JP2003169180A - Work instructing method, work instructing device and work instruction system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a work instructing method, a work instructing device and a work instruction system in which whether the exchange of a component is required or not can be decided before a visit, accuracy in maintenance work can be improved, efficiency in the work of a maintenance/check person can be improved and the stock of consumable parts can be held to a proper level. <P>SOLUTION: In a work instruction system 1 in which an equipment 10a installed on the side of a client, a terminal 14a to be utilized by the maintenance/check person, a visit discriminator 12 for discriminating the necessity of visiting and a work instructing device 13 for instructing work to the equipment 10a are connected via a communication network 15, the work instructing device 13 has an exchange necessity discriminating means for discriminating whether or not exchange of the components constituting the equipment 10a is required on the basis of information on the equipment 10a corresponding to the discrimination result of the necessity of visiting supplied from the visit discriminator 12 and a transmission means for transmitting the discrimination result on the necessity of visiting and the discrimination result on the necessity of the exchange to the terminal 14a and whether the exchange of the components is required or not is reported to the maintenance/check person. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a work instruction method, a work instruction device, and a work instruction system, and more particularly, to a maintenance inspector who performs maintenance or inspection of equipment arranged on the customer side during a visit. The present invention relates to a work instruction method for instructing work, a work instruction device, and a work instruction system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, devices such as copying machines and facsimile machines have been installed in offices, homes and the like. It is difficult for these devices to eliminate problems such as paper jams (jams), so even if a problem such as a jam occurs, the customer can remove the jammed paper and restore the normal condition. It is devised.

However, for equipment such as copying machines and facsimile machines, a customer engineer (C
Paper jams and other failures that cannot be recovered unless E) may occur. In addition, these devices include
It contains consumable parts that need to be replaced according to the number of sheets used and the time of use.

Therefore, in order to operate the equipment installed on the customer side in a stable and normal manner, the customer engineer generally carries out regular maintenance work for preventive maintenance and urgent repair and maintenance work on the equipment. Have been implemented in.

For example, Japanese Patent Application No. 7-
No. 6612 supports the decision whether or not a customer engineer visits a customer based on the information that the abnormality of a specific place is judged beforehand based on the abnormality notification or the abnormality advance notification supplied from the equipment installed on the customer side. The system to perform is described.

[0006] Further, Japanese Patent Application No. 200 previously filed by the applicant.
No. 1-135286 describes a system for remotely diagnosing a device installed on the customer side and supporting the decision as to whether or not to visit the customer according to the result of the remote diagnosis.

[0007] Conventionally, a customer engineer visits a customer's office or home to visit the customer's office or home, and inspects including replacement, cleaning, and adjustment of consumable parts when it is determined that the customer needs to be visited by the above-mentioned system decision support. And maintenance work was done.

[0008]

However, in the system as described above, it is necessary to judge beforehand whether or not the customer's device has an abnormality at a specific location and whether or not it is necessary to visit the specific location. However, it was not possible to support the judgment as to whether or not the consumable parts relating to the specific part and the consumable parts at other parts should be replaced.

[0009] Generally, the customer engineer decides whether or not to replace various parts by replacing the parts depending on whether or not the number of used sheets exceeds the reference number of replacements set for the various parts, or only cleaning and adjustment work. And decide whether to. In the above-mentioned visit necessity judgment support, even if it is judged that a visit is necessary due to an abnormality at a specific location, it is unclear as to the exact prior information on whether or not various parts related to the abnormality at the specific location have reached the replacement standard, It was inefficient and uneconomical because it was necessary to prepare various expected parts in advance when visiting.

In addition, the accuracy of maintenance work may be a problem because the work cannot be accurately judged. Furthermore, there is a risk that the inventory of parts will become inadequate.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is possible to determine whether or not it is necessary to replace a part related to a specific abnormal location and whether or not to replace other parts before a visit, thereby improving the accuracy of maintenance work. , Work instruction method and work instruction device capable of improving customer satisfaction by stabilizing quality based on more accurate judgment, improving efficiency of work of maintenance inspectors, and optimizing inventory of consumable parts It is also intended to provide a work instruction system.

