JP2024134520A - Information processing system, notification method, service management system, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a technique to notify execution of a service based on the state of an apparatus to an appropriate notification destination.SOLUTION: The present invention is an information processing system that determines execution of a service, and has: a notification destination determination unit that determines a notification destination of the service from first service level information associated with an apparatus and a user of the apparatus and different from a service executed by the user; and a notification unit that notifies execution of the service to the notification destination determined by the notification destination determination unit.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing system, a notification method, a service management system, and a program.

In equipment such as image forming devices, motors, clutches, and other components mechanically operate to print with color materials, and various types of servicing (first servicing) such as cleaning and part replacement may be necessary. For example, in the case of large image forming devices (such as commercial printers), various servicing tasks are performed. Some servicing tasks are performed manually by users on the image forming device, while others involve administrators changing settings on the image forming device from a terminal device, etc.

In some cases, a contract is concluded between a service provider and a customer regarding the period of service for the device, the content of the service, etc. (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Patent Document 1 describes a technology that gradually restricts the provision of services when the contract period has expired.

However, conventional technology does not notify an appropriate notification destination of the implementation of a service (second service) based on the equipment status. To add, in printing factories in fields such as commercial printing and industrial printing, it is desirable to maximize the uptime of the equipment (uptime max). Therefore, there is a need to efficiently implement effective service, and equipment service is sometimes performed by the equipment operator himself (service provided by the operator himself is called "operator maintenance"). In this case, the items to be serviced by the operator maintenance are determined by a contract or the like between the company that provides the equipment service (customer engineer) and the customer of the equipment. In other words, even if the target module of the service is the same, the service may be performed by an operator or a customer engineer. Therefore, when an operator maintenance contract is concluded, it is necessary to notify the implementation of the service to an appropriate notification destination.

In view of the above problems, the present invention aims to provide a technology that notifies appropriate notification destinations of the implementation of services based on device status.

The present invention is an information processing system that determines the implementation of a service, and includes a notification destination determination unit that is associated with a device and a user of the device and determines a notification destination of the service based on first service level information that indicates different services implemented by the user, and a notification unit that notifies the notification destination determined by the notification destination determination unit of the implementation of the service.

It is possible to provide technology that notifies appropriate recipients of the implementation of services based on the device status.

FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a method for determining an appropriate notification destination for additional maintenance. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration of a service management system. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a DFE. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus. FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing a modified example of the schematic configuration of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a computer. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating functions of a server device, a terminal device, and an image forming device, which are divided into blocks. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of device status information stored in a device status information storage unit; FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of device management information stored in a device management information storage unit; FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of fault maintenance information stored in a fault maintenance information storage unit; FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of maintenance level contract information stored in a maintenance level contract information storage unit. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of maintenance notification destination information stored in a maintenance notification destination information storage unit; FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of maintenance implementation log information stored in a maintenance implementation log information storage unit. 10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating an example of additional maintenance, regular maintenance, and maintenance information stored in a maintenance information storage unit. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by a notification destination determining unit to determine a destination to notify of the implementation of additional maintenance. FIG. 13 illustrates an example of a maintenance implementation log screen. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a maintenance implementation rate screen. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a maintenance implementation rate details display screen. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a maintenance implementation rate screen on which a comment proposing a change in the maintenance level is displayed. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by the server device to recommend an application for changing a maintenance level; FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a maintenance implementation rate screen in which the maintenance level is displayed for each image forming apparatus. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a maintenance implementation rate screen in which a comment proposing a change in the maintenance level and the maintenance level are displayed for each image forming apparatus. FIG. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a maintenance implementation rate details display screen of an image forming apparatus. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process in which a server device applies for a change in a maintenance level; FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of an accelerated implementation proposal screen that notifies a recommendation to accelerate implementation. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a modified example of a screen for proposing to advance regular maintenance. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a guidance screen. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic diagram of a maintenance operation using an augmented reality headset. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a display of an email notifying a customer of the occurrence of additional maintenance when the notifying unit is a customer engineer. FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of SLA information. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of maintenance level contract information in which the maintenance level is replaced with an SLA level. 1 is an example of an overall schematic diagram of a liquid ejection device. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the hardware configuration of a 3D printer. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a progress status screen displayed on a display of the control device.

Below, we will explain a service management system and a notification method performed by the service management system as an example of a form for implementing the present invention.

<Additional maintenance>
Maintenance of image forming devices is diverse, ranging from simple tasks such as cleaning the reading surface of the scanner to more specialized tasks such as adjusting the voltage of the charging device. Traditionally, maintenance has mainly been performed by customer engineers visiting customers, but there are attempts to keep the equipment in good condition by having the customer's user (either the end user or the administrator) perform maintenance that requires less of a workload, without interfering with on-site printing operations.

As a result, users are now required to perform regular maintenance (an example of a first service) in addition to producing printed matter, which is their daily work. Also, because a server device, which will be described later, applies the device status information, which will be described later, transmitted from the image forming device to a predictive model, it is possible to detect signs of failure in advance, which has resulted in the need to perform additional maintenance (an example of a second service) on an ad-hoc basis. For this reason, users are now required to perform regular maintenance and additional maintenance efficiently, while minimizing disruption to the production of printed matter.

Because it is desirable to maximize the uptime of equipment (uptime max), operator maintenance contracts (hereafter simply referred to as operator maintenance) are sometimes concluded in which the equipment operator himself performs maintenance on the equipment. With operator maintenance, the equipment operator does not perform all maintenance, but rather the level of difficulty of the maintenance that the operator will perform (the rest is performed by customer engineers) is determined by the contract. For this reason, in operator maintenance, the service management system needs to perform a process to determine who to notify of maintenance depending on the module that is the target of maintenance (the difficulty varies mainly depending on the target module or internal parts).

Therefore, it is conceivable that the service management system contract and program purchase would be made by a service provider company that performs maintenance, etc., and it is conceivable that the system would be used between the company receiving the service and the service provider. The notification destination could be, for example, a service provider, a customer engineer, or the user (contracted company) receiving the service. The notification destination being the user (contracted company) could mean, for example, that the image forming device is the notification destination, but the administrator of the user (contracted company) could also be notified by email, etc. The notification destination could also be further subdivided, such as the development department, the user's administrator, general users, and individual general users.

Figure 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a method for determining an appropriate notification destination for additional maintenance in this embodiment. Details will be described later, but the server device manages maintenance notification destination information 1007a (an example of service notification destination information) in a maintenance notification destination information storage unit, and manages maintenance level contract information 1006a in a maintenance level contract information storage unit.

When additional maintenance occurs, the target module for the additional maintenance is determined. In FIG. 1, the target module is the photoconductor cleaning unit. In addition, since the image forming device for which additional maintenance has occurred is identified, the user (contracted company) who has contracted for the maintenance service for this image forming device is also identified. The maintenance level of the contracted company is determined by the maintenance level contract information 1006a. In FIG. 1, the maintenance level of the contracted company is level 2. The server device can identify the maintenance worker (notification recipient) associated with the target module and maintenance level by the maintenance notification information 1007a.

As described above, the service management system of this embodiment can notify appropriate notification recipients of the implementation of additional maintenance based on the equipment status when an operator maintenance contract has been concluded.

<Terminology>
The term "service" refers to maintenance, management, upkeep, repair, or work required for these, which is performed so that the device can continuously perform the expected functions. The term "service" is not necessarily limited to failure prevention. In this embodiment, the term "service" is used to describe the service.

The equipment may be any machine or structure that requires maintenance. In this embodiment, an image forming device will be described as an example of the equipment. The image forming device is not limited to one that prints on paper, but may also be a 3D printer or a printer for apparel products.

A maintenance schedule is information about planned maintenance that is registered on a calendar, timetable, etc.

A symptom of a failure is a sign or precursor of an impending failure. A failure may already have occurred when a symptom of a failure is detected.

Maintenance priority is the degree to which maintenance should be performed first, and can also be called importance. Since scheduled maintenance is maintenance that is scheduled to be performed periodically, it has a higher priority than additional maintenance. Additional maintenance has a lower priority than scheduled maintenance.

Bringing forward refers to carrying out something that was scheduled to be done in the near future earlier than planned, depending on the circumstances. In this embodiment, this refers to carrying out regular maintenance earlier than the scheduled date (or time).

<System configuration example>
2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration of the service management system 100 according to the present embodiment. The service management system 100 includes a server device 104, a DFE 102, and an image forming device 103. The service management system 100 may or may not include a terminal device 101.

The terminal device 101 and the DFE 102 can communicate with each other via a network N. The network includes, for example, a LAN in the facility where the image forming device 103 is located, and further includes the Internet when the DFE 102 is located on the Internet. The DFE 102 and the image forming device 103 may be connected one-to-one via a dedicated line, or may be connected via a network. Furthermore, the DFE 102 and the image forming device 103 may be integrated or detachable.

A web browser is running on the terminal device 101. The web browser accesses a server provided in the DFE 102 and displays input operation screens for task creation, schedule registration, and task execution. The terminal device 101 accepts operations such as task creation, schedule registration, and task execution from the administrator on the input screen, and requests these from the DFE 102.

In order to log in to DFE102, the administrator inputs a user ID and password into the terminal device 101. The terminal device 101 transmits the user ID and password to DFE102, and if authentication by DFE102 is successful, the user is identified as either a general user or an administrator. The screen displayed and the items that can be entered may differ depending on whether the user is a general user or an administrator. The authentication of the administrator may be performed by an authentication server.

If authentication is successful and the administrator logs in, they will be given access to create tasks, schedule, and execute tasks; general users will be given access to execute tasks.

The terminal device 101 may be, for example, a PC (Personal Computer), a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a wearable PC (sunglasses type, wristwatch type, etc.), etc. However, it is sufficient if the device has a communication function and dedicated application software runs on a web browser or DFE 102. For example, a car navigation system, a game console, a television receiver, etc. can also be the terminal device 101.

If a web browser also runs on the image forming device 103, the administrator can operate the image forming device to request the DFE 102 to create tasks, register schedules, and execute tasks.

The DFE 102 can also display an input operation screen on a console display and accept tasks, schedule registration, and task execution processing from a keyboard. In this case, the service management system 100 does not require a terminal device 101.

The DFE 102 is a control device that accepts print jobs to be executed by the image forming device 103, performs image processing (RIP: Raster Image Processor), progress management during execution, abnormality monitoring, etc. The DFE 102 accepts task creation, schedule registration, and task execution processing from the terminal device 101. In other words, the DFE 102 provides the administrator with a user interface (input operation screen) for operating the image forming device 103. The DFE 102 has one or more information processing devices.

The DFE 102 generates screen information for a screen displayed by the web browser. The screen information is a program written in HTML, XML, a scripting language, CSS (cascading style sheet), etc., with the structure of a web page being specified primarily by HTML, the operation of the web page being regulated by the scripting language, and the style of the web page being specified by CSS. An application that is realized by the cooperation of client-side screen information and server-side applications and databases is called a web application. In this embodiment as well, the terminal device 101 and the DFE 102 cooperate to execute a web application.

In response to a request from the terminal device 101 or the image forming device 103, the DFE 102 performs the process of registering tasks and task schedules in a database, and the process of executing tasks on the image forming device (changing device settings, requesting operations, etc.).

The image forming device 103 executes a print job in response to a request received from the DFE 102. The image forming device 103 has a function of printing an image on paper. Methods for forming an image include a laser printer, an inkjet printer, a thermal printer, screen printing, and intaglio printing. The image forming device 103 may also have the function of a multifunction printer or an MFP (Multi-function Peripheral/Product/Printer). The image forming device 103 may also be called a printer, a printing device, or the like. The image forming device 103 may also be a 3D printer, a DTG (Direct To Garment) printer, or the like.

