JP2003099550A - Replacement parts order system, abnormal condition report management system, and parts management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a replacement parts order system which issues directions of the maintenance work to maintenance staffs based on abnormal conditions reported from image formation equipments, and performs delivery processing of replacement parts to predetermined places when replacement of parts is necessary. SOLUTION: This replacement parts order system which issues directions of the maintenance work to maintenance staffs based on abnormal conditions reported from the equipments and performs delivery processing of replacement parts to predetermined places is provided with a parts managements means which receives the replacement parts information and transmits to a delivery contractor the delivery directions information to make the delivery contractor deliver the parts of the predetermined appointed day based on the replacement parts information and parts management information having stock condition of the parts, and an abnormal condition report management means which receives the report, judges whether the replacement of the parts concerned the abnormality is necessary or not and transmits the replacement parts information to the parts management means based on the judgement result.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention issues a maintenance work instruction to a maintenance staff based on an abnormal condition reported from a device and, when parts replacement is required, delivers a replacement part to a predetermined place. It provides a replacement parts ordering system.

Further, according to the present invention, when a maintenance worker is instructed to work by a notification indicating an abnormal state from a device, and when a part is replaced, an error notification is made to order a replacement part to a parts management device that manages the part. Regarding management device.

Furthermore, the present invention relates to a parts management device for checking and allocating the stock of ordered replacement parts and for instructing the delivery company to deliver the replacement parts based on the delivery information from maintenance personnel.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to improve service to a customer who uses an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, the image forming apparatus reports an abnormality to a host computer which monitors the abnormality of the image forming apparatus via a communication line. However, the CE (Customer Eng.
There is a method to notify the maintenance personnel such as ineer) of the occurrence of an abnormality. For example, when the image forming apparatus notifies the host computer of an abnormality notification for notifying that an abnormality has occurred or an abnormality advance notification for notifying that an abnormality may occur, the maintenance personnel can perform image formation. When an abnormality occurs in the device, you can know the occurrence before receiving a call from the customer, and if there is a prior notice of abnormality,
Maintenance of the image forming apparatus can be performed before occurrence of an abnormality to prevent the occurrence of the abnormality (Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-135).
286). Further, the maintenance personnel who have received the abnormality notification or the advance notice of abnormality from the image forming apparatus via the host computer determine the maintenance work type such as parts replacement, adjustment, or cleaning when the customer visits the customer. Work can be done efficiently (Japanese Patent Application 20)
01-285826).

[0005]

However, the above conventional maintenance system has the following problems.

[0006] Although the maintenance work can be efficiently performed by notifying the maintenance staff of the abnormality and instructing the maintenance work type, when the parts are replaced, the maintenance staff procures the necessary parts and visits the customer. It was necessary to adjust the delivery of parts in time. In other words, when the maintenance staff receives an instruction for component replacement from the host computer, the maintenance staff accesses the component management system that manages the components, checks the inventory of necessary components, and if there is inventory, arranges shipping to the customer. On the other hand, if the necessary parts are not in stock, the delivery date is confirmed and the shipping arrangement is made. In addition, it is necessary to adjust the visit date with the customer according to the stock status of parts. However, since the maintenance staff gives priority to the maintenance work at the customer's site, there are cases where the parts cannot be immediately procured even if the host computer promptly receives the instruction.

Therefore, a first object of the present invention is to issue a maintenance work instruction to a maintenance staff based on an abnormal condition reported from the image forming apparatus, and when parts replacement is required, place the replacement parts at a predetermined location. It is to provide a replacement parts ordering system for carrying out delivery processing to.

A second object of the present invention is to give a work instruction to a maintenance staff by a notification indicating an abnormal state from the image forming apparatus and, when replacing a component, replace it with a component management device for managing the component. An object is to provide an abnormality notification management device for ordering parts.

Further, a third object of the present invention is to check and reserve the stock of the ordered replacement parts, and issue a delivery instruction of the replacement parts to the delivery company based on the delivery information from the maintenance staff. Is to provide.

