SUPPORT MANAGEMENT METHOD, SUPPORT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE

• US 20090089140A1
• Filed: 09/25/2008
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: MIYAMOTO, Takashi
• Application Number:
  US12/237,937
• Publication Number:
  US 20090089140A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task

Abstract

A trouble-shooting measure against a fault in an external device installed at a remote place is supported by receiving fault information on the fault that has occurred in the external device, acquiring an installation place of the external device in which the fault has occurred, a repair procedure acquisition unit for acquiring a repair procedure representing a list of candidates of qualified maintenance persons and an outline of the fault that can be dealt with by the maintenance persons included in the list, acquiring a job situation of the maintenance person, and transmitting a trouble-shooting instruction against the fault to a communication terminal unit of a qualified maintenance person in accordance with the acquired repair procedure. Further, trouble-shooting instruction is transmitted in priority to an optimum maintenance person selected based on a relation between the acquired repair procedure and the job situation.

Claims

1. A support management method used with a management device for supporting a trouble-shooting measure against a fault in an external device, the support management method comprising:

receiving fault information on the fault that has occurred in the external device;

a installation place acquisition unit for acquiring an installation place of the external device in which the fault has occurred, on the basis of the receiving fault information;

a repair procedure acquisition unit for acquiring a repair procedure representing a list of candidates of qualified maintenance persons and an outline of the fault that can be dealt with by the maintenance persons included in the list, on the basis of a relation between the outline of the fault and the fault represented by the receiving fault information;

acquiring a job situation of the one or more qualified maintenance persons included in the list; and

transmitting in priority a trouble-shooting instruction against the fault to a communication terminal unit of an optimum qualified maintenance person selected based on a relation between the acquired installation place and the job situation of a maintenance person.

2. A support management computer system for supporting a trouble-shooting measure against a fault that has occurred in an external device installed at a remote place, the support management system comprising:

a computer processor executing

a receiving unit for receiving fault information on the fault that has occurred in the external device;

a installation place acquisition unit for acquiring an installation place of the external device in which the fault has occurred, on the basis of the receiving fault information;

a repair procedure acquisition unit for acquiring a repair procedure representing a list of candidates of qualified maintenance persons and an outline of the fault that can be dealt with by the maintenance persons included in the list, on the basis of a relation between the outline of the fault and the fault represented by the receiving fault information;

a job situation acquisition unit for acquiring a job situation of the one or more qualified maintenance persons included in the list; and

a transmission unit for transmitting in priority a trouble-shooting instruction against the fault to a communication terminal unit of an optimum qualified maintenance person selected from the candidates of qualified maintenance persons based on a relation between the acquired installation place and the job situation of a maintenance person.

3. The support management computer system according to claim 2, wherein the computer processor further executes a self restoration judging unit for judging whether the fault indicated by the received fault information can be dealt with by the external device through a self restoration process,

wherein the transmission unit, upon judgment by the self restoration judging unit that the external device can troubleshoot through the self restoration process, does not perform the trouble-shooting instruction transmission.

4. The support management system according to claim 2,

wherein the job situation acquisition unit acquires the job situation including data indicating whether the maintenance person is in a position at least to confirm the trouble-shooting instruction, and

the transmission unit deletes the maintenance person not in a position to confirm the trouble-shooting instruction from the candidates of the qualified maintenance persons.

5. The support management system according to claim 2, wherein the computer processor further executes a trouble-shooting measure type specifying unit for selecting a remote trouble-shooting measure or a local trouble-shooting measure,

wherein upon designation of a remote trouble-shooting instruction by the trouble-shooting measure type specifying unit, the job situation acquisition unit acquires the job situation including data indicating whether the maintenance person is a full-time worker, and the transmission unit gives transmission priority to a communication terminal unit of the full-time maintenance person.

6. The support management system according to claim 5,

wherein upon designation of a local trouble-shooting instruction by the trouble-shooting measure type specifying unit, the acquisition unit acquires the job situation including data indicating whether the maintenance person is working in a neighborhood of a place of installation of the faulty external device, and

the transmission unit gives transmission priority to a communication terminal unit of a maintenance person working in the neighborhood of the place of installation of the faulty external device.

7. The support management system according to claim 6, wherein the transmission unit transmits, together with the trouble-shooting instruction, entry/exit permit information for permitting entry into/exit from the place of installation of the faulty external device and map information on the place of installation.

8. An information processing device comprising:

a computer readable recording medium; and

a computer processor executing

storing in the computer readable recording medium received fault information on a fault developed in an external device installed at a remote place;

acquiring an installation place of the external device in which the fault has occurred, on the basis of the receiving fault information;

acquiring a repair procedure representing a list of candidates of qualified maintenance persons and an outline of the fault that can be dealt with by the maintenance persons included in the list, on the basis of a relation between the outline of the fault and the fault represented by the receiving fault information;

acquiring a job situation of one or more maintenance person included in the list; and

selecting an optimum maintenance person from among the qualified maintenance persons based on a relation between the acquired installation place and the job situation of a maintenance person; and

transmitting a trouble-shooting instruction to a communication terminal unit of an optimum qualified maintenance person, according to the selecting.

9. The information processing device according to claim 8, wherein the computer processor further executes:

judging whether the external device that has developed a fault can deal with the fault, and

not transmitting an instruction to the communication terminal unit of the maintenance person when judged that the external device can deal with the fault.

10. The information processing device according to claim 8, wherein the acquiring acquires the job situation including data indicating at least whether the maintenance person is in a position to confirm the trouble-shooting instruction, and the selecting deletes the maintenance person not in a position to confirm the trouble-shooting instruction from the selection process.

11. The information processing device according to claim 8, wherein the computer processor further executes selecting a remote trouble-shooting measure or a local trouble-shooting measure,

wherein upon designation of a remote trouble-shooting measure, the acquiring acquires the job situation including data indicating whether the maintenance person is a full-time worker, and the selecting selects in priority the full-time maintenance person as the optimum qualified maintenance person.

12. The information processing device according to claim 11, wherein upon designation of a local trouble-shooting measure, the acquiring acquires the job situation including data indicating whether the maintenance person is working in a neighborhood of a place of installation of the faulty external device, and the selecting selects in priority the maintenance person working in the neighborhood of the place of installation of the faulty external device as the optimum qualified maintenance person.

13. The information processing device according to claim 12, wherein the transmitting transmits, together with the trouble-shooting instruction, entry/exit permit information for the place of installation of the faulty external device and map information on the place of installation.