The image forming device 103 of this embodiment may also be a so-called commercial printer. A commercial printer is not a device that prints printed materials for internal use by employees, but is a device for commercial printing in which printed materials are products. In commercial printing, the image forming device 103 outputs printed materials used in the business activities of general companies and organizations. For example, flyers, pamphlets, posters, catalogs, company guides, manuals, etc. may be output. Office image forming devices and commercial image forming devices differ mainly in printing speed, image quality, and compatible paper types and sizes.

This embodiment can also be applied to devices other than the image forming device 103. Devices other than the image forming device 103 may be, for example, a PJ (Projector), an electronic whiteboard, a video conference terminal, a digital signage, a HUD (Head Up Display) device, industrial machinery, an imaging device, a sound collection device, a medical device, a network home appliance, a game console, etc.

The server device 104 is one or more information processing systems that executes maintenance-related processes. That is, the server device 104 receives device status information 1001a from the image forming device 103, determines whether there are signs of a malfunction, and if it detects signs of a malfunction, determines the recommended period for performing additional maintenance.

The server device 104 may exist on the cloud or on-premise. Cloud refers to a form of information processing usage in which resources on a network are used without awareness of specific hardware resources. On-premise refers to the installation and operation of systems such as servers and software within the premises of a facility that can be managed by the user's personnel.

The server device 104 may exist independently as shown in FIG. 2, or may be integrated with the DFE 102. Also, the image forming device 103 may have the functions of the server device 104.

<Hardware Configuration>
Next, the hardware configurations of the DFE 102, the image forming apparatus 103, and the server apparatus 104 will be described with reference to FIGS.

<<DFE>>
3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the hardware configuration of the DFE 102. The DFE 102 has a configuration similar to that of a computer. The DFE 102 includes a CPU 201, a ROM 202, a RAM 203, a HDD/SSD 204, an I/F 205, and an operation unit 206.

The CPU 201 uses the RAM 203 as a working area and executes the programs stored in the ROM 202.

The HDD/SSD 204 is used as a storage unit and stores information about tasks and schedules. The information stored in the HDD/SSD 204 may be read by the CPU 201 and used when executing a program.

I/F 205 is an interface that enables communication with the image forming device 103 and the terminal device 101.

The operation unit 206 has a touch panel and displays the status of the image forming device, the task schedule, the task contents, etc. on the screen. The operation unit 206 also accepts input from users (administrators, general users) who execute tasks, and from administrators who create tasks and register schedules.

<<Image forming apparatus>>
4 is a schematic diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus 103 according to the present embodiment. The image forming apparatus 103 is an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, and includes a printer 81, a feeding device 200, a scanner 300, and an automatic document feeder 400. However, the image forming apparatus 103 according to the embodiment of the present invention may be any one of these as long as it is a printing apparatus having a printing function for printing and outputting a printed matter. The present invention is not limited to those having a specific name, and may be any type of device having a specific part.

The printer 81 is equipped with an image forming unit GU that has five developing stations 18S, 18G, 18R, 18B, and 18K for forming images in each color of special color (S), invisible green (G), invisible red (R), invisible blue (B), and black (K: key plate). The subscripts S, G, R, B, and K added after the number (18) of each symbol indicate that the member is for the special color, invisible green, invisible red, invisible blue, and black, respectively. The same applies to other symbols used in the following description. In the following description, the letters S, G, R, B, and K may also indicate special color, invisible green, invisible red, invisible blue, and black, respectively. Note that special color is a general term for colors that are different from invisible green, invisible red, invisible blue, and black.

Invisible green means a green color that is visible under invisible light but difficult to see under visible light. Invisible red means a red color that is visible under invisible light but difficult to see under visible light. Invisible blue means a blue color that is visible under invisible light but difficult to see under visible light. The printer 81 can express any invisible color (a color that is visible under invisible light but difficult to see under visible light) by superimposing invisible green, invisible red, and invisible blue. Black means a black color that is visible under visible light, and special color means a special color that is visible under visible light.

Visible light is electromagnetic waves with wavelengths that are recognized as light by humans. Invisible light is electromagnetic waves with wavelengths other than those of visible light. In this embodiment, the invisible light is long-wavelength ultraviolet light emitted by black lights and the like. Also, in this embodiment, invisible colors are transparent under visible light such as light emitted by fluorescent lights and sunlight, and become visible under invisible light such as ultraviolet light emitted by black lights.

Specifically, an invisible green image is realized by invisible green toner (hereinafter referred to as "G toner"), an invisible red image is realized by invisible red toner (hereinafter referred to as "R toner"), and an invisible blue image is realized by invisible blue toner (hereinafter referred to as "B toner"). Images of invisible colors other than invisible green, invisible red, and invisible blue are realized by overlapping at least two invisible color toners among G toner, R toner, and B toner. Invisible black, which is black that can be seen under invisible light, is realized by not attaching any of G toner, R toner, and B toner. In addition, special color images that can be seen under visible light are realized by special color toner (hereinafter referred to as "S toner"), and black images that can be seen under visible light are realized by black toner (hereinafter referred to as "K toner").

In this embodiment, the invisible color toner is produced by combining a transparent toner (clear toner) with a transparent fluorescent material. That is, the invisible color toner is typically produced using a clear toner as a base. The transparent fluorescent material is a transparent fluorescent pigment or a transparent fluorescent dye. In this embodiment, the invisible color toner is a pulverized toner that has a higher fixing temperature than a polymerized toner. However, the invisible color toner may be a polymerized toner.

In addition to the development stations 18S, 18G, 18R, 18B, and 18K, the printer 81 housing also includes an optical writing unit 21, an intermediate transfer unit 73, a secondary transfer device 22, a pair of registration rollers 49, and a belt fixing type fixing device 25.

The optical writing unit 21 has a light source, a polygon mirror, an f-θ lens, a reflecting mirror, etc., and irradiates the surfaces of the photoconductors 1S, 1G, 1R, 1B, and 1K with laser light based on image data.

The development stations 18S, 18G, 18R, 18B, and 18K each have a drum-shaped photoconductor 1S, 1G, 1R, 1B, and 1K, as well as a charging roller (charging means), a developing device (developing means), a drum cleaning device, a static electricity removal lamp (static electricity removal means), and the like.

The surface of the photoconductor 1S in the S (special color) development station 18S is uniformly charged by a charging roller, which is a charging means. The charged surface of the photoconductor 1S is irradiated with laser light that is modulated and deflected by the optical writing unit 21. The potential of the irradiated area (exposed area) then decays. This decay causes an S electrostatic latent image to be formed on the surface of the photoconductor 1S. The formed S electrostatic latent image is developed by a developing device, which is a developing means, into an S toner image.

The S toner image formed on the S photoconductor 1S is primarily transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 110. After the primary transfer, the surface of the photoconductor 1S is cleaned of residual toner by a drum cleaning device.

In the S developing station 18S, the photoconductor 1S cleaned by the drum cleaning device is neutralized by the neutralizer. It is then uniformly charged by the charger and returned to its initial state. The above series of processes is carried out in the same way in the developing stations (18G, 18R, 18B, 18K) for the other colors (G, R, B, K).

The intermediate transfer unit 73 includes an endless intermediate transfer belt 110 and a belt cleaning device 90. It also includes a drive roller 71, a secondary transfer backup roller 72, and four primary transfer bias rollers 62S, 62G, 62R, 62B, and 62K.

The endless intermediate transfer belt 110 is tensioned by multiple tension rollers, including a drive roller 71, which are arranged inside the loop. The belt is moved endlessly in the clockwise direction in the figure by the rotation of the drive roller 71, which is driven by a belt drive motor.

Primary transfer bias rollers 62S, 62G, 62R, 62B, 62K for S, G, R, B, K are arranged so as to contact the back surface (inner peripheral surface) of intermediate transfer belt 110, and a primary transfer bias output from a power source is applied to them. In addition, they press intermediate transfer belt 110 from its back surface toward photoconductors 1S, 1G, 1R, 1B, 1K. This forms primary transfer nips for S, G, R, B, K where photoconductors 1S, 1G, 1R, 1B, 1K come into contact with the front surface (outer peripheral surface) of intermediate transfer belt 110. In these primary transfer nips, a primary transfer electric field is formed between photoconductors 1S, 1G, 1R, 1B, 1K and primary transfer bias rollers 62S, 62G, 62R, 62B, 62K due to the influence of the primary transfer bias.

The S toner image formed on the S photoconductor 1S is primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 110 by the influence of this primary transfer electric field and nip pressure. The G toner image, R toner image, B toner image, and K toner image formed on the G, R, B, and K photoconductors 1G, 1R, 1B, and 1K are sequentially superimposed and primarily transferred onto this S toner image. A multi-color toner image is formed on the intermediate transfer belt 110 by this superimposed primary transfer.

The multicolor toner image formed on the intermediate transfer belt 110 is secondarily transferred to a recording sheet in a secondary transfer nip, which will be described later. Residual toner remaining on the surface of the intermediate transfer belt 110 after passing through the secondary transfer nip is cleaned by a belt cleaning device 90 that sandwiches the belt between itself and the drive roller 71.

The secondary transfer device 22, which is disposed below the intermediate transfer unit 73, forms a secondary transfer nip by bringing the secondary transfer roller 23 into contact with the intermediate transfer belt 110 at a position where the secondary transfer backup roller 72 is wound around it. A secondary transfer bias of the same polarity as the toner is applied to the secondary transfer backup roller 72, while the secondary transfer roller 23 is grounded. As a result, a secondary transfer electric field is formed in the secondary transfer nip, which electrostatically moves the multi-color toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 110 from the belt side toward the secondary transfer roller 23 side. The multi-color toner image is secondarily transferred to the recording sheet, which is fed into the secondary transfer nip by the registration roller pair 49 so as to be synchronized with the multi-color toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 110, by the action of this secondary transfer electric field and nip pressure.

The feed device 200, located at the bottom of the printer 81 housing, is provided with a feed cassette 79 that stores multiple recording sheets stacked together in a sheet bundle, and a paper bank 78. The feed cassette 79 and the paper bank 78 press a feed roller 77 against the topmost recording sheet of the paper bundle. The feed roller 77 is then rotated to feed the topmost recording sheet toward the feed path 46.

The feed path 46, which receives the recording sheets sent from the feed cassette 79 or the paper bank 78, has multiple transport roller pairs 47 and a registration roller pair 49 provided near the end of the path. The recording sheets are then transported toward the registration roller pair 49. The recording sheets transported toward the registration roller pair 49 are sandwiched between the rollers of the registration roller pair 49. Meanwhile, in the intermediate transfer unit 73, the multicolor toner image formed on the intermediate transfer belt 110 enters the secondary transfer nip as the belt moves endlessly.

The pair of registration rollers 49 sends out the recording sheet sandwiched between them at a timing that allows the recording sheet to be brought into contact with the multi-color toner image at the secondary transfer nip. As a result, the multi-color toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 110 comes into contact with the recording sheet at the secondary transfer nip. The image is then secondarily transferred onto the recording sheet, becoming a full-color image on the white recording sheet. The recording sheet on which the full-color image has been formed in this way leaves the secondary transfer nip as the secondary transfer roller 23 is rotated and driven, and is then sent to the fixing device 25 via a sheet transport unit equipped with a transport belt.

The fixing device 25 has a belt unit that moves the fixing belt 26 endlessly while stretching it between two rollers, and a pressure roller 27 that is pressed against one of the rollers of the belt unit. The fixing belt 26 and the pressure roller 27 come into contact with each other to form a fixing nip, and the recording sheet received from the sheet transport unit is sandwiched in the fixing nip. Of the two rollers in the belt unit, the fixing roller that is pressed by the pressure roller 27 has an internal heat source (heater) that heats the fixing belt 26 by generating heat. The heated fixing belt 26 heats the recording sheet sandwiched in the fixing nip. Due to the effect of this heat and the nip pressure, a full-color image is fixed to the recording sheet.