[0010]

In order to solve the above first problem, the present invention instructs maintenance personnel to perform maintenance work on the basis of an abnormal state reported from a device, and identifies a part requiring replacement. In a replacement part ordering system for carrying out a delivery process for delivering to a predetermined place, a replacement company receives replacement part information on the above-mentioned parts that need to be replaced, and based on the replacement part information and part management information having a stock status of parts The parts management means for sending the delivery instruction information for delivering the parts to the delivery company to the delivery company on the predetermined specified date, and whether or not the parts related to the abnormality need to be exchanged based on the abnormal state by receiving the notification. It is configured to include an abnormality notification management unit that determines whether or not and transmits the replacement component information to the component management unit based on the determination result.

In such a replacement parts ordering system, it is possible to automatically determine the parts to be replaced and place an order based on the abnormal state from the equipment, so the maintenance staff must arrange the delivery of the parts. Instead, the maintenance work of visiting the customer and replacing the delivered parts can be realized in a short period of time.

In order to solve the above-mentioned second problem, the present invention provides an abnormality notification for ordering a component to be replaced via a network to a component management device for managing a component, based on a notification from the device indicating an abnormal condition. In the management device, based on the abnormal state, a component replacement determining unit that determines whether or not a component needs to be replaced, and replacement component information regarding a component to be replaced based on the determination result by the component replacement determining unit. And a replacement part ordering means for ordering a replacement part by transmitting to the parts management device.

In such an abnormality notification management device, since it is possible to determine the parts to be replaced and automatically place an order based on the abnormal state notified from the equipment, the cause of the abnormality after the equipment detects the abnormality. It is possible to reduce the time required to deliver the parts to be delivered.

In order to solve the above-mentioned third problem, the present invention manages the stock status of replacement parts and carries out the delivery processing of the replacement parts based on the replacement part information instructing the ordering of the replacement parts. In the management device, based on the stock status of the replacement parts designated by the replacement part information, a delivery date determination means for determining a delivery date to a predetermined delivery destination, and a predetermined delivery company for the delivery date determination means. And a delivery instruction means for transmitting delivery instruction information for delivering the replacement part to a predetermined delivery destination on the delivery date.

In such a parts management device, the delivery date to the predetermined delivery destination is determined based on the stock status, and the delivery instruction can be issued so that the replacement part is delivered on the delivery date.

As means for solving the above-mentioned second or third problem, the present invention may be a program for causing a computer to perform the processing by the above-mentioned device, or a storage medium storing the program. .

[0017]

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

A replacement part ordering system according to an embodiment of the present invention constitutes, for example, a system as shown in FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a replacement part ordering system. From FIG. 1, the replacement parts ordering system 1000 is
A plurality of image forming apparatuses 40-1 to 40-n (hereinafter, collectively referred to as image forming apparatus 40) and a notification indicating an abnormal state from the image forming apparatus 40 causes maintenance personnel (CE (Custo)
mer Engineer)) and when exchanging parts, the error notification management device 100 that orders replacement parts to the parts management device that manages the parts and the inventory of the ordered replacement parts are checked and allocated. And a plurality of CE terminals 30-1 to be used by the maintenance personnel who are instructed to deliver replacement parts to the delivery company based on the delivery information from the maintenance personnel and who are provided with work instructions and replacement component information. Thirty
-N (hereinafter collectively referred to as CE terminal 30).

The image forming apparatus 40 is a copying machine or the like,
It has a reporting means for reporting the state of the image forming apparatus 40 by transmitting various information to the abnormality reporting management apparatus 100, and is the same as, for example, a serviceman call (SC) indicating that a failure is detected by self-diagnosis. Network 2 with emergency auto call (CC) indicating that paper jams that tend to occur for a predetermined number of times consecutively
A notification is sent to the notification management device 100 via 5. In addition, an alarm advance call (AC) indicating a status that is not a failure but requires maintenance due to self-diagnosis and a manual call (MC) indicating a failure set by the customer (or maintenance staff) through panel operation are reported in advance. As (), the abnormality notification management device 100 is notified via the network 25. The abnormality notification () and the abnormality advance notification () are signals transmitted by a carrier wave via the network 25.

