JP2002324143A - Product management system and terminal device for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a product management system and terminal device for use in the same that can improve preciseness and quickness of aftercare. SOLUTION: Repairing, remodeling and performance inspection are implemented in each production process of a product 2 comprising a storage medium 3. The storage medium 3 of the product 2 stores repairing information to indicate repair contents in repairing, remodeling information to indicate remodeling contents in remodeling, and manufacturing history information including performance inspection information to indicate results of the performance inspection. A terminal 6 is communicatively connected with the storage medium 3 of the product 2, and can read the manufacturing history information from the storage medium 3. Accordingly, the repairman can refer to the manufacturing history information being read out by the terminal 6 at a user site, and easily specify a malfunction factor of a faulty product to shorten the time required for repairing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a product management system for managing a product having a storage medium during production or distribution in the market, and a terminal device for the product management system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a failure occurs in a product distributed in the market, a repair worker repairs the product based on the specification of the product, a repair manual, and his / her experience and intuition. Information on the details of the repairs made by the repair worker is stored in the database of the manufacturer that produced this product, and the manufacturer uses the information on the repair details stored in the database for product development and improvement of production technology. ing.

In order to speed up the repair work by the repair worker as described above, the repair worker must promptly identify the cause of the defect of the defective product. Failure factors of defective products are often caused by repairs and modifications performed in the production process of the defective products.By providing repair histories of repairs and modification of defective products to repair workers, identification of the causes of failures is possible. Be faster. In addition, by providing the results of performance inspections during the production of defective products to repair workers,
Identify the cause of failure faster.

Conventionally, repair information, remodeling information, and performance inspection result information of a product are stored only in a database of a production base and a service base of a manufacturer. In order to obtain the various information, it is necessary to contact a production base or a service base. Therefore, there is a problem that it takes time to repair a defective product.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-222568 discloses a prior art as a technique for managing products distributed in the market, in which a repair history after the product has been distributed in the market is stored in a storage medium of the product. In this prior art, the history of repair and remodeling performed in the production process of the product cannot be referred to, and the above problem cannot be solved. Further, in this prior art, there is no description about how to cope when the capacity of the storage medium of the product becomes insufficient.

As another prior art, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No.
0-16231, JP-A-2-126343, JP-A-11-221727 and JP-A-11-221
There is a technology disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 272741. Each of these prior arts is based on the premise that the product is managed only in the production base of the product, and does not consider the management of the product distributed in the market. Therefore, a product management system and a terminal device for a product management system that can collectively manage a product being manufactured and a product circulating in the market are desired.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a product management system which reduces the defects of products which occur at the time of manufacture and distribution, and improves the accuracy and speed of after-care at the time of market distribution. And a terminal device for a product management system.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a product for managing a product having a storage medium in which manufacturing history information including repair information, remodeling information and / or performance inspection information of the product is stored. A product management system, comprising: a terminal capable of communicating with a storage medium of the product and reading the manufacturing history information from the storage medium.

According to the present invention, in each production process of a product including a storage medium, repair, modification, and performance inspection are performed. Manufacturing history information including repair information indicating repair content at the time of repair, remodeling information indicating remodeling content at the time of remodeling, and performance inspection information indicating a result of a performance test is stored in the storage medium of the product. The terminal is communicably connected to a storage medium of the product, and can read the manufacturing history information from the storage medium. Therefore, the repair worker can refer to the production history information read by the terminal at the user's site, easily identify the cause of the failure of the failed product, and reduce the time required for repair.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the terminal is capable of writing the manufacturing history information in the storage medium.

According to the present invention, since the terminal can write the manufacturing history information on the storage medium of the product, when the repair of the product is completed, the repair worker writes the repair information indicating the repaired content on the storage medium. be able to.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a database server in which the manufacturing history information is stored for each of a plurality of products.

According to the present invention, for example, a producer that produces a product is provided with a database server that stores repair information, remodeling information, and performance information in all production processes for each produced product. As a result, even if the production history information cannot be read from the storage medium of the product, the repair worker accesses the database server,
Production history information of the product can be obtained.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer which can communicate with the database server and which can read out the production history information for each product from the database server.

