Vehicle technician time clock tool

• US 7,398,180 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2005
• Issued: 07/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Daimler Trucks North America LLC (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Daimler Trucks North America LLC (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Inventors: Adams, Paul, DeBoard, Tom D., Fox, Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Cosimano; Edward R
• Application Number:
  US11/254,925
• Publication Number:
  US 20060217856A1
• Time in Patent Office: 993 Days
• Field of Search: 368/1, 368/9, 368/89, 368/107, 368/108, 368/109, 368/243, 368/244, 377/1, 377/13, 377/15, 377/16, 702/127, 702/176, 702/177, 702/178, 702/182, 705/7, 705/8, 705/9, 705/11, 705/32, 705/400
• US Class Current: 702/178
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

A vehicle technician time clock tool comprises a computer-implemented interface to a database, wherein the database contains vehicle service task-related information and time-related information, the vehicle service task-related information and time-related information pertaining to at least one vehicle technician, and a computer-implemented graphical user display (GUI), wherein the GUI displays in real time at least some of the vehicle service task-related information, at least some of the time-related information, and at least one calculation based on at least some of the time-related information.

Claims

1. A vehicle technician time clock tool, comprising:

a computer-implemented interface to a database, wherein the database contains vehicle service task-related information and time-related information, the vehicle service task-related information and time-related information pertaining to at least one vehicle technician; and

a computer-implemented graphical user display (GUI), wherein the GUI displays in real time at least some of the vehicle service task-related information, at least some of the time-related information, and at least one calculation based on at least some of the time-related information at at least one point in time after the at least one vehicle technician has begun work on the vehicle service task and before the at least one vehicle technician has finished work on the vehicle service task.

2. The vehicle technician time clock tool of claim 1, wherein the vehicle service task-related information includes a first identifier corresponding to the vehicle technician, a second identifier corresponding to a customer, and a third identifier corresponding to a task assigned to the vehicle technician.

3. The vehicle technician time clock tool of claim 1, wherein the computer-implemented GUI is continually refreshed according to a refresh rate.

4. The vehicle technician time clock tool of claim 1, wherein the computer-implemented interface to the database includes ODBC links.

5. The vehicle technician time clock tool of claim 1, further comprising a computer-implemented interface to a dealer management system.

6. The vehicle technician time clock tool of claim 1, wherein the time-related information includes a first unit of time, the first unit of time corresponding to a target time to finish the assigned task.

7. The vehicle technician time clock tool of claim 6, wherein the time-related information includes a second unit of time, the second unit of time corresponding to how much time the vehicle technician has spent working on the assigned task.

8. The vehicle technician time clock tool of claim 7, wherein the time-related information includes a third unit of time, the third unit of time corresponding to the difference between the first unit of time and the second unit of time.

9. The vehicle technician time clock tool of claim 8, wherein the computer-implemented GUI displays the third unit of time as a first color when the third unit of time is positive, and wherein the computer-implemented GUI displays the third unit of time as a second color when the third unit of time is negative.

10. A computer-implemented method of monitoring vehicle technician time clock information, comprising:

connecting to a database;

extracting from the database data corresponding to time clock entries made by a vehicle technician, wherein the time clock entries pertain to a vehicle service task;

performing at least one time-related calculation on at least some of the data extracted from the database after the vehicle technician has begun work on the vehicle service task and before the vehicle technician has completed the vehicle service task;

displaying at least some of the data extracted from the database; and

displaying at least one result from the at least one performed time-related calculation.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising refreshing the displayed data and at least one result according to a variable refresh rate.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising refreshing the displayed extracted data and the at least one displayed result, according to a variable refresh rate.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the act of connecting to a database comprises creating ODBC links to the database.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the act of performing at least one time-related calculation comprises determining a unit of time corresponding to how much time the vehicle technician has spent on a particular job.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the act of performing at least one time-related calculation comprises determining a unit of time corresponding to how much time the vehicle technician has left on a particular job before exceeding a target time.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising running a report against at least some of the database data corresponding to time clock entries made by the vehicle technician.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising scheduling at least one batch process to run at a defined interval, wherein the batch process invokes an executable file.

18. A vehicle technician time clock tool system, comprising:

a computer-implemented interface to a database containing data fields corresponding to technician name, service identifier, job identifier, customer name, time left, elapsed technician time, elapsed total time, target time, and over/under time;

a graphical display of the data fields, wherein display of the over/under time is a first color if the over/under time is positive and a second color if the over/under time is negative; and

a reporting tool that calculates in real time at least one performance against target comparison.

19. The vehicle technician time clock tool system of claim 18, further comprising a scheduler that executes at least one batch process at a defined interval, wherein the batch process invokes an executable file and generates HTML output.

20. The vehicle technician time clock tool system of claim 18, wherein the first color is black and the second color is red.