Upon receipt of the notification from the image forming apparatus 40, the abnormality notification management device 100 judges whether or not the maintenance staff should visit the customer based on the abnormality notification or the advance notification of the abnormality,
In addition, the necessity of component replacement and the type of maintenance work such as component replacement, adjustment, or cleaning are determined, and the CE terminal of the maintenance staff at the service base of the image forming apparatus 40 who has made a notification works through the network 25. Give instructions. Further, the abnormality notification management device 100 orders parts through the network 25 when parts replacement is necessary.

Upon receiving the order information indicating the order of the parts, the parts management device 200 confirms the stock of the parts and provides the CE terminal 30 with the delivery information indicating the deliverable date to the customer. According to the confirmation, the delivery instruction of the ordered parts is given to the delivery company.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the functional configuration of the replacement part ordering system. In FIG. 2, the abnormality notification management device 10
When the error notification receiving unit 101 receives the error notification or the advance notification of the error added with the additional information indicating the usage (rate) information from the image forming apparatus 40, the additional information decomposition unit 102
The additional information is extracted from the received anomaly advance notification and provided to the visit necessity determination unit 103 and the parts replacement information acquisition unit 104. In the figure, an arrow indicates a processing procedure.

The visit necessity determination unit 103 determines whether or not the maintenance personnel need to visit the customer based on the additional information. The determination result is provided to the component usage rate determination unit 105 and the work instruction notification unit 107. Parts replacement information acquisition unit 104
Acquires the component replacement information (for example, the number of used sheets) from the additional information of the abnormality advance notification and provides it to the component usage rate determination unit 105.

The component usage rate determining unit 105 calculates the usage rate in the image forming apparatus 40 based on the component replacement information.
Further, based on the usage rate and the replacement reference value of each component managed by the component replacement reference master 121 that manages the replacement reference for each component, the component that needs to be replaced in the image forming apparatus 40 is determined. Then, the component usage rate determination unit 105
Provides the work instruction determination unit 106 with the maintenance work type based on the determination result and, if there is a component that needs to be replaced according to the determination result, replacement component information indicating the replacement component. By the processing in the component usage rate determination unit 105, the image forming apparatus 40 may add only the number of sheets used as additional information to the abnormality advance notification.

The work instruction determination unit 106 requests the work instruction notification unit 107 to issue a work instruction to the maintenance staff based on the maintenance work type provided from the component usage rate determination unit 105. Further, when replacement part information is provided from the part usage rate determination unit 105, the part management apparatus 200 is requested to place an order.

The work instruction notification unit 107, based on the judgment result of the visit necessity judgment unit 103 and the work instruction request from the work instruction judgment unit 106, when a visit is necessary, maintenance work type component replacement, Maintenance work type information for instructing either adjustment or cleaning, further, in the case of parts replacement, replacement parts information regarding parts to be replaced, customer information, and model information of the image forming apparatus 40 are included in the customer information. The maintenance staff of the service base selected based on the notification is notified via the network 25. Maintenance work type information, replacement part information,
The customer information and model information are transmitted by a carrier wave via the network 25.

The replacement part ordering unit 108, in accordance with the part ordering request from the work instruction determining unit 106, stores the replacement part information,
The customer information as the request source is transmitted to the component management apparatus 200 via the network 25.

In the parts management apparatus 200, the order management information receiving unit 201 sends replacement parts information and customer information from the replacement parts ordering unit 108 of the abnormality notification management apparatus 100 to the parts management apparatus 2
00 to the order information disassembling unit 202 when received through the network 25. The ordering information disassembling unit 202 disassembles the provided customer information, request source information indicating a customer name, a customer address, a customer contact information, and the like, a replacement part delivery address,
The delivery address information indicating the delivery contact information and the like are retrieved. And
The order information disassembly unit 202 sends the request source information to the request source information confirmation unit 203, the delivery destination information to the delivery destination information confirmation unit 204,
The replacement part information is provided to the replacement part information confirmation unit 205.

