Methods and apparatus to monitor work vehicles and to generate worklists to order the repair of such work vehicles should a machine failure be identified

• US 10,217,066 B1
• Filed: 08/28/2017
• Issued: 02/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deere & Company
• Original Assignee: Deere & Company
• Inventors: Margherio, Robert, Orwig, Brian, Patting, Ann, Schulz, Joey W., Sinha, Vivek K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alharbi, Adam M
• Application Number:
  US15/688,703
• Publication Number:
  US 20190066005A1
• Time in Patent Office: 547 Days
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/267 Diagnosing or detecting failure of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2637 Vehicle, car, auto, wheelchair
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0267 Fault communication, e.g. human machine interface [HMI]
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0283 Predictive maintenance, e.g. involving the monitoring of a system and, based on the monitoring results, taking decisions on the maintenance schedule of the monitored system; Estimating remaining useful life [RUL] preventive maintenance, i.e. planning maintenance according to the available resources without monitoring the system G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to monitor work vehicles and to generate worklists to order the repair of such work vehicles should a machine failure be identified are disclosed. An apparatus includes an interface to access a first and second alerts from first and second work vehicle; an alert scorer to generate first and second scores for the respective first and second alerts; a machine health score determiner to determine first and second machine health score for the respective first and second work vehicles based on the first score and the first weighting factor and the second score and the second weighting factor; and a worklist generator to generate a worklist indicating that the second work vehicle is to be repaired prior to the first work vehicle based on at least one of the first and second machine health scores or an associated first and second classifications.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

an interface to access a first alert from a first work vehicle and a second alert from a second work vehicle;

an alert scorer to generate a first score for the first alert and a second score for the second alert, the first and second scores associated with a severity of the respective alerts;

a weighting factor applier to associate a first weighting factor with the first alert and to associate a second weighting factor with the second alert;

a machine health score determiner to determine a first machine health score for the first work vehicle based on the first score and the first weighting factor and a second machine health score for the second work vehicle based on the second score and the second weighting factor; and

a worklist generator to generate a worklist indicating that the second work vehicle is to be repaired prior to the first work vehicle based on at least one of the first machine health score or an associated first classification and at least one of the second machine health score or an associated second classification.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first weighting factor is associated with one or more of a time of year, a usage demand of the first work vehicle, or a service agreement associated with the first work vehicle.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein one or more of the first score or the first weighting factor is determined based on an occurrence count for the first alert and a visibility score for the first alert, the visibility score associated with a visibility of the first alert to an operator of the first work vehicle.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a machine health score classifier to determine the first classification based on the first machine health score being above an average of machine health scores for a time period, the machine health score classifier to determine the second classification based on the second machine health score being associated with the average of the machine health scores for the time period.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the machine health score determiner is to determine the first machine health score by summing products of other scores and other weighting factors associated with the first work vehicle.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the worklist is a first worklist, the machine health score determiner is to update the first machine health score in substantially real time based on third alerts accessed from the first work vehicle and the worklist generator is to generate a second worklist indicating that the first work vehicle is to be repaired prior to the second work vehicle based on at least one of the updated first machine health score or the associated classification.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further including:

a diagnosis identifier to identify a repair to be performed on the first work vehicle based on the first alert;

a work order generator to generate a work order to perform the repair on the first work vehicle;

a probable parts determiner to determine one or more probable parts to be used to repair the first work vehicle; and

a probable parts orderer to generate an order for the one or more probable parts when the one or more parts are determined as not being available, wherein the worklist generator is to indicate the second work vehicle is to be repaired prior to the first work vehicle based on an estimated arrival time of the one or more parts.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a resources allocation determiner to determine a first resources allocation to repair the first work vehicle based on the first alert and a second resources allocation to repair the second work vehicle based on the second alert, wherein the worklist generator is to indicate the second work vehicle is to be repaired prior to the first work vehicle based on the first resources allocation and the second resources allocation.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first weighting factor or the second weighting factor is based on one or more of operator input, owner input, service input, or manufacturer input.

10. A tangible computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to, at least:

access a first alert from a first work vehicle and a second alert from a second work vehicle;

generate a first score for the first alert and a second score for the second alert, the first and second scores associated with a severity of the respective alerts;

associate a first weighting factor with the first alert and to associate a second weighting factor with the second alert;

determine a first machine health score for the first work vehicle based on the first score and the first weighting factor and a second machine health score for the second work vehicle based on the second score and the second weighting factor; and

generate a worklist indicating that the second work vehicle is to be repaired prior to the first work vehicle based on at least one of the first machine health score or an associated first classification and at least one of the second machine health score or an associated second classification.

11. The computer-readable medium as defined in claim 10, wherein the first weighting factor is associated with one or more of a time of year, a usage demand of the first work vehicle, or a service agreement associated with the first work vehicle.

12. The computer-readable medium as defined in claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to determine the first classification based on the first machine health score being above an average of machine health scores for a time period, the processor to determine the second classification based on the second machine health score being associated with the average of the machine health scores for the time period.

13. The computer-readable medium as defined in claim 10, wherein the first machine health score is determined by summing products of other scores and other weighting factors associated with the first work vehicle.

14. The computer-readable medium as defined in claim 10, wherein the worklist is a first worklist, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to update the first machine health score in substantially real time based on third alerts accessed from the first work vehicle and to generate a second worklist indicating that the first work vehicle is to be repaired prior to the second work vehicle based on at least one of the updated first machine health score or the associated classification.

15. The computer-readable medium as defined in claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to:

identify a repair to be performed on the first work vehicle based on the first alert;

generate a work order to perform the repair on the first work vehicle;

determine one or more probable parts to be used to repair the first work vehicle; and

generate an order for the one or more probable parts when the one or more parts are determined as not being available, wherein the second work vehicle is to be repaired prior to the first work vehicle based on an estimated arrival time of the one or more parts.

16. The computer-readable medium as defined in claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to determine a first resources allocation to repair the first work vehicle based on the first alert and a second resources allocation to repair the second work vehicle based on the second alert, wherein the second work vehicle is to be repaired prior to the first work vehicle based on the first resources allocation and the second resources allocation.

17. A method, comprising:

accessing, by executing an instruction with at least one processor, a first alert from a first work vehicle and a second alert from a second work vehicle;

generating, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, a first score for the first alert and a second score for the second alert, the first and second scores associated with a severity of the respective alerts;

associating, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, a first weighting factor with the first alert and to associate a second weighting factor with the second alert;

determining, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, a first machine health score for the first work vehicle based on the first score and the first weighting factor and a second machine health score for the second work vehicle based on the second score and the second weighting factor; and

generating, by executing an instruction with the at least one processor, a worklist indicating that the second work vehicle is to be repaired prior to the first work vehicle based on at least one of the first machine health score or an associated first classification and at least one of the second machine health score or an associated second classification.

18. The method of claim 17, further including determining the first classification based on the first machine health score being above an average of machine health scores for a time period, and determining the second classification based on the second machine health score being associated with the average of the machine health scores for the time period.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the first machine health score is determined by summing products of other scores and other weighting factors associated with the first work vehicle.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the worklist is a first worklist, further including updating the first machine health score in substantially real time based on third alerts accessed from the first work vehicle and to generate a second worklist indicating that the first work vehicle is to be repaired prior to the second work vehicle based on at least one of the updated first machine health score or the associated classification.