Patent Application
20150138579
Embodiments described herein relate to a maintenance method and a maintenance apparatus for analyzing an information processing apparatus such as an image forming apparatus or a POS (point of sales) terminal.
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic type copier forms an image on a sheet and the like through a cycle of charging, exposure, developing, transfer and fixing. Moreover, the image forming apparatus is maintained by a service man, who is informed of the occurrence of an abnormality in the image forming apparatus by the user through telephone when the abnormality occurs and then goes to the place where the apparatus is installed to confirm the condition.
Further, in the case of periodic inspection or service call, the service man goes to the place where the image forming apparatus is installed and carries out a maintenance and inspection operation while confirming the state of the image forming apparatus with a maintenance apparatus. The serviceman can change the setting of the machine to be different from the state at time of factory shipment matching with the use frequency or the use purpose, the usage environment and the individual difference of the machine. The setting of the machine refers to, for example, a scanning position, the margin of a sheet, the rotation speed of a sheet conveying motor and the like.
In order to lower the occurrence rate of faults, the service man needs to adjust the setting values of the setting items of each machine to optimal setting values. However, each kind of machines has a great variety of setting items, and the optimal values of which change in different machines, thus, it is difficult to set optimal values.
In accordance with one embodiment, a maintenance method for an information processing apparatus includes acquiring setting value information of setting item of a specific information processing apparatus to be maintained, selecting the information processing apparatuses belonging to a preset group and calculating a superior apparatus with the lowest fault rate from the information processing apparatuses belonging to the group through a processor based on machine information; acquiring setting value information of setting items of the superior apparatus through the processor; and prompting the setting value information of the superior apparatus as reference information in such a manner that the setting value information of the superior apparatus is comparable to that of the specific information processing apparatus.
A maintenance apparatus for an information processing apparatus according to embodiment 1 is described in detail below with reference to accompanying drawings, in which the same reference symbol denotes the same component.
The display I/F 14 is connected with a display section 18 such as a liquid crystal display to provide image information for the display section 18. Further, the input I/F 15 is connected with an input section 19 provided with a mouse and a keyboard and the like to send an instruction input from the input section 19 to the arithmetic section 11. The external storage apparatus I/F 16 is an interface with an external storage apparatus, which is, for example, a detachable external storage medium such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory. Further, the network I/F 17 is an interface communicating with a network 100 (
On the premise that the maintenance apparatus 10 is carried by a service man to the place where an image forming apparatus is arranged, the maintenance apparatus 10 is preferred to be in a carriageable form such as a form equivalent to a personal notebook computer shown in
Moreover, in embodiment 1, as shown in
In addition, in the following description, the image forming apparatus 20 is exemplarily described as an information processing apparatus, which, however, may also be a POS (point of sale) terminal. Furthermore, a compound machine, that is, a MFP, is exemplarily described as the image forming apparatus 20, which, however, may also be other image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, a scanner, a fax machine and the like.
Further, a scanner section 24 is arranged under the ADF 22 in the main body 21. The scanner section 24 reads the document fed by the ADF 22 or placed on the document table to generate image data. A printer section 25 is arranged in the internal center of the main body 21, and a plurality of cassettes 26 for accommodating papers of different sizes are arranged on a lower portion of the main body 21.
The printer section 25 comprises a photoconductive drum and laser to process the image data read by the scanner section 24 and the image data created by a PC (Personal Computer) and the like to form and fix an image on a sheet. The sheet on which an image is fixed by the printer section 25 is discharged to a paper discharge section 27.
Further, a port for connecting a detachable USB memory 40 serving as an external storage apparatus is arranged on a lateral side of the main body 21 of the MFP 20. By connecting the USB memory 40 with the port of the MFP 20, various kinds of information such as the machine information of the MFP 20 can be acquired and stored in the USB memory 40.
Further, the maintenance apparatus 10 is also provided with a port for connecting the USB memory 40. The maintenance apparatus 10 can acquire the various kinds of information of the MFP 20 stored in the USB memory 40 through the external storage apparatus I/F 16. Machine information containing log data is stored in the USB memory 40.