According to the present invention, for example, a sales base that sells products or a service base that is in charge of repair is provided with a computer, which can communicate with a database server. As a result, even if the repair worker cannot read the manufacturing history information from the storage medium of the product, the repair worker can notify the manufacturing history of the product to be repaired from a nearby sales base or service base without contacting the manufacturer. Information can be obtained.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the terminal and the computer can communicate with each other, the terminal can write the manufacturing history information read from the storage medium of the product into the computer, and The manufacturing history information read by the computer from the database server can be read.

According to the present invention, the terminal and the computer are communicably connected. Therefore, the computer can download the manufacturing history information of the product to be repaired downloaded from the database server to the terminal. Thus, even when the manufacturing history information cannot be read from the storage medium of the product, the repair worker can repair the product based on the manufacturing history information obtained from the terminal. In addition, the contents repaired by the user can be written into a computer to store repair information.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the computer is capable of writing the manufacturing history information received from the terminal to the database server.

According to the present invention, the computer at the sales base or the service base can access the database server at the production base to update the manufacturing history information in the database server. As a result, the repair information of a plurality of products is accumulated in the database server at the production base, so that the producer can use the accumulated production history information for product development and improvement of production technology.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the terminal deletes the old production history information of the storage medium, writes new production history information, and deletes the old production history information. Characterized in that the additional information presence flag is left.

According to the present invention, since the product only needs to be provided with a storage medium having a small storage capacity, the price of the product does not rise.

[0022] The present invention according to claim 8 is characterized in that the terminal is provided with display means for displaying storage history of the product or manufacturing history information read from the computer.

According to the present invention, the production history information read from the storage medium of the product or the computer is displayed on the display means of the terminal. The repair worker can repair the product while referring to the production history information displayed on the display means.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the terminal is provided with printing means for printing a storage medium of the product or manufacturing history information read from the computer.

According to the present invention, the production history information read from the storage medium of the product or the computer is printed by the printing means of the terminal. The repair worker can repair the product while referring to the printed manufacturing history information.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the terminal includes:
It is of a portable size.

According to the present invention, the terminal is of a portable size, so that the repair worker can take it to the user where the product to be repaired exists.

The present invention according to claim 11 is capable of communicating with a product, and has means for notifying a repair cost for repairing the product based on information on the product or performing a settlement process for the repair cost. This is a terminal device for a product management system.

According to the present invention, the cost required for repairing the product can be reported or settled through communication with the product, so that this terminal can be connected to the product production base or other than the production base. Provided at service bases or sales processing, etc., it is possible to display the cost required for the above repairs on images etc. and notify it, and even perform settlement, and manage products over a wide range during manufacturing and distribution .

[0030]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a product management system 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention. As area 1,
A department or headquarters that supervises each production process of a production base of a production company that develops, designs and / or produces the product 2 may be mentioned. The area 2 includes a department that performs each production process in a production factory of the product 2, a service base that repairs and maintains the product 2, a sales base that sells the product 2, and the like. The area 3 includes a user, a service base, a sales base, and the like who purchased the product 2.

In the first embodiment described below, it is assumed that area 1 is a production base of a production company that produces product 2, and area 2 is a sales base that sells product 2 or a service base that performs repair. It is assumed that the area 3 is the destination of the user who purchased the product 2.

The product management system 1 is capable of mutually communicating with the storage medium 3 of the product 2, a dedicated computer 5 capable of mutually communicating with the terminal 6, and capable of mutually communicating with the dedicated computer 5. And a database server 4.

The database server 4 is installed at a production base in the area 1, and the dedicated computer 5 is installed at a sales base or a service base in the area 2. The terminal 6 may be of a size that a repair worker at the service base can carry between the user in the area 3 and the service base. If the product 2 is large and fixedly installed, The terminal 6 may be permanently fixed to the product 2.

The product 2 has a storage medium 3. If the product 2 generally has a memory such as an electric product, the memory can be used as the storage medium 3. If the product 2 generally does not include a memory, a configuration in which the storage medium 3 is separately provided may be employed. At this time, the provision of the storage medium 3 in the product 2 prevents the cost of the product 2 from increasing.
The storage medium 3 preferably has a small storage capacity.
Further, the product 2 corresponds to any solid product that can hold the storage medium 3.

