JP2007328641A - Image forming apparatus management apparatus and management method - Google Patents

Abstract

[PROBLEMS] To prevent future obstacles in advance and to eliminate fundamental obstacles hidden under individual symbolic obstacles.
The failure information in a certain time range acquired from the image forming apparatus is compared with a predefined failure pattern (S1003). As a result, if they match, a message having contents registered in association with the failure pattern is transmitted to the registered destination (S1006, S1109, S1010).
[Selection] Figure 10

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus management apparatus and management method for diagnosing an image forming apparatus.

  Conventionally, there is a monitoring system that remotely monitors the operating state of peripheral devices such as image forming apparatuses. In the monitoring system, the image forming apparatus is monitored as follows. First, as one method, when a fatal error or alarm occurs in the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus notifies the site centralized monitoring apparatus of the error or the like. Notification is sent from the centralized monitoring apparatus to the monitoring center host. Then, the monitoring center host notifies the person in charge of maintenance, such as an image forming apparatus sales company, by e-mail or the like. This person in charge instructs the service person to dispatch or contacts the customer according to the type of failure that occurred. Here, the centralized monitoring apparatus is a computer connected to a local network such as an image forming apparatus and a LAN, and collects status information output by the image forming apparatus. The monitoring center host is connected to the site centralized monitoring device and receives the status information of the image forming apparatus collected by the site centralized monitoring device.

  When a paper jam occurs in the image forming apparatus, the number of jams that have occurred is calculated, and when a certain threshold is reached, the monitoring center host is notified. The monitoring center host notifies the person in charge of the sales company to that effect.

In addition to the frequent occurrence of fatal errors and jams as described above, there are cases where it is necessary to dispatch a service person according to the customer's request, and a new dispatch method according to the needs of the customer is required. . In addition, a proposal has been made to give an instruction to a customer by looking at the most recent log at the time of occurrence of an error (see Patent Document 1).
JP 2002-342062 A

  As described above, when an error, an alarm, or a jam transmitted from the image forming apparatus occurs, status information indicating the status is sent to the monitoring center host. For this reason, it is necessary to determine what kind of treatment is to be performed for each single failure. It has been difficult to identify a failure location of the image forming apparatus from a single failure. For example, even though individual faults (states) reported to the monitoring center host are such that maintenance by a service person is not required, faults that cause such faults are There are cases where it cannot be resolved. An individual failure can also be a precursor to a more serious failure that may occur in the future. In such a case, it has been difficult for conventional techniques to eliminate a fundamental failure that may cause a surface failure or a failure that may occur in the future. Therefore, more accurate diagnosis of the image forming apparatus is desired.

  Therefore, more accurate diagnosis of the image forming apparatus is desired.

The present invention has the following configuration. That is, a management apparatus for an image forming apparatus that monitors the operating state of the image forming apparatus,
History storage means for registering status information indicating the operating status of the image forming apparatus as history information of the operating status of the image forming apparatus;
A failure pattern storage means for storing a combination of states of the image forming apparatus as a failure pattern;
Diagnostic means for diagnosing the image forming apparatus based on comparison between history information registered at a plurality of times in the past and the failure pattern.

  According to the present invention, more accurate diagnosis of an image forming apparatus can be realized.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[First embodiment]
FIG. 1 shows an overall view of a monitoring system in the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, a plurality of sales company systems including a system 101 and a system 106 are connected to the monitoring system. Databases 103 and 108 are also included in the system for storing information related to the sales area of each jurisdiction and customers and information related to the monitoring system.

  The sales company systems 101 and 106 also include PCs 104 and 109 that control data registration and correction in the databases 102 and 107. The PCs 104 and 109 also access a web site provided by the central management apparatus 111 which is a monitoring center host, and browse data. The hosts 102 and 107 have an operation unit and a display unit, and can also function as the PCs 104 and 109. The host 102, the database 103, and the PC 104 are connected via a LAN 105, and the host 107, the database 108, and the PC 109 are connected via a LAN 10. In FIG. 1, each system on the sales company side is shown to be composed of a plurality of devices. However, what is necessary is to achieve each function described later. For example, the databases 103 and 108 may physically exist in the hosts 102 and 107, respectively. Furthermore, as long as it can be accessed from the hosts 102 and 107, it may exist in another place via the Internet. That is, it may be configured from a plurality of devices or may be configured from one device.

  Next, a centralized management device 111 exists between the sales company side and the customer side. The database 112 is a database as history storage means for accumulating information for monitoring, counters of image forming apparatuses collected from customers, failure history information (sometimes referred to as failure history data), failure pattern tables, and the like. is there. The central management apparatus 111 and the database 112 are connected via a LAN 113, and the LAN 113 can be connected to the Internet. The database 112 may physically exist in the central management apparatus 111. Furthermore, as long as it can be accessed from the centralized management apparatus 111, it may exist in another place via the Internet.

  The centralized management device 111 collects, accumulates, and stores information on the image forming apparatus as a monitoring target, particularly information indicating an operating state (including failure information) from the site monitoring devices 117, 122, 123 (described later) and 131 (described later). It has the function of processing and providing warnings etc. to the outside. For example, it has a function of distributing such information to sales company hosts 102 and 107. As the operating state (operating information), for example, the state information shown includes failures such as toner exhaustion, door open, drum replacement, no cartridge, cooling fan abnormality, substrate abnormality, document platen glass contamination, and the like. I can do it. In addition, examples of staple breakage and insufficient paper supply sensor light amount can be given. In addition, font memory overflow, rendering error, fixing device abnormality, counter abnormality, duplex unit abnormality, paper jam, and the like can also be mentioned.

