Fleet management system

• US 8,060,400 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2007
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crown Equipment Corporation
• Original Assignee: Crown Equipment Corporation
• Inventors: Wellman, Timothy A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart; Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): ULLAH MASUD, MOHAMMAD R
• Application Number:
  US11/956,022
• Publication Number:
  US 20080154712A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,433 Days
• Field of Search: 235/379, 235/384, 235/380, 701/1, 701/29, 701/31, 705/26, 705/34, 705/40
• US Class Current: 705/11
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/55 Remote control arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/589 Wireless data transfers
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/592 Data transfer involving external databases
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/80 Arrangements for controlling instruments
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/85 Arrangements for transferring vehicle- or driver-related data
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2200/15 Fork lift trucks, Industrial trucks
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 9/07581 Remote controls
• CPC Class Codes: B66F 9/24 Electrical devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0282 generated in a local control room
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0291 Fleet control monitoring fleets in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/127, G08G1/127
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0297 by controlling means in a control room
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 : Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 : Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 : by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Systems of hardware and software are provided for enabling mobile assets to communicate across a wireless network environment. Systems, computer-implemented methods and computer program products are also provided for leveraging wireless communication and/or processing capabilities of mobile assets against a robust software solution to implement enterprise wide asset management functions, to integrate mobile asset data into existing enterprise workflows and/or to enable trusted third party integration into the enterprise for enhanced asset and/or workflow management.

Claims

1. A method of implementing an inspection checklist for materials handling vehicles comprising:

prompting an operator to answer a plurality of checklist items in a checklist; and

performing an operator response verification for a designated checklist item in the checklist, by;

submitting a query across a vehicle network by a processor, to at least one component of the materials handling vehicle to obtain information associated with whether the operator performed an inspection as required by the designated checklist item;

verifying by the processor, based upon the information obtained as a result of the query, whether the operator performed the inspection in order to obtain the received response to the designated checklist item; and

taking a predetermined action in response to the verification indicating that the operator did not perform the inspection corresponding to the designated checklist item.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the designated checklist item comprises asking the operator to verify that a select component of the materials handling vehicle is operational by actually operating that select component; and

submitting a query across a vehicle network to at least one component of the materials handling vehicle comprises communicating with the select component over the vehicle network to verify that the operator actually operated the select component according to the requirements of the corresponding checklist item.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the designated checklist item comprises asking the operator in at least one of the plurality of checklist items to check a measurement or reading of at least one vehicle component; and

submitting a query across a vehicle network to at least one component of the materials handling vehicle comprises communicating with the component to electronically verify that the response to the select checklist item regarding the measurement or reading has been answered correctly.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

performing an operator response verification further comprises refusing to advance to the next checklist item until the query response indicates that the operator performed the inspection corresponding to the designated checklist item in order to obtain a received response to the designated checklist item.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

setting a time reference to initialize a start time for the checklist operation;

recording the time required to respond to the checklist items;

determining whether the time required to respond to the checklist items is within a predetermined range of times; and

taking a predetermined action if it is determined that the checklist items were answered outside of the predetermined range of times.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

evaluating whether an action is required in view of the checklist responses and taking an appropriate action if required by performing at least one of;

locking out the materials handling vehicle for operation based upon an answer to specified checklist item;

locking out the materials handling vehicle for operation based upon failure to complete the checklist within a prescribed period of time;

or

reducing functionality of the materials handling vehicle.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

changing, based on a previous checklist operation, at least one of;

the order in which checklist items are presented;

or whether an appropriate answer to at least one checklist item is in the affirmative or negative.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

recording metadata associated with at least one operator response.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a language to present the checklist items to the operator based upon a language preference associated with the operator'"'"'s logon identification.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing a predetermined override code that overrides the necessity to complete the checklist, where the override provides limited use of the materials handling vehicle in at least one of time of operation or vehicle functionality.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing a predetermined time period for the operator to complete or otherwise redo the checklist if it is determined that the operator did not complete the checklist properly.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein submitting a query across a vehicle network to at least one component of the materials handling vehicle comprises submitting the query across a network bus.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the network bus comprises a control area network bus.

14. A method of implementing an inspection checklist for materials handling vehicles comprising:

prompting an operator to answer a plurality of checklist items in a checklist; and

performing an operator response verification for a designated checklist item in the checklist, by;

submitting a query across a vehicle network by a processor, to at least one component of the materials handling vehicle to obtain information that is associated with a received response to the designated checklist item;

verifying by the processor, based upon the information obtained as a result of the query, whether the operator performed the inspection corresponding to the designated checklist item; and

taking a predetermined action in response to the verification indicating that the operator did not perform the inspection in order to obtain the received response to the designated checklist item.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein verifying by a processor, based upon the information obtained as a result of the query, whether the operator performed the inspection comprises:

determining whether the operator complied with the designated checklist item by comparing the received response to the designated checklist item from the operator to the information obtained from the query.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein submitting a query across a vehicle network to at least one component of the materials handling vehicle comprises submitting a query across a control area network bus.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein:

the designated checklist item comprises asking the operator to verify that a select component of the materials handling vehicle is operational by actually operating that select component; and

submitting a query across a vehicle network to at least one component of the materials handling vehicle comprises communicating with the select component over the vehicle network to verify that the operator actually operated the select component according to the requirements of the corresponding checklist item.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein:

the designated checklist item comprises asking the operator in at least one of the plurality of checklist items to check a measurement or reading of at least one vehicle component; and

submitting a query across a vehicle network to at least one component of the materials handling vehicle comprises communicating with the component to electronically verify that the response to the select checklist item regarding the measurement or reading has been answered correctly.

19. The method according to claim 14, wherein:

performing an operator response verification further comprises refusing to advance to the next checklist item until the query response indicates that the operator performed the inspection corresponding to the designated checklist item in order to obtain a received response to the designated checklist item.

20. The method according to claim 14, further comprising:

verifying the accuracy of a received response to the designated checklist item based upon the information obtained from the query.