JP2011129055A - Management device, service person arrangement method, program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a management device, a service person arrangement method, a program, and a recording medium which appropriately arrange a service person according to importance of a failure issue from the viewpoint of a maintenance business to improve operating ratio of maintenance equipment. <P>SOLUTION: The management device selects the service person who performs, when a failure of equipment for maintenance contract occurs, failure handling of the failed equipment, and has: a storage means for storing guarantee operating ratio determined on the maintenance contract of the failed equipment, and operating ratio of the failed equipment at a point when the failure occurs; a determination means for determining priority by which the failure handling of the failed equipment should be performed based on the guarantee operating ratio and a differential value of the operating ratio; and an arrangement means for arranging the failure handling of the failed equipment by giving priority to the service person when the priority is equal to or more than a predetermined value. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to the fields of a management device, a serviceman arrangement method, a program, and a recording medium.

  One indicator of system performance is availability. Availability simply means that the system can be used, but it may also indicate the difficulty of system failure. In recent years, computer systems have been operating in various business conditions and environments in the wake of the computer society. In order to ensure stable operation of these systems, the systems are monitored on a daily basis, and in the event of a failure, they are quickly and efficiently operated. Therefore, various system management methods and failure response methods have been proposed.

  With regard to such system maintenance, equipment manufacturers and equipment sellers (called maintenance service providers) are not only selling and installing equipment, but also providing customers with the purpose of stable operation of the equipment sold thereafter. Maintenance services are provided, and a maintenance service menu (for example, 24 hours a day, 365 days) corresponding to various types of correspondence is prepared.

  Here, in a maintenance contract between a customer and a maintenance service provider, a contract item generally called SLA (Service Level Agreement) is often included. SLA refers to a system in which a service provider guarantees the quality of service to a customer, and in a maintenance contract, it refers to a system in which a maintenance service provider guarantees a certain range for the availability of a customer system. For example, in a maintenance contract, service quality guarantee items and conditions such as “how many percent of the entire network device operating time is” or “how many service calls per device are less than a month” Maintenance contracts also include provisions for exchanging and failing to achieve them (reduction of maintenance fees, penalty, etc.).

  Therefore, as a maintenance service provider, in order to comply with the maintenance contract, the operation rate (Up Time) of the equipment subject to the maintenance contract must be maintained above a certain value. In order to measure the operation rate of equipment, an operator who receives a service call from a customer when a failure occurs uses a management system (called a ticket management system) to manage the flow from the occurrence of the failure to the completion of repair. ing. Specifically, a ticket (refers to a record or information related to failure handling) is issued using a ticket management system. After completing the equipment repair, the service person who performs the equipment repair closes the issued ticket. The operation rate of the equipment is measured by such a series of flows.

  As described above, in order to provide high-quality maintenance services and further advance the maintenance business, it is very important to maximize the equipment operation rate (minimize the failure rate) as much as possible. I can say that.

  For the purpose of providing high-quality maintenance services, measures have been taken to expand the number of service personnel and improve technology through education so that a quick response can be taken when equipment malfunctions. Also, in some cases, with the aim of improving the support efficiency of servicemen, measures are being taken to make optimal arrangements of servicemen for troubled cases according to the position information, current state, and skill level of servicemen (for example, Patent Document 1).

  However, in any of the conventional methods, from the viewpoint of the operation rate that is regarded as important in the maintenance business and maintenance contracts, it has not yet been taken into account in consideration of the importance and priority of failure cases. The current situation is that failure cases are processed in the order of arrival of service calls to the operator regardless of the importance of the failure case. Therefore, there is a problem that a failure case that is not so important is dealt with first, and a failure case with a high importance is postponed.

  Therefore, in the present invention, in view of the above problems, from the viewpoint of the maintenance business, the management apparatus and the service person arrangement that appropriately arranges the service person according to the importance of the failure case and improves the operating rate of the maintenance equipment It is an object to provide a method, a program, and a recording medium.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, a management apparatus according to the present invention is a management apparatus that selects a service person who handles a failure of a failed device when a failure occurs in a maintenance contract target device. Storage means for storing the guaranteed operating rate determined in the maintenance contract and the operating rate at the time of failure of the failed device, and the failure handling of the failed device based on the difference between the guaranteed operating rate and the operating rate Determining means for determining a priority to be performed, and arrangement means for arranging a failure response of the failed device with priority given to a service person when the priority is equal to or higher than a predetermined value.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, in the management device, the arrangement means selects a serviceman to arrange based on serviceman information when the priority is equal to or higher than a predetermined value.

  In order to solve the above problem, in the management device, the priority includes a priority level, the serviceman information includes a current state of a serviceman, and the arrangement means includes the current state of the serviceman information. When the serviceman cannot arrange the failure due to the other failure when making arrangements for the serviceman based on the state of the service, the priority level of the other failure is compared with the priority level of the failure. Then, the service person arranges to give priority to the failure handling with the higher priority level.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, in the management device, the serviceman information includes a skill level for dealing with a failure, and the arranging unit arranges a serviceman based on the current state of the serviceman information. In the case where the service person is unable to deal with the trouble by dealing with other troubles, the trouble difficulty level of the trouble handling is compared with the skill level of the service person, and the service person having the skill degree from the trouble difficulty degree is compared. Make arrangements.

  In order to solve the above problem, in the management apparatus, the skill level is fed back as a new skill level every time the failure handling is completed.

  In addition, what applied the arbitrary combination of the component of this invention, expression, or a component to a method, an apparatus, a system, a computer program, a recording medium, etc. is also effective as an aspect of this invention.