The recording sheet that has been subjected to the fixing process in the fixing device 25 is either stacked on a stack section protruding from the left side panel of the copier housing, or returned to the secondary transfer nip to form a toner image on the other side.

When copying an original, for example, a stack of sheet originals is set on the original table 74 of the automatic original feeder 400. However, if the original is a single-sided bound original that is closed like a book, it is set on the contact glass 75. Prior to this setting, the automatic original feeder 400 is opened relative to the copying machine body, and the contact glass 75 of the scanner 300 is exposed. After this, the single-sided bound original is pressed down by the closed automatic original feeder 400.

After the document is set in this manner, pressing the copy start switch starts the document reading operation by the scanner 300. However, if a sheet document is set in the automatic document feeder 400, the automatic document feeder 400 automatically transports the sheet document to the contact glass 75 prior to this document reading operation.

In the document reading operation, first, both the first running body 76 and the second running body 34 start moving, and light is emitted from a light source provided in the first running body 76. Then, the light reflected from the document surface is reflected by a mirror provided in the second running body 34, passes through the imaging lens 35, and is then incident on the reading sensor 36. The reading sensor 36 creates image information based on the incident light.

In parallel with this document reading operation, the devices in each development station (18S, 18G, 18R, 18B, 18K), the intermediate transfer unit 73, the secondary transfer device 22, and the fixing device 25 each start to operate. Then, based on the image information constructed by the reading sensor 36, the optical writing unit 21 is driven and controlled to form S, G, R, B, and K toner images on the photoconductors 1S, 1G, 1R, 1B, and 1K. These toner images are transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 110 in a superimposed state to form a multi-color toner image.

Also, almost simultaneously with the start of the document reading operation, a feeding operation is started in the feeding device 200. In this feeding operation, one of the feeding rollers 77 is selectively rotated to feed a recording sheet from the paper bank 78 or the feeding cassette 79. The fed recording sheets are separated one by one by the separation roller 80 and enter the reversing feeding path, and then transported by the transport roller pair toward the secondary transfer nip.

A control unit consisting of a CPU and other components that controls each device is disposed within the housing of the printer 81. An operation display unit 82 consisting of an LCD display and various key buttons and other components is disposed on the top surface of the housing. The operator can input commands to the operation display unit 82 to send commands to the control unit, thereby specifying a single-sided print mode in which an image is formed on only one side of the recording sheet, or a double-sided print mode in which an image is formed on both sides. The image forming device 103 also displays a maintenance schedule and the like on the operation display unit 82.

Figure 5 is a diagram showing a modified example of the image forming apparatus 103. The image forming apparatus 103 in Figure 5 is an inkjet type image forming apparatus, and mainly includes a paper feed section 401, an image forming section 306, a drying section 402, a paper discharge section 403, and a control device 423. The image forming apparatus 103 forms an image on paper P, which is a recording material as a sheet material fed from the paper feed section 401, in the image forming section 306 using ink, which is a liquid for image formation. Then, the image forming apparatus 103 dries the ink attached to the paper in the drying section 402, and then discharges the paper from the paper discharge section 403.

The paper feed section 401 is mainly composed of a paper feed tray 411 on which multiple sheets of paper P are stacked, a feed device 412 that separates and sends out sheets of paper one by one from the paper feed tray 411, and a pair of registration rollers 413 that sends the sheets of paper to the image forming section 306. The feed device 412 can be any type of feed device, such as a device using rollers or a device using air suction. After the leading edge of the paper sent out from the paper feed tray 411 by the feed device 412 reaches the pair of registration rollers 413, the pair of registration rollers 413 is driven at a predetermined timing to feed the paper to the image forming section 306. In this embodiment, the paper feed section 401 is not limited in its configuration as long as it sends out the paper P to the image forming section 306.

The image forming section 306 is mainly composed of a receiving cylinder 361 that receives the fed paper P, a paper carrying drum 362 that carries the paper P transported by the receiving cylinder 361 on its outer circumferential surface and transports it, an ink ejection section 364 that ejects ink toward the paper P carried by the paper carrying drum 362, and a transfer cylinder 365 that transfers the paper P transported by the paper carrying drum 362 to the drying section 402. The paper P transported from the paper feeding section 401 to the image forming section 306 is gripped at its leading edge by a paper gripper provided on the surface of the receiving cylinder 361, and is transported as the surface of the receiving cylinder 361 moves. The paper transported by the receiving cylinder 361 is delivered to the paper carrying drum 362 at a position opposite the paper carrying drum 362.

A paper gripper is also provided on the surface of the paper carrying drum 362, and the leading edge of the paper is gripped by the paper gripper. In addition, multiple suction holes are formed in a distributed manner on the surface of the paper carrying drum 362, and a suction device 363 generates a suction air current in the direction toward the inside of the paper carrying drum 362 at each suction hole. The leading edge of the paper P transferred from the receiving cylinder 361 to the paper carrying drum 362 is gripped by the paper gripper, and is adsorbed to the surface of the paper carrying drum 362 by the suction air current, and is transported as the surface of the paper carrying drum 362 moves.

The ink ejection unit 364 in this embodiment ejects four colors of ink, C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black), to form an image, and is provided with individual liquid ejection heads 364C, 364M, 364Y, and 364K for each ink. There are no limitations on the configuration of the liquid ejection heads 364C, 364M, 364Y, and 364K, and any configuration can be used as long as they eject liquid. The image forming device 103 may have a liquid ejection head that ejects special ink such as white, gold, or silver, or a liquid ejection head that ejects liquid that does not form an image, such as a surface coating liquid, as necessary.

The ejection operation of liquid ejection heads 364C, 364M, 364Y, and 364K of ink ejection unit 364 is controlled by a drive signal corresponding to image information. When paper P held on paper carrying drum 362 passes through an area facing ink ejection unit 364, each color of ink is ejected from liquid ejection heads 364C, 364M, 364Y, and 364K to form an image corresponding to the image information. Note that in this embodiment, there are no limitations on the configuration of image forming unit 306, so long as it deposits liquid on paper P to form an image.

The drying section 402 is mainly composed of a drying mechanism 421 for drying the ink deposited on the paper P in the image forming section 306, and a transport mechanism 422 for transporting the paper P transported from the image forming section 306. The paper P transported from the image forming section 306 is received by the transport mechanism 422, then transported to pass through the drying mechanism 421 and delivered to the paper discharge section 403. When passing through the drying mechanism 421, the ink on the paper P is subjected to a drying process, which evaporates the liquid content in the ink, such as water, and the ink is fixed on the paper P, while curling of the paper P is suppressed.

The paper discharge section 403 is mainly composed of a paper discharge tray 431 on which multiple sheets of paper P are stacked. The sheets of paper P transported from the drying section 402 are stacked and held on the paper discharge tray 431 in sequence. Note that in this embodiment, there are no limitations on the configuration of the paper discharge section 403 as long as it discharges the sheets of paper P.

The control device 423 is an information processing device that controls the image forming device. The control device 423 has, for example, a CPU, RAM, ROM, SSD (HDD), a communication device, etc. The control device 423 communicates with the DFE 102 and receives setting values and operation requests according to the execution of tasks.

The image forming device 103 has a built-in display 440 or an external display 440. The image forming device 103 displays a maintenance schedule, etc. on this display 440. The terminal device 101, DFE 102, etc. can also display a maintenance schedule.

<<Server device>>
The server device has a configuration as a computer 500 as shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 6 is a hardware configuration diagram of the computer 500. As shown in Fig. 6, the computer 500 is constructed by a computer, and includes a CPU 501, a ROM 502, a RAM 503, a HD 504, a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) controller 505, a display 506, an external device connection I/F (Interface) 508, a network I/F 509, a bus line 510, a keyboard 511, a pointing device 512, an optical drive 514, and a media I/F 516.

Of these, the CPU 501 controls the operation of the order receiving system 10, the production management system 20, the production base system 30, and the entire computer 500. The ROM 502 stores programs used to drive the CPU 501, such as IPL. The RAM 503 is used as a work area for the CPU 501. The HD 504 stores various data such as programs. The HDD controller 505 controls the reading or writing of various data from the HD 504 according to the control of the CPU 501. The display 506 displays various information such as a cursor, menu, window, character, or image. The external device connection I/F 508 is an interface for connecting various external devices. In this case, the external device is, for example, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory or various printers. The network I/F 509 is an interface for data communication using a communication network. The bus line 510 is an address bus, a data bus, or the like for electrically connecting each component such as the CPU 501 shown in FIG. 6.

The keyboard 511 is a type of input means equipped with multiple keys used to input characters, numbers, various instructions, etc. The pointing device 512 is a type of input means for selecting and executing various instructions, selecting a processing target, moving the cursor, etc. The optical drive 514 controls the reading and writing of various data from an optical storage medium 513, which is an example of a removable storage medium. The optical storage medium 513 may be a CD, DVD, Blu-Ray (registered trademark), etc. The media I/F 516 controls the reading and writing (storing) of data from a storage medium 515 such as a flash memory.

<About the function>
Next, the functions of each device of the service management system 100 will be described with reference to Fig. 7 etc. Fig. 7 is a functional block diagram explaining the functions of the server device 104, the terminal device 101, and the image forming device 103 of the service management system 100 in a block form. Note that the terminal device 101 is not necessarily essential for the service management system 100, and the service management system 100 can be realized with only the server device 104 and the image forming device 103.

<<Server Device>>
The server device 104 has a communication unit 11, a maintenance determination unit 12, a device information acquisition unit 13, a notification destination determination unit 14, a log information creation unit 15, a compilation unit 16, a proposal unit 17, a notification unit 18, and a screen generation unit 19. These functions of the server device 104 are functions or means realized by the CPU 501 shown in FIG. 6 executing instructions included in one or more programs installed in the server device 104.

The server device 104 also has an equipment status information storage unit 1001, a failure prediction model storage unit 1002, an equipment management information storage unit 1003, a failure maintenance information storage unit 1005, a maintenance level contract information storage unit 1006, a maintenance notification destination information storage unit 1007, and a maintenance implementation log information storage unit 1008. Each of these storage units can be realized by the HD 504 or RAM 503 shown in FIG. 6, etc.

The communication unit 11 receives device status information (described later) from the image forming device 103, and if the maintenance decision unit 12 detects a sign of a malfunction, it transmits additional maintenance information to the image forming device 103 or customer engineer determined by the notification destination determination unit 14. The communication unit 11 may also refer to the device management information stored in the device management information storage unit 1003 and notify the device administrator that additional maintenance has occurred.

The device information acquisition unit 13 acquires device status information from the image forming device 103 via the communication unit 11, and stores the information in the device status information storage unit 1001. The device status information is information that indicates the usage status of the image forming device 103. The device status information is information that includes, for example, measurement values obtained by measuring the current, voltage, temperature, etc. of various components of the image forming device 103 using various sensors, and a counter value that indicates the number of times print data has been printed on paper by the image forming device 103.

The maintenance decision unit 12 detects signs of a failure occurring in the image forming device 103 based on the device status information acquired by the device information acquisition unit 13 and a failure prediction model stored in the failure prediction model storage unit 1002 described below. The signs of a failure include what type of failure (type of failure) is predicted to occur in the image forming device 103, and may further include the probability of the failure occurring, the time until the failure occurs, and the severity of the failure predicted to occur.

The maintenance decision unit 12 also identifies the additional maintenance required from the fault types stored in the fault maintenance information storage unit 1005 according to the type of fault for which a precursor has been detected.

When additional maintenance is required, the notification destination determination unit 14 determines whether to notify the customer engineer or the user (contracted company). The user (contracted company) is the image forming device 103 in which a failure has occurred. Details will be described later.

The log information creation unit 15 creates a maintenance implementation log for regular maintenance and additional maintenance. Additional maintenance is sometimes called "advanced maintenance." Advancement of maintenance refers to regular maintenance that is the same as or similar to the additional maintenance and occurs within a specified number of days of the recommended start date of the additional maintenance. "The same as or similar" means that the target module is the same or that the parts that make up the target module are common. For this reason, maintenance performed as advancement of maintenance can be called both regular maintenance and additional maintenance.