The request source information confirmation unit 203 generates the request source confirmation information for confirming the request source to the maintenance personnel, and notifies and confirms the delivery information.
To provide. The delivery destination information confirmation unit 204 generates delivery destination confirmation information for confirming the delivery destination to the maintenance personnel and provides it to the delivery information contact / confirmation unit 208.

The replacement part information confirmation unit 205 generates part unit information so that information can be confirmed for each constituent component required from the replacement component, and the replacement component inventory confirmation unit 205 206 to provide. When one replacement part is composed of a single constituent part, one part unit information is generated, and when it is composed of a combination of a plurality of constituent parts, a plurality of part unit information is generated. The replacement part inventory confirmation unit 206, based on the information of each part, stores the inventory of each constituent part constituting the replacement part, for example,
Confirm by referring to an inventory database etc. (not shown).
The replacement part inventory confirmation unit 206 sets the presence or absence of inventory in each component unit information, and provides it to the replacement component delivery / delivery date determination unit 207 that determines the delivery date and the deliverable date. The replacement part delivery / delivery date determination unit 207 determines the delivery date and the deliverable date of each replacement part, for example, by referring to a delivery and delivery management database (not shown), and sets the determination result in the replacement part information. To do. Then, the replacement part delivery / delivery date determination unit 2
07 generates delivery date confirmation information for confirming the delivery date to the maintenance staff based on the replacement part information, and provides it to the delivery information contact / confirmation unit 208.

Delivery information communication / confirmation unit 20 for replacement part information
Reference numeral 8 denotes request source confirmation information from the request source information confirmation unit 203, delivery destination confirmation information from the delivery destination information confirmation unit 204,
The replacement parts are notified by sending the delivery date confirmation information from the replacement parts delivery / delivery date determination unit 207 to the maintenance staff at the service base. The requester confirmation information, the delivery destination confirmation information, and the delivery date confirmation information transmitted to the maintenance personnel have a CE terminal according to a predetermined display format having an input area for inputting confirmation by the maintenance personnel as necessary. Three
The information displayed in 0 is transmitted by a carrier wave via the network 25. The maintenance staff confirms the visit date to the customer by telephone or the like, and based on the date and time designated by the customer, transmits the confirmation information indicating the designated date and time confirmed to the customer to the component management apparatus 200. In the parts management apparatus 200, the confirmation information is notified to the delivery information contact / confirmation unit 208, and based on the confirmation information, the delivery information contact / confirmation unit 2 is sent.
08 issues a replacement part delivery instruction to the delivery instruction unit 209.
The maintenance staff visits the customer at a designated date and time to maintain the image forming apparatus 40.

The delivery instruction unit 209 transmits delivery instruction information including replacement part information to the delivery company 50 via the network 25. The delivery company 50 delivers the designated replacement part to the delivery destination at the designated date and time based on the received delivery instruction information.

In the abnormality notification management device 100, the installer 119 reads the program according to the present invention from the CD-ROM 20 set in the CD-ROM drive, and the read program is stored in, for example, an auxiliary storage device. To install. Then, when each processing unit or the like is activated, the CPU starts the processing according to the program installed in the auxiliary storage device.
Similarly to the above, the installer 219 of the component management apparatus 200 also has the CD-ROM 2 set in the CD-ROM drive.
1, the program according to the present invention is read, the read program is installed in, for example, an auxiliary storage device, and when each processing unit or the like is activated, a CPU is executed according to the program installed in the auxiliary storage device. Starts the process. The medium for storing the programs in the abnormality notification management device 100 and the parts management device 200 is not limited to the CD-ROMs 20 and 21, and
Any computer-readable medium may be used.

