Industrial device receiving remote maintenance operation and outputting charge information

• US 7,551,976 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2007
• Issued: 06/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Aizono, Takeiki, Iizumi, Takashi, Arima, Juntaro, Inaba, Masaaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Jarrett; Ryan A
• Application Number:
  US11/648,684
• Publication Number:
  US 20070112452A1
• Time in Patent Office: 902 Days
• Field of Search: 700/108, 702/184, 702/188
• US Class Current: 700/108
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4184 characterised by fault tolerance, reliability of production system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24001 Maintenance, repair
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32234 Maintenance planning
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0267 Fault communication, e.g. human machine interface [HMI]
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0283 Predictive maintenance, e.g. involving the monitoring of a system and, based on the monitoring results, taking decisions on the maintenance schedule of the monitored system; Estimating remaining useful life [RUL] preventive maintenance, i.e. planning maintenance according to the available resources without monitoring the system G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

The present invention provides a remote maintenance method, a remote maintenance system, and an industrial device for enabling control and thorough services and billing according to the contents of the remote maintenance operation and the request destination of maintenance and enabling access limit according to the attribute of a service person, access limit according to the device state, and output limit according to the output mode. The industrial device 123 installed at the factory 120 and the operation device 113 installed in the maintenance center 110 are connected via the network 100. The operation device 113 transmits command information indicating a command concerning maintenance to the industrial device 123 and the industrial device 123 executes a process according to the received command information, generates charge information indicating a charge concerning maintenance according to the contents of the executed process, and outputs the whole or a part of the generated charge information to the output device of the industrial device 123.

Claims

1. An industrial device for receiving a maintenance operation by remote control from an operation device and being connected to a first management device, said operation device and a network, the industrial device comprising:

communication means for periodically monitoring said industrial device for a maintenance request, transmitting the maintenance request received from said industrial device to said operation device via said first management device and a second management device, said second management device transmitting said maintenance request to said first management device, and receiving maintenance operation message from said operation device via said first and second management devices, wherein said maintenance operation message is composed by a command inputted to said operation device and formed from an identifier of a program for executing in said industrial device and a parameter to be given to said program;

processing means for storing programs indicating conditions and procedures of processes and for executing a process according to said maintenance operation message received by said communication means; and

output means for outputting to an output device a whole or a part of charge information transmitted from said second management device, wherein said second management device generates said charge information indicating a maintenance charge according to a process content executed by said processing means.

2. An industrial device according to claim 1,

wherein said communication means holds a user of said operation device and attribute information indicating a degree of art held by said user in connection with each other,

and obtains said attribute information related to said user of said operation device transmitting said maintenance operation message, and

said charge information is generated according to said obtained attribute information.