JP2002268731A - Facility management method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a facility management method capable of effectively reducing the loads of both a maintenance agent and a facility user, and making facility management much more convenient. SOLUTION: A management device 11 for remotely managing facilities 1-6 by using a communication line T is set at a base point 10 of a maintenance agent R who performs the maintenance of the management device 11, and users U1-U3 of the facilities 1-6 are allowed to manage their own facilities 1-6 by exchanging information with the management device 11 on a web page WP of the maintenance agent R in an Internet N.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for managing various facilities.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a management device for managing equipment (generally, a host computer for equipment of equipment and sensors attached to equipment, etc.) has been installed at the base of the equipment user who is the user. . For maintenance of management equipment such as updating of installed programs, adjustment of equipment functions, and repair of equipment troubles, maintenance contractors (generally, manufacturers of the target equipment and management equipment or their contractors) ) Had done.

[0003]

However, some maintenance of the management device can be easily and remotely performed using a telephone line or the like. However, the maintenance of the management device requires a worker at a facility user's base where the management device is installed. There are many things that need to be dispatched, and there is a problem that the dispatch of this worker places a heavy burden on the maintenance contractor, and a large burden on the equipment user who is the requester of the maintenance service in terms of the request cost.
The efficiency of the maintenance service is low and limited due to the dispatch of workers, which has made it difficult to provide detailed maintenance services.

[0004] In view of this situation, the main problems of the present invention are:
The problem is that the above problems can be effectively solved by a rational management method using the Internet, and that the facility management can be further simplified.

[0005]

Means for Solving the Problems [1] The invention according to claim 1 relates to an equipment management method, which is characterized in that a management apparatus for remotely managing equipment using a communication line, and that the management apparatus is maintained. It is installed at the base of a maintenance company, and the user of the equipment exchanges information with the management device on the maintenance company's web page on the Internet to manage his own equipment.

That is, according to this method, the maintenance company
Various maintenance for the management device can be performed intensively and efficiently at the own site without dispatching a worker to the facility user's site, thereby reducing the burden on the maintenance company as compared with the conventional method described above. It is possible to effectively reduce the burden on the request cost for the equipment user who is the requester of the maintenance service, and it is possible for the maintenance company to provide more detailed maintenance service.

[0007] Further, since the Internet is used, the user of the facility is not limited to a dedicated device such as a management device installed at his own site in the conventional method, but is generally capable of handling web pages. As long as there is an appropriate device (for example, a personal computer or a pocket computer with a browser, or a mobile phone or PHS phone that supports a web page), or from any place that can be connected to the Internet, To access the web page and exchange information with the management device on the web page to manage the own equipment. In this respect, the management of the equipment can be simplified compared to the conventional method. .

It is preferable to use a general line such as a telephone line as a communication line used for remote management of facilities by the management device. However, in some cases, a dedicated line may be used.

It is desirable that the maintenance contractor be a maker of the target equipment and a maker of the management equipment who are familiar with the target equipment and the management apparatus, or a contractor of the maker, but it is not necessarily limited to this. Absent.

The information exchanged by the user of the equipment with the management device on the web page of the maintenance company is information such as the operating status of the equipment sent from the management device to the user, or the equipment stoppage sent from the user to the management device. It may be only one of information such as a command and a setting change command,
Both may be used.

[2] The invention according to claim 2 specifies an embodiment suitable for carrying out the invention according to claim 1, and the feature is that the facility causes a radiator to radiate heat to melt snow. It is a snow melting facility that melts snow at the target location.

In other words, since the snow melting facilities are widely dispersed and scattered in the cold regions, and the operation time of the dotted facilities is also concentrated in winter, it is necessary to dispatch workers to the user bases of these snow melting facilities. Can be an extremely heavy burden on maintenance workers, and furthermore, the snow may not be able to dispatch workers themselves, which may lead to the inability to operate snow melting facilities despite the snow.

From these facts, according to the invention according to claim 2 which implements the invention according to claim 1 with the snow melting facility as a target facility, the effect of the burden reduction by the invention according to claim 1 is extremely remarkable. In addition, it is possible to effectively avoid the situation in which the dispatch of workers itself becomes impossible due to snow and the snow melting facility cannot be operated despite the snow. In a sense, it can greatly contribute to snow-covered areas.

