Maintenance System and Method

• US 20080002995A1
• Filed: 06/29/2006
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Tec Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Tec Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: KAMISUWA, Yoshikatsu, NAKANE, Rintaro
• Granted Patent: US 7,774,169 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 399/8
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/55 Self-diagnostics; Malfunction or lifetime display
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A technique is provided that enables reduction in cost related to maintenance services and that also enables reduction in downtime of a product.

A maintenance system for making a maintenance plan for consumable parts of an apparatus that is a maintenance target, includes: an interval information acquiring unit configured to acquire information related to a combination of a visit interval that prescribes a time interval at which a visit should be made for maintenance operation for each consumable part, and a replacement interval that prescribes a time interval at which each consumable part should be replaced and that is associated with the visit interval; a counter value acquiring unit configured to acquire a counter value that indicates actual use of consumable parts in the apparatus that is a maintenance target; and a maintenance plan calculating unit configured to calculate timing at which a next visit should be made for the apparatus that is a maintenance target, and a consumable part that should be replaced at the timing, on the basis of the information acquired by the interval information acquiring unit and the counter value acquired by the counter value acquiring unit.

Claims

1. A maintenance system adapted for making a maintenance plan for consumable parts of an apparatus that is a maintenance target, comprising:

an interval information acquiring unit configured to acquire information related to a combination of a visit interval that prescribes a time interval at which a visit should be made for maintenance operation for each consumable part, and a replacement interval that prescribes a time interval at which each consumable part should be replaced and that is associated with the visit interval;

a counter value acquiring unit configured to acquire a counter value that indicates actual use of consumable parts in the apparatus that is a maintenance target; and

a maintenance plan calculating unit configured to calculate timing at which a next visit should be made for the apparatus that is a maintenance target, and a consumable part that should be replaced at the timing, on the basis of the information acquired by the interval information acquiring unit and the counter value acquired by the counter value acquiring unit.

2. The maintenance system according to claim 1, wherein the consumable parts include a cartridge in which plural consumable parts having different functions from each other are formed integrally as a unit.

3. The maintenance system according to claim 1, comprising:

a replacement difficulty judging unit configured to judge whether the consumable part that should be replaced, calculated by the maintenance plan calculating unit, is a component that can only by replaced by a serviceman carrying out maintenance operation for the apparatus or not; and

a notifying unit configured to, if it is judged by the replacement difficulty judging unit that the consumable part is a component that can only be replaced by the serviceman, issue a notification that a visit should be made for the apparatus that is the maintenance target in order to replace the component.

4. The maintenance system according to claim 1, comprising:

a visit interval calculating unit configured to calculate the visit interval for each consumable part on the basis of failure rate distribution of each consumable part;

a replacement interval calculating unit configured to calculate the replacement interval for each consumable part on the basis of failure rate distribution of each consumable part; and

a combination calculating unit configured to calculate information related to a combination of a time interval at which a visit should be made for maintenance operation and a consumable part that should be replaced at the timing, on the basis of the visit interval calculated by the visit interval calculating unit and the replacement interval calculated by the replacement interval calculating unit;

wherein the interval information acquiring unit acquires the information calculated by the combination calculating unit.

5. The maintenance system according to claim 4, wherein the visit interval calculating unit randomly calculates the visit interval, and the replacement interval calculating unit randomly calculates the replacement interval, and

the combination calculating unit finds a combination of a visit interval and a replacement interval that minimizes a predetermined cost, on the basis of the visit interval calculated by the visit interval calculating unit and the replacement interval calculated by the replacement interval calculating unit.

6. The maintenance system according to claim 5, wherein the visit interval calculated for each consumable part by the visit interval calculating unit is set to be longer than the replacement interval calculated by the replacement interval calculating unit.

7. The maintenance system according to claim 5, wherein the predetermined cost is a sum of labor cost required for maintenance operation by a serviceman, material cost of consumable parts, and amount of loss caused by unavailability of the apparatus that is the maintenance target to a user.

8. The maintenance system according to claim 5, wherein the combination calculating unit performs search processing using the Monte Carlo method or genetic algorithm on the basis of the visit interval calculated by the visit interval calculating unit and the replacement interval calculated by the replacement interval calculating unit, thereby finding a combination of a visit interval and a replacement interval that minimizes the predetermined cost.

9. The maintenance system according to claim 5, wherein the visit interval calculating unit and the replacement interval calculating unit calculate, on the basis of failure probability distribution of each consumable part, a value close to an interval with which it is predicted that the failure probability is equal to or higher than a predetermined probability.

