Text extraction for determining emerging issues in vehicle warranty reporting

• US 8,219,519 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2010
• Issued: 07/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Chakrabarty, Sugato, Case, Martin, Golinski, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, THU NGUYET T
• Application Number:
  US12/710,518
• Publication Number:
  US 20110208742A1
• Time in Patent Office: 868 Days
• Field of Search: 707/602, 707/609, 701/29
• US Class Current: 707/602
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A method is provided for detecting trends in service repairs for vehicles. Service repair verbatims are accessed from a warranty database that includes information relating to an identified concern with the vehicle. A thesaurus of service repair related terms is provided. The service repair related terms are each associated with at least one of a component category, a concern category, a cause category, and a correction of repair category. Key terms are identified in each service repair verbatim that have an association with the service repair related terms in the thesaurus. The key terms are extracted from each of the service repair verbatims. A user selectively generates a report based on a key term in the component category and at least one other key term from at least one other category. The report identifies an aggregate number of service repair verbatims associated with the key terms selected by the user.

Claims

1. A method of detecting trends in service repairs for vehicles comprising:

accessing service repair verbatims from a warranty database, the service repair verbatims including information relating to an identified concern with the vehicle;

providing a thesaurus of service repair related terms, the service repair related terms each being associated with at least one of a component category, a concern category, a cause category, and a correction of repair category;

identifying key terms in each service repair verbatim, the identified key terms having an association with the service repair related terms in the thesaurus;

extracting the key terms from each of the service repair verbatims;

selectively associating the extracted key terms in each of the service repair verbatims to a respective one of the categories for the respective service repair verbatims;

a user selectively generating a report based on a key term in the component category and at least one other key term from at least one of the other respective categories, the report identifying an aggregate number of the service repair verbatims associated with the key terms selected by the user; and

detecting an emerging service issue based on the key terms extracted from the service repair verbatims.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the service repair verbatim is entered as uncategorized text.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the thread of text is entered as unstructured text.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein a service personnel enters a respective verbatim into a component category.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein a service personnel enters a respective verbatim into a concern category.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein a service personnel enters a respective verbatim into a cause category.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein a service personnel enters a respective verbatim into a correction of repair category.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein key terms extracted from the verbatims relating to the concern category include customer comments explaining the concern.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein key terms extracted from the verbatims relating to the cause category include an explanation of a root cause as determined by the service personnel.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein key terms extracted from the verbatims relating to the correction of the repair include an explanation of a repair performed by the service personnel.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the extracted key terms include text phrases extracted from the verbatims.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein key terms extracted from the verbatims relating to the cause category include an explanation of a root cause as determined by the service personnel.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein key terms extracted from the verbatims relating to the correction of the repair include an explanation of a repair performed by the service personnel.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein the extracted key terms include text phrases extracted from the verbatims.

12. A warranty detection system for detecting trends in service repairs of vehicles, the system comprising:

a warranty database including a memory storage unit for storing service repair verbatims, the service repair verbatims including information relating to an identified concern with the vehicle;

a text analysis tool identifying key terms in each service repair verbatim, the identified key terms having an association with the service repair related terms in a thesaurus, the thesaurus including a plurality of service repair related terms, the service repair related terms each being associated with at least one of a component category, a concern category, a cause category, and a correction of repair category; and

a report generating device for selectively generating reports based on selected key terms in the component category and at least one other key term from at least one of the other respective categories;

wherein the text analysis tool extracts key terms from each service repair verbatim, and wherein the extracted key terms in each verbatim are associated with a respective category, wherein the report identifies an aggregate number of service repair verbatims associated with selected key terms from the component category and the at least one other category.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the report includes a time trend identifying the aggregate number of verbatims over time for the selected key term from the concern category, the cause category, or the correction of repair category.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the report includes a time trend identifying the aggregate number of verbatims over time for selected key terms from a combination of at least two of the concern category, the cause category, and the correction of repair category.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the service repair verbatim is entered as uncategorized text.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the service repair verbatim is entered as unstructured text.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein key terms extracted from the verbatims relating to the concern category include customer comments explaining the concern.