Data management systems for collision repair coaching

• US 20060031041A1
• Filed: 08/02/2005
• Published: 02/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VeriFacts Automotive, LLC
• Original Assignee: VeriFacts Automotive, LLC
• Inventors: Olson, Mark E., Granse, Cynthia L., Afshar, Farzam
• Granted Patent: US 7,487,018 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/184
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/04 Manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/30 Computing systems specially adapted for manufacturing

Abstract

A system for on-site collection of evaluation data at a vehicle repair site installation is disclosed. Generally the system includes a mobile computing tool wirelessly connected to a database, a workflow operations guiding module that runs on the mobile computing tool, an evaluation module, a comparison module, a data-mining module, a certification module, a legal compliance module, and a repair procedure compliance module. As a vehicle is repaired, the workflow operations guiding module prompts a coach with questions. The evaluation module performs a quantitative analysis of the answers provided by the coach and the comparison module compares the result of the quantitative analysis against aggregated or averaged information. The certification module compares information from the comparison module against predetermined certification criteria and the data mining module identifies correlations, trends or patterns in collected data by the system.

Claims

1. A system for on-site collection of evaluation data at a vehicle repair site, comprising:

a mobile computing tool wirelessly connected to a database;

a workflow operations guiding module operable on the mobile computing tool and configured to query a user for evaluation information on steps performed by technicians in a vehicle repair procedure as specified in the database; and

an evaluation module configured to receive the evaluation information and to generate a review summary based on the evaluation information.

2. The system of claim 1, where the workflow operations guiding module is configured to receive the evaluation information in the form of at least one of discrete responses or discrete reason codes.

3. The system of claim 2, where the database comprises a matrix holding scoring information indexed by queries and reason codes, and where the evaluation module generates an operation score calculated from scoring information corresponding to received responses.

4. The system of claim 1, where the operations guiding module is configured to receive the evaluation information in the form of a discrete reason code that indicates a selection of one among two or more reason codes.

5. The system of claim 1, where the review summary generated by the evaluation module comprises at least one of a technician score, a site installation score, and a score for a vehicle undergoing repair.

6. The system of claim 1,

where the workflow operations guiding module is configured to receive the evaluation information in the form of discrete reason codes,

where the database comprises:

a matrix holding scoring information indexed by queries and reason codes, and

weighting information for discrete categories of workflow operations;

where the evaluation module generates an operation score calculated from scoring information corresponding to received reason codes and from weighting information corresponding to evaluated procedures.

7. The system of claim 1,

where the workflow operations guiding module is configured to receive the evaluation information in the form of discrete reason codes for each of a plurality of queries posed for a technician under evaluation;

where the database comprises scoring information corresponding to a collection of reason codes, and weighting information corresponding to a collection of procedures; and

where the review summary generated by the evaluation module comprises a technician score calculated according to the formula;

$\frac{1}{N}<br><br>\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>\text{\hspace{1em}<br><br>}<br><br>s<br><br>\text{\hspace{1em}<br><br>}<br><br>\left(q_i,r_i\right)<br><br>\text{\hspace{1em}<br><br>}<br><br>w,$

where N represents a number of queries evaluated for the technician under evaluation, s represents scoring information indexed by a query q_i and a received reason code r_i, and w represents weighting information corresponding to a procedure under evaluation.

8. The system of claim 7, where the review summary generated by the evaluation module further comprises a site score based on a plurality of technician scores for technicians associated with a site under evaluation.

9. The system of claim 1, where the evaluation module is configured to generate performance coaching information in response to the evaluation information, where the performance coaching information comprises at least one of an identified strengths of a technician'"'"'s performance;

an identified weaknesses of a technician'"'"'s performance; and

suggestions for corrections of a technician'"'"'s performance.

10. The system of claim 1, where the evaluation module is configured to prepare periodic reports for a site installation based on evaluation information related to the site installation.

11. The system of claim 1, where the evaluation module is configured to communicate an escalation flag in response to consistently poor evaluation information for a technician.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a certification module configured to compare the evaluation information against predetermined certification criteria for at least one of a technician, site personnel or site installation.

