JPS6349266B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention relates to a device in which front office work and diagnostic work at an automobile service factory are carried out using a single computer. The main operations at an automobile service factory include diagnostic operations and front office operations. Diagnosis work here refers to a three-month period that is performed regardless of whether there is a failure in the engine or other parts of the car.
Inspection work such as legal inspections such as 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year (vehicle inspections) and occasional inspections that are performed even if there is no particular abnormality, and if a failure or problem is discovered during the inspection work, or a failure or problem during driving etc. Diagnostic work to diagnose the location and extent of the failure or malfunction, repair/replacement work to repair or replace parts determined to be malfunctioning during diagnostic work, and repairs when requested by a customer who has noticed a problem. This is a general term for re-inspection work that re-inspects parts that have been replaced or replaced to confirm that they are normal, and this diagnostic work is carried out by service personnel at the service factory. In addition, front office work refers to cars that have arrived at a service factory to receive the above-mentioned diagnosis (hereinafter referred to as
It is called the vehicle to be diagnosed. ) and customer data such as customer name, vehicle name, model, and registration number, as well as warehousing history data such as past warehousing dates, diagnosis details, and fees, as well as the type of diagnosis and malfunction of the currently inspected vehicle. After listening to the content, we create work instructions to instruct service personnel on the items and details to be inspected and diagnosed, estimate standard repair content from the work content, and calculate labor and parts costs. , the work of creating an estimate that roughly estimates the cost of the current diagnosis, and after the actual diagnosis work is completed, calculating the labor and parts costs required for the actual final diagnosis, and collecting the money paid in advance. Work that is processed in real time (hereinafter referred to as front office work), such as work to create invoices by taking into account the difference between the calculated expenses and the estimated amount of the estimate, etc., and the above-mentioned customer Businesses that are processed in batches (hereinafter referred to as front office work) such as customer/warehousing history management for managing data and warehousing history data, sales ledger management for the entire service factory, parts purchasing/inventory management, etc. This front office work is performed at the front desk of the service factory. Various apparatuses for carrying out the former diagnostic work have been proposed in the past, one example of which is shown in FIG. The figure uses microcomputer 1,
It is composed of a CPU (central control processing unit) 2, a reference value storage device 3, an input interface circuit 4, and an output interface circuit 5. Reference numeral 6 denotes an input device such as a keyboard, through which the service person inputs customer data, inspection work, diagnostic work contents, etc. necessary for performing diagnostic work on the vehicle to be diagnosed 7 . 8 is a measuring device composed of various sensors and circuits, which detects the condition of each part of the vehicle 7 to be diagnosed;
The detection signal is processed (waveform shaped, amplified), and in some cases, the signal is supplied from the measuring device 8 side, and the reaction of the vehicle to be diagnosed 7 to the signal is detected by a sensor. Reference numeral 9 denotes an inspection method/item storage device, which is an external storage device such as a floppy disk, which stores in advance the methods and items necessary for the diagnostic work input from the input device 6, and stores the inspection methods and items as needed in the CPU.
2 brings out the content. 10 is usually CRT
A display device such as a Cathode-Ray Tube (Cathode-Ray Tube) can be used to display the contents of the inspection method/item storage device 9 for monitoring purposes according to instructions from the CPU 2.