  According to the present invention, from the viewpoint of a maintenance business, a management device, a serviceman arrangement method, a program, and a recording medium that appropriately arrange a serviceman according to the importance of a failure case and improve the operating rate of maintenance equipment Can be provided.

It is a system configuration figure concerning this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the whole flow from the failure generation of this embodiment to failure completion. It is a functional block diagram which shows the main functions of one Embodiment of the serviceman management server 130 which concerns on this embodiment. An example of serviceman information is shown. An example of a ticket is shown. An example of apparatus information is shown. It is a hardware block diagram which shows the main structures of one Embodiment of each server which concerns on this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the processing operation of the service person arrangement which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the information of "skill level" in detail. It is a flowchart which shows the processing operation of the service person arrangement which concerns on this embodiment.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings in each embodiment.

[Overview]
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram according to the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the service site (maintenance service provider side) 100 includes a ticket management server 110, a ticket management server 120, a serviceman management server 130, a serviceman terminal 140, and an operator terminal 150. The customer side 200 includes a device 210.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an overall flow from the occurrence of a failure to the completion of failure handling according to this embodiment. First, with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the present embodiment will be schematically described for the purpose of grasping the overall flow.

  At the customer site 200, a maintenance target device 210 is installed. The customer and the maintenance service provider have entered into a maintenance contract with respect to the device 210, and a contract has been made to maintain the “operation rate (Up Time)” above a certain value in the maintenance contract.

  The ticket management server 110 is a maintenance management server that manages a situation related to a failure of a maintenance device, and manages the device 210 of the customer site 200 using information on a concept of a ticket for each failure case. A ticket is a record or information related to failure handling (a specific example of a ticket will be described later again).

  The device information management server 120 is a server that collects information related to the maintenance device 210 of the customer site 200 at the time of installation and periodically. In addition, information related to the ticket of the troubled case of each device 210 is periodically collected from the ticket management server 110, and a report for the customer is created based on the collected information.

  The serviceman management server 130 is a server that manages information related to a serviceman who is a maintenance service provider. When a failure occurs, an appropriate service person is selected, and a service person is arranged and assigned.

  In the above system configuration diagram (FIG. 1), the overall flow from the occurrence of a failure to the completion of failure handling will be described (FIG. 2).

  First, a failure (failure) of the device 210 occurs at the customer site 200 (S201). When a failure occurs, the failure is recognized by making a service call from the customer to the operator (S202). Alternatively, for example, when a network monitoring system is installed at the customer site 200, the monitoring system can detect the failure and notify the operator of the failure.

  The operator operates the ticket management server 110 to issue a new ticket (S203). The trouble case is opened by issuing a ticket. In other words, a failure case has been filed.

  Subsequently, since it is necessary to assign a service person to deal with the trouble case, the service person management server 130 arranges a service person corresponding to the trouble case (S204). The arrangement is made, for example, by contacting the service person terminal 140 (including mail).

  When the service person receives an instruction from the service person management server 130 via the service person terminal 140, the service person handles the failure of the device 210 of the customer site 200. Fault response includes work from remote and on-site.

  When the failure handling is completed, the service person accesses the ticket management server 110 via the service person terminal 140 and closes the ticket (S206). That is, the trouble case is completed. As the ticket issuance, the operating rate of the faulty device starts to decline, and once the ticket is closed, the decline in the operating rate of the faulty device stops. It can be said that it is important to arrange man quickly.

  As described above, the serviceman management server 130 according to the embodiment determines the importance of the trouble case based on the operation rate (Up Time), and selects a service person who can appropriately deal with the trouble case, Arrange a service person. The details will be described below.

[Embodiment 1]
<Serviceman management server>
The serviceman management server 130 is a server that manages information related to a serviceman who is a maintenance service provider. Further, when a failure occurs in the maintenance device 210, an appropriate service person is selected, and the service person is arranged and assigned.

(function)
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing main functions of an embodiment of the serviceman management server 130 according to the present embodiment. The serviceman management server 130 includes, as main functions, a device information acquisition unit 131, a ticket information acquisition unit 132, a ticket priority determination unit 133, a serviceman arrangement unit 134, a serviceman state determination unit 135, serviceman information 136, a service A man-instruction unit 137 is included. Briefly described below.

  The device information acquisition unit 131 acquires from the device information management server 120 the “guaranteed operation rate” determined in the maintenance contract for the failed device, and acquires the “operation rate” at the time of failure of the failed device. The maintenance contract between the customer and the maintenance service provider includes SLA contract items, and the operating rate negotiated between the two in the contract is called the guaranteed operating rate. The operating rate at the time of failure of the faulty device is simply called the operating rate. The guaranteed operation rate and the operation rate are included in the device information 121 of the device information management server 120.

  The ticket information acquisition unit 132 acquires the ticket information 111 from the ticket management server 110. The ticket information acquisition unit 132 constantly monitors the ticket management server 110, and when the ticket issuance is detected, notifies the serviceman arrangement unit 134 accordingly. That is, the occurrence of a failure is recognized on the serviceman management server 130 by detecting the ticket issue.

  The ticket priority determination unit 133 determines the priority for the failure handling of the failed device based on the guaranteed operating rate and the difference value of the operating rate. If the difference value is small, it is difficult to maintain the guaranteed operating rate unless the failure is quickly dealt with. Accordingly, when the difference is equal to or less than the predetermined difference value (threshold value), the failure should be dealt with promptly, and therefore the degree of priority should be determined (details will be described later).

  In particular, when the difference between the guaranteed operating rate and the operating rate is equal to or lower than the predetermined differential value (that is, the priority is equal to or higher than the predetermined value), the serviceman arranging unit 134 selects and prioritizes the serviceman in consideration of the serviceman state. Arrange.