  Furthermore, the sales company hosts 102 and 107 can register information about the image forming apparatuses that are monitored by the central management apparatus 111 and settings related to monitoring in the central management apparatus 111. For example, the contents of a failure pattern table described later with reference to FIG. 13 can be changed. The centralized management apparatus 111 can collectively manage monitoring target image forming apparatuses registered from each sales company host and settings related to monitoring. It is also possible to perform monitoring-related settings for the site monitoring devices 117, 122, 123 and the image forming device 131.

  Here, the service by this monitoring system is provided based on the contract between the sales company and the customer. Accordingly, only the image forming apparatus determined by the sales company as the monitoring target based on the contract is set as the monitoring target of the present monitoring system. The central management device 111 provides a WEB page for browsing information stored in the database 112 or processed information to a PC connected via the Internet. This WEB page is provided with limited browsing contents by sales company, customer, and user authority by user authentication. Furthermore, some data can be changed from the WEB page.

  In FIG. 1, only one centralized management device 111 and one database 112 are shown. However, in practice, in order to distribute the load for collecting information from many image forming apparatuses and base monitoring apparatuses, there are cases where a plurality of centralized management apparatuses and databases are distributed.

  Next, the system configuration on the customer side will be described. There are several different customer environments. In FIG. 1, customer systems 114, 119, and 129 are shown. In the customer system 114 (Company A office X), the image forming apparatuses 115 and 116 connected to the LAN 118 connected to the Internet are monitored by the base monitoring apparatus 117, and the base monitoring apparatus 117 is a centralized management apparatus via the Internet. 111 is communicating. On the other hand, in the customer system (company A, Y office), the image forming apparatuses on the LAN 128 are managed by the centralized monitoring apparatuses 122 and 123. The base concentration monitoring apparatus 122 manages the image forming apparatuses 120, 121, 124, and 125, and the base concentration monitoring apparatus 123 manages the image forming apparatuses 126 and 127. The base concentration monitoring devices 117, 122, and 123 are connected to a database 133 (not shown). The centralized monitoring apparatus accumulates information collected from the image forming apparatuses 115 and 116 and saves processing results of the accumulated data, and stores settings related to image forming apparatus monitoring in a database (not shown) 133. Yes. The database 133 (not shown) is connected on the LAN 118 and may exist independently. Furthermore, as long as access is possible from the centralized monitoring devices 117, 122, and 123, they may exist in other locations via the Internet. The centralized monitoring apparatus transmits the status information (for example, occurrence of a failure or the like) of the image forming apparatus to the centralized management apparatus 111 each time it receives from the image forming apparatus.

  In the customer 129 (Company B), the image forming apparatus 131 itself connected to the LAN 130 connected to the Internet communicates directly with the centralized management apparatus 111 via the Internet. The image forming apparatus 131 actively transmits its own information (for example, occurrence of a failure or the like) to the central management apparatus 111. The PC 134 (not shown) is a PC equipped with a WEB browser, and connects to the central management device 111 not only from the customer environment but also directly via the Internet, and browses the WEB page provided by the central management device 111 described above. Is possible.

Note the following points.
(1) The HTTP / SOAP protocol can be used for communication via the Internet in the configuration described above. SOAP is an abbreviation for Simple Object Access Protocol. SOAP is a protocol for calling data and services of another computer from one computer based on XML (eXtended Markup Language). In this example, SOAP is implemented on HTTP. In SOAP communication, a SOAP message in which incidental information is added to an XML document is exchanged. Therefore, a computer that supports SOAP includes a SOAP message generation unit that generates a SOAP message and a SOAP message interpretation unit that interprets the SOAP message. In this embodiment, the status information of the image forming apparatus is transmitted to the central management apparatus 111 by a SOAP message.
(2) It has been described that each image forming apparatus in the company A communicates with the central management apparatus 111 via the centralized monitoring apparatus. However, by changing the setting, it is possible to communicate with the centralized monitoring apparatus without using the centralized centralized monitoring apparatus as with the image forming apparatus 131 installed in the B company.

<Hardware configuration>
FIG. 2 shows a hardware configuration diagram of the centralized management apparatus 111. The hardware configurations of the hosts 102 and 107 are also the same. In FIG. 2, a first CPU 201 and a second CPU 202 manage each process on the apparatus. A non-rewritable ROM 203 stores programs and data related to each process of the apparatus. The RAM 204 can electrically store and rewrite temporary data related to each process of the apparatus. The first HDD 205 and the second HDD 206 store programs and data related to each process of the apparatus, temporary data, information about the image forming apparatus to be monitored according to the present invention, information collected from the image forming apparatus, and the like. For example, a failure pattern table, a failure history table, and the like are stored on the hard disk. The input device 207 is a keyboard or a pointing device that receives an instruction input to the apparatus. The display unit 208 displays the operation status of the apparatus and information output by each program operating on the apparatus. A network I / F 209 connects to a LAN and the Internet via a network and exchanges information with the outside. The external device I / F 210 connects an external storage device or the like. These elements are connected by the system bus 211 to exchange data.

  FIG. 3 shows a hardware configuration diagram of the site monitoring devices 117, 122, and 123. Further, it can be applied to the hardware configuration diagram of the PCs 104, 109, and 134.