Although not shown in the figure for convenience of explanation, the abnormality communication device 100 includes an abnormality notification reception unit 101, a work instruction notification unit 107, a replacement part ordering unit 108, and a communication control unit for controlling information transmission / reception between the network 25. Have. Similarly, the parts management device 200 includes an order information receiving unit 201,
It has a delivery information contact / confirmation unit 208, a delivery control unit 209, and a communication control unit that controls information transmission / reception between the network 25.

In the above embodiment, the image forming apparatus 40 has a part of the processing in the component usage rate determining unit 105 of the abnormality notification management device 100, and when a certain number of sheets are used or every certain time, Make sure to check the replacement.
It is also possible to make a normal notification such as "normal operation is possible as of the day of the month". Further, the abnormality notification () and the abnormality prior notification () notified by the image forming apparatus 40 may notify the use status for the entire apparatus or each part.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a table managed by the component replacement standard master. 3, the parts replacement standard master 121 includes a replacement standard table T71, a customer usage management table T72, and a unique coefficient table T7.
Manage 3 and.

The replacement standard table T71 is a table that has items such as a part name, a replacement standard number of sheets, and a replacement standard margin range, and manages replacement standards for a plurality of parts. The number of sheets used as the replacement standard is “50,000”, and the margin range of the replacement standard is “± 500”.
"0" is indicated.

The usage amount management table T72 for each customer has items such as a part name, a previous replacement date, a usage amount, and an automatic order, and is created for each customer. In the usage amount management table for each customer T72, for example, the last replacement date of the part name "paper feed roller" is "2001/9/25", the usage amount is "XXX", and the automatic order is "OK". . The usage amount is indicated by the number of usage days from the previous replacement date, usage time, energization time, or the like.
Since the availability of automatic ordering of parts can be set for each customer, by adding the automatic ordering availability information to the replacement part information, the delivery information communication / confirmation unit 208 of the parts management device 100 can notify and confirm the maintenance personnel. Delivery instruction unit 209 without processing
It is possible to give a delivery instruction to the.

The peculiar coefficient table T73 is a table for managing, as a coefficient, the usage characteristics of each customer in which the environmental coefficient and / or the opportunity peculiar coefficient are associated with the degree of component wear.
The method of using this table T73 is, for example, that the replacement standard table T71 is used to manage the standard replacement standard by the manufacturer who manufactures each component, and based on the environmental coefficient and / or the unique coefficient managed by the table T73, It is used, for example, when calculating the replacement standard that matches the usage characteristics of the customer.
Therefore, for example, when the number of the image forming apparatuses 40 is further increased on the customer side, or one of the plural image forming apparatuses 40 is installed.
By changing the setting of table T73 by the maintenance staff in charge when the stand becomes unusable for a long time,
You will be able to respond appropriately to your customers.

In the above embodiment, the process in the parts usage rate determining unit 105 shown in FIG. 2 corresponds to the parts determining means, and the processes in the work instruction determining unit 106 and the replacement parts ordering unit 108 are the replacement parts ordering means. Corresponding to.

Further, the replacement parts inventory confirmation unit 10 shown in FIG.
6 and the processing in the replacement part delivery / delivery date determination unit 207 correspond to the delivery date determination unit, and the processing in the delivery information communication / confirmation unit 208 and the delivery instruction unit 209 correspond to the delivery instruction unit.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention of claim 1, it is possible to automatically determine the parts to be replaced and place an order based on the abnormal state from the equipment. The maintenance staff can realize the maintenance work for visiting the customer and replacing the delivered parts in a short period of time, without making arrangements for delivering the parts.

Further, according to the present invention as set forth in claims 2 to 3, it is possible to determine the parts to be replaced and automatically place an order based on the abnormal state reported from the equipment, so the equipment detects an abnormality. After that, it is possible to reduce the time from the delivery of the component causing the abnormality.