The aggregation unit 16 aggregates the maintenance implementation rate based on the maintenance implementation log. Aggregation can be done by work capability level, by image forming device 103, by user (contracted company), by regular maintenance, or by additional maintenance, etc.

The suggestion unit 17 suggests changing the user maintenance level if the implementation rate of additional maintenance is below a threshold. In other words, if the maintenance level of the user (contracted company) is high, the user (contracted company) will have to perform more additional maintenance, but if the implementation rate is low, it is estimated that the user does not have sufficient maintenance skills, and suggests lowering the maintenance level.

When additional maintenance occurs, the notification unit 18 notifies the notification destination determined by the notification destination determination unit 14, that is, the customer engineer or the image forming device 103 (user) where the failure occurred, via the communication unit 11 that additional maintenance has occurred.

The screen generation unit 19 generates screen information for a screen to be displayed on a display directly connected to the terminal device 101, the image forming device 103, or the server device 104. The screen generation unit 19 generates screen information for displaying the implementation rate using HTML, XML, JavaScript (registered trademark), CSS (Cascade Style Sheet), etc. The web browser of the terminal device 101 or the image forming device 103 receives the screen information and analyzes it to display various screens, which will be described later. In this way, an application executed by the server function in the server device 104 and the web browser in cooperation with each other is called a web app.

The terminal device 101 or the image forming device 103 may execute a native app. In this case, the screen configuration is owned by the native app, so the screen information may be the content displayed by the native app.

(Device Status Information Storage Unit 1001)
Fig. 8 is a diagram showing an example of device status information 1001a stored in the device status information storage unit 1001. As shown in Fig. 8, the device status information storage unit 1001 stores acquisition date and time, sensor A measurement value, sensor B measurement value, counter value, etc. in association with a device ID that uniquely identifies the image forming apparatus 103. In addition to the device status information 1001a of the device ID "PP10001" shown in the figure, the device status information storage unit 1001 also stores device status information 1001a of other devices. The device status information 1001a is information indicating the history of measurement values and counter values in the image forming apparatus 103 for each predetermined time.

The acquisition date and time is the date and time when the image forming device 103 transmitted the device status information 1001a to the server device 104. In the example of FIG. 8, the device status information 1001a is transmitted every day at 8:30 p.m., but this is merely an example, and the information may be transmitted multiple times a day, even if irregular.

- Sensor value A and sensor value B are measurement values obtained by measuring the current, voltage, temperature, etc. of components included in the image forming device 103 using various sensors. There are often three or more sensor values.

- The counter value indicates the cumulative number of pages printed by the image forming device 103.

The maintenance decision unit 12 predicts the occurrence of a failure in the image forming device 103 based on the equipment status information 1001a and the failure prediction model stored in the failure prediction model storage unit 1002.

(Fault prediction model storage unit 1002)
A failure prediction model is data that models patterns of measurement values and counter values when a failure occurs, and exists for each type of failure. A failure prediction model may be further prepared for each type of device.

For example, the failure prediction model storage unit 1002 stores a failure prediction model A for predicting the occurrence of failure A, a failure prediction model B for predicting the occurrence of failure B, and a failure prediction model C for predicting the occurrence of failure C. The failure prediction models are information that associate the device status information 1001a with the probability of a failure occurring, the time until the failure occurs, and the severity of the failure predicted to occur. Such information may be created manually in advance by an administrator or the like based on past knowledge, or may be created by machine learning.

Machine learning is a technology that allows a computer to acquire human-like learning capabilities, in which the computer autonomously generates algorithms required for judgments such as data identification from training data that is previously imported, and applies these to new data to make predictions. The learning method for machine learning may be any of supervised learning, unsupervised learning, semi-supervised learning, reinforcement learning, and deep learning, or may be a combination of these learning methods, and any learning method for machine learning is acceptable. Machine learning methods include perceptrons, deep learning, support vector machines, logistic regression, naive Bayes, decision trees, random forests, and the like, and are not limited to the methods described in this embodiment.

For example, in a failure prediction model using deep learning as a type of machine learning, an administrator prepares a set of equipment status information 1001a, the occurred failure, the time until occurrence, and the severity as training data, inputs the equipment status information 1001a, and learns the correspondence using the occurred failure, the time until occurrence, and the severity as teacher data. Alternatively, in a failure prediction model using multiple regression as a type of machine learning, a person in charge associates the equipment status information 1001a as an explanatory variable and the occurred failure as an objective variable with a polynomial. Similarly, the person in charge associates the equipment status information 1001a with the time until occurrence with a polynomial, and associates the equipment status information 1001a with the severity with a polynomial. The coefficients of the polynomial are determined so that the difference between these objective variables and the values output by the polynomial is minimized (multiple regression analysis).

The following description will be given with reference to the device status information 1001a in FIG. 8. For example, when device status information 1001a for device ID "PP10001" is acquired, the maintenance decision unit 12 predicts the occurrence of failure A (detects a sign) based on the device status information 1001a and failure prediction model A for predicting the occurrence of failure A. Similarly, the maintenance decision unit 12 predicts the occurrence of failure B (detects a sign) based on the device status information 1001a and failure prediction model B for predicting the occurrence of failure B. The same may be done for other failures. In this way, the maintenance decision unit 12 predicts the occurrence of failures A to C, etc., corresponding to the failure prediction model for each failure stored in the failure prediction model storage unit 1002.

(Device management information storage unit 1003)
9 is a diagram showing an example of device management information 1003a stored in the device management information storage unit 1003. As shown in FIG. 9, the device management information storage unit 1003 stores information such as a device ID, an IP address, a model, and the like. The following items are registered: name, contract company, and email address.

The device ID field is identification information that identifies the image forming device 103. The image forming device 103 identified by the device ID is the device that is the target of the service.

The IP address field is the IP address of the image forming device 103. The server device 104 can send additional maintenance information, etc. to the IP address.

- The model item is the type of image forming device 103, and specifically may be the model code, model number, or machine number, etc.

The contract company field stores the name and company ID of the company that has a contract for maintenance services for the image forming device 103. In this embodiment, some contract companies have contracts for operator maintenance and some do not.

The email addresses are those of the administrator of the image forming device 103 and the customer engineer in charge. The server device 104 can send a message to the email address, such as a message that additional maintenance has been set. By sending an email to notify the customer engineer of the additional maintenance, the notification is sent to the notification destination determined by the notification destination determination unit 14.

(Fault maintenance information storage unit 1005)
Fig. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the fault maintenance information 1005a stored in the fault maintenance information storage unit 1005. As shown in Fig. 10, the fault maintenance information storage unit 1005 registers items of additional maintenance and maintenance deadline in association with the fault type. Note that the fault maintenance information 1005a may be different for each model or may be common to each model.

The fault type item indicates what type of fault the maintenance decision unit 12 detected.

- The additional maintenance item is the content of the additional maintenance required to repair a failure whose symptoms have been detected. The additional maintenance content also includes the target module.

The maintenance deadline item indicates by when additional maintenance should be performed. The maintenance deadline is set as a period starting from the date of diagnosis by the maintenance decision unit 12. A breakdown will not occur immediately after the maintenance deadline has passed, but there is a risk that the possibility of a breakdown will gradually increase once the maintenance deadline has passed.

(Maintenance level contract information storage unit 1006)
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of the maintenance level contract information 1006a stored in the maintenance level contract information storage unit 1006. The maintenance level of the contracted company of the maintenance service (an example of the first service level information) is registered in the maintenance level contract information 1006a. The maintenance level is determined, for example, by a contract on the level of difficulty that the operator will perform in the operator maintenance. The more difficult the maintenance is performed by the operator in the contract, the lower the maintenance fee. There are maintenance levels 1 to 3 and "normal", and the levels are higher in the order of level 1 < level 2 < level 3, and this means that the contracted company performs advanced maintenance. In addition, "normal" indicates that an operator maintenance contract has not been concluded. When the maintenance level is normal, all additional maintenance is performed by a customer engineer. Note that the three levels are just an example, and there may be two levels or four or more levels.

In FIG. 11, maintenance levels are associated with contracting companies, but maintenance levels may also be associated with equipment, equipment users (individual operators), or user groups.

(Maintenance notification destination information storage unit 1007)
Fig. 12 is a diagram showing an example of maintenance notification destination information 1007a stored in the maintenance notification destination information storage unit 1007. The maintenance notification destination information 1007a is information for the server device 105 to determine whether to notify a customer engineer or a customer user (contracted company) of additional maintenance of a target module according to the maintenance level. As shown in Fig. 12, the maintenance notification destination information storage unit 1007 has registered therein the following items: target module, part ID, part name, normal user, and levels 1 to 3.

- The target module item specifies the modules that will be subject to maintenance in the event of additional maintenance. A module is something that provides some functionality through one or more parts.

- The Part ID field is set with identification information that identifies each part that makes up the target module.

- The part name field is the general name of the multiple parts that make up the target module.

- For normal users, if the company does not have an operator maintenance contract, the notification recipient is set to customer engineer.

The Level 1 to 3 items indicate the workability level (difficulty of the work) of the target module (an example of second service level information). That is, the Level 1 to 3 items set whether the customer engineer (CE) or the user (contracted company) will be notified when the maintenance level contract information 1006a is level 1 to 3. For example, in the case where the target module is "development" and the part ID is "1", it is set that the customer engineer will perform the work when the contracted company's maintenance level is level 1 or 2, and that the user (operator) of the contracted company will perform the work when the contracted company's maintenance level is level 3. A customer engineer may mean an individual, but more specifically, it may be thought of as the service provider (company) of the maintenance service.

In other words, the workability level for the target module is determined by the level that "USER" is furthest to the left among levels 1 to 3. For example, when the part ID is "1", the workability level is 3, and when the part ID is "3", the workability level is 1. The workability level is the maintenance level required for the user to maintain the target module.

(Maintenance implementation log information storage unit 1008)
FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of the maintenance implementation log information 1008a stored in the maintenance implementation log information storage unit 1008. The maintenance implementation log information 1008a (an example of service implementation log information) is log information related to the implementation of past maintenance. The maintenance implementation log information 1008a includes implementation logs of regular maintenance as well as additional maintenance. These implementation logs are received by the server device 104 from the image forming device 103. In addition, the maintenance implementation log information 1008a also includes maintenance that has not been performed. Among the additional maintenance, maintenance that is determined to be recommended to be performed ahead of schedule is marked as "advancement". Therefore, the maintenance implementation log information storage unit 1008 stores implementation logs of regular, additional, and advanced maintenance.

As shown in FIG. 13, the maintenance implementation log information storage unit 1008 stores the following items: implementation date, maintenance type, target module, work capability level, maintenance peer, maintenance technician, and maintenance implementer.

- The number field records identification information to identify the implementation log.

- The implementation date field stores the date on which the maintenance was performed.

- The maintenance type item is set to regular maintenance, additional maintenance, or early maintenance.

-The target module is a module that has been (or will be) maintained.

The workability level is level 1 to 3 or "normal" associated with the target module by the maintenance notification destination information storage unit 1007.

The maintenance person item is the customer engineer or user (contracted company) determined by the notification destination determination unit 14.

- The maintenance performer field is set to the customer engineer or user (contracted company) who actually performed the maintenance. The actual maintenance performer is identified by logging in to the image forming device 103 at the time of maintenance.

<<Terminal Device>>
Returning to Fig. 7, the following describes the functions of the terminal device 101. The terminal device 101 has a communication unit 31, a display control unit 32, and an operation reception unit 33. These functions of the terminal device 101 are functions or means that are realized when the web browser executes JavaScript (registered trademark) included in the screen information and cooperates with a web application of the server device 104.