As the storage medium 3, a PROM or EPRO
Non-volatile ROM such as M and EEPROM, IC card,
Alternatively, any device that can be read and written, such as a wireless tag such as a transponder, may be used.

The storage medium 3 stores manufacturing history information. That is, repair information indicating the content of a defect or repair at the time of repair of the product 2 performed in each production process at the production base, remodeling information indicating the content of remodeling at the time of remodeling such as design change, and product 2
And performance test information indicating the result of the performance test.

As described above, when the storage medium 3 with a small storage capacity is used, only the new history of production history information is stored, and the old history of production history information is deleted. At this time, the storage medium 3 stores an additional information presence flag indicating that the deleted manufacturing history information exists.

The storage medium 3 may store ID information indicating the model number and serial number of the product 2, material information, operation information, error information, and maintenance information in addition to the manufacturing history information.

The production history information of the entire history of the product 2 is stored in the database server 4 at the production base. In other words, each piece of repair information indicating the content of a defect or repair at the time of all repairs, each piece of remodeling information indicating the content of remodeling at the time of all modifications,
Each piece of performance inspection information indicating a result of all performance inspections is stored. These manufacturing history information is, for example, product 2
Is preferably classified for each ID information.

The dedicated computer 5 at the service base and the database server 4 are mutually connected for communication.
That is, the repair worker at the service base can use the dedicated computer 5 to read out the manufacturing history information of the product 2 to be repaired from the database server 4 and write the manufacturing history information to the database server 4. .

The terminal 6 is, for example, a portable dedicated input / output device, and includes at least a memory 7, a display unit 8, and a printing unit 9. The memory 7 stores manufacturing history information read from the storage medium 3 of the product 2. The memory 7 has a database server 4 by a dedicated computer 5.
Can be stored.

The display means 8 displays the manufacturing history information stored in the memory 7. The printing unit 9 prints the manufacturing history information stored in the memory 7 on a sheet. Terminal 6
Need not necessarily include the display unit 8 and the printing unit 9, and may include only one of them.
Further, the terminal 6 may read information from the storage medium 3 of the product 2 by wireless communication at the service base, and the information of the product may be known by the terminal 6 at the service base in advance. The read trigger may be a command sent from the product side, or may be from the terminal 6 side.

Next, a preferred method of using the product management system 1 will be described. When the product 2 is produced at the production site in the area 1, the storage medium 3 of the product 2 includes repair information indicating the content of the defect or repair at the time of repair performed in each production process of the product 2, and the repair information at the time of modification. Remodeling information indicating the content of the remodeling,
At least performance inspection information indicating a result of the performance inspection is stored. At the same time, the production history information having the same content as the production history information stored in the storage medium 3 of the product 2 is stored in the database server 4 of the production base.

When the storage capacity of the storage medium 3 of the product 2 is small, the storage medium 3 stores only the new history of the production history information and deletes the old history of the production history information. At this time, an additional information presence flag indicating that the old manufacturing history information has been deleted is written into the storage medium 3. The database server 4 stores all pieces of manufacturing history information regardless of before and after the history.

The product 2 produced as described above is distributed to the market and sold to users in the area 3 by the sales base in the area 2. The product 2 sold to the user undergoes after-care such as maintenance and repair by the service base in the area 2. When the product 2 at the user's site breaks down, the repair worker at the service base carries the terminal 6 and goes to the user's site to repair the product 2. At this time, the repair worker communicably connects the portable terminal 6 and the storage medium 3 of the product 2 to be repaired, reads out repair information, remodeling information, and performance information of the product 2 to be repaired from the storage medium 3, The manufacturing history information is stored in the memory 7 of the terminal 6. In this case, the connection between the portable terminal 6 and the storage medium 3 of the product 2 to be repaired may be a wired connection or a short-range wireless communication.

Thereafter, the manufacturing history information stored in the memory 7 is displayed on the display means 8 or printed on paper by the printing means 9, and the repair worker can obtain repair information and remodeling information specific to the product 2 to be repaired. And performance inspection information. The repair worker specifies the cause of the failure of the product 2 and repairs the product 2 based on the acquired manufacturing history information.