Moreover, a maintenance application 131 (hereinafter referred to as ‘application’) for the use by the image forming apparatus and a maintenance application database 132 (hereinafter referred to as ‘database’) are stored in the recording section 13 of the maintenance apparatus 10 according to embodiment 1. Various processing based on the application 131 is executed by the arithmetic section 11. Further, the machine information (which will be described later) created by the server 30 can be downloaded and stored in the database 132. Moreover, no specific limitation is given to the database 132 as long as the database 132 can store and read data.
The machine information stored in the database 132 consists of, for example, a machine information table T1 (
As shown in
Moreover, as shown in
Further, as shown in
Further, the setting items of the MFP 20 include setting items relating to process, setting items relating to scanner, setting items relating to printer and setting items relating to system. For example, the setting items relating to process include a primary transfer voltage, a secondary transfer voltage, a primary transfer current and a secondary transfer current. Further, the setting items relating to printer include the speed of a drum motor, the speed of a transfer belt motor, the speed of a paper feed motor and the speed of a fixing and paper discharging motor.
The present embodiment relates to a coping method for adjusting a setting item becoming the reason of a fault to an optimal setting value in a case where a fault occurs in a specific machine. That is, setting values of the machine with the lowest fault rate are prompted as reference information based on the machine information of other MFPs 20 connected with the network 100, and displayed as a guide for a setting value adjustment. Additionally, the ‘machine’ refers to the image forming apparatus 20, which consists of a MFP, a printer, a scanner, a fax machine and the like. Besides, the machine with the lowest fault rate is referred hereinafter to as a superior apparatus.
The operations of the maintenance apparatus 10 according to the embodiment are described below with reference to the flowcharts in
In
In ACT A1, the CPU 11 acquires the pre-defined machine information from the USB memory 40 through the external storage apparatus I/F 16 in a pre-defined manner and stores the machine information in the database 132. The external storage apparatus I/F 16 constitutes an acquisition section for acquiring the setting value information of the specific machine. The machine information contains log data which is stored in such a manner that the log data can be acquired according to attributions such as a machine type, a machine number, a customer name and an installation site.
In ACT A2, the CPU 11 acquires designated data from the database 132. Herein, the setting value of each setting item of the specific machine is acquired.
Next, in ACT A3, the CPU 11 calculates the machine with the lowest fault rate (which will be described later) from a plurality of machines meeting a calculation target condition. Further, the details of ACT A3 are described below in the flowchart of
Besides, the fault rate is calculated using a general fault rate (1/MTBF). MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) refers to the mean time between the failures occurring in a system. In addition to 1/MTBF, any index deemed important by the user may also be acquired, such as an accumulated fault times or an accumulated call occurrence times. In the present embodiment, for the sake of convenience, an example is described in which an index which is preferred to be as small as possible such as 1/MTBF is used. In this way, the superior apparatus with the lowest fault rate is calculated from machines meeting a predetermined condition (e.g. belonging to the same machine type).
Next, the CPU 11 acquires setting values of the superior apparatus in ACT A4. Then, in ACT A5, the CPU 11 prompts the setting values of the specific machine and the setting values of the superior apparatus on the display section 18 via the display I/F 14. That is, the CPU 11 and the display I/F 14 constitute a prompting section which prompts the setting value information of the superior apparatus as reference information in such a manner that the setting value information of the superior apparatus is comparable to that of the specific information processing apparatus.
By displaying the setting values of the two machines in rows on the display section 18, it is easy to compare values. Further, a fault rate calculated earlier may also be displayed as reference.
Next, the CPU 11 determines whether or not there is a machine meeting a predetermined condition in ACT A12. If the CPU 11 determines that there is a machine meeting the predetermined condition (YES in ACT A12), the flow proceeds to ACT A13 in which the CPU 11 calculates the fault rate of a first machine meeting the condition.
In ACT A14, whether or not there is no machine with the lowest fault rate is determined. If there is no machine with the lowest fault rate (YES in ACT A14), the flow proceeds to ACT A15 in which the machine calculated in ACT A13 is recorded in the database 132 as the machine with the lowest fault rate, that is, the superior apparatus. In this case, as it is only needed to store the superior apparatus temporarily, the superior apparatus may be stored in a given memory.