  The CPU 301 manages each process on this apparatus. The ROM 302 stores programs and data related to each process of the apparatus and cannot be rewritten. The RAM 303 can electrically store temporary data related to each process of the apparatus and can be rewritten. The site monitoring device 117 stores in the HDD 304 programs and data related to each process of this device, temporary data, information on the image forming device to be monitored, information collected from the image forming device, and the like. In the PCs 104, 109, and 134, a WEB browser or the like is stored in the HDD 304. The input device 305 is a keyboard or a pointing device that receives an instruction input to the apparatus. A display unit 306 displays the operation status of the apparatus and information output by each program operating on the apparatus. A network I / F 307 is connected to a LAN and the Internet via a network and exchanges information with the outside. The external device I / F 308 connects an external storage device or the like. They are connected by a system bus 309 and exchange data.

  FIG. 4 is a hardware configuration diagram of another form of the centralized monitoring apparatus 117, 122, 123. The CPU 401 manages each process on this apparatus. The ROM 402 stores programs and data related to each process of the apparatus, and cannot be rewritten. The flash ROM 403 stores data and temporary data related to each process of the apparatus, information about the image forming apparatus to be monitored, information collected from the image forming apparatus, and the like. In the serial I / F 404, the program on the apparatus outputs an error or a log, and a terminal can be connected using a serial cable. A network I / F 405 connects to a LAN and the Internet via a network and exchanges information with the outside. They are connected by the system bus 406 and exchange data.

  FIG. 5 is a hardware configuration diagram of the image forming apparatuses 115, 116, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127, 131. Specifically, as an image forming apparatus, a printer (including an electrophotographic system and an ink jet system) that receives and prints data from a multifunction machine, a PC, and the like that are integrated with a printer and a facsimile function, a scanner, For example, a facsimile. In the drawing, a configuration of a multifunction peripheral is shown as an example of an image forming apparatus.

  The image reader 502 reads a document with the document feeding unit 501. The image reader 502 and the image forming unit 503 convert the read original or data received via the network into a print image and print out the print image. A paper discharge unit 504 discharges the printed paper and performs processing such as sorting and stapling. A network I / F 505 is connected to a LAN and the Internet via a network and exchanges information with the outside. The CPU 506 manages each process on this apparatus. The operation state of the image forming apparatus is monitored, and when a specific event such as a failure occurs, state information indicating the state is transmitted to a predetermined destination. The destination is, for example, the centralized management device 111 or the centralized centralized monitoring device. A ROM 507 serving as a non-volatile storage unit stores programs and data related to each process of the apparatus. A rewritable RAM 508 electrically stores temporary data related to each process of the apparatus. The HDD 509 stores programs and data related to each process of the apparatus, temporary data, user data transmitted to the apparatus, and the like. The operation unit 510 receives an instruction input to the apparatus. A display unit 511 displays information related to the operation status of the apparatus and operations on the operation unit 510. These are connected by a system bus 512 to exchange data.

  Note that the image forming apparatus 131 having a function of actively transmitting monitoring information by the device itself holds programs and data related to the monitoring data transmission processing in the ROM 507 or the HDD 509.

<Software>
FIG. 6 shows a software configuration diagram of a portion related to the image forming apparatus monitoring system in the centralized management apparatus 111. The SOAP communication unit 601 passes the SOAP data received from the site centralized monitoring device 117 or the image forming device 131 via the Network I / F 209 to the SOAP message analysis unit 602. In addition, the SOAP data created by the SOAP message creation unit 603 is transmitted to the base concentration monitoring apparatus 117 or the image forming apparatus 131 via the Network I / F 209.

  The collected information processing unit 604 stores the information received from the monitored centralized monitoring device 117 or the image forming device 131 as it is or processes it, and stores it in the database 112 via the database access unit 606. The database 112 stores a failure pattern table 112a and a failure history table 112b.

  Further, the collected information processing unit 604 realizes functions related to the remote monitoring system. That is, the processing shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 is executed. For example, based on the information received from the monitored centralized monitoring device 117 or the image forming device 131 and the data stored in the database 112, the counter information is aggregated and error information is sent to the responsible service person and the customer side administrator. Notice.

  The monitoring control unit 605 performs schedule management for obtaining information on the centralized monitoring apparatus 117 or the image forming apparatus 131 and controls monitoring contents and methods. Further, if necessary, an instruction is transmitted to the monitored centralized monitoring apparatus 117 or the image forming apparatus 131 via the SOAP message creation unit 603, the SOAP communication unit 601, and the Network I / F 209.

  FIG. 7 shows a software configuration diagram of a portion related to the image forming apparatus monitoring system in the base concentration monitoring apparatuses 117, 122, and 123.

  The SOAP communication unit 701 passes the SOAP data received from the central management apparatus 111 via the network I / Fs 307 and 405 to the SOAP message analysis unit 703. Also, the SOAP data created by the SOAP message creation unit 702 is transmitted to the centralized management apparatus 111 via the network I / Fs 307 and 405.

  The monitoring control unit 704 updates the monitoring image forming apparatus information held in the information storage unit according to the monitoring setting from the centralized management apparatus 111 described later, acquires the information of the image forming apparatuses 115 and 116, and performs schedule management. .