The communication unit 31 mainly communicates with the server device 104, receives screen information for the maintenance schedule screen from the server device 104, and transmits information entered by the administrator on the maintenance schedule screen, etc., to the server device 104.

The display control unit 32 analyzes the screen information sent from the server device 104 and displays the maintenance schedule screen, which will be described later, on the display 440.

The operation reception unit 33 accepts operations and inputs from administrators or general users to the maintenance schedule screen, etc.

<<Image forming apparatus>>
Next, a description will be given of the functions of the image forming apparatus 103. The image forming apparatus 103 includes a communication unit 41, a display control unit 42, an operation reception unit 43, a regular maintenance generation unit 44, and a determination unit 45. These functions of the image forming apparatus 103 are realized by the CPU of the operation display unit 82 or the control device 423 executing instructions contained in one or more programs installed in the image forming apparatus 103. It is.

The image forming device 103 also has a maintenance information storage unit 4001. These storage units can be realized by a HDD, SSD, or the like included in the operation display unit 82 or the control device 423.

The communication unit 41 communicates with the communication unit 11 on the server device 104 side. The communication unit 41 is realized, for example, by a communication interface that communicates by TCP/IP, such as a network card, or a communication program that controls communication with a USB cable. The communication unit 41 transmits the device status information 1001a to the server device 104, receives additional maintenance information, and stores it in the maintenance information storage unit 4001.

The display control unit 42 displays the planned dates for regular maintenance stored in the maintenance information storage unit 4001 on a maintenance schedule screen (where the maintenance schedule is displayed on a calendar). The display control unit 42 also displays an advance implementation proposal screen for recommending advance implementation and a maintenance implementation rate screen provided by the server device 104.

The operation reception unit 43 receives user operations and inputs on the maintenance schedule screen, advance implementation proposal screen, etc.

The regular maintenance generation unit 44 determines whether regular maintenance is necessary, and if necessary, stores regular maintenance information in the maintenance information storage unit 4001. The regular maintenance generation unit 44 determines that regular maintenance is necessary for each counter value of a certain number of sheets, for example, based on the counter value. The regular maintenance generation unit 44 determines to perform regular maintenance that is determined according to the counter value. Since the workload and work time of regular maintenance are small, the regular maintenance generation unit 44 assigns a few hours, or, if measured by days, a day, to the scheduled day for regular maintenance.

When the additional maintenance information is sent from the server device 104, the judgment unit 45 judges whether or not to recommend carrying out scheduled maintenance ahead of schedule. Details will be described later.

(Maintenance information storage unit 4001)
Next, the maintenance information will be described with reference to Fig. 14. The maintenance information held by the image forming apparatus 103 includes additional maintenance information transmitted from the server apparatus 104 and regular maintenance information generated by the image forming apparatus 103. These will be described first.

Figure 14 (a) shows regular maintenance information generated by the regular maintenance generation unit 44. As shown in Figure 14 (a), the regular maintenance schedule generated for the image forming device 103 is registered in chronological order. The regular maintenance information has fields for the maintenance name, diagnosis date, scheduled date, and target module.

The maintenance name item is the name of the regular maintenance determined by the regular maintenance generation unit 44 based on the counter value.

The diagnosis date is the date on which the regular maintenance generation unit 44 determines that regular maintenance is necessary. The diagnosis date may be a fixed date, such as once every two weeks on a Monday. The frequency of diagnosis is not limited to this. In addition, the frequency of diagnosis may vary depending on the type of maintenance and the target area.

The scheduled date is the date or deadline on which the regular maintenance generation unit 44 should perform regular maintenance. The date on which regular maintenance should be performed is, for example, the date on which the counter value is predicted to reach a certain value.

-Target module items are modules and relevant areas that are subject to regular maintenance.

Figure 14 (b) shows additional maintenance information regarding additional maintenance sent by the server device 104. The additional maintenance information has fields for maintenance name, diagnosis date, recommended start date, and target module. The maintenance name field may be the same as in Figure 14 (a).

The diagnosis date is the date on which the maintenance decision unit 12 detected a sign of a failure. The diagnosis date is transmitted from the server device 104.

The recommended start date is the start date for which the implementation of additional maintenance is recommended. The recommended start date may be, for example, any date from the day following the diagnosis date to the date on which the maintenance deadline in the fault maintenance information 1005a is added to the diagnosis date. The recommended start date is transmitted from the server device 104.

- The target module is a module that is the subject of additional maintenance. The target module is included in the additional maintenance item of the fault maintenance information storage unit 1005. The target module is transmitted from the server device 104.

Therefore, the maintenance information storage unit 4001 of the image forming apparatus 103 stores maintenance information 4001a that combines Figs. 14(a) and (b). Fig. 14(c) shows an example of maintenance information 4001a stored in the maintenance information storage unit 4001. The items of maintenance name, diagnosis date, and target module correspond to the respective items in Fig. 14(a) or (b). That is, the items of maintenance name, diagnosis date, and target module are the same as the maintenance name, diagnosis date, and target module in Fig. 14(a) or (b). The items of planned date/recommended start date correspond to the planned date in Fig. 14(a) or the recommended start date in Fig. 14(b).

<Determination of who to notify>
FIG. 15 is a flow chart illustrating the process in which the notification destination determining unit 14 determines the destination to which the additional maintenance should be notified.

As shown in step S1, the process in FIG. 15 is executed when additional maintenance is required based on failure prediction (S1).

When additional maintenance is required based on failure prediction, the notification destination determination unit 14 identifies the maintenance level of the user (contracted company) from the maintenance level contract information 1006a (S2). This user is identified from the device management information storage unit 1003 based on the image forming device 103 that sent the device management information.

Next, the notification destination determination unit 14 identifies the customer engineer or user (contracted company) associated with the target module of additional maintenance and the maintenance level from the maintenance notification destination information 1007a (S3). That is, if the maintenance level of the user (contracted company) is equal to or higher than the workable level, the notification destination determination unit 14 determines the user (contracted company) as the notification destination, and if the maintenance level is lower than the workable level, the notification destination determination unit 14 determines the service provider of the maintenance service as the notification destination.

When additional maintenance is detected based on failure prediction, the target module for maintenance is determined, but the maintenance notification destination information 1007a registers the notification destination at the part level. Therefore, the notification destination determination unit 14 determines the highest workability level of the parts in the target module in the maintenance notification destination information 1007a as the workability level of the target module.

The notification unit 18 notifies the identified customer engineer or user (contracted company) of the implementation of additional maintenance via the communication unit 11 (S4). Notifying the customer engineer means that the notification unit 18 sends an email to the customer engineer in charge (see FIG. 29). Alternatively, the notification unit 18 may notify the support center that additional maintenance has occurred by specifying the contracted company name or device ID. Notifying the user (contracted company) means notifying the image forming device 103 or the administrator that additional maintenance has occurred by specifying the device ID (see FIG. 25).

In this way, when an operator maintenance contract has been concluded, the appropriate party (customer engineer or contracted company) can be notified of the implementation of additional maintenance based on the equipment condition.

<Display maintenance execution log>
Next, a display example of the maintenance implementation log will be described with reference to Fig. 16. Fig. 16 shows an example of a maintenance implementation log screen 610. The maintenance implementation log screen 610 may be displayed by any of the server device 104, the terminal device 101, or the image forming device 103. The terminal device 101 may be operated by a customer engineer or by a user (the same applies to the following screens). The maintenance implementation log screen 610 can be displayed for each image forming device 103, and device information 611 indicating the currently displayed image forming device 103 is displayed.

The maintenance implementation log screen 610 can also selectively display implementation logs for regular maintenance only, additional maintenance only, or both. The user can switch the type of maintenance for which implementation logs are displayed by checking a switch checkbox 613. This switching is also possible on the maintenance implementation rate screen, which will be described later.

The screen generation unit 19 processes the information acquired from the maintenance implementation log information storage unit 1008 to create the maintenance implementation log screen 610. Therefore, the maintenance implementation log screen 610 displays the maintenance implementation log 612 (implementation date, maintenance type, target module, work capability level, maintenance peer, maintenance staff, and maintenance implementation items), which are items contained in the maintenance implementation log information storage unit 1008.

Figure 17 shows an example of a maintenance implementation rate screen 620. The maintenance implementation rate screen 620 may be displayed by any of the server device 104, the terminal device 101, or the image forming device 103.

The maintenance implementation rate screen 620 in FIG. 17 also displays the maintenance level of the user (contracted company). The maintenance implementation rate screen 620 also displays implementation rate display fields 621-624 for each image forming device 103. The four implementation rate display fields in FIG. 17 are just an example, and one implementation rate display field may be displayed large, or five or more implementation rate display fields may be displayed.

Each implementation rate display field 621-624 has a maintenance implementation rate 625-628 for each work feasibility level, levels 1-3. The method for calculating the maintenance implementation rates 625-628 will be explained below.

First, the target of the aggregation is the maintenance implementation log information 1008a of the user (contracted company) who is in charge of maintenance (not the person who implemented it). The user can also instruct the server device 104 to aggregate only additional maintenance, only regular maintenance, or regular maintenance + additional maintenance. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the user will implement all regular maintenance, and since it is desired to "improve the implementation rate of additional maintenance," the implementation rate of additional maintenance will be mainly explained below. Note that additional maintenance also includes maintenance implemented ahead of schedule, but it may also be possible to aggregate the implementation rate of only the additional maintenance implemented ahead of schedule.

The counting unit 16 counts a first number of performed maintenance items for each workability level from the maintenance implementation log information 1008a. Also, the counting unit 16 counts a second number of unperformed maintenance items for each workability level from the maintenance implementation log information 1008a.
The aggregation unit 16 determines the ratio of the first number to the sum of the first number and the second number as the maintenance implementation rate. Unperformed maintenance refers to maintenance that has not been performed (e.g., no maintenance implementer is registered) even after a certain period of time has passed since the scheduled date (in the case of regular maintenance) or the recommended date (in the case of additional maintenance).

The screen generation unit 19 displays the implementation rate and implementation rate tallied by the tallying unit 16 in a bar graph and places it in the implementation rate display fields 621-624. Therefore, the maintenance implementation rate screen 620 can display the maintenance implementation rates 625-628 of additional maintenance for each work availability level when the notification of maintenance implementation is sent to a user (contracted company). The screen generation unit 19 can also display the maintenance implementation rate for each scheduled maintenance, or for scheduled maintenance + additional maintenance.

The maintenance implementation rate screen 620 has detail buttons 621a to 624a. A URL that accepts an application to change the maintenance level of the maintenance level contract information 1006a is embedded in the detail buttons 621a to 624a. When the user presses the detail button 621a to 624a, the maintenance implementation rate screen 620 transitions to a web page, where an application to change the maintenance level becomes possible.

Figure 18 shows a maintenance implementation rate details display screen 630. The maintenance implementation rate details display screen 630 has a user (contracted company) maintenance level 631, a level change button 632, a maintenance implementation log 633, and a pie chart 634 showing the implementation rate. The maintenance implementation log 633 may be the same as in Figure 16.

The maintenance implementation rate details display screen 630 displays the implementation rate of additional maintenance where the maintenance worker is the user (contracted company) for additional maintenance where the notification of the maintenance implementation is sent to the user (contracted company). Therefore, the method of tallying the maintenance implementation rate may be the same as that shown in FIG. 17. The screen generation unit 19 converts this maintenance implementation rate into a pie chart 634.

The maintenance implementation rate details display screen 630 also has a level change button 632. The level change button 632 is a button for accepting an application to change the maintenance level of the maintenance level contract information 1006a. When the level change button 632 is pressed, a web page for applying to change the maintenance level is displayed.

<<Modification of maintenance implementation rate screen>>
Fig. 19 shows a maintenance implementation rate screen 640 on which a comment proposing a change in the maintenance level is displayed. The maintenance implementation rate screen 640 in Fig. 19 displays maintenance implementation rates 645 to 648 in implementation rate display fields 641 to 644, respectively. In Fig. 19, the implementation rates in the implementation rate display fields 641 and 642 are less than a threshold value (the threshold value is, for example, 100%).

