checks daily maintenance information and failures by analyzing these. (S12)

If the local base 5 determines that a failure has occurred in the local forklift 10 based on the routine maintenance information and the failure check, the local forklift 10 and the name of the local forklift, the name of the failed generator, the failure type, and the failure are displayed together with an alarm signal. The primary warning information such as items will be distributed on the Internet, and maintenance personnel will be dispatched according to the above procedure. (S5)

On the other hand, the maintenance staff 7 who has completed the recovery work reads out the repair file of the central office 3 from the portable terminal 9, writes the work end time, work time, replacement parts, etc., and then sends it to the Internet 2.

The repair file is sent to the service information management database on the side of the central management base 5 via the Internet 2 and learns and checks a failure recovery manual, and displays and stores data as a failure case.
Data such as operating time, failure history, and maintenance staff history are stored in the database.

Further, the personal computer at the headquarters base 3 periodically searches for repair files and searches for any completed ones. Based on the contents, the work time, replacement part price and travel expenses are automatically accumulated, and a bill is created based on the accumulated data. (S20)

The created invoice is sent to the Internet 2
The e-mail is transferred to the administrator of the local site registered through (S21), and the administrator checks the transferred e-mail content and performs authentication. (S22) The certified bill is calculated by allocating the created bill amount to the service base, the maintenance staff, and the control base based on the database use time, supply parts, or repair time of the control base.
(s23), after the account is transferred after a predetermined date based on the bill (S24), the repair amount is allocated to the service base, the maintenance staff, and the control base based on the distribution ratio, respectively, to the predetermined account. Transfer (S25)

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention, the work bases of forklifts and various industrial machines can be used in Japan,
Even if it is scattered in remote locations in various parts of the world, it is possible to efficiently and smoothly perform fault recovery and repair without burdening the manufacturer with setting up service bases and requesting specialized service personnel. it can.

In addition, the maintenance staff and service bases are independent business entities, and even in regions far from their own dealerships and maintenance contract factories, they can receive timely repairs even in each region. Can be used. It has various chopstick effects.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of a failure recovery system such as a forklift using the Internet according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a main block diagram of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1A, 1B Local site 2 Internet 3 Service base 5 Supervising management base 7 Maintenance staff 8 Base station 9 Wireless mobile terminal

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An integrated management base such as a maintenance center equipped with a database storing service information for failure recovery together with technical information of industrial machines such as forklifts, and a work site for forklifts (hereinafter referred to as "local").
And a maintenance staff who performs repairs and repairs when the local forklift or the like breaks down, and a service base that supervises the maintenance staff as necessary. Connect to an intranet network (hereinafter referred to as a net network),
The maintenance staff has a mobile terminal with a character or image information receiving function, and via a terminal base station connected to the network, a work instruction or a reply of site information from the headquarters side can be a static image or a moving image or A maintenance and recovery system for industrial machines such as forklifts, which performs maintenance or recovery while performing bidirectional communication using character information. 2. The maintenance of an industrial machine such as a forklift according to claim 1, wherein a still image or a moving image of disassembly / maintenance is transmitted to a maintenance person performing a repair based on the three-dimensional CAD drawing. And failure recovery system. 3. A maintenance staff member who has completed a recovery operation of a local forklift or the like transmits a file in which necessary information such as a recovery work time and replacement parts is written to a headquarters base or a service base via the Internet, and receives a bill. 2. The maintenance and failure recovery system for an industrial machine such as a forklift according to claim 1, wherein the system prompts issuance. 4. The maintenance and breakdown of an industrial machine such as a forklift according to claim 6, wherein the costs are allocated among the maintenance staff, service bases, or control bases based on the created bill. Recovery system. 5. A homepage which is disclosed to the monitoring device of the central management base by accessing from the Internet,
2. The browser according to claim 1, further comprising a local forklift or a maintenance staff having a right to access the homepage and browsing technology / service information published on the homepage via the Internet. Maintenance and failure recovery system for industrial machines such as forklifts. 6. A mobile terminal that continuously transmits maintenance information of the local forklift or the like is connected to the Internet,
The headquarters management base makes a failure determination based on the maintenance information sent from the mobile terminal, sends primary failure information to the mobile terminals of the maintenance staff group after the failure determination, and sends an e-mail reply of the maintenance staff who can respond. The maintenance and failure recovery system for an industrial machine, such as a forklift, according to claim 1, wherein 7. The maintenance site group obtains failure information of a corresponding local site forklift or the like via the Internet at the headquarters site, and approves the primary estimated amount transmitted from the site site at the local site, and then moves the maintenance staff group. 2. The maintenance and failure recovery system for industrial machines such as forklifts according to claim 1, wherein the primary failure information is sent to the body terminal to urge e-mail replies of maintenance personnel who can respond. 8. The service base is an agency having a different management form from a general management base including a gas station, various vehicle maintenance bases, and the like, and is a plurality of general bases or a service base of a plurality of types of industrial machines. Item 2. A maintenance and failure recovery system for an industrial machine such as a forklift according to item 1. 9. The forklift and other industries according to claim 1, wherein the maintenance staff is not an employee of the general control base or a company under the control of the general control base, but is an independent entity trained based on a manual of the general control base. Machine maintenance and fault recovery system. 10. An agent such as a gas station or a bicycle dealer as the service base enters into a work contract with a maintenance staff as an independent entity having knowledge of mechanical repair, and performs maintenance from a local forklift site. In response to the request, a maintenance staff in the corresponding site area is selected from the contracted maintenance staff, and the maintenance or recovery information necessary for the request site can be transmitted to the staff via the base station. Maintenance and failure recovery system for industrial machines such as forklifts.