  The device information processing unit 705 displays information such as counter information, service calls, jams, and toner out actively collected from the image forming apparatuses 115 and 116 by the apparatus according to the schedule managed by the monitoring control unit 704, as an information storage unit. Accumulate in 706. Alternatively, this accumulation is performed according to the state of the image forming apparatuses 115 and 116.

  The data stored in the information storage unit 706 is passed directly to the SOAP message creation unit 702 via the device information processing unit 705 and transmitted to the central management apparatus 111. Alternatively, it may be interpreted and processed in the device information processing unit 705 and then transferred to the SOAP message creation unit 702 and transmitted to the central management apparatus 111.

  FIG. 8 shows a software configuration diagram of a portion related to the image forming apparatus monitoring system in each of the image forming apparatuses 115, 116, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127, 131.

  The SOAP communication unit 801 passes the SOAP data received from the central management apparatus 111 via the Network I / F 505 to the SOAP message analysis unit 803. Also, the SOAP data created by the SOAP message creation unit 802 is transmitted to the centralized management apparatus 111 via the network I / F 505.

  The network information acquisition unit 804 can automatically acquire the IP address, DNS server, and gateway address in the DHCP environment.

  If network information input from the operation unit 510 and stored in the HDD 509 exists, the information is acquired.

  The device information collection unit 805 acquires counter information stored in the MFP according to a schedule inside the MFP or an instruction from the centralized management apparatus 111, and also includes a service call, jam, out of toner, etc. Get information.

  The acquired data is transferred to the SOAP message creation unit 802 as it is and transmitted to the central management device 111, and is stored, interpreted, and processed in the device information collection unit 805, and then passed to the SOAP message creation unit 802 to the central management device 111. May be sent.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a memory map structure in the centralized management apparatus 111, the site monitoring apparatuses 117, 122, 123, or the image forming apparatuses 115, 116, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127, 131. is there. When executing the processing program according to the present invention, the central management device 111 is loaded on the RAM 204, each site monitoring device 117 is loaded on the RAM 303 or the Flash ROM 403, and each image forming device is loaded on the RAM 508. is there.

  The memory map includes a basic I / O program 901, a system program 902, various processing programs 903 including the processing program of this embodiment, an area 904 for storing related data, and a work area 905 for the program. The basic I / O program 901 controls input / output on this apparatus. The system program 902 provides an operating environment for each processing program. If there is not enough area to be used as 901 to 905 due to capacity restrictions, the first HDD 205 or the second HDD 206 can be handled as a part of the RAM 204, the HDD 304 as the RAM 303, and the HDD 509 as a part of the RAM 508.

<Failure handling in a centralized management device>
FIG. 10 illustrates a centralized management apparatus (monitoring center host) that has received status information indicating a failure when a failure occurs in any of the image forming apparatuses 115, 116, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127, and 131. It is a flowchart of the process performed by this. First, in S1001, the occurrence of a failure / warning state (error, alarm, jam (see FIG. 16)) is detected in the image forming apparatus. Specifically, a notification of status information indicating the occurrence of a failure is received from the centralized monitoring apparatus or the image forming apparatus. Note that each image forming apparatus issues a notification of status information a plurality of times in time series, and receives the plurality of notifications upon reception in S1001. Further, the notification from each image forming apparatus may be spontaneous information transmission from each image forming apparatus, or may be information transmission in response to a notification request from the central management apparatus. Further, the operation status (failure status) in the image forming apparatus described below may be notified from the image forming apparatus to the monitoring center host via the centralized centralized monitoring apparatus, or the image may be transmitted without going through the centralized centralized monitoring apparatus. It may be notified directly from the forming apparatus.

  In S1002, the monitoring center host analyzes the contents of the information received in S1001, and registers it in the failure history table 112b in FIG. In S1002, for example, the received message is reconfigured so as to conform to the format of the table of FIG.

  In S1003, the past failure history data of the image forming apparatus in which the failure has occurred is referred to from the failure history table 112b in FIG. 14, and the failure pattern registered in the monitoring center host is referred to from the failure pattern table 112a in FIG. And compare both data. The image forming apparatus is diagnosed based on the comparison. Note that the past failure history data of the image forming apparatus read from the failure history table 112b in S1003 is at least accumulated data registered at a plurality of timings in time series for the image forming apparatus of interest.

  If there is a matching pattern as a result of the processing of S1003, the values of the priority field 1306 and the handling method field 1307 are read from the corresponding failure pattern column and stored. In this case, the ID of the image forming apparatus in which the failure has occurred is also stored. If there is no match, the fact that there is no match is stored, for example, by storing 0 in the area for storing the value of the priority field. Details of S1003 are shown in FIG. In the following description, it is assumed that the fault history data to be compared with the fault pattern includes the latest state information. However, the failure history data to be compared with the failure pattern does not necessarily include the latest state information. For example, the failure history data may be compared with the failure pattern registered at each timing before the previous time.