The low implementation rate can be assumed to be due to the fact that the maintenance level contracted for operator maintenance is high, resulting in a large amount of maintenance that cannot be performed by the user (contracted company).

For this reason, the suggestion unit 17 creates comments 649, 650 proposing a change to the maintenance level, and the screen generation unit 19 generates a maintenance implementation rate screen 640 including the comments 649, 650. The threshold value that serves as the criterion for creating the comment is set appropriately. In FIG. 19, the suggestion unit 17 creates a comment if any one of levels 1 to 3 is less than 100%. Furthermore, this threshold value may be different for each of levels 1 to 3.

Comments 649 and 650 contain embedded URLs that accept requests to change the maintenance level of the maintenance level contract information 1006a. When the user presses comments 649 and 650, the maintenance implementation rate screen transitions to a web page, allowing the user to request a change to the maintenance level.

The functions of the detail buttons 641a to 644a may be the same as those of the detail buttons 621a to 624a in FIG. 17. A recommendation to bring the task forward may be notified in FIG. 19.

Figure 20 is a flowchart that explains the process in which the server device 104 recommends an application for a change in the maintenance level. The process in Figure 20 starts when the user (contracted company) inputs an operation to display the maintenance implementation rate screen 640 into the server device 104, the image forming device 103, or the terminal device 101.

First, the aggregation unit 16 calculates the implementation rate by work capability level for each image forming device 103 (S11).

Next, the suggestion unit 17 determines whether there is at least one work capability level whose implementation rate is below the threshold (S12).

If there is even one workability level whose implementation rate is below the threshold (Yes in step S12), the suggestion unit 17 proposes a change in the maintenance level (S13). The proposed changed maintenance level may be one level lower than the current maintenance level, or it may be the highest maintenance level whose implementation rate is equal to or higher than the threshold. In rare cases, if the proposed changed maintenance level is equal to or higher than the current user's maintenance level, no suggestion is made.

The screen generation unit 19 generates a maintenance implementation rate screen 640 including the implementation rate for each work capability level, a bar graph, and a comment proposing changes to the maintenance level created in step S13 (S14).

The communication unit 11 transmits the screen information of this screen to the image forming device 103 or the terminal device 101. The server device 104, the image forming device 103, or the terminal device 101 displays the maintenance implementation rate screen 640.

In FIG. 20, the suggestion unit 17 suggests lowering the user's maintenance level, but if the implementation rate is equal to or higher than a threshold, it may suggest raising the user's maintenance level.

<<Modification of maintenance implementation rate screen>>
Fig. 21 shows a maintenance implementation rate screen 660 in which the maintenance level is displayed for each image forming apparatus. In the maintenance implementation rate screen 660 of Fig. 21, maintenance levels 665 to 668 are displayed in implementation rate display fields 661 to 664, respectively. The maintenance level is contracted for each company, but the user (contracting company) can also request to make a contract for each image forming apparatus 103. In the case of such a contract, the screen generation unit 19 acquires the maintenance levels 665 to 668 for each image forming apparatus and generates the maintenance implementation rate screen 660.

The server device 104, image forming device 103, or terminal device 101 displays the maintenance levels 665 to 668 for each image forming device. The user can check how the maintenance implementation rate changes for each maintenance level 665 to 668, and consider changing the maintenance level for each image forming device 103.

<<Modification of maintenance implementation rate screen>>
Fig. 22 shows a maintenance implementation rate screen 670 in which a comment proposing a change in the maintenance level and the maintenance level are displayed for each image forming apparatus 103. In Fig. 22, maintenance implementation rates 675-678 for each workability level are displayed in implementation rate display fields 671-674. In Fig. 22, comments 679 and 680 are displayed in implementation rate display fields 671 and 672. The suggestion unit 17 proposes changing the maintenance level to the highest workability level among the workability levels whose implementation rate is equal to or higher than the threshold. For example, when the threshold is 100, the suggestion unit 17 proposes changing the maintenance level to the same maintenance level as the highest workability level among the workability levels whose implementation rate is 100[%].

In the implementation rate display field 671, the maintenance implementation rate for the work capability level "Level 1" is 100[%], the maintenance implementation rate for level 2 is 90[%], and the maintenance implementation rate for level 3 is 85[%]. In other words, there is a risk that the user (contracted company) lacks the skills to carry out maintenance with work capability levels of "Level 2" and "Level 3". For this reason, the suggestion unit 17 suggests in comment 679 that the maintenance level be changed to level 1.

Meanwhile, in the implementation rate display field 672, the maintenance implementation rate 676 for the work capability level "Level 3" is 85[%], and the maintenance implementation rate 676 for the work capability level "Level 2" is 100[%], so the suggestion unit 17 proposes a change to level 2 in the comment 680. In other words, there is a possibility that the user (contracted company) lacks the skills to perform maintenance at the work capability level of "Level 3", so the suggestion unit 17 proposes in the comment 680 to change the maintenance level to level 2.

In the implementation rate display field 673, the work availability levels are all 100[%] for levels 1 to 3, and the maintenance level is "1", so the suggestion unit 17 does not suggest changing the maintenance level.

In the implementation rate display field 674, a comment 682 is displayed saying "Perform more additional maintenance." This is because the maintenance level for printing device D is already "1," but even if the workability level is level 1, the implementation rate is below the threshold, so the suggestion unit 17 should not suggest a change in the maintenance level. Since additional maintenance is not compulsory, the suggestion unit 17 does not suggest a change in the maintenance level if the workability level is 1 but the implementation rate is below the threshold.

We will use Figure 23 to provide further details. Figure 23 shows a maintenance implementation rate details display screen 690 for the image forming device 103D. As shown in Figure 23, there are two messages 691 in the maintenance implementer section that say "Clear notification before implementation," and it can be seen that no additional maintenance has been implemented.

Figure 24 is a flowchart that explains the process in which the server device 104 applies for a change in the maintenance level. The process in Figure 24 starts when a user (contracted company) inputs an operation to display a maintenance implementation rate screen into the server device 104, the image forming device 103, or the terminal device 101.

First, the aggregation unit 16 calculates the implementation rate for each image forming device by the work capability level for additional maintenance where the maintenance personnel is the user (contracted company) (S21).

Next, the suggestion unit 17 determines whether there is a workability level where the implementation rate is less than a threshold (S22). The threshold does not have to be 100%.

If the determination in step S22 is Yes, the suggestion unit 17 determines whether the workability level at which the implementation rate is below the threshold is equal to or lower than the maintenance level contracted for by the user (contracted company) or the image forming device 103 (S23).

If the judgment in step S23 is Yes, the suggestion unit 17 judges whether the maintenance level is already "1" (S24).

If the determination in step S24 is No, the suggestion unit 17 proposes changing the maintenance level (S25). The maintenance level after the change is the highest maintenance level among the workable levels whose implementation rate is equal to or greater than the threshold.

If the determination in step S24 is Yes, the suggestion unit 17 suggests increasing the frequency of performing additional maintenance (S26).

Through the above process, the server device 104 can estimate from the implementation rate that the user (contracted company) lacks the skills to perform maintenance, and can suggest changing the implementation rate to a workability level above a threshold.

<Example of a notification recommending early implementation>
25 shows an accelerated execution proposal screen 700 for notifying a recommendation to accelerate execution. The accelerated execution proposal screen 700 may be displayed by any of the server device 104, the terminal device 101, or the image forming device 103.

The advance maintenance suggestion screen 700 displays a title 701 stating "Maintenance recommended", a message 702 stating "As a result of analyzing the machine data, it is recommended that maintenance be performed early. To keep the machine in optimal condition, please perform maintenance by clicking the 'Perform maintenance' button", a target module 703, and a user maintenance level 704.

The target module 703 is obtained from the target module item in the maintenance information storage unit 4001. The user maintenance level 704 is the workable level of the target module 703.

When the user presses the Perform Maintenance button 705, a guidance screen for the maintenance work is displayed (see FIG. 27). When the user presses the Request Work to Customer Engineer button 706, the details of the additional maintenance that was the basis for the recommendation to advance the scheduled maintenance are sent to the customer engineer (customer support center) by email or other means.

If the user presses the close button 707 without advancing the scheduled maintenance, an icon or thumbnail indicating that advancing the scheduled maintenance is being proposed is always displayed in part of the screen. The advancing proposal screen 700 may be displayed repeatedly at a specified timing. Examples of the specified timing may include when the image forming device 103 is powered on, when the amount of no operation time exceeds a threshold, and when the user logs in.

Figure 26 shows a modified example of the advance implementation proposal screen 700. In Figure 26, the differences from Figure 25 are mainly explained. In Figure 26, a customer engineer request recommendation message 708 proposed by the proposal unit 17 is displayed.

The customer engineer request recommendation message 708 reads, "The maintenance implementation rate for maintenance level 3 or higher is 75%. You can request the work to be performed by a customer engineer." This "75%" is the maintenance implementation rate for the same workable level as the target module for the additional maintenance notified in FIG. 26. If this implementation rate is below a threshold, the notification unit 18 decides to notify the customer engineer request recommendation message 708. Therefore, the customer engineer request recommendation message 708 is only suggested if the implementation rate for the target module for additional maintenance is below the threshold. The user can confirm that the implementation rate is low, and can consider requesting maintenance from a customer engineer by pressing the request work to a customer engineer button 706 (an example of a display component).

<Maintenance implementation>
Fig. 27 is an example of a guidance screen 710. The guidance screen 710 shows an additional maintenance work procedure 711. In the example of Fig. 26, the work procedure 711 shows the following steps:
1. The operator removes the developing unit.
2. The operator cleans the developer unit.
3. The operator sets up the developing unit.
4. The operator resets the developer unit cleaning counter.

In addition, buttons 712 to 714 for displaying details of each step are displayed below each step in the work procedure 711. Since no details are required for step "4. Reset the development unit cleaning counter," a reset button 715 is displayed.

When the user performs the four steps and presses the completed button 716, an implementation log is recorded in the maintenance implementation log information storage unit 1008.

As shown in FIG. 28, maintenance may be performed using an augmented reality headset. FIG. 28 is a diagram that illustrates a maintenance operation using an augmented reality headset. First, FIG. 28(a) is an external view of an augmented reality headset. An augmented reality headset is a type of display device that uses a head-mounted display to display computer-generated images and sounds superimposed on real-world elements.

A user wearing the augmented reality headset is successively shown information to assist with additional maintenance. As shown in FIG. 28(b), when the augmented reality headset detects with a camera that a user has opened the door of the image forming device 103, the target module 751 is displayed superimposed on the view of various target modules placed inside the door. The user searches for the target module inside the door while viewing the image of the target module 751.

While the user searches (although the augmented reality headset can find it faster), the augmented reality headset monitors the scene inside the door with a camera and detects the target module using image processing. As shown in FIG. 28(c), when the target module is detected, the augmented reality headset displays an arrow 752 pointing to the target module of the actual device. When the augmented reality headset detects with its camera that the user has removed the target module of the actual device, the augmented reality headset displays a video 753 of the additional maintenance work procedures, as shown in FIG. 28(d). The user can maintain the target module at hand while watching the video 753.

In this way, using an augmented reality headset makes it easier for users to carry out routine maintenance.