  Based on the serviceman information 136, the serviceman state determination unit 135 determines a serviceman who can be currently assigned. The determination result is notified to the serviceman arrangement unit 134.

  In response to an instruction from the serviceman arrangement unit 134, the serviceman instructing unit 137 notifies the customer serviceman of the name of the customer site, the faulty device, and the like using specific means (email or the like) and instructs the serviceman to handle the fault.

  Note that these functions are actually realized in the computer (serviceman management server 130) by a program executed by the CPU. For example, various function units can be realized by a serviceman management program or the like. Further, each functional unit configuration described above is an example, and the serviceman arrangement unit 134 finally arranges a serviceman. Therefore, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 can be provided with all the functions. It may be configured that the unit 134 selects a serviceman by obtaining ticket information and ticket priority determination and serviceman status determination, and issues an instruction to the serviceman.

(Serviceman information)
FIG. 4 shows an example of serviceman information. The serviceman information 136 is information regarding the serviceman of the maintenance service provider, and is created for each serviceman. Further, it is held in storage means such as the auxiliary storage device 104 (FIG. 7) of the serviceman management server 130.

  “Serviceman name” indicates the name of the serviceman. “Affiliation” indicates the department to which the service person belongs. The “responsible area” indicates the area that the service person is in charge of and the customer that is in charge. “Contact” indicates the contact information of the service person. For example, since the e-mail address, telephone number, etc. of the serviceman terminal 140 are included, it is used when an instruction for handling a failure is made when a serviceman is arranged. These pieces of information are basically registered in advance and updated whenever a change is made.

  “Location information” indicates current position information (for example, coordinate information) of the service person by GPS. It is used to determine a serviceman close to the customer site from the current position information when arranging a serviceman. “Current state” indicates the current status of the service person. For example, there are states such as waiting, working, moving, and absent, and this is used when determining a serviceman capable of handling a failure when arranging a serviceman.

  The “skill level” indicates the skill level and skill corresponding to the serviceman's capability for each device (each device type). The “skill level” will be described in detail in a second embodiment described later.

<Ticket management server>
The ticket management server 110 is a maintenance management server that manages a situation related to a failure of a maintenance device, and manages the device 210 of the customer site 200 using information on a concept of a ticket for each failure case. A ticket is a record or information related to failure handling.

  When a failure of the device 210 occurs at the customer site 200, the customer notifies the operator of the failure (service call). Alternatively, when a network monitoring system is installed at the customer site 200, for example, the failure can be recognized by the monitoring system detecting a device failure and notifying the operator.

  When a failure is recognized, the operator performs an operation for issuing a ticket for a new failure case in the ticket management server 110. When the operator issues a ticket, the trouble case is opened, and when the repair of the device is completed by the service person, the issued ticket is closed. For example, in the case where the above-described network monitoring system is installed in the customer site 200, it is possible to issue a ticket by the monitoring system without using an operator. It will be described below as being issued.

(Example of ticket)
FIG. 5 shows an example of a ticket. The ticket (corresponding to the failure information) is a record relating to a failure created at the time of a device failure, and is created for each failure. FIG. 5 shows the contents of one ticket.

  “Ticket ID” indicates an ID (unique value) for identifying a ticket. Since a ticket is created for each failure, the “Ticket ID” is also a unique value that cannot be duplicated and is automatically issued for each failure. “Create Date” indicates the creation date of the ticket. For example, the date and time when the ticket was created by the operator is recorded. “Resolve Date” indicates the date of ticket resolution. For example, the date and time when the ticket was closed in connection with the repair of the failed device by the service person is recorded. In both cases, recording is possible up to year / month / day / hour / minute / second.

  “Type” indicates the type and content of the failure. For example, when the device 210 is an image forming apparatus, “paper jam”, “toner”, “various errors”, and the like are recorded. “Level of Difficulty” indicates a failure difficulty level. When creating a ticket, the operator may determine and input the ticket, or may input according to the type and content of the failure by “Type”. “Level of Demand” indicates a customer's request level. A higher request level is input to a ticket that the customer wants to respond with priority. It is judged and inputted by the operator.

  “Machine Serial Number” indicates the serial number of the failed device. This is to identify the device in which the failure occurred. “Description” indicates a specific description of the device failure. “Solution” indicates a specific description of the solution (repair method). “Total Time” indicates the time taken to close the ticket. It may be automatically input from the difference value between “Create Date” and “Resolve Date”. “Creater” indicates a ticket issuer (for example, an operator name). Also, attribute information of the ticket issuer and other items related to the trouble may be recorded.

<Device information management server>
The device information management server 120 is a server that registers device information 121 related to the maintenance device 210 of the customer site 200 at the time of installation and periodically collects it. In addition, information related to the trouble case ticket of each device 210 is also periodically collected from the ticket management server 110, and a maintenance report for the customer is created for each contracted period based on the collected information.

  When a failure occurs, the service information management server 130 is provided with device information 121 including a guaranteed operation rate and an operation rate. As described above, the device information 121 is used when a serviceman arranges by the serviceman management server 130.

  Since the device information management server 120 periodically collects device information 121 related to the maintenance device 210, it may be configured to have a monitoring function. In this case, since the device information management server 120 also functions as a network monitoring system, the device information 121 is periodically collected, and when a failure of the device 210 occurs, the device failure is detected and notified to the operator.

(Equipment information)
FIG. 6 shows an example of device information. The device information 121 is information related to the maintenance device 210 and is created for each device. FIG. 6 shows the content of the information for one device. The device information 121 can be broadly classified into basic information, contract information, and status information. Basic information consists of basic attribute information of the device and is fixed information registered at the time of installation. The contract information is fixed information that is registered at the time of installation and includes maintenance contract information of the device. The status information is variable information that includes maintenance information of the device and is updated as needed.