It displays the diagnostic results of the CPU 2, or displays necessary instructions during diagnostic processing, and requests action from the service personnel. Reference numeral 11 denotes a recording device such as a printer, which prints out various information such as diagnosis results as a hard copy. This diagnostic work processing device is used by service personnel at the service factory.When the sensor of the measuring device 8 is attached to the vehicle to be diagnosed 7 and the necessary information is inputted from the input device 6, it follows the instructions of the CPU 2. Then, necessary inspection methods and items are retrieved from the inspection method/item storage device 9 and displayed on the display device 10, and the service engineer performs predetermined measurements according to the displayed contents. The measured value from the measuring device 8 is compared with the reference value for the measurement item stored in the reference value storage device 3 in advance by the CPU 2, and the CPU 2 determines whether the measured value is normal or abnormal, and displays the determination result. Displayed on the device 10. In this way, the predetermined diagnostic items are diagnosed one after another, and abnormal areas are adjusted, corrected, and parts replaced, and finally it is confirmed that the area is normal, and the results are The information is printed out using the recording device 11 if necessary. On the other hand, in recent years, front office work including front office work and front office work has been performed at the front desk separately from the above-mentioned diagnostic work using various office computers, and in recent years, the standard of these front office work has been Various software programs have been developed, and are becoming popular on the market. However, such conventional processing methods for automobile diagnostic work and front office work, although they are a series of work called automobile service, also
Diagnosis work involves a lot of real-time processing, while front office work involves a lot of batch processing, so even though the two jobs rarely conflict, or even if the real-time processing of diagnosis work and front office work overlap, Despite the fact that it can be processed without any problems in practice, the content of diagnostic work and front office work are completely different, and the site where diagnosis work is performed and the front office where front office work is performed are located on the same premises. Even though they are in the same building, the diagnostic work and the front desk work are separated by at least several meters, so the diagnostic work and the front office work are each configured on separate computers, and they are arranged without any hardware interaction. It is used. As a result, there was a lot of overlap in the structure, resulting in a lot of waste. Furthermore, although there is a lot of customer data and inventory history data that can be used in common by both businesses, they are not shared.
Since data was created and used separately, there was a problem in that the capacity of the storage device increased, resulting in a very wasteful configuration. This invention was made by focusing on these conventional problems, and allows diagnosis work and front office work, which were conventionally processed separately using separate computers, to be carried out by sharing a single computer. The aim is to solve the above-mentioned problems by processing the data in a time-sharing manner and sharing customer and warehousing history data. The present invention will be explained below based on the drawings. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 12 is a microcomputer,
It is composed of a CPU 13, a RAM 14, a ROM 15, an input interface circuit 16, and an output interface circuit 17. 18 is an input device, 19 is a display device, and 20 is a recording device, which may be the same as conventional ones. 21 is an external storage device consisting of a floppy disk, fixed disk, etc.
includes a front office work processing procedure storage circuit 22 that stores in advance the processing procedures of front office work (including the aforementioned front office work and front office work) performed at the service factory, and a front office work processing procedure storage circuit 22 that stores in advance the processing procedures of the front office work performed at the service factory. A diagnostic work processing procedure memory circuit 23 that stores data necessary for processing front office work (for example, labor data and parts cost data required for diagnosis and repair, item data necessary for processing front office work, etc.) A data storage circuit 24 for front office work that stores data necessary for processing diagnostic work (for example, inspection items required for each vehicle type and diagnosis mode, contents of instructions to a service person, or the vehicle to be diagnosed) Diagnostic service data storage circuit 2 that stores reference values, etc. that serve as standards for determining whether the functions and performance of each of the 27 parts are normal or abnormal.
5, and a customer/warehousing history data storage circuit 26 that stores customer data and warehousing history data that are commonly used for both front office work and diagnostic work. An example of customer data stored in the customer/warehousing history data storage circuit 26 is shown in Table 1 below.
The contents of this customer data are converted into digital signals and stored in the customer/warehousing history data storage circuit 26. Calculating the capacity for this memory, we get

[Table] This differs depending on whether the content is expressed in numbers, kana, or kanji, but on average, 8 bytes are required for each digit, so if the number of customers you want to manage in Table 1 is 4000, then 8 bytes are required for each digit. Bytes x 150 (digits) x 4000 (items) = 4.8MB storage capacity. Table 2 below shows an example of inventory history data. If the number of items to be managed is 1000, the storage capacity is
8 bytes x 250 (digits) x 1000 (items) = 2M bytes.