<Example of email sent to customer engineer>
29 shows an example of the display of an email message 760 notifying a customer engineer that additional maintenance has occurred when the notification unit 18 notifies the customer engineer. The email message 760 includes a sender 761 indicating the server device 104, a destination 762 indicating the customer engineer, bibliographic information 763, and a message 764. The message 764 includes the target module, allowing the customer engineer to determine what type of maintenance is required. The message 764 also includes a statement that "If you are having trouble with the maintenance, please also consult us about changing the contract level," allowing the customer engineer to recommend a change in the contract level at the time of maintenance.
<Support for Service Level Agreement (SLA)>
An SLA is a service quality guarantee regarding the level of service (definition, scope, content, goals to be achieved, etc.) agreed upon between a service provider and its users. The SLA clearly indicates the degree to which the service provider can guarantee quality to the subscriber.
In the following, it will be explained that the maintenance level described in Figure 11 etc. is information corresponding to the SLA level, and that the determination unit 45 can determine the notification destination by replacing the maintenance level described in the above embodiment with the SLA level.
Fig. 30 is a diagram showing an example of SLA information. SLA information (an example of service level information) specifies achievement standards for each item such as operation time, response time, resolution time, and refund rate. Since the SLA level corresponds to the maintenance level, values from 1 to 3 are set. The guaranteed quality increases in the order of SLA level 1 > SLA level 2 > SLA level 3. The SLA level may be five levels, etc.
The quality guaranteed in the SLA information may vary depending on the service. FIG. 30 shows, as an example, the quality guaranteed for the operation rate, response time, resolution time, and refund rate according to the SLA level. The operation rate is the ratio of the time during which the image forming device 103 can be used without failure to the total business hours. The response time is the time it takes for a service provider (person) to respond to a notification of the occurrence of some abnormality. The resolution time is the time from the occurrence of some abnormality to the resolution of the abnormality. The refund rate indicates how much the service fee is discounted if the quality is not met. In addition to the illustrated information, the SLA information may specify the quality of items according to the service, such as the presence or absence of additional support, or a series of actions to be taken if the quality is not met.
For example, SLA information may include the maintenance candidate's skill level, current location, business hours, holidays, and holiday calendar.
- The skill level of the maintenance candidate is guaranteed to be a CE with a certain skill level or higher. The lower the SLA level, the higher the skill level.
・The current location is guaranteed to be maintained by a CE within a certain distance from the user's (contracted company's) location. The lower the SLA level, the shorter the distance.
Business hours are guaranteed during the time period during which the CE can handle maintenance (e.g., 9:00-18:00, 24 hours, etc.). The lower the SLA level, the longer the business hours.
- Holidays specify the days on which CE cannot handle maintenance. The lower the SLA level, the fewer the holidays.
- The holiday calendar provides a calendar of days when CEs can or cannot handle maintenance. The lower the SLA level, the fewer holidays.
Fig. 31 shows maintenance level contract information 1006a in which the maintenance level has been replaced with the SLA level. As can be seen by comparing with Fig. 11, the maintenance level has been replaced with the SLA level. In other words, each user (contracting company) contracts for an SLA level according to the degree of service quality guarantee desired.
Therefore, in the maintenance notification destination information 1007a in Fig. 12, levels 1 to 3 (workability levels) of the maintenance notification destination information 1007a are compared with the SLA level. When a failure is predicted and additional maintenance is required based on the failure prediction, the notification destination determination unit 14 identifies the SLA level of the user (contracted company) from the maintenance level contract information 1006a.
The notification destination determination unit 14 identifies a customer engineer or a user (contracted company) associated with the target module of additional maintenance and the SLA level from the maintenance notification destination information 1007a. That is, when the SLA level of the user (contracted company) is equal to or higher than the workable level, the notification destination determination unit 14 determines the user (contracted company) as the notification destination, and when the SLA level is lower than the workable level, the notification destination determination unit 14 determines the service provider of the maintenance service as the notification destination.
In addition, multiple SLA information may exist between a service provider and one user (contracted company). Multiple SLA information may exist when one user (contracted company) enters into a contract with different SLA levels or a separate contract with customized SLA information. When multiple SLA information exists, the one created first (or most recently) is applied preferentially. Alternatively, the user may associate SLA information with a time range, and the SLA level may be determined based on the SLA information associated with the current time.

<Major Effects>
The service management system of this embodiment can notify an appropriate maintenance worker of the need to perform additional maintenance based on the equipment status when an operator maintenance contract has been concluded.

The service management system can also display the implementation rate of additional maintenance and regular maintenance for each work availability level. If the implementation rate is below a threshold, the service management system can suggest changing the maintenance level. If the maintenance implementation rate is below a threshold, the service management system can also suggest requesting a customer engineer to carry out the work.
The service management system proposes changes to the maintenance level based on the implementation rate, but it may also propose changes to the maintenance level based on the length of time the maintenance is being implemented. For example, the average time required for a certain maintenance may be stored, and if the maintenance time significantly exceeds the average time, a proposal to lower the maintenance level may be made.

<Additional information on devices other than image forming devices>
Next, the configuration of some devices will be described in more detail with reference to Figures 32 to 34. Below, a liquid ejection device for painting automobiles and the like and a 3D printer will be described as devices.

<<Liquid discharge device>>
32 is a schematic diagram of the entire liquid ejection device. The liquid ejection device illustrated here is a painting robot that paints the body of an automobile, etc. In each figure, the X-axis, which is one of three directions intersecting each other, In some cases, arrows indicating the X-axis direction, the Y-axis direction, and the Z-axis direction are illustrated. The X-axis direction is along the front-rear direction of a vehicle body, which is an object to be painted, for example. The Y-axis direction is along the width direction of the vehicle body. The axial direction is along the vertical direction.

As shown in FIG. 32, the painting robot 1000 is installed facing an object 1200, such as the side of an automobile body. The painting robot 1000 includes a base 1100, a first arm 1101, a second arm 1102, and a head unit 1103. The first arm 1101 is connected to the base 1100. The second arm 1102 is connected to the first arm 1101. The head unit 1103 is connected to the second arm 1102.

The painting robot 1000 has a first joint 1104, a second joint 1105, and a third joint 1106. The first joint 1104 connects the base 1100 to the first arm 1101. The second joint 1105 connects the first arm 1101 to the second arm 1102. The third joint 1106 connects the second arm 1102 to the head unit 1103.

The painting robot 1000 is, for example, an articulated robot. The base 1100 can rotate in the direction a around an axis extending in the Z-axis direction. The base 1100 supports one end of the first arm 1101 via a first joint 1104.

The first arm 1101 can rotate in the direction b around an axis parallel to the XY plane. The other end of the first arm 1101 is supported on one end of the second arm 1102 via a second joint 1105. The second arm 1102 can swing in the direction c around an axis parallel to the XY plane. In addition, the second arm 1102 can rotate in the direction d around an axis extending in the longitudinal direction of the second arm 1102.

The other end of the second arm 1102 supports the head unit 1103 via the third joint 1106. The head unit 1103 can rotate in the e direction around an axis that extends in a direction intersecting the longitudinal direction of the second arm 1102. The head unit 1103 can also rotate in the f direction around an axis that extends in the direction that separates the head unit 1103 and the third joint 1106.

The painting robot 1000 can freely move the head unit 1103 relative to the object 1200. The painting robot 1000 can accurately position the head unit 1103 relative to the object 1200. The painting robot 1000 can accurately position the head unit 1103 relative to the position to be painted. The painting robot 1000 ejects paint toward the object 1200 and paints the object 1200.

In this embodiment, a system configuration in which the painting robots 1000 are arranged on both sides of the object 1200 has been exemplified, but the painting robots 1000 are not limited to being arranged on both sides of the object 1200. The number of painting robots 1000 installed may be one for the object 1200, or three or more.

<<3D Printer>>
A 3D printer is a device that can create a three-dimensional object based on three-dimensional shape data. A 3D printer is also called an additive manufacturing device, an additive manufacturing device, an AM (Additive Manufacturing) device, or an AM machine. A 3D printer may also be called a "three-dimensional printing machine." The modeling method of a 3D printer is mainly an inkjet method in which liquid resin is applied and cured little by little by irradiating it with ultraviolet light, an FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) method in which resin melted by heat is gradually stacked, and a powder fixing method in which adhesive is sprayed onto powdered resin, but the modeling method is not limited. Below, an FDM 3D printer will be described as an example.

Figure 33 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a 3D printer. For example, as shown in the figure, the 3D printer 2000 includes a chamber 2103 inside a main body frame 2120. The inside of the chamber 2103 serves as a processing space for forming a three-dimensional object. Furthermore, within the processing space, i.e., inside the chamber 2103, a stage 2104 is provided as a mounting table. In this example, the object is produced on the stage 2104.

Inside the chamber 2103, above the stage 2104, a modeling head 2110 is provided as a modeling means. The modeling head 2110 also has a discharge nozzle 2115 below it that discharges filament. In this embodiment, four discharge nozzles 2115 are provided on the modeling head 2110, but the number of discharge nozzles 2115 is arbitrary. The modeling head 2110 also has a head heating device 2114 that heats the filament supplied to each discharge nozzle 2115. In this way, the 3D printer produces a model using a filament that is held in advance.

The temperature inside the main body frame 2120 is also regulated by the internal cooling device 2108.

The filament is made of a material such as ABS (acrylic butadiene styrene) resin or PLA (polylactic acid) resin. The filament is also thermoplastic. Therefore, when the filament is discharged from the 3D printer, it is heated and at a high temperature. After being discharged, the filament hardens when cooled by air cooling or the like. Taking advantage of these properties, the 3D printer discharges the filament to manufacture a model.

The filament is, for example, in the form of a long, thin wire. The filament is set in the 3D printer 2000 in a wound state or the like. Furthermore, the filament is supplied by the filament supply device 2106 to each of the discharge nozzles 2115 on the modeling head 2110.

The modeling head 2110 is moved in the X-axis direction by the X-axis drive mechanism 2101. For example, the X-axis drive mechanism 2101 is an actuator, a mechanism, a power supply, an electronic circuit, etc.

Similarly, the modeling head 2110 is moved in the Y-axis direction by a Y-axis drive mechanism 2102. For example, the Y-axis drive mechanism 2102 is an actuator, a mechanism, a power supply, an electronic circuit, etc. Furthermore, the modeling head 2110 is moved in the Z-axis direction by a Z-axis drive mechanism 2123. For example, the Z-axis drive mechanism 2123 is an actuator, a mechanism, a power supply, an electronic circuit, etc.

In the illustrated example, the control device 2100 issues position commands to the X-axis drive mechanism 2101, the Y-axis drive mechanism 2102, and the Z-axis drive mechanism 2123, and each mechanism moves the stage 2104 to the commanded position based on the command from the control device 2100. The control device 2100 controls each device.

As shown in the figure, the 3D printer 2000 preferably has a stage heating device 2105 that can heat the stage 2104 and the object on the stage 2104. The stage heating device 2105 is, for example, a heater.

A chamber heater 2107 is provided inside the chamber 2103 (processing space) as a heating means for heating the chamber 2103. It is desirable for the 3D printer 2000 to perform manufacturing while the temperature inside the chamber 2103 is maintained at a target temperature by the chamber heater 2107.

The filament may be of a different type for each discharge nozzle 2115, or may be of the same type. In this embodiment, the 3D printer 2000 heats and melts the filament supplied by the filament supply device 2106 using the head heating device 2114. Next, the 3D printer 2000 extrudes the molten filament from the discharge nozzle 2115 and discharges it. The 3D printer 2000 then stacks each layer formed of the filament on the stage 2104 by discharging it, thereby manufacturing a model.

The 3D printer 2000 may be a device that uses a support material. That is, the support material may be supplied to the discharge nozzle 2115. The support material may be a material different from the filament. After production, the support material is removed from the model formed with the filament. For example, the support material is first heated and melted by the head heating device 2114, in the same way as the filament. Next, the molten support material is extruded from the discharge nozzle 2115 and layered in the same way as the filament.

Furthermore, as shown in the figure, it is preferable that the 3D printer 2000 is configured to be able to suck the sheet SH placed on the stage 2104. For example, as shown in the figure, the sheet SH is sucked by the tube TU and the suction device 2130 based on the state detected by the sensor SEN.

Furthermore, as shown in the figure, the 3D printer 2000 preferably has a nozzle cleaning device 2109. The nozzle cleaning device 2109 cleans the discharge nozzle 2115 to prevent impurities from being mixed into the discharged filament.