[0012]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a maintenance inspector who performs maintenance or inspection of equipment installed on the customer side, using a computer to perform work on the equipment. A work instruction method for giving an instruction, wherein a determination result of whether or not a visit is required by prior detection of an abnormal state for the device is supplied, and the device is configured based on information about the device according to the determination result of the necessity of visit. A necessity / non-necessity determination step of determining necessity / non-necessity of replacement of parts and other consumable parts related to a specific abnormal location, and a notification step of notifying the maintenance / inspector of the result of determination of necessity / non-necessity of visit and the result of determination of necessity / non-necessity of replacement. And having.

Further, the present invention is a work instructing device for instructing a maintenance inspector who performs maintenance or inspection of a device installed on the customer side to the device, and determines whether or not a visit to the device is necessary. The result is supplied, in accordance with the determination result of the necessity of visit, replacement necessity determination means for determining necessity of replacement of parts constituting the device based on information about the device, and the determination result of the necessity of visit and And a notification means for notifying the maintenance inspector of the result of the determination of whether or not the replacement is necessary.

Further, according to the present invention, at least one device installed on the customer side, at least one terminal used by a maintenance inspector who performs maintenance or inspection of the device, and necessity of visiting the device. A work instruction system in which a visit determination device for determining and a work instruction device for giving a work instruction to the device are connected via a communication network, wherein the work instruction device determines whether or not a visit to the device is necessary. A replacement necessity determination unit that determines whether or not a component that constitutes the device is required to be replaced based on information about the device, which is supplied from the previous-term visit determination device, and whether or not the visit is necessary. A maintenance means for displaying the determination result and the determination result of the necessity of replacement to the terminal, and displaying the determination result of the necessity of the visit and the determination result of the necessity of the replacement on the terminal. And notifies the exchange necessity of the component's.

As described above, it is possible to determine whether or not a part needs to be replaced based on the information about the device in accordance with the result of the determination as to whether or not the device needs to be visited. You can

Therefore, since the maintenance inspector can determine whether or not to bring the parts before the visit, depending on the result of the determination of whether or not the parts need to be replaced, the work can be made efficient. Further, since the maintenance inspector only needs to bring the parts determined to be replaced when visiting, it is possible to optimize the inventory of the parts.

Whether or not the component needs to be replaced can be determined based on the result of comparison between the use information expressing the amount of use of the component and the replacement reference information expressing the criterion of whether the component needs to be replaced. For example, the usage information and replacement standard information of parts are
At least one of the number of used sheets, the used time, and the energized time can express the used amount of the component and the criterion of whether or not the component needs to be replaced.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the work instruction system of the present invention. The work instruction system 1 of FIG. 1 includes devices 10a to 10n, a data communication device 11, a visit necessity determination device 12, a work instruction device 13, and terminals 14a to 1c.
4 m and the communication network 15 are included.

The data communication device 11, the visit necessity determination device 12, the work instruction device 13, and the terminals 14a to 14m are connected via a communication network 15 such as the Internet or a telephone line network.

The devices 10a to 10n are, for example, offices,
A device such as a copying machine or a facsimile machine installed in a home. The data communication device 11 is a device that connects the devices 10 a to 10 n to the visit necessity determination device 12 and the work instruction device 13 via the communication network 15. The visit necessity determination device 12 and the work instruction device 13 may be one device.

The terminals 14a to 14m are terminals used by customer engineers, and are installed at one or more service bases. The visit necessity determination device 12 is the device 10a.
The information transmitted from 10 to 10n is received, the received information is analyzed, and it is judged whether or not a regular visit or a report visit should be performed.

Further, the work instruction device 13 includes the devices 10a to 10a.
10n and the information transmitted from the visit necessity determination device 12 are received, and the devices 10a to 10 are used at the time of regular visit or notification visit.
It is determined whether or not the consumable component of n should be replaced and whether or not the component needs to be replaced.

The information transmitted from the devices 10a to 10n is, for example, use state information indicating the use state of the devices 10a to 10n, defect information indicating a defect, and the like. It should be noted that the usage status information includes component usage information that represents the usage amount (for example, the number of used components, the usage time, etc.) of the components that make up the devices 10a to 10n.

The visit necessity determination device 12 determines whether or not a regular visit or a report visit is necessary by using the defect information, and manages the devices 10a to 10n which are determined to require the regular visit or a report visit. Terminal 14a of service base
Send the result of regular visit or report visit judgment to 14m.

