Methods and systems for prioritizing replacement of at least one part for vehicle fault analysis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9740554-B2
Application number	US-201514737604-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 12, 2015
Priority date	Jun 12, 2015
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for prioritizing a plurality of maintenance corrective actions in a troubleshooting chart for a device are provided. The method includes receiving, by a processor, an input from a user indicative of a successful corrective action from the plurality of corrective actions on the troubleshooting chart and incrementing a value of a counter associated with the successful corrective action. The processor then compares values for counters associated with each of the plurality of corrective actions and displays the plurality of corrective actions in hierarchal order based on the values of the counters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of prioritizing replacement of at least one part for vehicle fault analysis, said method performed by a fault analysis module that includes a processor in communication with a memory device, said method comprising:
receiving, by the processor, an electronic fault signal from an electronic logbook on-board a vehicle, the electronic fault signal including a fault code indicating that a fault is present in a component of the vehicle;
processing the electronic fault signal to determine the fault code;
identifying, by the processor, a plurality of potentially faulty parts for the component associated with the electronic fault signal based on the determined fault code;
determining, by the processor, at least one of a fixed effectiveness rate and a no fault found (NFF) rate for each part of the plurality of potentially faulty parts based on historical part replacement data for each part stored on the memory device; and
generating, by the processor, a recommendation of which part of the plurality of potentially faulty parts to replace in response to the fault, the recommendation based on the determined at least one of the fixed effectiveness rate and the NFF rate for each part and the historical part replacement data, the recommendation including a display of a list of the plurality of potentially faulty parts in hierarchal order based on the determined at least one of the fixed effectiveness rate and the NFF rate.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
compiling case details associated with the fault, the case details including at least one of a fault code associated with the fault, a case title, an identifier of an electronic logbook that reported the fault, a description of the fault, and a reference list including references available to analyze the fault; and
correlating a Fault Isolation Manual (FIM) number with the case details.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising displaying a FIM section that provides detailed steps for troubleshooting the fault when a maintenance person selects the FIM number in a maintenance application in communication with the fault analysis module.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying service bulletins for the plurality of parts when a maintenance person selects a service bulletins option in a maintenance application in communication with the fault analysis module, the service bulletin including information regarding recent industry part trends.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the recommendation further comprises displaying, for each part of the plurality of parts, at least one of Time Spent to Install (TSI), Mean Time between Failure (MTBF), Mean Time between Nonscheduled Removal (MTBNR), whether the part is in stock, and whether the part is under warranty.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from a maintenance person, a selection of a part to be removed, the selection being input by the maintenance person in a maintenance application in communication with the fault analysis module; and
displaying at least one of specific part details for the selected part, supplier information associated with a supplier of the part, part illustrations retrieved from an illustrated parts catalog, and detailed part statistics.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a maintenance record that includes a part number of a part removed from the vehicle based on the list of the plurality of parts generated by the fault analysis module, the maintenance record received from the maintenance person using a maintenance personnel computing device.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein determining the fixed effectiveness rate comprises:
extracting a replacement success indicator from the maintenance record, the replacement success indicator indicating whether a replacement part installed on the vehicle successfully fixed the fault;
upon extracting the replacement success indicator, incrementing a first fixed effectiveness counter to increase a number of times the part number has been replaced for the fault;
when the extracted replacement success indicator indicates that the replacement part fixed the fault, incrementing a second fixed effectiveness counter to increase a number of times the replacement part successfully fixed the fault; and
calculating a ratio between the second fixed effectiveness counter and the first fixed effectiveness counter.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein determining the NFF rate comprises:
extracting test results from the maintenance record, the test results indicating whether a supplier determined the removed part caused the fault or the removed part had NFF;
upon extracting the test results, incrementing a first NFF counter to increase a number of times the part number has been tested;
when the extracted test results indicate NFF for the removed part, incrementing a second NFF counter to increase a number of times the part number had NFF; and
calculating a ratio between the second NFF counter and the first NFF counter.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein receiving the maintenance record further comprises:
receiving the maintenance record including a unique part identifier associated with the removed part; and
storing the maintenance record in a database.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the removed part is sent to a part supplier for testing, said method further comprising:
receiving the unique part identifier input by the part supplier using a part supplier computing device;
retrieving the maintenance record for the removed part using the unique part identifier;
displaying the maintenance record to the part supplier;
receiving test results for the removed part input by the part supplier; and
storing the maintenance record including the test results in the database.

12. A fault analysis module for prioritizing replacement of at least one part for vehicle fault analysis, said fault analysis module comprising:
a memory for storing data; and
a processor in communication with said memory, said processor programmed to:
receive an electronic fault signal from an electronic logbook on-board a vehicle, the fault signal including a fault code indicating that a fault is present in a component of the vehicle;
process the electronic fault signal to determine the fault code;
identify a plurality of potentially faulty parts for the component associated with the electronic fault signal based on the determined fault code;
determine at least one of a fixed effectiveness rate and a no fault found (NFF) rate for each part of the plurality of potentially faulty parts based on historical part replacement data for each part stored on said memory; and
generate a recommendation of which part of the plurality of potentially faulty parts to replace in response to the fault, the recommendation based on the determined at least one of the fixed effectiveness rate and the NFF rate for each part and the historical part replacement data, the recommendation including a display of a list of the plurality of potentially faulty parts in hierarchal order based on the determined at least one of the fixed effectiveness rate and the NFF rate.

13. The fault analysis module of claim 12 , wherein said processor is further programmed to:
compile case details associated with the fault, the case details including at least one of a fault code associated with the fault, a case title, an identifier of an electronic logbook that reported the fault, a description of the fault, and a reference list including references available to analyze the fault;
correlate a Fault Isolation Manual (FIM) number with the case details; and

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Swayne Michael T
• Schwartz Samantha
• Hendrian Matthew B
• Domaradzki Lukasz
• Barraci Nima

Classifications

• G06Q10/063 Primary

  Operations research, analysis or management · CPC title

• G06F11/0793 Primary

  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

• G06F11/0739

  in a data processing system embedded in automotive or aircraft systems · CPC title