Dynamic Linking of Part Items to Repair Data

• US 20070295800A1
• Filed: 06/21/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Glenn Staats
• Original Assignee: Glenn Staats
• Inventors: Staats, Glenn
• Granted Patent: US 8,140,411 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Providing repair information for a part. A first website may be provided which includes part information. The part information may include at least one of a plurality of possible vehicles and/or a plurality of possible parts. First user input may be received to the first website specifying a vehicle from the plurality of possible vehicles. Second user input may be received specifying a part of the plurality of possible parts, and third user input may be received to view labor cost information associated with the part. Correspondingly, labor cost information may be automatically provided which is associated with the part in response to the third user input to the first website to view the labor cost information. Automatically providing the labor cost information may be performed without further user input specifying the part or another website.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing repair information, the method comprising:

receiving input specifying a vehicle and/or a vehicle system;

receiving user input specifying part information;

receiving user input to view repair information associated with the part information; and

automatically providing the repair information associated with the part information for display in response to the user input to view the repair information, wherein said automatically providing the repair information is based on the vehicle and/or the vehicle system and the part information, and wherein said automatically providing the repair information is performed without further user input specifying the part information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the part information comprises a specific part.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the part information comprises a stock keeping unit (SKU) number.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving descriptions associated with the SKU; and

determining a part type based on the SKU and the descriptions;

wherein said automatically providing the repair information is based on the part type.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the part information comprises a part type, and wherein said automatically providing the repair information is based on the part type.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving user input specifying a vehicle from the plurality of possible vehicles is received to one or more websites over a network, wherein said receiving user input specifying a part of the plurality of possible parts is received to the one or more websites, and wherein said receiving user input to view repair information associated with the part is received to the one or more websites.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a list of a plurality of possible vehicles and/or vehicle systems;

wherein said receiving user input specifying the vehicle and/or the vehicle system comprises selecting the vehicle and/or the vehicle system from the list of the plurality of possible vehicles and/or vehicle systems.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a list comprising the part information;

wherein said receiving user input specifying the part information comprises selecting the part information from the list.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving input specifying a vehicle and/or a vehicle system comprises receiving previously stored data regarding the vehicle and/or the vehicle system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the repair information comprises labor cost information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the repair information comprises technical service bulletins, wherein the technical service bulletins are specific to the vehicle, vehicle system, and/or the part information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the repair information comprises repair procedures, wherein the repair procedures are specific to the vehicle, vehicle system, and/or the part information.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the repair information comprises one or more repair jobs.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving input selecting at least one repair job from the one or more repair jobs.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more repair jobs comprise one or more correlated activities associated with the at least one repair job, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving input selecting one or more of the correlated activities.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

providing one or more part types associated with the at least one repair job;

receiving input selecting at least one part type of the one or more part types;

providing one or more specific parts of the at least one part type.

17. A memory medium comprising program instructions for providing repair information, wherein the program instructions are executable by a processor to implement:

providing one or more websites comprising part information for display, wherein the part information comprises at least one of a plurality of possible vehicles and/or a plurality of possible parts;

receiving user input to the one or more websites specifying a vehicle from the plurality of possible vehicles;

receiving user input to the one or more websites specifying a part of the plurality of possible parts;

receiving user input to the one or more websites to view repair information associated with the part; and

automatically providing the repair information associated with the part for display in response to the user input to the one or more websites to view the labor cost information, wherein said automatically providing the labor cost information is based on the vehicle and the part, wherein said automatically providing the labor cost information is performed without further user input specifying the part.

18. The memory medium of claim 17,

wherein said automatically providing the repair information associated with the part for display is performed without further user input specifying the vehicle.

19. The memory medium of claim 17,

wherein the one or more websites comprise a GUI element that indicates the repair information;

wherein said receiving user input to the one or more websites to view the repair information comprises receiving user input to the GUI element.

20. The memory medium of claim 17,

wherein said automatically providing the repair information associated with the part for display comprises accessing a rules engine to obtain the repair information of the part

21. The memory medium of claim 17, wherein the part has a part name, and wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:

accessing a rules engine to determine a normalized part type for the part name;

accessing the rules engine to determine the repair information for the normalized part type.

22. The memory medium of claim 17, wherein a plurality of repair jobs are associated with the part;

wherein the method further comprises;

providing the plurality of repair jobs for display;

receiving user input selecting a first repair job of the plurality of repair jobs;

wherein said automatically providing the repair information associated with the part for display comprises automatically providing the repair information for the first repair job.

23. A system for providing repair information for a part, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory medium coupled to the processor, wherein the memory medium stores program instructions executable by the processor to implement;

receiving user input specifying a vehicle from a plurality of possible vehicles;

displaying a plurality of parts of the specified vehicle;

receiving user input specifying a part of the plurality of parts, wherein the part has a part name;

accessing a rules engine to determine a normalized part type for the part name;

accessing the rules engine to determine repair information for the normalized part type, wherein the repair information comprises labor information;

providing the repair information to the user for display.

24. The system of claim 23,

wherein the labor information comprises labor flat rate information