Further, the work instruction device 13 receives the visit necessity determination result of the regular visit or the report visit transmitted from the visit necessity determination device 12, the abnormal place information, and the component use information transmitted from the devices 10a to 10n. The terminal of the service base that manages the devices 10a to 10n that determine whether or not the consumable parts constituting the devices 10a to 10n should be replaced at the time of regular visit or report visit using 14a to 14m are transmitted to the result of determination of necessity of parts replacement of consumable parts.

The customer engineer uses terminals 14a-1
4m can be used to check the visit necessity determination result and the component replacement necessity determination result of the devices 10a to 10n managed by the user.

The visit necessity determination device 12 is applied to the Japanese Patent Application No. 7-6612 or the Japanese Patent Application No. 7-6612 previously filed by the applicant.
The technique described in -135286 can be used. For example, when the technique described in Japanese Patent Application No. 7-6612 is used, the visit necessity determination device 12 is a customer engineer based on the defect information (alarm information) supplied from the devices 10a to 10n installed on the customer side. Will help you decide whether to visit the customer.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the visit necessity determination device. The visit necessity determination device 12 of FIG. 2 includes a communication interface unit 20 connected to each other via a bus 26,
It is configured to include a device information collection management unit 21, a notification diagnosis unit 22, a necessity determination output unit 23, a database management unit 24, and a database (hereinafter referred to as DB) 25.

The communication interface section 20 has a communication function and serves as an interface with the communication network 15. The device information collection management unit 21 collects and manages usage status information, defect information, etc. of the devices 10a to 10n installed on the customer side, regularly or as needed.

Here, the usage status information means the devices 10a to 10a.
Component usage information indicating the usage amount of components that make up 10n,
Equipment 10a-1 such as usage by size and usage by paper feed stage
The use information of 0n and the state information indicating the past or present electrical or mechanical state of the devices 10a to 10n are included. In addition, the defect information includes failure information indicating that a failure has occurred, alarm information indicating that the status is not a failure but requires maintenance, and information indicating other failures.

For example, the failure information includes the devices 10a to 10n.
Emergency call (call) when a failure is detected by the self-diagnosis of the same, emergency paper jam report (call when a paper jam of the same tendency occurs a predetermined number of times (for example, 5 times) in a row ) Etc. are included.

Further, alarm information or information indicating other troubles is given in advance by the self-diagnosis of the devices 10a to 10n in advance of an abnormality notifying that the devices 10a to 10n require maintenance, but the customer's panel of the devices 10a to 10n. Includes a repair request report that reports malfunctions by operation. The information on the number of times of emergency notification, emergency paper jam notification, advance notification of abnormality, and notification of repair request is also part of the defect information.

Further, in advance of abnormality notification, a jam alarm indicating that the occurrence frequency of paper jam is increasing, an emergency notification alarm indicating that the occurrence frequency of emergency notification is increasing, and a measured value by a sensor Sensor alarms and the like indicating that the abnormal value occurrence frequency is increasing.

The database management unit 24 manages the DB 25. The DB 25 stores use status information, defect information, maintenance record history information, etc. of the devices 10a to 10n collected by the device information collection management unit 21.

The notification diagnosis unit 22 makes a notification (alarm) diagnosis at any time or periodically using the abnormality advance notification stored in the DB 25. In addition, the report diagnosis unit 22
The abnormal location information is output by using the abnormality advance notification stored in the DB 25. The necessity determination output unit 23 outputs the necessity determination result of the report visit performed by the customer engineer according to the report diagnosis.

The abnormal part information output from the notification diagnosis unit 22 and the visit necessity determination result output from the necessity determination output unit 23 are transmitted to the work instruction device 13 via the communication interface unit 20 and the communication network 15. It

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of the work instruction apparatus. The work instruction device 13 of FIG. 3 includes a communication interface unit 30, a visit necessity determination unit 31, a component usage information acquisition unit 32, a replacement reference information acquisition unit 33, and a component replacement that are connected to each other via a bus 37. A necessity determination output unit 34,
Database management unit 35 and database (hereinafter, DB
, 36).

The communication interface section 30 has a communication function and serves as an interface with the communication network 15. The visit necessity determination unit 31 determines whether the visit necessity determination result received from the visit necessity determination device 12 indicates that a notification visit should be made. The component usage information acquisition unit 32 acquires the component usage information included in the usage status information received from the devices 10a to 10n.