  “Customer number” indicates a customer-specific number for specifying the affiliation of the device. “Device name” indicates a device name. “Device model name” indicates a device model name, a model number, or the like. “Serial number” indicates a serial number unique to the device. “Network address” indicates a communication address such as an IP address. “Customer-side administrator name” indicates a customer-side administrator name and its contact information. “Service person in charge” indicates the name of the service person who is in charge of the device and the contact information.

  “Guaranteed operating rate” indicates the contracted operating rate. As described above, the customer and the maintenance service provider have signed a maintenance contract for the device 210, and the maintenance contract has a contract for maintaining the operating rate (guaranteed operating rate) above a certain value. “Corresponding time” indicates a time for performing maintenance on the contract. According to maintenance contracts such as 9-18 o'clock on weekdays and 365 days a day. “Parts warranty” indicates the warranty level of the replacement part. Based on maintenance contracts such as complete free replacement and partial replacement.

  “Occupancy rate” indicates the operation rate of the device. “Operating time” indicates the operating time of the device. The “failure time” indicates the failure time of the device. “Repair time” indicates the repair time when the device has failed. The “number of repairs” indicates the number of repairs when the device has failed. “Number of service calls” indicates the number of service calls to the operator.

  Here, the actual operation rate can be calculated by “(operation time / total time) × 100”. For example, when the maintenance time period is 30 days (720 hours) and the failure time is 8 hours, the operation time is 712 hours, so the operation rate is about 98.88%.

<Hardware>
Here, the hardware configurations of the ticket management server 110, the device information management server 120, and the serviceman management server 130 will be briefly described. FIG. 7 is a hardware configuration diagram illustrating a main configuration of one embodiment of each server according to the present embodiment. The main configuration includes a CPU 101, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 102, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 103, an auxiliary storage device 104, a storage medium reader 105, an input device 106, a display device 107, and a communication device 108. is there.

  The CPU 101 is composed of a microprocessor and its peripheral circuits, and is a circuit that controls the entire apparatus. The ROM 102 is a memory that stores a predetermined control program (software component) executed by the CPU 101. The RAM 103 executes various control operations by the CPU 101 executing a predetermined control program (software component) stored in the ROM 102. This is a memory used as a work area (work area) when performing.

  The auxiliary storage device 104 is a device that stores a general-purpose OS (Operating System) and various types of information, and an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) that is a nonvolatile storage device or the like is used. In addition to the auxiliary storage device 104, the various types of information may be stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disk-ROM) and a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), and other media. Various information stored in the storage medium can be read via a drive device such as the storage medium reader 105. Various information can be obtained by setting a recording medium in the storage medium reader 105 as necessary.

  The input device 106 is a device for the user to perform various input operations. The input device 106 includes a mouse, a keyboard, a touch panel switch provided so as to be superimposed on the display screen of the display device 107, and the like. The display device 107 includes, for example, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), and the like. The communication device 3 is a device that communicates with the managed device 3 and the device management terminal 2 via the network 5. Supports communication according to various network forms including wired and wireless networks.

  The hardware configuration of each server has been described above, but a description of the hardware of the serviceman terminal 140 and the operator terminal 150 is omitted. This is because it suffices to have hardware and functional components provided in a general PC or information processing terminal (mobile terminal).

<Operation>
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the serviceman arrangement according to the present embodiment. Although there are some overlaps with the previous explanation, the processing operation of the serviceman arrangement will be described with reference to the drawings.

  First, when a failure (failure) of the device 210 occurs at the customer site 200, the failure is recognized by making a service call from the customer to the operator. Alternatively, when a network monitoring system is installed at the customer site 200, for example, the failure can be recognized by the monitoring system detecting a device failure and notifying the operator. The operator operates the ticket management server 110 and issues a new ticket. The trouble case is opened by issuing a ticket. In other words, a failure case has been filed.

  When a ticket is issued by the ticket management server 110, the ticket information acquisition unit 132 of the serviceman management server 130 senses the ticket issuance by periodic polling (S801). The ticket information acquisition unit 132 constantly monitors the ticket management server 110, and when the ticket issuance is detected, notifies the serviceman arrangement unit 134 accordingly. That is, the occurrence of a failure is recognized on the serviceman management server 130 by detecting the ticket issue.

  In the present embodiment, the serviceman management server 136 side polls the ticket management server 110 and senses ticket issuance. The serviceman management server of the present embodiment is also used for an existing ticket management server. This is because the server 130 can be applied as it is. That is, there is no need to change the existing ticket management server. Of course, the ticket management server 110 can also be configured to transmit ticket information to the serviceman management server 136 when a ticket is issued. In this case, it is effective in that immediacy is maintained.

  The serviceman arrangement unit 134 causes the ticket information acquisition unit 132 to acquire the issued ticket information 111 (S802). Further, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 causes the device information acquisition unit 131 to acquire the device information 121 of the device specified by “Machine Serial Number” (the serial number of the failed device) of the ticket information 111 (S803). The acquired ticket information 111 and device information 121 are stored in a storage unit such as the auxiliary storage device 104.