13. The system of claim 12, where the certification module is further configured to output an analysis of the criteria needed for certification of the technician, site personnel or site installation.

14. The system of claim 1, where the workflow operations module comprises decision points at which procedure steps are selected in response to a user'"'"'s responses.

15. The system of claim 1, where the repair procedure is an automobile collision repair procedure, or automotive services procedure.

16. The system of claim 1, where the mobile computing tool is configured to transmit the evaluation information wirelessly for storage in the database.

17. The system of claim 1, where the mobile computing tool is a mobile computing tool selected from the group of a personal digital assistant, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, and a cellular phone.

18. The system of claim 1, where the review summary comprises performance review information for at least one of individual technicians, individual site personnel, a site installation, or a group of associated site installations.

19. The system of claim 1, where the database comprises information on a plurality of site installations, where for each installation the database is configured to accept site-specific notes from users.

20. The system of claim 1, where the database comprises information on a plurality of site installations, where for each installation the database comprises notes on at least one of individual technicians, individual site personnel, a site installation, a group of associated site installations, or individual vehicle undergoing repair.

21. The system of claim 1, further comprising an updating interface, where the updating interface is configured to accept information for updating personnel information in the database.

22. The system of claim 1, where the workflow operations guiding module includes a user interface for recording evaluations of technicians performing workflow operations.

23. The system of claim 1, where the workflow operations guiding module includes a user interface for recording (a) a vehicle identifier for a vehicle under repair and (b) evaluations of technicians performing repair procedures during a performance of workflow operations on the vehicle under repair.

24. The system of claim 23, where the vehicle identifier is indicative of a type of the vehicle under repair.

25. The system of claim 23, where the vehicle identifier is a vehicle identification number.

26. The system of claim 1,

where the workflow operations guiding module includes a user interface for recording a vehicle identifier for a vehicle under repair;

where the mobile computing tool is configured to store the vehicle identifier and the evaluation information in the database;

the system further comprising a data-mining module configured to identify correlations among vehicle types and evaluation information in the database.

27. The system of claim 1,

where the mobile computing tool is configured to store the evaluation information in the database;

the system further comprising a data-mining module configured to identify correlations among technicians and evaluation information in the database.

28. The system of claim 1,

where the mobile computing tool is configured to store the evaluation information in the database;

the system further comprising a data-mining module configured to identify correlations among site installations and evaluation information in the database.

29. The system of claim 1, where the workflow operations guiding module includes a user interface for recording evaluations of technicians performing workflow operations during a performance of repair procedures, and for reviewing evaluations of technicians following a performance of workflow operations.

30. The system of claim 1, where the evaluation module is configured to so that the review summary comprises a qualitative evaluation of a repair technician.

31. The system of claim 1, where the evaluation module is configured to so that the review summary comprises a qualitative evaluation of at least one of a repair technician, a vehicle undergoing repair, a vehicle that has been repaired, a site installation, or a group of site installations.

32. The system of claim 1, further comprising a comparison module configured to provide a comparison summary of evaluation information.

33. The system of claim 1, further comprising a comparison module configured to provide a comparison summary of evaluation information for a first technician as compared to an aggregate of evaluation information for technicians.

34. The system of claim 1, further comprising a comparison module configured to provide a comparison summary of evaluation information for a first site installation as compared to an aggregate of evaluation information for site installations.

35. The system of claim 1, further comprising a comparison module configured to provide a comparison summary of evaluation information for a first site installation as compared to site installations associated with the first site installation.

36. The system of claim 1, further comprising a comparison module configured to provide a comparison summary of evaluation information for a first site installation as compared to site installations in a geographical region of the first site installation.

37. The system of claim 1, further comprising a comparison module configured to provide a comparison summary of evaluation information for a first site installation as compared to site installations associated with the first site installation and in a common geographical region with the first site installation.

38. The system of claim 1, further comprising a comparison module configured to provide a comparison summary of evaluation information for a first of site installation as compared to a peer group of site installations.

39. The system of claim 38, where the comparison module is configured to identify peer groups based on data records regarding at least one of ownership demographics, work capacity of site installation, financial characteristics of site installations, or other user-specified criteria.