[Table] Therefore, the total storage capacity of the customer/warehousing history data storage circuit 26 is required to be 6.8 Mbytes or more. FIG. 3 shows an example of this customer/warehousing history data file. This file represents data for one car model. Further, FIG. 4 shows an example of a file (for one vehicle type) of diagnostic service data stored in the aforementioned diagnostic service data storage circuit 25. Returning to Fig. 2, 27 is the vehicle to be diagnosed, 28 is a high voltage probe for measuring ignition voltage, a current probe that can measure the value of the current flowing through the wire by pinching the wire harness, and 28 is the high voltage probe for measuring the ignition voltage. A measurement device consisting of various sensors such as a pressure sensor to be measured and a circuit, and 29 a switch or display for giving instructions and displays from the computer 12 to the serviceman, or conversely from the serviceman to the computer 12. A remote control box 30 is equipped with a remote control cable. A terminal 31 is placed between the computer 12, the measuring device 28, and the remote control box 29, and is used for waveform shaping and amplification so that the signal can be accurately transmitted to the receiving side when exchanging signals between the two. do the
Sometimes performs simple arithmetic processing. The above-mentioned microcomputer 12 to external storage device 21 (storage circuits 22 to 26) are installed at the front of the service factory, and the above-mentioned vehicle to be diagnosed 2
The terminals 7 to 31 are used at the site, and the computer 12 and the terminal 31 are connected by a cable 32 to exchange signals between the front desk and the site. Next, the operation will be explained with reference to the flowcharts of FIG. 2 and FIGS. 6a and 6b, taking as an example a vehicle to be diagnosed that has been brought into storage due to complaints of a problem. First, a customer comes to the front desk of a service factory,
Request for inspection/diagnosis (step
41). The front desk listens to the registration number of the vehicle 27 to be diagnosed (for example, lateral 55-5523), and inputs the registration number from the input device 18 (step 42). The microcomputer 12 has an internal ROM 15
The procedure for processing the entire device (OS:
Operating System), which manages the three tasks that need to be processed (i.e., diagnostic work, front office work, and front office work), and
Controls interrupt processing, priority, and initial settings for each task (Figure 5). The order of priority among the three tasks is: Diagnosis > Front Office Work > Front Office Work. The initial setting of this device is the memory circuit 2.
According to the front desk business processing procedure stored in 2, the registration number (key-in) is always kept. Therefore, when the registration number is input, the front office work procedure in the memory circuit 22 is followed.
The vehicle 27 to be diagnosed with the registration number from the memory circuit 26
The customer data in Table 1, including the customer name, is read out and displayed on the recording device 20 (step
43). Furthermore, by inputting a request using a predetermined key on the input device 18, the storage history data as shown in Table 2 is displayed on the display device 19 (step 44). Based on this customer/warehousing history data, the defect phenomena reported by the customer, and the desired inspection/diagnosis, the required work details (for example, type of inspection/diagnosis, problem development, special instructions such as tappet adjustment, oil change, etc.) Then, enter the number that encodes the work content (step 45). Based on this input, a work instruction sheet including the work details is created according to the front office work procedure stored in the storage circuit 22, and printed out by the recording device 20 (step 46). Furthermore, when the information necessary for the standard estimate required for the diagnostic work, judged from the content of the work, is inputted from the input device 18 (step 47), the information such as labor charges and parts costs stored in the memory circuit 24 is inputted. The front office work data is read out, subjected to appropriate arithmetic processing, and a repair estimate is printed out by the recording device 20 (step 48). The work instructions are handed to the service person, and the repair estimate is handed to the customer, and the contents of both documents are temporarily stored in the RAM 14 of the computer 12. The above is the first half of front office work. After receiving the work instructions, the service engineer starts diagnostic work (Step 49). If there is a problem, he performs a failure diagnosis (Step 51). In the case of inspection, he performs the inspection according to the instructions and confirms that the parts to be inspected have been inspected. It is determined whether it is normal or abnormal (step 50), and if an abnormality is found during inspection, a failure diagnosis is performed for that part (step 51). In both cases, if there is no abnormality as a result of the diagnosis, that fact is sent to the RAM 14 of the computer Temporarily stored in . If the faulty part or part is found as a result of the fault diagnosis, that part is repaired or replaced (step 52), and inspected again to confirm that it is normal (step 50). Then, the main contents of the failure are temporarily stored in the RAM 14. In this way, the parts to be inspected and diagnosed are inspected, diagnosed, and repaired one after another (steps 50 to 52), and when all the parts specified in the work instructions are confirmed to be normal, the on-site diagnosis is performed. Business ends. When the diagnostic work is completed, the service person informs the front desk of the details of the work performed. Upon receiving this notification, the front desk enters the number of the work order and the code of the final work performed from the input device 18 (steps 53 and 54), and further enters the parts required for the repair using the code. (Step 55). In addition, when the amount of money and miscellaneous fees etc. that have been deposited before performing the diagnostic work are checked (step 56) and that information is input, the CPU 13 of the computer 12 executes the processing in the memory circuit 22 according to the front office work processing procedure. The labor charge and parts charge corresponding to the work content are read out and calculated from the front office work data stored in the front office work data 24, and the billing content is displayed on the display device 19. Furthermore, the difference between the billing content and the estimate content is displayed as necessary. If the difference is large, or if the customer is a regular customer, the front desk will take discounts into account and revise the billing details as necessary (steps).