The ticket priority determination unit 133 calculates and determines the priority for handling the failure of the failed device based on the guaranteed operation rate and the operation rate included in the acquired device information 121 (S804). That is, compare the value of guaranteed uptime (Up Time), which is the target negotiated with the customer, and the current uptime (Up Time) value of the device, based on the difference between the two values. The priority (priority order) is determined. Here, the priority is defined in advance by the maintenance service provider and used in the auxiliary storage device 104 or the like. For example,
・ If the difference between the current operating rate value and the guaranteed operating rate value is less than 20%, "Priority 1"
・ If the difference between the current operating rate value and the guaranteed operating rate value is 21% or more and less than 40%, "Priority 2"
・ If the difference between the current operating rate value and the guaranteed operating rate value is 41% or more and less than 60%, "Priority 3"
・ If the difference between the current operating rate value and the guaranteed operating rate value is 61% or more and less than 80%, "Priority 4"
・ If the difference between the current operating rate value and the guaranteed operating rate value is 81% or more, "Priority 5"
It can be defined as follows.

  For example, if the operating rate at the current time point is “89%” and the guaranteed operating rate is “70%”, the difference is “19%”, so it is determined as “priority 1”. In this way, it is compared whether or not the difference between the current operation rate value and the guaranteed operation rate value is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, that is, whether the priority exceeds a predetermined value (predetermined degree). Of course, the prescribed value of the priority can be set to an arbitrary value according to the operation and according to the contract.

  If the priority determined by the ticket priority determination unit 133 is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 determines that the failure case should be dealt with immediately and selects a serviceman in consideration of the serviceman state. Then, the process of arranging with priority is performed (S805). Here, assuming that the predetermined value of the priority of the troubled case that should be dealt with immediately is “priority 2”, in the above example, the priority determined by the ticket priority determination unit 133 is “priority”. 1 ”, it is determined that the trouble case should be dealt with promptly, and the process proceeds to S806.

  Next, the serviceman state determination unit 135 determines and extracts a serviceman that can be currently assigned based on the serviceman information 136. The determination result is notified to the serviceman arrangement unit 134. Specifically, based on the “location information” of the serviceman information 136, servicemen are extracted in order of proximity to the customer site where the failure occurred (S806). This is because the closer to the geographical location, the quicker the user can move to the customer site.

  Further, the serviceman state determination unit 135 extracts a serviceman having a “standby” status based on the “current state” of the serviceman information 136 (S807). This is because failure handling is impossible when the “current state” is “working”, “moving”, or “absent”.

  If there is a corresponding person on standby, the determination result is notified to the service person arrangement unit 134 together with the “contact address” of the corresponding service person. Here, if there is no corresponding person, the process returns to S806, and service personnel may be extracted again in the order closer to the customer site. Based on the “contact”, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 instructs the corresponding serviceman to deal with the failure (S809).

  On the other hand, if “priority 3” is calculated and determined in S804, for example, it is determined in S805 that the trouble case should not be dealt with immediately. In this case, the serviceman state determination unit 135 extracts a serviceman who is in charge of the customer based on the “serviceman name in charge” of the serviceman information 136 (S810). Then, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 instructs the corresponding serviceman to deal with the failure based on the “contact” (S809). The service person in charge receives an instruction for handling the failure, but is not required to respond immediately, and can handle the failure case according to his / her own judgment and schedule as the customer in charge.

  As described above, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 according to the present embodiment determines the target guaranteed operation rate (Up Time) value determined in the maintenance contract with the customer and the current operation rate (Up Time) of the device. ), The importance and priority (also referred to as urgency) of handling the troubled case are determined, and a serviceman is arranged. Conventionally, failure cases are processed according to the first-come-first-served basis of service calls to the operator and the damage status of the failure. According to the present embodiment, importance is placed on the maintenance business and maintenance contracts. From the viewpoint of availability, service personnel are assigned in consideration of the importance and priority of failure cases, and quick failure response is possible. As the ticket issuance, the operating rate of the faulty equipment starts to decline, and when the ticket is closed, the decline in the operating rate of the faulty equipment stops, especially for maintenance equipment that is in danger of complying with the guaranteed operating rate under the maintenance contract. It is expected to prevent the rate of operation from decreasing as much as possible, and to ensure compliance with the guaranteed rate of operation and, in turn, compliance with maintenance contracts.

[Embodiment 2]
In the above-described first embodiment, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 determines that the failure case should be dealt with promptly when the priority determined by the ticket priority determination unit 133 is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, and determines the serviceman. Selected and prioritized processing. That is, it is determined whether or not the failure case should be dealt with promptly according to two cases where the priority is equal to or higher than a predetermined value.

  In the second embodiment, a service person is selected and prioritized in consideration of skill and skill so that a more detailed failure response can be performed according to the priority level (level). As a result, it is possible to close the troubled case more quickly, to prevent the operating rate from being lowered as much as possible, and to achieve the effect of complying with the guaranteed operating rate, and thus complying with the maintenance contract. I will explain below.

<Proficiency>
When a failure occurs, the serviceman management server 130 selects an appropriate serviceman, and arranges and assigns the serviceman. In selecting an appropriate service person, the service person information 136 (FIG. 4) is referred to as described above. Here, the serviceman information 136 (FIG. 4) includes “skill level” information. The “skill level” indicates the skill level and skill corresponding to the serviceman's capability for each device (each device type).

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the “skill level” information in more detail. The information of “skill level” in FIG. 9 includes information on the skill level for each field that can be handled by the service person, and indicates the skill level for each field when the device is assumed to be an image forming apparatus (MFP). ing.

  The skill level can be calculated as follows, for example. For each serviceman, the number of cases corresponding to each difficulty level (for example, Lv1 to Lv5) is recorded as a record, multiplied by a coefficient for each difficulty level, and the total value is used as the skill level. The greater the total value, the higher the skill level. The higher the obstacle difficulty, the larger the coefficient value. For example, Lv1 is coefficient 0.2, Lv2 is coefficient 0.4, Lv3 is coefficient 0.6, Lv4 is coefficient 1.0, Lv5 is coefficient 1.5, and so on.

