Information processing system and failure diagnosis method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10025657-B2
Application number	US-201615191705-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 24, 2016
Priority date	Jun 29, 2015
Publication date	Jul 17, 2018
Grant date	Jul 17, 2018

Abstract

An information processing system includes a storage unit that stores and associates a cause of a failure that has occurred in an electronic device, state information of the electronic device at the time the failure has occurred in the electronic device due to the cause of the failure, and a measure to be implemented in response to the cause of the failure. The information processing system further includes at least one processor that performs an acquisition process for acquiring the state information of the electronic device, and a failure diagnosis process for determining the cause of the failure that has occurred in the electronic device and the measure to be implemented in response to the cause of the failure based on the acquired state information of the electronic device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An information processing system comprising:
a first management unit configured to manage, with respect to one or more responders, capability information indicating an ability to respond to a failure of an electronic device and first position information indicating a current position of each responder among the one or more responders;
a storage unit configured to store and associate a cause of the failure of the electronic device, state information of the electronic device at a time the failure occurred in the electronic device due to the cause of the failure, and a measure to be implemented in response to the cause of the failure; and
at least one processor configured to execute an instruction stored in a memory to perform:
an acquisition process for acquiring the state information of the electronic device,
a failure identification process for generating failure information including device identification information that identifies the electronic device as a dispatch target device and generating failure identification information identifying the failure of the electronic device,
a failure diagnosis process for determining the cause of the failure and determining the measure to be implemented in response to the cause of the failure based on the acquired state information of the electronic device,
a responder determination process for determining a responder to be dispatched to the dispatch target device identified by the device identification information based on the failure identification information, the capability information, the first position information, and second position information of the dispatch target device that is determined based on the device identification information,
a dispatch issuing process for issuing a dispatch request for dispatching the responder determined by the responder determination process to the dispatch target device identified by the device identification information,
a failure diagnosis result notification process for notifying the responder of the cause of the failure that has occurred in the electronic device and the measure to be implemented in response to the cause of the failure that have been determined by the failure diagnosis process; and
a first calculation process for calculating an arrival time required for each responder of the one or more responders to arrive at the dispatch target device based on the first position information and the second position information,

wherein the responder determination process includes:
referring to the first position information of each responder,
extracting one or more responders that are positioned within a predetermined range with respect to the second position information,
identifying one responder from among the one or more extracted responders as the responder to be dispatched to the dispatch target device, and
determining, from among the one or more extracted responders, a responder with a minimum arrival time calculated by the first calculation process as the responder to be dispatched to the dispatch target device; and

in the case where the responder determination process determines that an accuracy of the failure diagnosis process in determining the cause of the failure and the measure to be implemented in response to the cause of the failure is below a predetermined rate, the responder determination process determines a skilled responder as the responder that is to respond to the failure that has occurred in the electronic device.

2. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein
even when the responder determination process determines that the accuracy of the determination, by the failure diagnosis process, of the cause of the failure that has occurred in the electronic device and the measure to be implemented in response to the cause of the failure is higher than the predetermined rate, if the measure to be implemented in response to the cause of the failure is difficult, the responder determination process determines the skilled responder as the responder that is to respond to the failure that has occurred in the electronic device.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein
the failure diagnosis process determines a part required for restoring the electronic device from the failure that has occurred in the electronic device; and
the responder determination process determines a responder that is in possession of the part required for restoring the electronic device.

4. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein
the responder determination process determines a responder that is close to an installation location of the electronic device in which the failure has occurred.

5. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein
the failure diagnosis process determines a part required for restoring the electronic device from the failure that has occurred in the electronic device; and
the at least one processor is further configured to perform a part ordering process for ordering the part required for restoring the electronic device.

6. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein
the at least one processor is further configured to perform a failure diagnosis model development process for developing a failure diagnosis model based on maintenance history information, the failure diagnosis model representing the association between the cause of the failure that has occurred in an electronic device, the state information of the electronic device at the time the failure has occurred in the electronic device due to the cause of the failure, and the measure to be implemented in response to the cause of the failure; and
the failure diagnosis model development process receives information indicating whether the determination, by the failure diagnosis process, of the cause of the failure that has occurred in the electronic device and the measure to be implemented in response to the cause of the failure was accurate, and reflects the received information in the failure diagnosis model.

7. The information processing system according to claim 6 , wherein the failure diagnosis model development process develops the failure diagnosis model by
analyzing from the maintenance history information one or more causes of the failure,
searching and identifying, with respect to each of the causes of the failure analyzed, a characteristic of the state information of the electronic device that commonly occurs before the occurrence of the failure; and
analyzing from the maintenance history information a measure required for restoring the electronic device from the failure with respect to each of the causes of the failure analyzed.

8. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein
the state information of the electronic device includes at least one of information relating to an output value of a sensor included in the electronic device and information relating to a consumption degree of a consumable part of the electronic device.

9. The information processing system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a second management unit configured to manage the capability information in association with corresponding failure identification information of one or more failures that can be handled.

10. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein
the at least one processor is further configured to perform a second calculation process for calculating a cost required for dispatching each of the one or more responders to the dispatch target device; and
the responder determination process determines a responder with a minimum cost calculated by the second calculation proc

Assignees

• Oku Takenori
• Nishida Hiroshi
• Seo Kentaro
• Hayashi Shunsuke
• Shibata Yusuke
• Sano Yuuta
• Mizuno Satoshi
• Sekine Takeyoshi
• Nagano Fumihiro
• Hatanaka Satoshi
• Ueda Kenji
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Oku Takenori
• Nishida Hiroshi
• Seo Kentaro
• Hayashi Shunsuke
• Shibata Yusuke
• Sano Yuuta
• Mizuno Satoshi
• Sekine Takeyoshi
• Nagano Fumihiro
• Hatanaka Satoshi
• Ueda Kenji

Classifications

• H04N1/00039

  Analysis, i.e. separating and studying components of a greater whole · CPC title

• G06F11/0793

  Remedial or corrective actions (recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40) · CPC title

• H04N1/00015

  Reproducing apparatus · CPC title

• H04N1/00079

  remotely · CPC title

• H04N1/00029

  Diagnosis, i.e. identifying a problem by comparison with a normal state · CPC title