Further, a program for calculating a repair cost based on a failure from a product, manufacturing history information and the like is built in the terminal 6, and a repair worker notifies a user of the repair cost displayed on the terminal 6. You may do it. Further, the manufacturing history information and the repair cost may be displayed on the display unit of the product which is an integrated product of the terminal 6 and the product. In addition, the repair cost may be settled by the terminal 6 described above. In this case, a slot for inserting the user's credit card is provided in the terminal 6, the fee is reduced, and the payment is made.

As described above, the repair worker goes to the user carrying the terminal 6, so that the potential trouble factor peculiar to the product 2 to be repaired at the user who cannot access the database server 4 at the production base. You can know. Therefore, the cause of failure can be quickly identified,
The time required for repair can be reduced compared to the prior art.

On the other hand, when the storage capacity of the storage medium 3 of the product 2 is small, the terminal 6 reads the manufacturing history information of the new history and the additional information presence flag from the storage medium 3. By reading the additional information presence flag in this manner, the repair worker can know that there is manufacturing history information that is older than the manufacturing history read from the storage medium 3 of the product 2. Therefore, the repair worker accesses the database server 4 at the production base from the dedicated computer 5 at the service base and reads out all the manufacturing history information of the product 2 to be repaired.

As described above, when all the manufacturing history information is read from the database server 4 at the production base, the repair worker stores all the read manufacturing history information in the memory 7 of the terminal 6. Further, all the manufacturing history information read from the database server 4 may be displayed on the display means of the dedicated computer 5, or may be printed and recorded on paper.

As described above, when all the manufacturing history information is stored in the memory 7 of the terminal 6, the repair worker checks the entire manufacturing history information in the memory 7 of the terminal 6 at the user site, and The cause of the failure is identified and the product 2 is repaired.

When the repair of the product 2 is completed, the repair worker connects the terminal 6 to the storage medium 3 of the product 2 so as to be able to communicate, and repair information indicating the contents of the defect at the time of the repair and the repair contents is
Write to the storage medium 3 of the repaired product 2.

Thereafter, the repair worker sends the data from the dedicated computer 5 at the service base to the database server 4 at the production base.
And writes the repair information indicating the content of the defect at the time of this repair and the content of the repair to the database server 5. In this way, the database server 4 at the production site
Manufacturing history information of a plurality of products 2 is accumulated from the dedicated computers 5 at a plurality of service sites.

Therefore, at the production base, information on the defect of the product 2 in the market can be obtained from the accumulated manufacturing history information, which is used for developing a new product, changing the design of the product 2, and improving production technology. be able to.

Referring to FIG. 2, a second embodiment of the product management system 1 according to the present invention will be described. In FIG. 2, components having the same operations as in the first embodiment of FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. In the second embodiment described below, area 1 is a production control section that controls each production process at a production base that produces product 2, and area 2 is each department that is in charge of each production process of product 2. .

When the product 2 is produced in the n-th (n is an integer) production process of the area 2, the storage medium 3 of the product 2 stores in the storage medium 3 of the n-th production process the contents of the defect or the repair at the time of the repair. The terminal 6 writes the repair information indicating the content, the remodeling information indicating the remodeling content at the time of remodeling, and the performance inspection information indicating the result of the performance test.

At the same time, the worker in the n-th production process accesses the database server 4 of the production control section in the area 1 from the dedicated computer 5 to perform the repair in the n-th production process. The repair information, the modification information at the time of the modification, and the performance inspection information at the time of the performance inspection are written in the database server 4. Thereafter, the product 2 is sent to the next (n + 1) th production process.

When a failure occurs in the product 2 in the (n + 1) -th production process, the worker in the (n + 1) -th production process connects the terminal 6 to the storage medium 3 of the product 2 so as to be communicable, and the production history information of the storage medium 3 Is read. The read manufacturing record information is notified to the operator via the display unit 8 and / or the printing unit 9. The worker specifies the cause of the failure of the product 2 based on the notified manufacturing history information and performs repair. As described above, when the worker discovers a failure of the product 2,
Since the manufacturing history information unique to the failed product 2 can be immediately obtained from the storage medium 3 of the failed product 2 by connecting the terminal 6, the time required for repair is reduced.