  By using such “skill level” information, when an electronic trouble case occurs, the serviceman state determination unit 153 can preferentially extract a serviceman with a high degree of skill in the electronic system. . In addition, in the case of servicemen with the same level of electronic skill, it is possible to preferentially extract servicemen with a high overall skill level. In other words, the serviceman management server 130 records and manages the repair field that the serviceman is good at and extracts not only the general (general) skill level but also the repair field. More appropriate service personnel can be arranged based on each skill level information.

<Operation>
FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the serviceman arrangement according to the present embodiment. Steps similar to those in the flowchart of FIG. 8 of the first embodiment are given the same numbers. That is, since S801 to S806, S809, and S810 are similar processing steps, only a brief description will be given here, and S1001 to S1006 (dotted line enclosure) will be particularly described.

  First, when a failure (failure) occurs in the device 210 at the customer site 200, the failure is recognized when a service call is made from the customer to the operator, or when the monitoring system detects the device failure. The operator operates the ticket management server 110 and issues a new ticket. In other words, a failure case has been filed.

  When a ticket is issued by the ticket management server 110, the ticket information acquisition unit 132 of the serviceman management server 130 senses the ticket issuance by periodic polling (S801).

  The serviceman arrangement unit 134 causes the ticket information acquisition unit 132 to acquire the issued ticket information 111 (S802). Further, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 causes the device information acquisition unit 131 to acquire the device information 121 of the device specified by “Machine Serial Number” (the serial number of the failed device) of the ticket information 111 (S803).

  The ticket priority determination unit 133 calculates and determines the priority for handling the failure of the failed device based on the guaranteed operation rate and the operation rate included in the acquired device information 121 (S804). Priority based on the difference between the values of guaranteed uptime (Up Time) and the current uptime (Up Time) of the device, which is the contractual agreement with the customer (Priority) is determined. The priority is determined in advance, and, as described above, for example, “priority 1”, “priority 2”, and the like, depending on the difference between the current operation rate value and the guaranteed operation rate value. It can be defined as “priority 3”, “priority 4”, “priority 5”.

  If the priority determined by the ticket priority determination unit 133 is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 determines that the failure case should be dealt with immediately and selects a serviceman in consideration of the serviceman state. Then, the process of arranging with priority is performed (S805). Here, if the predetermined value of the trouble case that should be dealt with promptly is “priority 2”, the priority determined by the ticket priority determination unit 133 is “priority 1”, and therefore, immediate response is made. It is determined that the trouble case should be made, and the process proceeds to S806.

  Next, the serviceman state determination unit 135 determines and extracts a serviceman that can be currently assigned based on the serviceman information 136. The determination result is notified to the serviceman arrangement unit 134. Specifically, in the present embodiment, services that can be currently assigned based on the “position information”, “skill level”, “priority level”, “failure difficulty level”, “customer request level”, etc. of the service person information 136. Judgment and extraction. This will be described below.

  First, service personnel are extracted in the order from the customer site where the failure occurs (S806). This is because the closer to the geographical location, the quicker the user can move to the customer site.

  Next, it is determined whether or not the serviceman extracted as being close to the customer site has a certain level of skill based on the “skill level” (S1001). It is desirable to arrange a service person who has a certain skill level or more for trouble cases that should be dealt with immediately. Therefore, for example, when the overall skill level is determined to be LV3 or higher at a certain level, it is determined whether or not the serviceman information 136 has a total skill level (FIG. 9) of LV3 or higher. Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the “skill level” includes information on the skill level for each field. It is also possible to adopt a skill level corresponding to each field. In this case, it is possible to determine the skill level suitable for the type of failure and the specialized field of the service person. On the other hand, if the serviceman is less than a certain skill level, the process returns to S806, and a serviceman closest to the customer site is extracted.

  Then, based on the “current state” of the serviceman information 136, it is determined whether a serviceman who satisfies a certain skill level has a “standby” status. (S1002). This is because failure handling is impossible in the case of “working” or “absent”. If there is a corresponding person on standby, the determination result is notified to the service person arrangement unit 134 together with the “contact address” of the corresponding service person. Based on the “contact”, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 instructs the corresponding serviceman to deal with the failure (S809).

  On the other hand, if a serviceman who satisfies a certain skill level is not “standby”, the “current state” of the serviceman may be “working” or “moving”. In this case, it is determined which trouble case should be dealt with by comparing with the trouble case currently being worked (moving). Note that if the “current state” is “absent”, a vacation of a service person is considered, and in any case, it is impossible to cope with it. Therefore, the process proceeds to S806, and if a candidate service person is extracted next, Good. This point is omitted in the flow.

  When a serviceman who satisfies a certain skill level is “working”, priority comparison is performed. That is, the priority is compared with the case that the serviceman is currently working on (S1003). For example, this failure case is determined as “priority 2” (S804). If the priority of the case currently being worked on by the serviceman is “priority 5”, the serviceman should suspend the current work and deal with this trouble case of “priority 2” to be given priority. Determined. In this case, another service person is arranged for the work in progress (S1006). The arrangement method can be arranged, for example, by the same processing after S806. Then, the determination result is notified to the serviceman arrangement unit 134 together with the “contact address” of the serviceman who is working. Based on the “contact”, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 instructs the corresponding serviceman to deal with the failure (S809).