The replacement standard information acquisition unit 33 specifies the consumable part according to the abnormal part information received from the visit necessity determination device 12, and acquires the replacement standard information of the specified consumable part from the DB 36. The replacement reference information is information in which the replacement reference amount such as the replacement reference number of consumable parts that need to be replaced according to the usage amount such as the number of used parts among the components configuring the devices 10a to 10n is set for each consumable part. Is.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the exchange standard information. The replacement standard information of FIG. 4 has items such as the name of a consumable part, the replacement standard number of sheets, the replacement standard margin range, and the unique coefficient. In the example of FIG. 4, the replacement reference number of consumable parts “paper feed roller” is “50000”, and the replacement reference allowance range is “± 500”.
“0” and the unique coefficient “type A” are set.

The item "replacement reference number of sheets" sets the replacement time of consumable parts according to the amount used. For example, in the example of FIG. 4, the number of used sheets “50000” is set as the replacement time of the consumable part “paper feed roller”. The item “replacement standard margin range” is for giving the item “replacement standard number of sheets” a range. For example, in the example of FIG. 4, the width of the replacement reference number is “45000-55000”.

The item "unique coefficient" is set according to the usage environment of the customer, the usage characteristics of the device, and the like. In addition, item "replacement standard margin range" and item "unique coefficient"
Can be set arbitrarily.

When the visit necessity determination unit 31 notifies the component replacement necessity determination output unit 34 that the visit necessity determination result indicates that a report visit should be made, the component usage information acquisition unit 32 outputs. The part use information is received, and the replacement standard information is received from the replacement standard information acquisition unit 33.

The component replacement necessity determination output unit 34 compares the component usage information with the replacement reference information, and determines whether or not the consumable component needs to be replaced at the time of the report visit according to the comparison result. Output the result. Database management unit 35
Manages the DB 36. The DB 36 stores exchange standard information as shown in FIG.

The component replacement necessity determination result output from the component replacement necessity determination output unit 34 and the visit necessity determination result output from the necessity determination output unit 23 are the devices 10a determined to require a report visit. It is transmitted to the terminals 14a to 14m of the service bases managing 10n to 10n.

The processing procedure of the work instruction apparatus in FIG. 3 will be described below with reference to the flowchart. Figure 5
FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of an example of processing of the work instruction apparatus.

In step S10, the visit necessity determination unit 31
Determines whether a report visit is necessary according to the visit necessity determination result received from the visit necessity determination device 12. If it is determined that the report visit is not necessary (N in S10
O), the visit necessity determination unit 31 repeats the process of step S10. When it is determined that the report visit is necessary (YES in S10), the visit necessity determination unit 31 notifies the fact to the component usage information acquisition unit 32, the replacement reference information acquisition unit 33, and the component replacement necessity determination output unit 34. .

In step S11, the replacement reference information acquisition unit 33 identifies the consumable part according to the abnormal location information received from the visit necessity determination device 12. Proceeding to step S12 following step S11, the part usage information acquisition unit 32 acquires the part usage information of the consumable part identified in step S11. Further, the exchange standard information acquisition unit 33 uses the step S1.
The replacement standard information of the consumable part specified in 1 is acquired from the DB 36.

After step S12, the process proceeds to step S13, where the component replacement necessity determination output unit 34 displays
Compare the parts usage information and replacement standard information acquired in. The comparison result is represented, for example, by whether or not the number of used parts as the part usage information has reached the replacement reference number as the replacement reference information. It should be noted that in the exchange reference information of FIG. 4, the exchange reference margin range and the unique coefficient are considered.

In step S14 following step S13, the component replacement necessity determination output unit 34 determines whether or not component replacement is required. When the number of used parts as the part usage information has reached the replacement reference number as the replacement reference information, the part replacement necessity determination output unit 34 determines that the parts replacement is necessary (YES in S14), and step S1
Go to 5. On the other hand, when the number of used parts as the part usage information has not reached the replacement reference number as the replacement reference information, the part replacement necessity determination output unit 34 determines that the parts replacement is not necessary (NO in S14), and step S16. Proceed to.

In step S15, the parts replacement necessity determination output unit 34 manages the devices 10a to 10n that have determined that a notification such as the one shown in FIG. Send to 14m. Figure 6
In (a), since it is determined in step S14 that the consumable part needs to be replaced, it is described that the consumable part is replaced when visiting.