10. A maintenance system for making a maintenance plan for consumable parts of an apparatus that is a maintenance target, comprising:

interval information acquiring means for acquiring information related to a combination of a visit interval that prescribes a time interval at which a visit should be made for maintenance operation for each consumable part, and a replacement interval that prescribes a time interval at which each consumable parts should be replaced and that is associated with the visit interval;

counter value acquiring means for acquiring a counter value that indicates actual use of consumable parts in the apparatus that is a maintenance target; and

maintenance plan calculating means for calculating timing at which a next visit should be made for the apparatus that is a maintenance target, and a consumable part that should be replaced at the timing, on the basis of the information acquired by the interval information acquiring means and the counter value acquired by the counter value acquiring means.

11. The maintenance system according to claim 10, comprising:

replacement difficulty judging means for judging whether the consumable part that should be replaced, calculated by the maintenance plan calculating means, is a component that can only by replaced by a serviceman carrying out maintenance operation for the apparatus or not; and

notifying means for, if it is judged by the replacement difficulty judging means that the consumable part is a component that can only be replaced by the serviceman, issuing a notification that a visit should be made for the apparatus that is the maintenance target in order to replace the component.

12. A maintenance method adapted for making a maintenance plan for consumable parts of an apparatus that is a maintenance target, comprising:

an interval information acquiring step of acquiring information related to a combination of a visit interval that prescribes a time interval at which a visit should be made for maintenance operation for each consumable part, and a replacement interval that prescribes a time interval at which each consumable parts should be replaced and that is associated with the visit interval;

a counter value acquiring step of acquiring a counter value that indicates actual use of consumable parts in the apparatus that is a maintenance target; and

a maintenance plan calculating step of calculating timing at which a next visit should be made for the apparatus that is a maintenance target, and a consumable part that should be replaced at the timing, on the basis of the information acquired in the interval information acquiring step and the counter value acquired in the counter value acquiring step.

13. The maintenance method according to claim 12, wherein the consumable parts include a cartridge in which plural consumable parts having different functions from each other are formed integrally as a unit.

14. The maintenance method according to claim 12, comprising:

a replacement difficulty judging step of judging whether the consumable part that should be replaced, calculated in the maintenance plan calculating step, is a component that can only by replaced by a serviceman carrying out maintenance operation for the apparatus or not; and

a notification step of, if it is judged in the replacement difficulty judging step that the consumable part is a component that can only be replaced by the serviceman, issuing a notification that a visit should be made for the apparatus that is the maintenance target in order to replace the component.

15. The maintenance method according to claim 12, comprising:

a visit interval calculating step of calculating the visit interval for each consumable part on the basis of failure rate distribution of each consumable part;

a replacement interval calculating step of calculating the replacement interval for each consumable part on the basis of failure rate distribution of each consumable part; and

a combination calculating step of calculating information related to a combination of a time interval at which a visit should be made for maintenance operation and a consumable part that should be replaced at the timing, on the basis of the visit interval calculated in the visit interval calculating step and the replacement interval calculated in the replacement interval calculating step;

wherein the interval information acquiring step acquires the information calculated in the combination calculating step.

16. The maintenance method according to claim 15, wherein the visit interval calculating step randomly calculates the visit interval, and the replacement interval calculating step randomly calculates the replacement interval, and

the combination calculating step finds a combination of a visit interval and a replacement interval that minimizes a predetermined cost, on the basis of the visit interval calculated in the visit interval calculating step and the replacement interval calculated in the replacement interval calculating step.

17. The maintenance method according to claim 16, wherein the visit interval calculated for each consumable part in the visit interval calculating step is set to be longer than the replacement interval calculated in the replacement interval calculating step.

18. The maintenance method according to claim 16, wherein the predetermined cost is a sum of labor cost required for maintenance operation by a serviceman, material cost of consumable parts, and amount of loss caused by unavailability of the apparatus that is the maintenance target to a user.

19. The maintenance method according to claim 16, wherein the combination calculating step performs search processing using the Monte Carlo method or genetic algorithm on the basis of the visit interval calculated in the visit interval calculating step and the replacement interval calculated in the replacement interval calculating step, thereby finding a combination of a visit interval and a replacement interval that minimizes the predetermined cost.

20. The maintenance method according to claim 16, wherein the visit interval calculating step and the replacement interval calculating step calculate, on the basis of failure probability distribution of each consumable part, a value close to an interval with which it is predicted that the failure probability is equal to or higher than a predetermined probability.