57), and create the final invoice (step 58).
Incidentally, steps 53 to 58 in FIG. 6b are invoice creation procedures. This is the second half of front office work. Thereafter, the sales based on the invoice are entered into the sales table (step 59), and the details of the failure, measured values, work details, etc. temporarily stored in the RAM 14 are stored in the storage history data of the storage circuit 26 (Fig. 3). and save it as future data (step 60).
These are front office operations. If the above-mentioned front office work is being processed, if diagnostic work interrupts, for example to diagnose another vehicle, it will be processed according to the priority order described above (diagnosis work, front office work, front office work). , the front office operations are suspended and the front desk staff is put on standby to conduct diagnostic operations. Normal diagnostic work takes several to ten minutes from attaching the sensor of the measuring device 28 to printing out the recording device 20, but the diagnostic work procedure is read out from the memory circuit 23 and displayed on the display device 19 in order to give instructions to the service personnel. The processing time by the computer 12, such as the time for display and the time for the CPU 13 to compare the measured value with the reference value, is extremely short and does not exceed seconds, so the waiting time for front office work can be easily understood by humans. There is little to tell. Therefore, when front office work and diagnostic work compete with each other, each time the diagnostic work needs to be processed, it is mixed in with the front office work, and the front office work is interrupted.
Front office work is often performed after diagnostic work and front office work have been completed, so there is little competition between these two services.
If there is a conflict, the front office work will be suspended and you will be put on standby according to the priority order mentioned above. As shown in FIG. 7, when three tasks compete with each other, it is psychologically effective to display the interrupting task and the waiting task on the display device 19. It would be inconvenient for the front office work to be interrupted by diagnostic work interrupting the user while he or she is keying in a single word. Therefore, the program allows interrupts to be accepted only after the space bar or shift key of the input device 18 is pressed during key-in. This may be done by determining whether or not an interrupt occurs after a signal indicating that processing has been completed or after a space bar or shift key signal. Next, another embodiment will be described. The embodiment described above does not have a display device on site,
Instructions from the device are given through a remote control box 29. However, since the remote control box 29 is used while being carried by service personnel, it is required to be small, and therefore the contents of instructions and displays are limited. Therefore, if it is necessary to expand the instructions or display content, a separate small
A display device 33 such as a CRT may be connected and used at the site. Furthermore, along with providing this display device 33, the display device 33 is provided in the terminal 31.
A small microcomputer 34 may be used to control the . By using this microcomputer 34, it becomes possible to process simple diagnostic tasks on the terminal 31, thereby reducing the burden on the main computer 12 and reducing the amount of time spent waiting for front office tasks due to interruptions in diagnostic tasks. The number of times decreases. Additionally, diagnostic work at service factories usually consists of statutory inspections. Therefore, the computer 12 is connected to terminals 31', 31'' (not shown), measuring devices 28', 28'' (not shown), and remote control box 29' via a plurality of cables 32', 32'', respectively. , 29'' (not shown)..., and remote control cable 3
0', 30'' (not shown)..., and a large number of diagnostic vehicles 27', 27'' (not shown) corresponding to the inspection period of legal inspection (3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years...) )... may be diagnosed in parallel. In this case, the priority of computer processing is the same between jobs as in the case of a single terminal 31 etc. mentioned above, and when jobs with the same priority compete with each other, the one whose interrupt occurs earlier in time is given a higher priority. do. Even when there are multiple terminals, etc., the interrupting business and the waiting business can be controlled from the remote control boxes 29 and 2 according to the procedure shown in Figure 7.