  In S1004, based on the result of S1003, if there is a failure pattern that matches the failure history registered in the failure history table 112b (that is, if the stored priority value is other than 0), based on the priority, The processes of S1004, S1008, and S1010 are performed. The priority here is also a value (information) indicating the degree of failure. Therefore, for example, it can be replaced with words such as urgency and importance. In the following description, the term “priority” is used. The central management apparatus executes warning processing according to the priority information with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S1005, the priority of the failure pattern table (see 1306 in FIG. 13) is referred to, and the value is determined. If the priority value is 1, that is, it can be determined that the priority is given to the service person (priority 1), the process proceeds to S1006. In S1006, the mail address 1704 (see FIG. 17) of the person in charge of the sales company is set as the mail destination in order to notify that the service person needs to be dispatched. As the mail address, the mail address of the sales company corresponding to the ID of the image forming apparatus stored in S1003 is acquired from the table of FIG. At the same time, the saved action method field value is duplicated as the contents of the mail. If it is determined that it is not an instruction to the service person, the process proceeds to S1008, where it is determined whether the priority is 2, that is, whether to instruct the customer (user). If it is determined in S1008 that the customer is instructed (priority level 2), the process proceeds to S1009, and the customer's mail address 1604 (see FIG. 16) held in the management center host is set as the mail destination. As the mail address, the mail address of the customer corresponding to the ID of the image forming apparatus stored in S1003 is acquired from the table of FIG. At the same time, the saved action method field value is duplicated as the contents of the mail.

  In S1007, a mail notification is sent to the mail addresses set in S1006 and S1009.

  If it is determined in S1008 that the priority is 1, that is, it is not an instruction for the customer, a warning display 1801 (see FIG. 18) is displayed on the failure history screen of the monitoring center host in S1010. The display content is the value of the stored response method field.

  The procedure in FIG. 10 is performed for each image forming apparatus registered in the failure history table.

  FIG. 11 shows a detailed flowchart of a diagnostic process based on a comparison between the failure history and the failure pattern of the image forming apparatus in S1003 of FIG. FIG. 11 is shown using a specific example of data. Assume that it is determined in S1002 that the failure transmitted from the image forming apparatus is an alarm D (D1101). In S1102, the failure pattern table 112a in FIG. 13 is searched for a pattern including the acquired state information, in this example, the alarm D. Since the state information is indicated by a code, for example, if there is a failure pattern including a code that matches the code indicating the latest state information, the failure pattern is the corresponding failure pattern.

  As a result, in S1103, it is determined whether there is a corresponding failure pattern as a result of the search. If there is, the process proceeds to S1105. Data D1104 indicates that there are two corresponding failure patterns as the search result of S1103. Pattern 1 is a pattern of “alarm A twice, alarm C, alarm D once (pattern type: number of failures)”. Pattern 2 is a pattern of “jam A → jam B → error F → alarm D (pattern type: order)”.

  In S1105, for a specific (currently focused) image forming apparatus, the failure history from n hours ago (where n can be arbitrarily set by the user, where n = 2) to the present is displayed as the failure history in FIG. Search from the history table. As a result, alarm A-> alarm F-> alarm A-> jam B-> alarm C-> toner low-> alarm D (alarm A twice, alarm F, alarm C, alarm D, jam B, toner low once each) (Fault history) is obtained (see FIG. 12). The result is shown in data D1106. The failure history information obtained by the search and the ID of the image forming apparatus of interest are stored.

  In S1107, the data D1104 that is the result of S1102 is compared with the data D1106 that is the result of S1105, and it is determined whether or not to match. Note that the pattern type 1305 has two ways of viewing when the failure history information and the failure pattern table are matched, with the number of occurrences regardless of the failure occurrence order or with the failure occurrence order taken into account. have. In other words, when the pattern type is “order”, the order of occurrence of the failure needs to match in the failure pattern and the failure history. When the pattern type is “number of failures”, the order of failure occurrence does not need to match between the failure pattern and the failure history, and if the number of occurrences matches, it is determined that they match. If they match, the priority value and the response method value associated with the corresponding pattern and registered in the failure pattern table are stored in the memory.

  In the case of FIG. 11, since the pattern 1 of the data D1104 matches the search result of the data D1106, it can be determined that matching has been achieved. Therefore, the priority value associated with the pattern 1 and registered in the failure pattern table and the value of the handling method are stored in the memory.

  FIG. 12 shows an example of a failure occurrence state n hours before the failure occurred in the image forming apparatus in time series. This is described so that the history of the failure history table in FIG. 14 can be more easily recognized. A time-series set of the status information 1201 in FIG. 12 is the failure history information obtained in S1105 in FIG.

<Fault pattern table>
FIG. 13 shows an example of the failure pattern table 112a held by the monitoring center host 111 (centralized management device 111). Fields 1301, 1302, 1303, and 1304 are information indicating failures (states) such as errors, alarms, and jams. A field 1305 indicates a pattern type indicating whether the failure 1301, 1302, 1303, 1304 is determined based on the number of occurrences of the failure or in order. For example, in the pattern 1308, the pattern type is the number of failures. Therefore, the pattern 1308 is recognized as a pattern in which the alarm A occurs twice, the alarm C, and the alarm D occur once. The pattern 1309 is recognized as a failure pattern that occurs in the order of jam B → alarm F → jam A → error R because the pattern types are in order.

  A field 1306 indicates the priority for the failure pattern. The specific response is shown in the field 1307. Priority 1 is a failure that the person in charge of the sales company dispatches to the service person, and priority 2 is a failure that the person in charge of the sales company contacts the customer to deal with. And Priority 3 is a failure for displaying a warning on the monitoring center host.

  The failure pattern table 112a is created empirically. For example, for each response method, such as when a service person is dispatched or when an instruction is given to a customer, sampling is performed to determine what kind of failure has occurred before that predetermined time. As a result, if a certain rule is established between a failure that has occurred and a failure that occurs thereafter, the sampled failure occurrence pattern and the response method are registered in the failure pattern table. The failure pattern table 112a can be maintained in the central management device 111.