Therefore, before starting production, the 3D printer 2000 performs a preheating process to raise the temperature inside the chamber 2103 to a target temperature. For example, during the preheating process, the chamber heater 2107 heats the inside of the chamber 2103 to raise the temperature inside the chamber 2103 to near the target temperature. On the other hand, during production, the chamber heater 2107 heats the inside of the chamber 2103 to maintain the temperature inside the chamber 2103 near the target temperature. The operation of the chamber heater 2107 is controlled by the control device 2100.

The 3D printer 2000 is not limited to the hardware configuration shown in the figure. For example, the hardware configuration may include multiple control devices 2100, etc. On the other hand, the 3D printer 2000 may have a hardware configuration that does not include a suction device 2130, etc.

Figure 34 is a diagram showing an example of a progress status screen 2601 displayed on a display of the control device 2100. The progress status screen 2601 in Figure 34 displays the actual height hx (symbol 2604) in addition to the upper limit height information Mh (symbol 2603).

The user can understand the progress of printing by comparing the actual height hx of the 3D model with the current height H of the object. Also, if the orientation of the 3D model displayed in the 3D app and the 3D model placed in the virtual space of the 3D printer 2000 changes, the user no longer needs to know the actual height of the 3D model.

<Other application examples>
The above describes the best mode for carrying out the present invention using examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples in any way, and various modifications and substitutions can be made within the scope that does not deviate from the gist of the present invention.

In this embodiment, the image forming device 103 executes a native app to display the maintenance schedule, but the image forming device 103 may also display the maintenance schedule using a general-purpose web browser. In this case, the server device 104 creates a maintenance schedule screen.

The configuration examples in FIG. 7 and the like are divided according to main functions to make it easier to understand the processing by the server device 104 and the image forming device 103. The present invention is not limited by the manner in which the processing units are divided or the names of the processing units. The processing by the server device 104 and the image forming device 103 can also be divided into even more processing units depending on the processing content. Also, it can be divided so that one processing unit includes even more processes.

Furthermore, the devices described in the examples are merely illustrative of one of several computing environments for implementing the embodiments disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the DFE 102 includes a plurality of computing devices, such as a server cluster. The plurality of computing devices are configured to communicate with each other via any type of communication link, including a network, shared memory, etc., and perform the processing disclosed herein.

Furthermore, the server device 104 can be configured to share the disclosed processing steps, for example the processing of FIG. 15, in various combinations. For example, a process executed by a given unit can be executed by multiple information processing devices possessed by the server device 104. Also, the server device 104 may be integrated into a single server device, or may be divided into multiple devices.

Each function of the embodiments described above can be realized by one or more processing circuits. In this specification, the term "processing circuit" includes a processor programmed to execute each function by software, such as a processor implemented by an electronic circuit, and devices such as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), DSP (Digital Signal Processor), FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), and conventional circuit modules designed to execute each function described above.

<Additional Notes>
[Appendix 1]
An information processing system for determining execution of a service,
a notification destination determination unit that determines a notification destination of the service based on first service level information that is associated with a device and a user of the device and indicates different services implemented by the user;
a notification unit that notifies the notification destination determined by the notification destination determination unit of the implementation of the service;
An information processing system having the above configuration.
[Appendix 2]
An information processing system as described in Appendix 1, characterized in that there is a first service that is performed periodically and a second service that is performed in addition to the first service and is different from the first service, and the service is the second service.
[Appendix 3]
The notification destination determination unit, from service notification destination information in which second service level information regarding the difficulty of the service is associated with the target module of the second service,
An information processing system as described in Appendix 2, which obtains the second service level information corresponding to the target module of the second service, and determines a notification destination to notify of the occurrence of the second service based on the second service level information and the first service level information.
[Appendix 4]
When the first service level information is less than the second service level information, the notification destination determination unit determines a service provider of the service as the notification destination;
4. The information processing system according to claim 3, wherein, when the first service level information is equal to or greater than the second service level information, the notification destination determination unit determines the device as the notification destination.
[Appendix 5]
The service notification destination information is associated with the second service level information for each part included in the target module,
An information processing system as described in Appendix 3 or 4, wherein the notification destination determination unit determines the notification destination to provide the service to the target module of the second service based on the highest second service level information among the parts contained in the target module and the first service level information.
[Appendix 6]
7. The information processing system according to any one of claims 3 to 6, further comprising a display control unit that displays the service implementation log information based on the service implementation log information relating to the implementation of the second service.
[Appendix 7]
The information processing system described in Appendix 6, wherein the display control unit displays an implementation rate calculated based on the number of second services that have been implemented among the second services recorded in the service implementation log information.
[Appendix 8]
In the service execution log information, the second service level information is associated with the second service,
The information processing system according to claim 7, wherein the display control unit displays the implementation rate for each of the second service level information.
[Appendix 9]
An information processing system as described in Appendix 8, having a proposal unit that proposes a change to the first service level information when one or more of the implementation rates calculated for each of the second service level information are below a threshold value.
[Appendix 10]
The information processing system described in Appendix 9, wherein the proposal unit proposes a change to the first service level information corresponding to the largest of the second service level information having an implementation rate equal to or greater than the threshold value when one or more of the implementation rates calculated for each of the second service level information is below a threshold value.
[Appendix 11]
the first service level information is different for each of the devices;
The information processing system according to claim 10, wherein the display control unit displays the first service level information for each of the devices together with the implementation rate.
[Appendix 12]
When one or more of the implementation rates calculated for each of the second service level information are less than a threshold value and the first service level information is the lowest,
11. The information processing system of claim 10, which proposes to recommend implementation of the second service.
[Appendix 13]
When the notification unit notifies the device of the second service,
The information processing system according to any one of appendices 7 to 12, wherein the display control unit displays a display component on a screen notifying the second service that accepts a request to change the notification destination from the device to a service provider of the service.
[Appendix 14]
When the notification unit notifies the device of the second service, and further, when an implementation rate of a target module of the second service is less than a threshold value,
The information processing system according to claim 13, wherein the display control unit displays a comment recommending that the notification destination be changed from the device to a service provider of the service.
[Appendix 15]
The information processing system according to claim 14, wherein the display control unit displays the implementation rate of a target module of the second service.
[Appendix 16]
The information processing system according to any one of appendices 1 to 15, wherein the user is a company or an individual.
[Appendix 17]
The information for the notification destination determination unit to determine the notification destination of the service includes service level information stored in an internal or external storage unit,
The service level information is information regarding a level of service contracted as a degree of service quality guarantee desired by the user,
2. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the service level information is associated with the user.
[Appendix 18]
The information for the notification destination determination unit to determine the notification destination of the service includes service level information stored in an internal or external storage unit,
the service level information is associated with a target module of the second service,
The information processing system according to claim 2, wherein the notification destination determination unit determines a notification destination of the service based on the service level information associated with the target module.
[Appendix 19]
The information processing system described in Appendix 1, characterized in that the notification destination determination unit determines the notification destination of the service using at least one of the skill level, current location, business hours, holidays, and holiday calendar of the service worker performing the service.

101 Terminal device 102 DFE
103 Image forming apparatus 104 Server apparatus

JP 2017-078997 A

Claims (22)

An information processing system for determining execution of a service,
a notification destination determination unit that determines a notification destination of the service based on first service level information that is associated with a device and a user of the device and indicates different services implemented by the user;
a notification unit that notifies the notification destination determined by the notification destination determination unit of the implementation of the service;
An information processing system having the above configuration. The information processing system according to claim 1, characterized in that there is a first service that is performed periodically and a second service that is performed in addition to the first service, and the service is the second service. The notification destination determination unit, from service notification destination information in which second service level information regarding the difficulty of the service is associated with the target module of the second service,
An information processing system as described in claim 2, further comprising: obtaining the second service level information corresponding to the target module of the second service; and determining a notification destination to notify of the occurrence of the second service based on the second service level information and the first service level information. When the first service level information is less than the second service level information, the notification destination determination unit determines a service provider of the service as the notification destination;
4. The information processing system according to claim 3, wherein, when the first service level information is equal to or higher than the second service level information, the notification destination determining unit determines the device as the notification destination. The service notification destination information is associated with the second service level information for each part included in the target module,
An information processing system as described in claim 3 or 4, wherein the notification destination determination unit determines the notification destination for providing the second service to the target module based on the highest second service level information among the parts contained in the target module and the first service level information. The information processing system according to claim 3, further comprising a display control unit that displays the service implementation log information based on the service implementation log information relating to the implementation of the second service. The information processing system according to claim 6, wherein the display control unit displays an implementation rate calculated based on the number of the second services that have been implemented among the second services recorded in the service implementation log information. In the service execution log information, the second service level information is associated with the second service,
The information processing system according to claim 7 , wherein the display control unit displays the implementation rate for each of the second service level information. The information processing system according to claim 8, further comprising a proposal unit that proposes changing the first service level information when one or more of the implementation rates calculated for each of the second service level information are less than a threshold value. The information processing system according to claim 9, wherein the suggestion unit proposes a change to the first service level information corresponding to the second service level information having the largest implementation rate among the second service level information having an implementation rate equal to or greater than the threshold value when one or more of the implementation rates calculated for each of the second service level information are less than a threshold value. the first service level information is different for each of the devices;
The information processing system according to claim 10 , wherein the display control unit displays the first service level information for each of the devices together with the implementation rate. When one or more of the implementation rates calculated for each of the second service level information are less than a threshold value and the first service level information is the lowest,
The information processing system according to claim 10 , further comprising: a step of proposing to recommend execution of the second service. When the notification unit notifies the device of the second service,
The information processing system according to claim 7 , wherein the display control unit displays a display component for receiving a request to change the notification destination from the device to a service provider of the service on the screen notifying the second service. When the notification unit notifies the device of the second service, and further, when an implementation rate of a target module of the second service is less than a threshold value,
The information processing system according to claim 13 , wherein the display control unit displays a comment recommending changing the notification destination from the device to a service provider of the service. The information processing system according to claim 14, wherein the display control unit displays the implementation rate of the target module of the second service. The information processing system of claim 1, wherein the user is a company or an individual. The information for the notification destination determination unit to determine the notification destination of the service includes service level information stored in an internal or external storage unit,
The service level information is information regarding a level of service contracted as a degree of service quality guarantee desired by the user,
2. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the service level information is associated with the user. The information for the notification destination determination unit to determine the notification destination of the service includes service level information stored in an internal or external storage unit,
the service level information is associated with a target module of the second service,
3. The information processing system according to claim 2, wherein the notification destination determining unit determines a notification destination of the service based on the service level information associated with the target module. The service level information includes at least one of a skill level of a service worker who performs the service, a current location, business hours, holidays, and a holiday calendar;
The information processing system according to claim 17, characterized in that the notification destination determination unit determines the notification destination of the service based on at least one of the skill level of the service worker, the current location, business hours, holidays, and a holiday calendar associated with the service level information to which the user has subscribed. A notification method performed by an information processing system that determines the implementation of a service, comprising:
a notification destination determination unit that is associated with a device and a user of the device and determines a notification destination of the service based on first service level information indicating different services implemented by the user;
a notification unit notifying the notification destination determined by the notification destination determination unit of the implementation of the service;
The notification method. A service management system for determining the implementation of a service,
The equipment covered by the service;
a notification destination determination unit that is associated with the service target device and a user of the service target device and determines a notification destination of the service based on first service level information that differs in the service implemented by the user;
a notification unit that notifies the notification destination determined by the notification destination determination unit of the implementation of the service;
A service management system having: An information processing system that determines the implementation of services
a notification destination determination unit that determines a notification destination of the service based on first service level information that is associated with a device and a user of the device and indicates different services implemented by the user;
a notification unit that notifies the notification destination determined by the notification destination determination unit of the implementation of the service;
A program to function as a

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