  On the other hand, if the priority is higher in the case that the serviceman is currently working on, the “failure difficulty” is compared (S1004). It is possible to compare the difficulty of failure by “Level of Difficulty” in the ticket information 111. “Level of Difficulty” can be determined and input by an operator when a ticket is issued, or can be automatically input in cooperation with a monitoring system. For example, “Level of Difficulty” has a graded value such as A to E and Lv 1 to 5. If the “failure difficulty” of this trouble case is higher than the “failure difficulty” of the case that the serviceman is currently working on, the serviceman determines that the work should be interrupted and deal with this trouble case that has a high degree of trouble. Is done. In this case, another service person is similarly arranged for the work in progress (S1006). Then, the determination result is notified to the serviceman arrangement unit 134 together with the “contact address” of the serviceman who is working, and the corresponding serviceman is instructed to deal with the failure (S809).

  On the other hand, if the problem that the serviceman is currently working on has a higher degree of failure difficulty, the “request level of the customer” is compared (S1005). The desired level can be compared by “Level of Demand” of the ticket information 111. “Level of Demand” can be determined and input by the operator when the ticket is issued. For example, “Level of Demand” has a graded value such as A to E and Lv 1 to 5. And if the “customer request level” of this troubled case is higher than the “customer request level” of the case that the serviceman is currently working on, the serviceman will suspend the work and deal with this troubled case with a high demand level. It is determined that it should be done. In this case, another service person is similarly arranged for the work in progress (S1006). Further, the determination result is notified to the serviceman arrangement unit 134 together with the “contact address” of the serviceman who is working, and the corresponding serviceman is instructed to deal with the failure (S809).

  On the other hand, if the customer's request level is higher in the case where the service person is currently working, the process returns to S806, and the service person closest to the customer site is extracted. In addition, if any of the “skill level”, “priority level”, “failure difficulty level”, or “customer request level” is the same level, it is finally determined from the balance and comparison with other items. What is necessary is just to determine the service person who should arrange.

  On the other hand, if the priority of the case where the service person is currently working is higher, the process returns to S806 again, the service person closest to the customer site is extracted, and if it is at the same level, the failure difficulty level is compared. For example, the priority for “priority”, “failure difficulty”, and “customer request level” is determined, and comparison is made from the comparison items with the highest importance. A service person to be arranged may be determined by a method of performing comparison with respect to a comparative item having a high level.

  Finally, after completing the failure handling, the service person accesses the ticket management server 110 via the service person terminal 140 and closes the issued ticket. At this time, since the response content (work content) is fed back every time the failure response is completed, it is reflected as a new “skill level” of the serviceman information 136 between the ticket management server 110 and the serviceman management server 130. It is good to do so. In other words, experience is reflected in the skill level value.

  As described above, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 according to the present embodiment determines the target guaranteed operation rate (Up Time) value determined in the maintenance contract with the customer and the current operation rate (Up Time) of the device. ) To determine the importance and priority (also referred to as urgent level) of the handling of the troubled case, as well as the skill level of the service person so that more detailed trouble handling can be performed for the important case that should be prioritized. A service person is selected and prioritized in consideration of skills. As a result, service personnel with a high level of skill and skill will be able to deal with it, so that the failure cases will be closed more quickly, the reduction in the operating rate will be prevented as much as possible, and the guaranteed operating rate and, in turn, the maintenance contract. Can be played.

[Supplement 1]
As described above, the ticket information acquisition unit 132 of the serviceman management server 130 senses ticket issuance by periodic polling (S801), and the ticket information 111 issued by the ticket information acquisition unit 132 is acquired (S802). ). When the ticket information 111 is acquired, the serviceman arrangement unit 134 of the serviceman management server 130 immediately determines whether the problem case should be dealt with, and then selects a serviceman in consideration of the serviceman state. Processing for preferential arrangement is performed (S805).

  Here, there may be a case where a plurality of ticket issuances are detected and a plurality of pieces of ticket information 111 are acquired by a certain periodic polling. This is because the maintenance service provider provides a maintenance service to a plurality of customers. For example, many trouble cases can occur between regular polling intervals in various parts of the country.

  The serviceman management server 130 may compare priorities for a plurality of tickets when acquiring a plurality of tickets at the same time, and select and prioritize servicemen according to the priorities. The same applies when the ticket management server 110 is configured to transmit ticket information to the serviceman management server 136 when a ticket is issued.

[Supplement 2]
In each embodiment, when determining a serviceman to be arranged in response to an issued ticket, “Machine Serial Number” of ticket information and “serial number” and “network address” of device information or “customer side management” Use the information in “Company Name” to indicate the status of the failure response such as “Currently a service person is heading” to the device or administrator contact address corresponding to the failure case. Notification may be made, or a device information management server or the like may be notified.

  As a result, the administrator who manages the device at the customer site and the user of the device can obtain information on the failed device via the display of the administrator terminal or the display mounted on the device. This can contribute to reducing the workload.

  In particular, the failure is automatically detected by the monitoring system, and even though the response to this failure case has already been started, the user notifies the operator of this failure again before the service person arrives. This leads to prevention of duplicate work.

<Summary>
Hereinafter, the operation and effect of the serviceman management server 130 according to the present embodiment will be described.

  In the configuration of the serviceman management server 130, when a failure occurs in a device subject to a maintenance contract, the management device selects a serviceman who handles the failure of the failed device, and has been negotiated in the maintenance contract for the failed device Storage means for storing the guaranteed operating rate and the operating rate at the time of failure of the faulty device, and the priority for performing fault handling of the faulty device based on the difference between the guaranteed operating rate and the operating rate Determining means for determining, and when the priority is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, arrangement means for preferentially arranging a failure response of the failed device with priority given to a service person.

