Providing procedures

• US 9,201,940 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2014
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Michalscheck, Jimi
• Primary Examiner(s): Ly, Anh
• Application Number:
  US14/298,657
• Publication Number:
  US 20140289192A1
• Time in Patent Office: 543 Days
• Field of Search: 707/740, 707/796, 707/781, 707/610, 707/E17.005, 707/E17.001, 707/E17.064, 707/E17.046, 434/219, 702/119, 702/120, 702/121, 702/188, 702/189, 455/445, 455/462.08, 455/465.1, 455/406, 455/410, 235/493, 235/487, 235/375, 705/317, 705/408, 705/14.26, 705/14.38
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2443 Stored procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

For providing procedures, a synchronization module stores a plurality of equipment procedures in a procedure database. Each equipment procedure corresponds to an equipment instance of a plurality of equipment instances and each equipment instance corresponds to an equipment reference code. The synchronization module further synchronizes the plurality of equipment procedures to a mobile device. A retrieval module receives a first equipment reference code at the mobile device and retrieves a first equipment procedure indexed to the first equipment reference code.

Claims

1. A method for providing procedures comprising:

storing, by use of a processor, a plurality of equipment procedures in a procedure database, wherein each equipment procedure corresponds to an equipment instance of a plurality of equipment instances and each equipment instance corresponds to an equipment reference code;

synchronizing the plurality of equipment procedures to a mobile device;

receiving a first equipment reference code at the mobile device, wherein the first equipment reference code is physically affixed to a first equipment instance;

retrieving a first equipment procedure of the plurality of equipment procedures indexed to the first equipment reference code;

recording whether a user follows the first equipment procedure to an audit report, the audit report comprising an auditor, the user, an audit time, an audit status, and the equipment reference code;

synchronizing the audit report to an audit database with the audit report linked to the user in a user database and linked to the first equipment procedure in the procedure database; and

automatically displaying an audit status of the audit report linked to the each equipment instance and the audit status for the user in response to displaying a procedure statue for the first equipment instance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the equipment procedure is an arc flash procedure.

3. The method of claim 1, where the equipment procedure is a machine guarding procedure.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the equipment procedure is a maintenance procedure.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the equipment procedure is an operating procedure.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the equipment procedure is an equipment hazard procedure.

7. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

updating the first equipment procedure at the mobile device; and

synchronizing the updated first equipment procedure from the mobile device to the procedure database.

8. The method of claim 7, the method further comprising submitting the updated first equipment procedure to a regulatory authority.

9. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

recording audit issues for the first equipment procedure to the audit report;

recording an attestation from an auditor to the audit report; and

recording an audit result to the audit report.

10. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising

storing a plurality of equipment tutorials in a tutorial database;

synchronizing the plurality of equipment tutorials to the mobile device; and

retrieving a first tutorial in response to the first equipment reference code.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first equipment reference code is encoded as a Quick Response (QR) code.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first equipment reference code is encoded as a barcode.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first equipment reference code is encoded as an identification code of a Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID).

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the equipment procedures are grouped by site.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising synchronizing the equipment procedures grouped to a first site in response to the first equipment reference code corresponding to equipment of the first site.

16. A program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores program code executable by a processor to perform:

storing a plurality of equipment procedures in a procedure database, wherein each equipment procedure corresponds to an equipment instance of a plurality of equipment instances and each equipment instance corresponds to an equipment reference code;

synchronizing the plurality of equipment procedures to a mobile device;

receiving a first equipment reference code at the mobile device, wherein the first equipment reference code is physically affixed to a first equipment instance;

retrieving a first equipment procedure of the plurality of equipment procedures indexed to the first equipment reference code;

recording whether a user follows the first equipment procedure to an audit report, the audit report comprising an auditor, the user, an audit time, an audit status, and the equipment reference code;

synchronizing the audit report to an audit database with the audit report linked to the user in a user database and linked to the first equipment procedure in the procedure database; and

automatically displaying an audit status of the audit report linked to the each equipment instance and the audit status for the user in response to displaying a procedure statue for the first equipment instance.

17. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing program code executable by the processor, the program code comprising;

a synchronization module that stores a plurality of equipment procedures in a procedure database, wherein each equipment procedure corresponds to an equipment instance of a plurality of equipment instances and each equipment instance corresponds to an equipment reference code, and that synchronizes the plurality of equipment procedures to a mobile device; and

a retrieval module that receives a first equipment reference code at the mobile device, wherein the first equipment reference code is physically affixed to a first equipment instance, that retrieves a first equipment procedure of the plurality of equipment procedures indexed to the first equipment reference code, that records whether a user follows the first equipment procedure to an audit report, the audit report comprising an auditor, the user, an audit time, an audit status, and the equipment reference code, that synchronizes the audit report to an audit database with the audit report linked to the user in a user database and linked to the first equipment procedure in the procedure database, and that automatically displays an audit status of the audit report linked to the each equipment instance and the audit status for the user in response to displaying a procedure statue for the first equipment instance.