According to the invention of claim 4,
The delivery date to the predetermined delivery destination is determined based on the stock status, and the delivery instruction can be issued so that the replacement part is delivered on the delivery date.

Further, according to the present invention described in claims 5 to 6, it is possible to provide a program for causing a computer to perform the processing in the above apparatus.

[0046]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a replacement part ordering system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a functional configuration of a replacement part ordering system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a table managed by a component replacement standard master.

[Explanation of symbols]

20, 21 CD-ROM 25
Network 30 CE terminal 40
Image forming apparatus 100 Abnormality report management apparatus 101
Abnormality notification reception unit 102 Additional information decomposition unit 103
Visit necessity determination unit 104 Parts replacement information acquisition unit 105
Parts usage rate determination unit 106 Work instruction determination unit 107
Work instruction notification unit 108 Replacement part ordering unit 119
Installer 200 Parts management device 201
Order information receiving unit 202 Order information disassembling unit 203
Requester information confirmation unit 204 Delivery destination information confirmation unit 205
Replacement part information confirmation section 206 Replacement part inventory confirmation section 207 Replacement part delivery / delivery date determination section 208 Delivery information communication / confirmation section 209 Delivery instruction section

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A replacement part ordering system for carrying out a delivery process for instructing maintenance personnel to perform maintenance work based on an abnormal condition reported from a device and delivering a part requiring replacement to a predetermined location requires replacement. Receiving replacement part information about the above parts,
A parts management means for transmitting to the delivery company delivery instruction information for delivering the parts to a delivery company on a predetermined specified date based on the replacement parts information and the parts management information having the inventory status of the parts; An error notification management means for determining whether or not it is necessary to replace a part related to the abnormality based on the abnormal state and transmitting the replacement part information to the part management means based on the result of the determination. Replacement parts ordering system. 2. An abnormality notification management device for ordering a component to be replaced via a network to a component management device that manages a component based on a notification indicating an abnormal condition from a device, wherein the component is based on the abnormal condition. A part replacement determination means for determining whether or not the part needs to be replaced, and based on the result of the determination by the part replacement determination means, the replacement part information is transmitted to the part management device by the replacement part information on the part to be replaced. An abnormality notification management device having replacement part ordering means for ordering. 3. The abnormality notification management device according to claim 2, wherein the component replacement determination means indicates a degree of use based on a degree of component wear indicating a degree of wear of the component and a unique coefficient indicating a unique usage characteristic of the device. An abnormality notification management device for determining whether or not it is necessary to replace a component based on a result of comparison between a usage rate and a standard usage rate indicating a predetermined standard. 4. In addition to managing the stock status of replacement parts,
In the parts management device for delivering the replacement parts based on the replacement parts information instructing the ordering of the replacement parts, the delivery to the predetermined delivery destination is carried out based on the stock status of the replacement parts specified by the replacement parts information. A delivery date determining means for determining the date, and a delivery instructing means for transmitting, to a predetermined delivery company, delivery instruction information for delivering the replacement part to the predetermined delivery destination on the delivery date determined by the delivery date determining means. Parts management device that has. 5. An apparatus for causing a computer to perform processing in an abnormality notification management device for ordering parts to be replaced via a network to a parts management device managing parts based on a notification from the device indicating an abnormal condition In the program, based on the abnormal state, a component replacement determination procedure for determining whether or not the component needs to be replaced, and replacement component information related to the component to be replaced based on the determination result by the component replacement determination means. A program having a replacement part ordering procedure for ordering replacement parts by transmitting to the parts management device. 6. Managing the stock status of replacement parts,
In the program for causing the computer to perform the processing in the parts management device that delivers the replacement parts based on the replacement parts information instructing the ordering of the replacement parts, the stock of the replacement parts specified by the replacement parts information. Delivery date determining means for determining the delivery date to the predetermined delivery destination based on the situation, and for delivering the replacement part to the predetermined delivery destination to the predetermined delivery company on the delivery date determined by the delivery date determining means A program having delivery instruction means for transmitting delivery instruction information.