9′, 29″, etc. According to the present invention, as described above, the front office work and the diagnostic work at the service factory are processed by one microcomputer, and both tasks are handled by one microcomputer. Since the commonly used customer and warehousing history data is stored together in one memory circuit and shared by both operations, there is no duplication or waste in the overall configuration of the device, and the entire device is downsized. In particular, the capacity of the memory circuit is reduced.In addition, by providing a display means on the terminal, the work efficiency of service personnel is improved and the scope of instructions and display contents is expanded.Also, by having multiple terminals, etc., a large number of Diagnosed vehicles can be processed in parallel in a time-sharing manner.Furthermore, by displaying tasks that are currently being interrupted or are on standby, it is easier to understand the progress of the task, and the interrupt can be executed immediately after the space bar or shift key signal. By recognizing this, malfunctions of the entire device can be prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example of a conventional automobile diagnostic work processing device, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a front office work and diagnostic work processing device in an automobile service factory according to the present invention, and FIG. Plan view showing an example of a file of warehousing history data, No. 4
The figure is a plan view showing an example of a file for diagnostic business data, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the operating system of the entire device, FIGS. The figure is a flowchart showing the display procedure when interrupting between tasks. 12... Microcomputer, 18... Input device, 19... Display device, 20... Recording device, 2
2...Front office work processing procedure memory circuit, 23
...Diagnostic work processing procedure storage circuit, 24...Front office work data storage circuit, 25...Diagnostic work data storage circuit, 26...Customer/warehousing history data storage circuit, 28, 28', 28''... Measuring device, 2
9, 29', 29''...Remote control box, 31, 31', 31''...Terminal, 33
...Display device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Front office work including front office work that is processed in real time at the front desk of an automobile service factory and front office work that is also processed in a batch manner at the front desk, and front office work that is processed at the front desk of the automobile service factory in real time. In a device that performs the diagnostic work to be processed, there is a computer that operates peripheral devices according to a predetermined processing procedure, an input device that inputs information to the computer as necessary, and intermediate data and results processed by the computer. A display device that displays the contents of data as necessary, a recording device that prints out the processing contents of the computer and the contents of the display device as necessary, and a front office service that stores the processing procedures of the front office service. A processing procedure storage means, a front office work data storage means that stores data necessary for processing the front office work, a diagnostic work processing procedure storage means that stores the processing procedure of the diagnostic work, and a front office work data storage means that stores data necessary for processing the front office work, a diagnostic work processing procedure storage means that stores the processing procedure of the diagnostic work, and a front office work data storage means that stores data necessary for processing the front office work. A data storage means for diagnostic work that stores data related to the diagnosis, a customer/warehousing history data storage means that stores data regarding customers and data regarding the storage history of the vehicle to be diagnosed, and various sensors that are attached to the diagnostic parts of the vehicle to be diagnosed. a measuring device, a remote control box for giving instructions from a service person to the computer or from the computer to the service person as necessary during the diagnostic work; and a measuring device, the remote control box and the computer. 1. A front office work and diagnostic work processing device in an automobile service factory, characterized in that it comprises a terminal connected between the three parties and processing signals between the three parties as necessary. 2. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that a separate display device is connected to the terminal to expand the content of instructions and displays. 3. The device according to claim 1, comprising a plurality of terminals for diagnosing a plurality of vehicles to be diagnosed in parallel in a time-sharing manner. 4. The device according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying interrupting and standby tasks when front office work, front office work, and diagnostic work compete with each other. 5. The device according to claim 1, further comprising a program that allows interruption of a high-priority task immediately after receiving a signal from a space bar or shift key of an input device.