On the other hand, when the storage capacity of the storage medium 3 of the product 2 is small, the worker accesses the database server 4 from the special-purpose computer 5 to repair information of all the history of the product 2, remodeling history information, and performance inspection. The information is read, and based on the information, the cause of the failure of the product 2 is specified, and the product 2 is repaired.

When the repair of the product 2 is completed, the production worker of the (n + 1) -th production process writes repair information indicating the content of the defect at the time of the repair and the content of the repair into the storage medium 3 of the product 2. At the same time, the worker accesses the database server 4 from the dedicated computer 5 and writes the repair information at the time of the current repair to the database server 4. The product 2 thus repaired is sent to the next (n + 2) th production process.

As described above, by applying the product management system 1 of the present invention to the production of the product 2 as well, it is possible to identify and repair a defect factor unique to the product 2, thereby improving the yield of the product 2. can do.

[0062]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when a failure occurs in a product, a repair worker can obtain manufacturing history information specific to the failed product at the user site.
The time required for repair is reduced.

According to the present invention, when the repair of the product is completed, the repair worker can write the repair information into the storage medium. This repair information can be referred to at the time of the next failure.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, even if the production history information cannot be read from the storage medium of the product, the repair worker accesses the database server,
Production history information of the product can be obtained.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, even if the production history information cannot be read from the storage medium of the product, it can be repaired from a nearby sales base or service base without contacting the manufacturer. The production history information of the product to be obtained can be obtained.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the manufacturing history information downloaded from the database server can be downloaded to the terminal.
Even when the manufacturing history information cannot be read from the storage medium of the product, the product can be repaired based on the manufacturing history information obtained from the terminal.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, since the repair information of a plurality of products is stored in the database server at the production site, the producer can use the stored manufacturing history information to perform product development and production technology. Can be used to improve

According to the present invention, since the product only needs to be provided with a storage medium having a small storage capacity, the price of the product does not increase.

According to the present invention, the repair operator can repair the product while referring to the production history information displayed on the display means.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the repair worker can repair the product while referring to the printed manufacturing history information.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, since the terminal has a portable size, the repair worker can take the terminal to the user where the product to be repaired exists.

According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, the cost required for repairing the product can be notified or settled by communication with the product, so that it can be used not only at the time of manufacturing the product but also at the time of distribution. In addition, terminals installed at production bases, sales bases, service bases, etc. notify or repair the above-mentioned repair costs for each product, speeding up repairs or payments, so-called accuracy of aftercare and Speed can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a product management system 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a second embodiment of the inter-product shoe system 1 of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Product management system 2 Product 3 Storage medium 4 Database server 5 Dedicated computer 6 Terminal 7 Memory 8 Display means 9 Printing means

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A product management system for managing a product having a storage medium in which manufacturing history information including repair information, remodeling information, and / or performance inspection information of the product is stored. A product management system comprising a terminal capable of reading the manufacturing history information from the storage medium. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the terminal is capable of writing the manufacturing history information to the storage medium.
Product management system as described. 3. The product management system according to claim 1, further comprising a database server storing the manufacturing history information for each of a plurality of products. 4. The product management system according to claim 3, further comprising a computer capable of communicating with said database server and capable of reading out said production history information for each product from said database server. 5. The terminal and the computer can communicate with each other, the terminal can write the manufacturing history information read from the storage medium of the product into the computer, and the computer reads the manufacturing history information from the database server. 5. The product management system according to claim 4, wherein said production history information is readable. 6. The product management system according to claim 5, wherein said computer is capable of writing the manufacturing history information received from said terminal to said database server. 7. The terminal deletes the old production history information of the storage medium, writes new production history information, and leaves an additional information presence flag indicating that the old production history information has been deleted. Claim 2 characterized by the above-mentioned.
6. The product management system according to any one of 6. 8. The product management system according to claim 1, wherein the terminal includes a display unit for displaying a storage medium of the product or manufacturing history information read from the computer. 9. The product management system according to claim 1, wherein the terminal includes a printing unit that prints a storage medium of the product or manufacturing history information read from the computer. . 10. The product management system according to claim 1, wherein the terminal has a portable size. 11. A product management system capable of communicating with a product and having means for notifying a repair cost for repairing the product based on information on the product or performing a settlement process for the repair cost. Terminal for system.