In step S16, the component replacement necessity / non-necessity output unit 34 manages the devices 10a-10n, which have determined that a notification such as the one shown in FIG. Send to 14m. Figure 6
In (b), since it is determined in step S14 that the consumable parts need not be replaced, it is described that cleaning and adjustment are performed at the time of visiting.

Therefore, the customer engineer can determine whether the consumable part needs to be replaced before visiting the customer.

Although the present embodiment is specialized in the abnormal part information, a list of consumable parts to be replaced may be output at the time of visiting. Further, in the example of FIG. 6B, the fact that the part specified from the abnormal point information does not reach the replacement standard is notified, but for example, the usage rate with respect to the replacement standard may be notified.

[0056]

As described above, according to the present invention, the maintenance inspector can determine whether or not to bring the parts before the visit according to the result of the necessity / non-necessity of the parts replacement, so that the work efficiency can be improved. It is possible. Further, since the maintenance inspector only needs to bring the parts determined to be replaced when visiting, it is possible to optimize the inventory of the parts.

[0057]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a work instruction system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an example of a visit necessity determination device.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a work instruction device.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an example of exchange reference information.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an example of processing of the work instruction apparatus.

FIG. 6 is an image diagram of an example of notification contents to a customer engineer.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Work instruction system 10a-10n equipment 11 Data communication equipment 12 Visit necessity determination device 13 Work instruction device 14a-14m terminal 15 Communication network 20,30 communication interface 21 Equipment Information Collection Management Department 22 Report diagnosis department 23 Necessity determination output unit 24,35 Database Management Department 25,36 Database (DB) 31 Visit necessity determination section 32 Parts usage information acquisition section 33 Exchange standard information acquisition unit 34 Parts replacement necessity output section

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F-term (reference) 2C061 AP03 AP04 HJ10 HK11 HK23                       HV34                 2H027 DA39 DA45 DE07 EJ13 EJ15                       HB05 HB06                 5C062 AA02 AA05 AA14 AA25 AA29                       AB38 AB41 AC35 AC58 AF00                       BD00

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A work instructing method for instructing a maintenance inspector who performs maintenance or inspection of a device installed on a customer side, to a device using a computer, the method including: A determination result is supplied, and in accordance with the determination result of the visit necessity, an exchange necessity determination step of determining whether or not a component of the device is required to be exchanged based on information about the device, and a determination result of the visit necessity. And a notification step of notifying the maintenance inspector of the result of the determination of whether or not the replacement is necessary, the work instruction method. 2. The replacement necessity determination step, when the determination result of the visit necessity determines that a visit to the device is necessary, responds to a comparison result of use information of parts constituting the device and replacement reference information. The work instruction method according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not a component forming the device needs to be replaced. 3. The usage information and the replacement reference information represent the usage amount of the parts constituting the device by at least one of the number of used sheets, the usage time, and the energization time. Work instruction method. 4. The replacement necessity determination step compares the usage information and the replacement reference information of the parts forming the device, and the usage amount represented by the usage information is converted into a usage amount represented by the replacement reference information. If the usage amount represented by the usage information does not reach the usage amount represented by the replacement reference information, it is determined that the parts need not be replaced. The work instruction method according to claim 3, characterized in that 5. A work instruction device for instructing a maintenance inspector who performs maintenance or inspection of a device installed on a customer side to the device, and is provided with a determination result of whether or not a visit to the device is necessary. Replacement necessity determination means for determining necessity of replacement of a component forming the device based on information about the device according to the determination result of the necessity of visit, the determination result of the necessity of visit and the necessity of replacement And a notification means for notifying the maintenance inspector of the determination result of 1. 6. One or more devices installed on the customer side,
One or more terminals used by a maintenance inspector who performs maintenance or inspection of the device, a visit determination device that determines whether or not a visit to the device is necessary, and a work instruction device that issues a work instruction to the device form a communication network. In the work instruction system connected via, the work instruction device, the determination result of the necessity of visit to the device is supplied from the previous period visit determination device, depending on the determination result of the visit necessity, with respect to the device It has a replacement necessity judgment means for judging necessity of replacement of parts constituting the device based on information, and a transmission means for transmitting the judgment result of the necessity of visit and the judgment result of the replacement necessity to the terminal. , A work instruction system characterized by displaying the result of determination of necessity of visit and the result of determination of necessity of replacement on the terminal and notifying the maintenance person of necessity of replacement of the component. Beam.