[3] The invention according to claim 3 specifies an embodiment suitable for carrying out the invention according to claim 1 or 2, and the feature of the invention resides in that the user manages the management items of his or her own equipment. An item requiring information exchange with the management device is selected on the web page, and in accordance with the item selection, a display element related to an unselected management item among display elements for information exchange is selected in a hidden state. A management screen for displaying display elements related to management items on the screen is displayed on the web page, and the user exchanges information on the selected management items with the management device on the management screen to manage own equipment. The point is to do.

That is, according to this method, among the display elements for exchanging information, the display elements relating to the management items that the user of the equipment has determined to be unnecessary are not displayed on the management screen on the web page. When the user exchanges information with the management device on the management screen and manages his or her own equipment, the user is not required to display all display elements, including display elements related to unnecessary management items, on the management screen. It is easy to perform equipment management on the management screen, and it is also possible to effectively prevent management errors due to mistakes in display elements. In these respects, equipment management can be further simplified.

[4] The invention according to claim 4 specifies an embodiment suitable for carrying out the invention according to claim 3, and the feature of the invention is that the item selection is made for a plurality of own facilities of the user. As a common item selection, among the display elements for information exchange with respect to each of the plurality of self-equipment, display elements related to unselected management items are hidden and display elements related to selected management items are displayed in the management screen. In the display.

In other words, according to this method, the above-mentioned common item selection is performed only once, and the non-selected management items among the display elements for information exchange (ie, the management items (ie, Since the display elements related to the common non-selection item) are hidden in the management screen, the selection of all the management items for each of the multiple self-equipment items is not required to be performed one by one, but the selection on the web page is more difficult. User operation can be facilitated, and in this regard, facility management on the management screen can be further simplified.

After making such a common item selection, the user makes an additional selection of the necessary management items for each facility, and the equipment for which the additional selection of the necessary management items has been added is required. The display elements related to the management items are displayed on the management screen, and conversely, after making a common item selection, the user makes an additional selection of unnecessary management items for each facility, and this additional A display mode may be adopted in which a display element relating to an added unnecessary management item is hidden in the management screen for the existing facility.

[0019]

FIG. 1 shows an equipment management system.
Reference numerals 1 to 6 denote snow melting facilities provided in a cold region, respectively, and the snow melting facilities 1 to 6 perform snow melting at a snow melting target location by causing a radiator h installed at a snow melting target location such as a road surface to radiate heat.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a user base (for example, a management building) of the snow melting equipments 1 and 2, which is located near the snow melting equipments 1 and 2,
8 is a user base of the snow melting equipments 3 to 5 and the snow melting equipments 1 to 5
Reference numeral 9 denotes a user base of the snow melting facility 6, which is located near the snow melting facility 6.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a site of the maintenance company R (for example, a management room in a company building), and each of the user sites 7 to 9 is located far away from the site 10 of the maintenance company R.

Each of the snow melting facilities 1 to
A management device 11 for remotely managing the server 6 is installed, and a server computer 12 constituting the management device 11 includes:
A general communication line T such as a telephone line is used as a host computer for the components of the snow melting facilities 1 to 6 and the auxiliary sensors, etc., to remotely manage the snow melting facilities 1 to 6, and the Internet N is used to remotely control each snow melting facility. 1 to 6 users U
Exchange information with 1 to U3.

The management device 11 performs start / stop of equipment, reservation start / stop of equipment, and monitoring of equipment as management of each of the snowmelting equipments 1 to 6. In monitoring of equipment, it is determined whether snow melting operation or freeze prevention operation is being performed. Operation status information such as whether the vehicle is stopped, and the temperature of the outside air, humidity of the outside air, snowfall conditions, the temperature of the snow melting target location, the temperature of the snow melting target location, the moisture state of the snow melting target location, and the heat source temperature detected by the auxiliary sensors of the snow melting facilities 1 to 6 Is transmitted from each of the snow melting facilities 1 to 6.