<Failure history table>
FIG. 14 shows the failure history table 112b held in the monitoring center host. This table is information accumulated by receiving a failure notification from the image forming apparatus in S1001 in FIG. 10 a plurality of times. In the image forming apparatus, a jam, an alarm, or an error is detected, and the detection result is notified to the monitoring center host and registered as history information as shown in FIG.

  A field 1401 indicates the date and time when the failure occurred. A field 1402 indicates what kind of failure is notified from the image forming apparatus and its type. A field 1403 indicates the weighting of the alarm levels 2, 3 and the like when the failure type of the field 1402 is an alarm (see FIG. 15). A field 1404 is a content of a failure, which is specifically acquired by searching from the database of the monitoring center host after specifying the failure specifically from the failure type. A field 1405 indicates an ID for specifying the image forming apparatus notified of the failure.

  FIG. 15 shows an overview of failure information (jam, alarm, error). In FIG. 15, there is a failure called an alert, which indicates a minor failure that becomes an alarm if it continues for a certain number of times or more depending on the type of alert.

<Other tables>
FIG. 16 shows a customer information table for managing customer information held by the monitoring center host. Reference numeral 1601 denotes a customer ID which is an ID for uniquely identifying a customer. Reference numeral 1602 denotes a customer name. Reference numeral 1603 denotes the customer's address. Reference numeral 1604 denotes a customer's mail address. Reference numeral 1605 denotes a sales company that manages customers. Reference numeral 1606 denotes an image forming apparatus ID. When there are a plurality of customer image forming apparatuses, a table in which the customer is associated with the image forming apparatus ID may be provided separately. The customer mail address corresponding to the image forming apparatus ID stored in S1003 in FIG. 10 is read from the customer information table in FIG. 16 and used in S1009 in FIG.

  FIG. 17 shows a sales company table that manages information on sales companies held by the monitoring center host. Reference numeral 1701 denotes a sales company name. Reference numeral 1702 denotes a sales company ID for uniquely identifying the sales company. Reference numeral 1703 denotes the address of the sales company. Reference numeral 1704 denotes the mail address of the sales company. Reference numeral 1705 denotes an image forming apparatus ID. When there are a plurality of image forming apparatuses of a sales company, a table in which the sales company and the image forming apparatus ID are associated may be provided separately. The sales company mail address corresponding to the image forming apparatus ID stored in S1003 of FIG. 10 is read from the sales company information table of FIG. 17 and used in S1006 of FIG.

  FIG. 18 shows an example of a warning display screen displayed on the monitoring center host in S1010 of FIG. 10 when the failure occurrence pattern is matched and the priority is 3. The display column 1801 is a value (character string) registered in the “response method” field obtained from the failure pattern table 112a of FIG. 13 or a character string generated based on the value.

  As described above, according to the monitoring system of this embodiment, the countermeasure is not notified for each failure event. This monitoring system compares a series of failure histories with a predefined failure pattern, and if they match, sends a message with the registered content to a destination registered in association with the failure pattern. For this reason, it becomes possible to prevent future troubles in advance and to eliminate the fundamental troubles hidden under individual symbolic troubles.

[Second Embodiment]
<Specific example of failure pattern table>
In the second embodiment, the failure pattern table of FIG. 13 is further embodied, and a failure pattern table with an improved diagnostic function is described.

  FIG. 19 shows a further specific example of the failure pattern table 112 a held in the monitoring center host 111. Fields 1901 to 1906 indicate basically the same items as 1301 to 1306 described with reference to FIG.

  A field 1907 is an item indicating where the failure history table in FIG. 14 is read back. In FIG. 19, a determination period 1907 is shown. Further, for each failure pattern, a determination period 1907 can be set for each failure pattern. Depending on the failure pattern, a plurality of determination periods of a first determination period and a second determination period are set. On the other hand, for the priority 1906, the priority in the first determination period and the priority in the second determination period are set corresponding to the first and second determination periods 1907, respectively.

  It should be noted that the parameter of how far the failure history table is read back is not limited to the period (time). For example, the number of records (the number of histories) indicating how far in the past may be used. Hereinafter, a case where the item 1907 is set as the determination period will be described.

  Next, of the failure patterns shown in FIG. 19, 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1912 will be specifically described.

  The failure pattern 1909 is the number of failures whose pattern type 1905 is not related to the failure order. As the contents of the failure pattern, a paper discharge retention jam and a jam leave are set twice. The discharged paper jam is a jammed paper that is detected by a jam sensor installed in a paper discharge unit (for example, a paper discharge tray) of the image forming apparatus. In the pattern 1909, when the paper discharge stay jam and the jam are left twice in the first determination period (4 hours), the priority is 3, and the discharge is stopped in the second determination period (48 hours). The priority is set so that it is regarded as a failure of priority 1 if it can be determined that the paper retention jam and the jam leaving are repeated. In this case, the determination process in the range of the second determination period is executed when matching is detected in the range of the first determination period. Similarly, for other failure patterns, when a failure history that matches the failure pattern is detected in the range of the first determination period, determination processing in the second determination period is performed.

  Then, due to the failure pattern of 1909, the jam sensor at the same location detects the jam within a certain period, and since it has been left unattended many times, a failure that cannot be resolved by the customer side occurs, and the serviceman dispatch etc. It can be determined that maintenance of the paper discharge unit is necessary. For example, when a failure such as a paper discharge jam or a jam is accidentally generated, it is difficult to determine that maintenance maintenance such as replacement of a part of the paper discharge unit is necessary. However, in the present invention, failure history data can be regarded as a pattern, accidental failures can be eliminated, and more accurate failure signs can be detected.