40. The system of claim 1, further comprising a comparison module configured to provide a comparison summary of evaluation information for a first group of site installations as compared to an aggregate of evaluation information for site installations.

41. The system of claim 1, further comprising a legal compliance module configured to provide verification whether a developed repair blueprint meets legal requirements and complies with the customer'"'"'s bill of rights for a specific vehicle for which the repair blueprint has been developed.

42. The system of claim 1, further comprising a repair procedure compliance module configured to provide verification whether a developed repair blueprint meets repair rules and standards identified for a specific year, make and model of the vehicle for which the repair blueprint has been developed.

43. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a reference repository comprising reference information for the workflow operations;

a repository interface configured to retrieve the reference information from the reference database through an information network.

44. The system of claim 43, where the reference information comprises at least one of (a) internet links for information on collision repair materials and processes, (b) articles for teaching collision repair of automobiles, and (c) diagrams indicating procedures for collision repair of automobiles.

45. The system of claim 1, where the mobile computing tool is configured to establish wired connections with the database through at least one of a cradle unit or a USB connection.

46. The system of claim 1, where the evaluation module is configured to display the review summary on the mobile computing tool.

47. The system of claim 1, where the evaluation module is configured to serve the review summary on a network-accessible display page.

48. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a workflow customization interface linked to the database and configured to modify specifications of a vehicle repair procedure according to instructions from a user.

49. A system for on-site collection of evaluation data at a vehicle repair site, comprising:

a mobile computing tool wirelessly connected to a database;

a workflow operations guiding module operable on the mobile computing tool and configured to query a user for evaluation information on steps performed by technicians in a vehicle repair procedure as specified in the database; and

an evaluation module configured to receive the evaluation information and to generate a review summary based on the evaluation information.

50. A method for providing coaching for repair technicians, the method comprising:

(a) an automated guiding interface generating a first query from a database on a first repair step performed by a repair technician;

(b) receiving a first input in response to the first query;

(c) selecting a second query from the database in response to the received first input;

(d) receiving a second input in response to the second query; and

(e) generating at least one of coaching, evaluation, verification or certification information for the repair technician in response to the first and second inputs.

51. The method of claim 50, where the act (e) includes generating scoring and weighting information.

52. The method of claim 50, where the act (b) is performed synchronously with the first repair step performed by the repair technician.

53. The method of claim 50, further comprising:

wirelessly transmitting the first and second responses for storage in a database.

54. The method of claim 50, further comprising:

storing the first and second responses and information indicative of a type of vehicle under repair in a database; and

mining the database.

55. The method of claim 50, further comprising:

storing the first and second responses and information indicative of a type of vehicle under repair in a database; and

mining the database for correlations between information based on the first response and at least one of the type of vehicle under repair, the repair technician, the site personnel, a site installation, or a group of site installations.

56. A system for preparing feedback information for a collision repair facility, comprising:

a mobile computing tool wirelessly connected to a database;

a workflow operations guiding module operable on the mobile computing tool and configured to query a user for evaluation information on steps completed in a repair procedure for automobile collision repair, where the workflow operations guiding module comprises a user interface for recording evaluations of personnel performing workflow operations during a performance of workflow operations, and for reviewing and recording evaluations of personnel following a performance of workflow operations

an evaluation module configured to receive the evaluation information and to generate performance coaching information in response to the evaluation information, where the performance coaching information comprises identified weaknesses of a technician'"'"'s performance and suggestions for corrections of a technician'"'"'s performance; and

an updating interface, where the updating interface is configured to accept information for updating personnel information in the database;

where the workflow operations module comprises decision points at which workflow steps are selected in response to a user'"'"'s responses;

where the evaluation module is configured to compare the evaluation information against predetermined technician-certification criteria, and to output a report of criteria needed for certification of the technician;

where the evaluation module is configured to compare the evaluation information against predetermined site-certification criteria, and to output a report of criteria needed for certification of the site installation;

where the database comprises information on a plurality of site installations, where for each installation the database comprises notes on individual technicians and administrative personnel.