Further, the management device 11 is provided for each of the snow melting facilities 1 to 6.
In order to exchange information with the users U1 to U3, management screens G1 and G2 (FIGS. 2 and 3) shown in FIGS.
Displays management screens for the snow melting facilities 1 and 2, and in these management screens G 1 and G 2, instructions for starting and stopping and making reservations for the respective snow melting facilities 1 to 6 are handled by the corresponding users U 1 to U 3.
(In the case of the management screens G1 and G2, the user Ua), and also reports the operation status information and detailed information of each of the snow melting facilities 1 to 6 to the corresponding users U1 to U3.

That is, the user U of each of the snow melting facilities 1 to 6
1 to U3 access the web page WP of the maintenance company R using a device capable of handling web pages such as personal computers 13 to 15 to manage their own snow melting facilities 1 to 6, and this web page In the management screens G1 and G2 of the own snow melting facilities 1 to 6 in the middle, an instruction on start and stop of the own snow melting facilities 1 to 6 and reservation start and stop is performed by button operation or text data input in the screen.
1 and receives from the management device 11 a report of operation status information and detailed information on the own snow melting facilities 1 to 6.

In the web page WP, each snow melting facility 1
If the users U1 to U3 have their own snow melting facilities, the management device 11 among the management items of those snow melting facilities.
You can select items that require information exchange with
When this item selection is performed, the item selection is performed as a common item selection for the plurality of self-melting facilities of the users U1 to U3, and the users U1 to U1 who performed the item selection are selected.
As for the plurality of self-melting facilities of U3, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, among the display elements for exchanging information for each of the plurality of self-melting facilities, display elements relating to unselected management items (FIGS. 4 and 5). In the example, the display element for detailed information)
Are displayed in a non-display state on the management screens G1 and G2.

It should be noted that, even for a user who has only one snow melting facility (user U3 in this example), an item which requires information exchange with the management device 11 among the management items of the own snow melting facility can be selected. Yes, similarly, when this item is selected, the self-melting facility of the user who made the item selection is displayed with the display elements related to the non-selected management items among the display elements for information exchange hidden. The display element related to the selected management item is displayed on the management screen.

The web page WP of the maintenance company R
Then, for each of the snow melting facilities 1 to 6, the management screens G1 to G6 of the snow melting facilities 1 to 6 cannot be opened except those who are authenticated as the users U1 to U3 of the snow melting facilities 1 to 6. Safety measures are in place.

[Another Embodiment] The equipment management method according to the present invention is particularly useful in the management of snow melting equipment, but the equipment to be managed is not limited to snow melting equipment, and is applicable to the management of various equipment in various fields. it can.

Information exchanged by the equipment users U1 to U3 with the management device 11 on the web page WP of the maintenance company R is as follows:
Any type may be used depending on the equipment to be managed.
Further, the specific display form and input form of the exchange information on the web page WP are not limited to the forms described in the above-described embodiment, and various display forms and input forms can be adopted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an equipment management system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a management screen on a web page for the snow melting facility 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a management screen on a web page for the snow melting facility 2.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a management screen on a web page for the snow melting facility 1.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a management screen on a web page for the snow melting facility 2.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 to 6 equipment 10 maintenance company base 11 management device N internet R maintenance company T communication line U1 to U3 user WP web page

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A management device for remotely managing equipment using a communication line is installed at a maintenance company base for maintaining the management device, and a user of the equipment is provided on a web page of the maintenance company on the Internet. An equipment management method for exchanging information with the management apparatus and managing own equipment. 2. The facility management method according to claim 1, wherein the facility is a snow melting facility that causes a radiator to radiate heat to melt snow at a snow melting target location. 3. The user selects, on the web page, an item that requires information exchange with the management device from among the management items of his or her own equipment, and according to the item selection, a non-display item among the information exchange display elements. On the web page, a management screen for displaying the display elements related to the selected management items on the screen in a state in which the display elements related to the selected management items are hidden is displayed, and the user selects the management device on the management screen. The equipment management method according to claim 1, wherein information of the management items is exchanged to manage the equipment itself. 4. The display element for a non-selected management item among the information exchange display elements for each of the plurality of self-equipments, wherein the item selection is a common item selection for a plurality of self-equipment of the user. 4. The equipment management method according to claim 3, wherein a display element related to the selected management item is displayed on the management screen in a state in which the selection management item is hidden.