  Next, the failure pattern 1910 will be described. The failure pattern 1910 is set to be regarded as a failure of priority 3 when it occurs in the range of the first judgment period (2 hours) in the order of double-side entrance sensor retention jam → fixing exit sensor delay jam → discharge delay jam. Yes. Similarly, the failure pattern 1910 is set to be regarded as a failure of priority 1 if it can be determined that the same failure has been repeated within the second determination period (6 hours).

  Here, the failure pattern 1910 indicates a pattern in which jamming has continuously occurred in each part of the paper feed port → the fixing roller unit → the paper discharge unit in the process from paper supply to paper discharge in double-sided printing. Due to the failure pattern 1910, the shape of the paper changes midway, and jams occur at a plurality of locations. Therefore, it can be determined that maintenance by a service person is necessary. Here, the double-sided entrance sensor stagnant jam is a state in which it is detected that the paper is stagnating by a jam sensor provided in a paper feed port (double-sided unit) for double-sided printing. The fixing exit sensor delay jam is a state in which the paper is stopped between the jam sensor at the exit of the fixing roller and the jam sensor at the entrance of the fixing roller, and the passage of the paper cannot be detected. The paper discharge delay jam is a state in which a jam occurs before the paper discharge port, and the passage of the paper cannot be detected by a sensor installed at the paper discharge port.

  Thus, by detecting a series of failures in the double-sided printing operation, it is possible to detect that there is a problem in the entire double-sided printing function, not a specific part. For example, even if the failure is regarded as a malfunction of the duplex unit and the parts of the duplex unit are replaced, if there is a problem with the entire duplex printing function, another malfunction may occur. In other words, it is not certain whether the replacement of the duplex unit was appropriate for solving the problem of failure. However, by comparing the failure pattern with the failure history data, it is possible to grasp that there is a problem with the entire duplex printing function, so the serviceman's response also changes from the beginning to maintain the entire duplex printing function. .

  Next, the failure pattern 1911 will be described. A failure pattern 1911 indicates a pattern in which toner out (Black) occurs four times within a determination period of 2 hours. It can be determined that the customer is inappropriately replacing the toner. Therefore, a warning is displayed on the monitoring center host. For example, even if it is detected that the toner out (Black) has occurred twice, the occurrence of the toner out (Black) twice can also occur in the normal toner replacement. I can't detect what I'm doing. As described above, a process of referring to a plurality of past failure history data and comparing with a specific failure pattern as in 1911 is very important.

  Next, the failure pattern 1012 will be described. The failure pattern 1912 is set to be regarded as a failure of priority 3 when a staple-related failure such as a staple staple jam, a stapler moving motor failure, or no staple occurs in the first determination period (6 hours). . Similarly, the failure pattern 1912 is set so as to be regarded as a failure of priority 2 when the failure pattern 1912 occurs continuously in the range of the second determination period (48 hours).

  Reference numeral 1912 looks at a failure such as a jam, an alarm, or an error related to stapling, and verifies whether there is a problem with the stapling related components in a complex manner. In the present invention, as in 1912, it is possible to verify a specific part of the image forming apparatus by combining various types of different obstacles. The response method corresponding to the certain failure pattern may be registered in association with the failure pattern in the database based on past cases and the like.

  Then, the monitoring center host 111 executes the same diagnostic processing of the image forming apparatus as in FIGS. 10 and 11 in the first embodiment based on the failure pattern table in FIG. 19 and the failure history table 112b in FIG.

  Specifically, during the search process of S1102, failure history data corresponding to the determination period set in 1907 is read from the failure history table 112b shown in FIG. In step S1102, it is determined whether the read failure history data matches the failure pattern set in the table of FIG.

  When a plurality of determination periods 1907 are set, the determination process of S1103 is performed a plurality of times for a plurality of determination periods 1907.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, the monitoring center host can perform more accurate diagnosis of the image forming apparatus.
(Other embodiments)
Note that the present invention can be applied to a system (for example, a copier, a facsimile machine, etc.) consisting of a single device even if it is applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (eg, a host computer, interface device, reader, printer, etc.). You may apply. Another object of the present invention is to supply a recording medium recording a program code for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and the system or apparatus computer reads out and executes the program code stored in the storage medium. Is also achieved. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the program code itself and the storage medium storing the program code constitute the present invention.

  Further, according to the present invention, the operating system (OS) running on the computer performs part or all of the actual processing based on the instruction of the program code, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing. This is also included. Furthermore, the present invention is also applied to the case where the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion card inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer. In that case, based on the instruction of the written program code, the CPU of the function expansion card or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing. .