In the following ACT A16, whether or not the fault rates of all corresponding machines are calculated is determined. The process is ended if the fault rates of all corresponding machines are calculated (YES in ACT A16). On the other hand, if there is a machine the fault rate of which is not calculated (NO in ACT A16), the CPU 11 returns to ACT A12 to calculate the fault rate of the rest calculation target machines.
Further, in ACT A14, if the machine with the lowest fault rate exists (NO in ACT A14), the CPU 11 proceeds to ACT A17 in which the CPU 11 determines whether or not the fault rate calculated in ACT A13 is lower than the lowest fault rate recorded by far. If the fault rate calculated in ACT A13 is lower than the lowest fault rate recorded by far (YES in ACT A17), the CPU 11 records (updates) the machine having the fault rate calculated in ACT A13 as a machine with the lowest fault rate (superior apparatus) in ACT A15.
On the other hand, if the fault rate calculated in ACT A13 is greater than the lowest fault rate recorded by far (NO in A17), the CPU 11 returns to ACT A12 to repeat the same processing until the fault rates of all calculation target machines are calculated, thereby calculating the fault rate of each machine to calculate the superior apparatus.
Further, if it is determined in ACT A12 that there is no machine meeting the predetermined condition (NO in ACT A12), the CPU 11 displays a message on the display section 18 in ACT A18 and then ends the processing. The message may be, for example, ‘no machine meeting the condition, input another condition please’.
After the superior apparatus is calculated, setting values of the specific machine and the superior apparatus are comparably displayed on the display section 18 via the processing in ACT A4 and ACT A5 shown in
Thus, by comparing the items in which the setting values of the specific machine and the machine with the lowest fault rate are significantly different, the operator is aware of how to set the setting values of the specific machine. That is, it is highly likely to avoid a fault by adjusting the setting values of the specific machine to be values closer to the setting values of the superior apparatus.
In
If it can be predicted that fault occurs in which part of the specific machine, the setting value of the predicted item, such as a setting item relating to scanner or a setting item relating to printer, is selected and displayed in the comparison table. Further, the position of a fault may be specified based on the log data of the specific machine. For example, the position of a fault may be specified based on the error information shown in
Further, it is exemplifies that in order to calculate a machine which barely has fault, the fault rate is calculated to calculate a machine with the lowest fault rate, and the reference information serving as an index is prompted; however, it is not limited to calculating the lowest fault rate, and any modification may be made. For example, ‘operation rate’ may be calculated instead of the lowest fault rate. The operation rate may be calculated using the operation time shown in
Further, a machine with the least accumulated fault times or a machine with the least accumulated call times may also be calculated instead of a machine with the lowest fault rate. The jam occurrence times shown in
Further, the ‘predetermined condition’ for determining a machine to be a fault rate calculation target is not limited to be ‘the same machine type’, it may also be modified properly. For example, the condition may also be the installation site of the machines such as the machines arranged in the same floor. Further, the condition may be the machines produced at the same time, the machines under the same contract or the machines having the same printing numbers.
Further, an image forming apparatus is described herein as a machine to be maintained, however, the target maintained by the maintenance apparatus 10 is not limited to the image forming apparatus. For example, the maintenance apparatus may also maintain various information processing apparatuses such as a POS (Point Of Sale) installed in a business facility.
As stated above, in the maintenance apparatus 10 according to an embodiment, setting values, with which the occurrence times of a fault can be reduced, can be prompted to the operator such as a service man as reference information. Thus, the operation time taken to avoid a fault can be shortened.
Besides, the processing shown in embodiments described herein may also be realized by hardware or by an application (computer program) which is stored in a memory such as the recording section 13 and executed by the arithmetic section 11 such as a CPU.
Further, in embodiments described herein, the maintenance apparatus 10 may consist of a single PC or a PC and the server 30. For example, the server 30 may have part of the functions of a PC, and various processing results may be displayed on the PC using the information from the server 30.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the invention.
