Engine diagnostic system for high volume feedback processing

• US 9,384,453 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2014
• Issued: 07/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cummins Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cummins Incorporated
• Inventors: Weaks, Helena L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Edwards, Jerrah
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mott, Adam
• Application Number:
  US14/260,989
• Publication Number:
  US 20140324276A1
• Time in Patent Office: 803 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance

Abstract

An engine diagnostic system in accordance with an embodiment not only captures the written feedback from each technician, but also tracks every step/click that the technician took during the diagnostic process and classifies those clicks into desirable or undesirable behavior patterns that indicate missing or miss-tagged content, inefficiently presented materials, or training issues such as not following troubleshooting guidance. The system provides daily updates of troubleshooting status'"'"'s of diagnoses being conducted on millions of engine systems that represent a great amount of different engine models and types from around the globe, and provides data reduction techniques and metrics that guides the analyst/service engineers to high priority emerging issues reduced to specific actionable events that can be corrected and immediately monitored for their impacts on the troubleshooting system efficiency measures. Therefore, the technician not only provides direct information through purposeful feedback, he is also providing very valuable but less direct information through tracking his interactions with the system.

Claims

1. An engine diagnostic system comprising:

an analytics module structured to receive data regarding each engine diagnostic session in a plurality of engine diagnostic sessions, and generate an audit trail based on the data for each engine diagnostic session;

a data filtering module structured to receive a plurality of audit trails and determine a quality of each audit trail in the plurality of audit trails, wherein each determined quality audit trail is stored and each determined low quality audit trail is removed, and wherein the determined low quality is based on an indication of the analytics module receiving at least one of too many and too few symptoms regarding an engine malfunction in an engine diagnostic session; and

a dashboard module structured to receive each stored audit trail and provide one or more reports related to each stored audit trail;

wherein the analytics module is structured to receive the one or more reports and provide at least one potential repair solution in a subsequent engine diagnostic session based on the one or more reports.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the analytics module is further structured to receive a symptom of an engine malfunction in the subsequent engine diagnostic session, provide a guided question based on the symptom, receive a response to the guided question, and provide the at least one potential repair solution based on the response to the guided question.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the analytics module is structured to provide an ordered list of the at least one potential repair solution, wherein the ordered list is ordered based on a likelihood that a repair solution is a correct repair solution for a symptom received in the subsequent engine diagnostic session.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a quoting module structured to determine that a warranty engine repair claim associated with an engine diagnostic session has a valid repair time for troubleshooting the warranty engine repair.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the data includes at least one of a technician identification;

a closure date of an engine diagnostic session;

a current status of an engine diagnostic session;

written feedback regarding a repair solution in an engine diagnostic session;

one or more steps performed in an engine diagnostic session;

a symptom of an engine malfunction;

a response to a provided guided question; and

a classification of a repair solution, the classification including at least one of a correct repair solution, an incorrect repair solution, and a not performed repair solution.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more reports include at least one of an indication of a correct repair solution found rate;

an average position of a correct repair solution in a list of potential repair solutions;

an average number of steps taken by a technician to find a correct repair solution;

a piece of incorrect content in one or more repair solutions;

likely root cause information for a plurality of symptoms of engine malfunctions; and

a categorization of the stored engine diagnostic session data based on a similarity of a symptom of an engine malfunction received in the data for each engine diagnostic session.

7. An engine diagnostic system comprising:

an analytics module structured to;

receive a symptom of an engine malfunction in a first engine diagnostic session;

provide a guided question based on the symptom;

receive a response to the guided question;

provide at least one potential repair solution based on the response to the guided question;

receive data regarding the first engine diagnostic session; and

generate an audit trail based on the data, the provided guided question, and the received response;

a quoting module structured to determine that a warranty engine repair claim associated with an engine diagnostic session in the plurality of engine diagnostic sessions has a valid repair time for troubleshooting the warranty engine repair claim; and

a dashboard module structured to receive a plurality of audit trails for a plurality of engine diagnostic sessions and provide one or more reports related to the plurality of audit trails;

wherein the analytics module is further structured to receive the one or more reports, receive a symptom of an engine malfunction in a subsequent engine diagnostic session, and provide a subsequent at least one potential repair solution based on the one or more reports.

8. The system of claim 7, furthering comprising a data filtering module structured to receive the plurality of audit trails and determine a quality of each audit trail in the plurality of audit trails, wherein each determined quality audit trail is stored and each determined low quality audit trail is removed.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the determined low quality is based on an indication of the analytics module receiving at least one of too many and too few symptoms regarding the engine malfunction.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the analytics module is structured to provide an ordered list of the subsequent at least one potential repair solution, wherein the ordered list is ordered based on a likelihood that a repair solution is a correct repair solution for the symptom received in the subsequent engine diagnostic session.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the data includes at least one of a technician identification;

a closure date of an engine diagnostic session;

a current status of an engine diagnostic session;

written feedback regarding a repair solution in an engine diagnostic session;

one or more steps performed in an engine diagnostic session;

a symptom of an engine malfunction; and

a classification of a repair solution, the classification including at least one of a correct repair solution, an incorrect repair solution, and a not performed repair solution.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more reports include at least one of an indication of a correct repair solution found rate;

an average position of a correct repair solution in a list of potential repair solutions;

an average number of steps taken by a technician to find a correct repair solution;

a piece of incorrect content in one or more repair solutions;

likely root cause information for a plurality symptoms of engine malfunctions; and

a categorization of the stored engine diagnostic session data based on a similarity of a symptom of an engine malfunction received in the data for each engine diagnostic session.

13. A method of troubleshooting an engine in an engine diagnostic session, comprising:

receiving, by an engine diagnostic system having one or more processors combined with one or more memory devices, data regarding each engine diagnostic session in a plurality of engine diagnostic sessions;

generating, by the engine diagnostic system, an audit trail based on the data for each engine diagnostic session;

receiving, by the engine diagnostic system, a plurality of audit trails;

determining, by the engine diagnostic system, a quality of each audit trail in the plurality of audit trails, wherein each determined quality audit trail is stored and each determined low quality audit trail is removed, and wherein the determined low quality is based on an indication of receiving at least one of too many and too few symptoms regarding an engine malfunction in an engine diagnostic session; and

generating, by the engine diagnostic system, one or more reports related to each stored audit trail; and

providing, by the engine diagnostic system, at least one potential repair solution in a subsequent engine diagnostic session based on the one or more reports.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving, by the engine diagnostic system, a symptom of an engine malfunction in the subsequent engine diagnostic session, providing a guided question based on the symptom, receiving a response to the guided question, and providing the at least one potential repair solution based on the response to the guided question.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing, by the engine diagnostic system, an ordered list of the at least one potential repair solution.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the ordered list is ordered based on a likelihood that a repair solution is a correct repair solution for a symptom received in the subsequent engine diagnostic session.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the data includes at least one of a technician identification;

a closure date of an engine diagnostic session;

a current status of an engine diagnostic session;

written feedback regarding a repair solution in an engine diagnostic session;

one or more steps performed in an engine diagnostic session;

a response to a provided guided question;

a symptom of an engine malfunction; and

a classification of a repair solution, the classification including at least one of a correct repair solution, an incorrect repair solution, and a not performed repair solution.