It is a figure which shows the system configuration | structure of this invention. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of hosts 102 and 107. FIG. It is a hardware block diagram of the base concentration monitoring apparatus 117,122,123. It is a hardware block diagram of another form of the base concentration monitoring apparatus 117,122,123. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of image forming apparatuses 115, 116, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127, and 131. FIG. 3 is a software configuration diagram of a portion related to an image forming apparatus monitoring system in a central management apparatus 111. FIG. FIG. 3 is a software configuration diagram of a portion related to an image forming apparatus monitoring system in a base concentration monitoring apparatus 117, 122, 123. 2 is a software configuration diagram of a portion related to an image forming apparatus monitoring system in the image forming apparatuses 115, 116, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127, and 131. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a memory map structure in the central management device 111, the site monitoring devices 117, 122, 123 or the image forming devices 115, 116, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127, 131. FIG. The flowchart shows what processing is performed by the monitoring center host when a failure occurs in any of the image forming apparatuses 115, 116, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 127, and 131. 12 is a detailed flowchart of a comparison process between a failure history and a failure pattern of the image forming apparatus in S1003 of FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a failure occurrence state in n hours before an image forming apparatus in which a failure has occurred in time series. It is a figure which shows an example of the failure pattern table hold | maintained at the monitoring center host. It is a figure which shows an example of the failure history table hold | maintained at the monitoring center host. It is a figure which shows an example of the summary explanatory table of failure information (jam, alarm, error). It is a figure which shows an example of the customer information table hold | maintained at the monitoring center host. It is a figure which shows an example of the sales company information table hold | maintained at the monitoring center host. It is a figure which shows an example of the warning display screen of a monitoring center host. It is a figure which shows an example of the failure pattern table hold | maintained at the monitoring center host.

Explanation of symbols

101 Sales Company A System 102 Sales Company A Host 103 Sales Company A Database 104 Sales Company A PC
105 LAN for Sales Company A
106 Sales Company B System 107 Sales Company B Host 108 Sales Company B Database 109 Sales Company B PC
110 LAN for Sales Company B
111 Monitoring center host (centralized management device)
112 Monitoring Center Host Database 113 Monitoring Center Host LAN
114 Customer example: Company A X office 115 Image forming apparatus 116 Image forming apparatus 117 Centralized monitoring apparatus 118 A company X office LAN
119 Customer example: Company A Y office 120 Image forming apparatus 121 Image forming apparatus 122 Site central monitoring apparatus 123 Site central monitoring apparatus 124 Image forming apparatus 125 Image forming apparatus 126 Image forming apparatus 127 Image forming apparatus 128 A company Y office LAN
129 Customer example: Company B 130 Company B LAN
131 Image forming apparatus 132 Internet

Claims (16)

An image forming apparatus management apparatus for monitoring an operating state of the image forming apparatus,
History storage means for registering status information indicating the operating status of the image forming apparatus as history information of the operating status of the image forming apparatus;
A failure pattern storage means for storing a combination of states of the image forming apparatus as a failure pattern;
A management apparatus comprising: diagnosis means for diagnosing an image forming apparatus based on a comparison between history information registered at a plurality of times in the past and the failure pattern. The diagnostic means compares the history information with the failure pattern,
The management apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising notification means for performing notification processing according to information indicating a degree of failure associated with the failure pattern when there is a matching failure pattern. The failure pattern storage unit stores a combination of states of the image forming apparatus and information indicating a degree of failure associated with the combination of states.
The management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the diagnosis unit performs warning processing according to information indicating the degree of the failure.   The failure pattern includes at least one of a pattern obtained by combining the states of the image forming apparatus in consideration of the order of occurrence and a pattern obtained by combining the states of the image forming apparatus regardless of the order of occurrence. The management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the management apparatus is a management apparatus.   5. The management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a period or the number of histories corresponding to the history information varies depending on a failure pattern.   6. The management apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising setting means for setting a period or the number of histories corresponding to the history information in association with a failure pattern.   7. The diagnosis unit according to claim 1, wherein the diagnosis unit compares the history information based on a plurality of periods or the number of histories with a failure pattern when diagnosing, and diagnoses the image forming apparatus. The management device described. A management method for monitoring an operating state of an image forming apparatus in a management apparatus including a history storage unit, a failure pattern storage unit, and a diagnosis unit,
A history storage step in which the history storage unit registers state information indicating an operation state of the image forming apparatus as history information of the operation state of the image forming apparatus;
A failure pattern storage step in which the failure pattern storage means stores a combination of states of the image forming apparatus as a failure pattern;
A management method, comprising: a diagnosis step of diagnosing the image forming apparatus based on a comparison between history information registered at a plurality of times in the past and the failure pattern. The management device further comprises a notification means,
In the diagnosis step, the history information is compared with the failure pattern,
9. The management according to claim 8, further comprising a notification step of performing notification processing according to information indicating a degree of failure associated with the failure pattern when the notification unit has a matching failure pattern. Method. In the failure pattern storage step, a combination of states of the image forming apparatus and information indicating a degree of failure associated with the combination of states are stored.
10. The management method according to claim 8, wherein warning processing is performed in accordance with information indicating the degree of the failure in the diagnosis step.   The failure pattern includes at least one of a pattern obtained by combining the states of the image forming apparatus in consideration of the order of occurrence and a pattern obtained by combining the states of the image forming apparatus regardless of the order of occurrence. The management method according to any one of claims 8 to 10, wherein:   12. The management method according to claim 8, wherein a period or the number of histories corresponding to the history information varies depending on a failure pattern. The management device further comprises setting means,
13. The management method according to claim 12, further comprising a setting step in which the setting unit sets a period or the number of histories corresponding to the history information in association with a failure pattern.   14. The diagnosis step of diagnosing the image forming apparatus by comparing history information based on a plurality of periods or the number of histories with a failure pattern in the diagnosis step. The management method described.   A computer program for causing a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 8 to 14.   A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 15 is recorded.

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