  As described above, the serviceman management server 130 according to the present embodiment has a guaranteed operating rate (Up Time) that is a target determined in the maintenance contract with the customer, and the current operating rate (Up Time) of the device. Based on this value, the importance and priority (also referred to as urgent level) of handling the troubled case are determined, and a serviceman is arranged. Conventionally, failure cases are processed according to the first-come-first-served basis of service calls to the operator and the damage status of the failure. According to the present embodiment, importance is placed on the maintenance business and maintenance contracts. From the viewpoint of availability, service personnel are assigned in consideration of the importance and priority of failure cases, and quick failure response is possible. As the ticket issuance, the operating rate of the faulty equipment starts to decline, and when the ticket is closed, the decline in the operating rate of the faulty equipment stops, especially for maintenance equipment that is in danger of complying with the guaranteed operating rate under the maintenance contract. It is expected to prevent the rate of operation from decreasing as much as possible, and to ensure compliance with the guaranteed rate of operation and, in turn, compliance with maintenance contracts.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described with reference to drawings, these are illustrations of this invention and can also employ | adopt various structures besides the above.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, the ticket management server 110, the ticket management server 120, and the serviceman management server 130 are configured by separate devices. However, these servers may be configured by one server. It is. If comprised in this way, a more advantageous effect can be show | played from a viewpoint of introduction cost, maintenance, and communication processing (network load reduction).

  Further, as described above, in the present embodiment, the serviceman management server 136 side polls the ticket management server 110 to detect ticket issue. This is because the serviceman management server 130 of the present embodiment can be applied to an existing ticket management server as it is, and there is no need to change the existing ticket management server. Of course, the ticket management server 110 can also be configured to transmit ticket information to the serviceman management server 136 when a ticket is issued. This configuration is effective in that immediacy is maintained. Since the device information management server 120 regularly collects device information 121 related to the maintenance device 210, the device information management server 120 may be configured to have a monitoring function.

  As described above, according to the present invention, from the viewpoint of the maintenance business, the management apparatus, the serviceman arrangement method, the program, and the record that appropriately arrange the serviceman according to the importance of the failure case and improve the operating rate of the maintenance equipment A medium can be provided.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to such specific embodiments, and various modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims.

100 service site 101 CPU
102 ROM
103 RAM
104 Auxiliary storage device 105 Storage medium reading device 106 Input device 107 Display device 108 Communication device 110 Ticket management server 111 Ticket information 120 Device information management server 121 Device information 130 Serviceman management server 131 Device information acquisition unit 132 Ticket information acquisition unit 133 Ticket Priority determination unit 134 Serviceman arrangement unit 135 Serviceman state determination unit 136 Serviceman information 137 Serviceman instruction unit 140 Serviceman terminal 150 Operator terminal 200 Customer site 210 Equipment

JP 2004-110696 A

Claims (12)

When a failure occurs in a maintenance target device, a management device that selects a service person to handle the failure of the failed device,
Storage means for storing the guaranteed operating rate negotiated in the maintenance contract of the faulty device and the operating rate at the time of the fault occurrence of the faulty device;
Based on the guaranteed operating rate and the difference value of the operating rate, a determination unit that determines a priority level for handling the failure of the failed device;
When the priority is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, arrangement means for arranging a response to the failure of the failed device with priority given to a service person;
A management apparatus comprising: The arrangement means, when the priority is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, to select a serviceman to arrange based on serviceman information;
The management apparatus according to claim 1. The priority includes a priority level;
The serviceman information includes a current state of the serviceman,
The arrangement means, when arranging the serviceman based on the current state of the serviceman information, if the serviceman can not cope with the failure by other failure response, the priority level of the other failure response And the priority level of the failure handling is compared, and the serviceman is arranged to give priority to the failure handling with the higher priority level,
The management device according to claim 2. The serviceman information includes a skill level for handling a failure,
The arrangement means, when arranging the serviceman based on the current state of the serviceman information, if the serviceman can not handle the failure by other failure response, the failure difficulty of the failure response, Compare the skill level of the service person, and arrange a service person having the skill level from the difficulty level of the obstacle,
The management device according to claim 2 or 3, characterized by the above. The skill level is fed back as a new skill level every time the failure handling is completed,
The management device according to claim 4. A serviceman arrangement method in a management device that selects a serviceman to handle a failure of the failed device when a failure occurs in a maintenance target device,
The management device is
A storage procedure for storing the guaranteed operating rate negotiated in the maintenance contract of the faulty device and the operating rate at the time of the fault occurrence of the faulty device;
Based on the guaranteed operating rate and the difference value of the operating rate, a determination procedure for determining the priority for performing fault handling of the faulty device,
If the priority is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, an arrangement procedure for arranging a failure response of the faulty device in preference to a service person;
A serviceman arrangement method characterized by comprising: In the arrangement procedure, when the priority is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, selecting a service person to arrange based on service person information;
The serviceman arrangement method according to claim 6. The priority includes a priority level;
The serviceman information includes a current state of the serviceman,
In the arrangement procedure, the priority level of the other failure handling is determined when the service man cannot deal with the failure by other failure handling when arranging the serviceman based on the current state of the serviceman information. And the priority level of the failure handling is compared, and the serviceman is arranged to give priority to the failure handling with the higher priority level,
The serviceman arrangement method according to claim 7. The serviceman information includes a skill level for handling a failure,
In the arrangement procedure, when arranging the serviceman based on the current state of the serviceman information, if the serviceman can not cope with the failure by other failure response, the failure difficulty of the failure response, Compare the skill level of the service person, and arrange a service person having the skill level from the difficulty level of the obstacle,
The serviceman arrangement method according to claim 7 or 8. The skill level is fed back as a new skill level every time the failure handling is completed,
The serviceman arrangement method according to claim 9.   The program for making a computer perform the serviceman arrangement method as described in any one of Claims 6 thru | or 10.   The computer-readable recording medium which recorded the program of Claim 11.

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