Abstract:
A quality control method includes: extracting, from a time series distribution of troubles that have occurred in electronic equipments, a first characteristics of states of occurrence of the troubles; specifying one or more parts included in the electronic equipments, the parts being involved with the troubles; extracting, from another time series distribution of a rate of use corresponding to each of suppliers which supply the specified parts, a second characteristics of the parts; and specifying one or more of the suppliers supplying the parts correlated to the troubles based on a correlation between the extracted first characteristics and the extracted second characteristics.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application is based on and claims priority under 35 USC 119 from Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-023812 filed on Feb. 4, 2009. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    1. Technical Field 
         [0003]    The present invention relates to a quality control system, a quality control apparatus, a quality control method and a computer readable medium. 
         [0004]    2. Related Art 
         [0005]    With the sophistication and complication of technology, functions to be incorporated into a product such as an image forming apparatus as well as parts therein realizing such functions tend to increase, and the parts are linked with each other to carry out the processings of the product. Since these parts are required to have high precision and enhancement in the production efficiency thereof, they are manufactured in multiple enterprises and factories. 
         [0006]    Therefore, when a problem such as poor operation in the product occurs, it is difficult to specify the part that has caused the problem and thus the parts are required to be checked one by one, which takes a lot of time to analyze the problem. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0007]    According to an aspect of the invention, a quality control apparatus, includes: a first extracting unit that extracts, from a time series distribution of troubles that have occurred in electronic equipments, a first characteristics of states of occurrence of the troubles; a part specifying unit that specifies one or more parts included in the electronic equipments, the parts being involved with the troubles; a second extracting unit that extracts, from another time series distribution of a rate of use corresponding to each of suppliers which supply the parts specified by the part specifying unit, a second characteristics of the parts; and a part supplier specifying unit that specifies one or more of the suppliers supplying the parts correlated to the troubles based on a correlation between the first characteristics extracted by the first extracting unit and the second characteristics extracted by the second extracting unit. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]    Exemplary embodiment(s) of the present invention will be described in detail based on the following figures, wherein: 
           [0009]      FIG. 1  is a structure view of an example of a quality control system structured by applying a quality control system, a quality control apparatus and a quality control program respectively according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention; 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an example of the detailed structure of an information management server; 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  is a graphical representation of an example of the time series distribution of the rate of occurrence of troubles; 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  is a table of an example of the mutual correspondence between trouble contents and parts involved with the trouble contents; 
           [0013]      FIGS. 5A and 5B  are graphical representations of examples of the time series distribution of the part use rate; 
           [0014]      FIGS. 6A and 6B  are tables of examples of change amounts respectively occurring in the respective manufacturing lines of parts involved with troubles; 
           [0015]      FIG. 7  is a table of an example of trouble related information; 
           [0016]      FIG. 8  is a graphical representation of another example of the time series distribution of the part use rate; and 
           [0017]      FIG. 9  is a flow chart of an example of the flow of processing to be carried out by the information managing servers of a quality control system according to the exemplary embodiment of the invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0018]    Now, description will be given below in detail of an exemplary embodiment of a quality control system, a quality control apparatus and a quality control program according to the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
         [0019]    Arbitrary electronic equipment is made of one or more parts, or, it is made of one or more processing units each including such two or more parts. An image forming apparatus, which is an example of such electronic equipment, includes not only processing units such as a print processing device, an image read device and an information communicating device but also a common mechanism to be used in common between these processing units. 
         [0020]    Of the above processing units, the print processing device is made of various kinds of multiple parts such as an information processing circuit, a sensitive body, a convey roller and a developing unit, or it is made of a unit which includes necessary parts. 
         [0021]    Thus, in the electronic equipment, multiple parts or multiple units are combined together and processings are carried out in such a manner that they are linked with each other. 
       Example  
       [0022]      FIG. 1  is an example of a system structure view of a quality control system structured by applying a quality control system, a quality control apparatus and a quality control program respectively according to the exemplary embodiment of the invention. 
         [0023]    In the present quality control system shown  FIG. 1 , segments such as production lines or factories or companies for manufacturing and assembling parts or parts units for constituting a certain piece of electronic equipment respectively constitute nodes in a hierarchical structure according to the manufacturing steps and the like of the electronic equipment; and in each of the segments, not only parts information about parts manufactured or parts used but also manufacture information about materials used in manufacturing the parts, manufacturing conditions, operators, facilities used and the like are managed by an information managing server. 
         [0024]    This hierarchical structure is formed depending on the relationship between the information managing servers of the respective segments. 
         [0025]    The quality control system shown in  FIG. 1  has a structure including three hierarchies. As the node of the most significant hierarchy, there is set the information managing server  100  of an assembling maker; as the nodes of the subordinate hierarchy of the most significant hierarchy, there are set the information managing server  10  of a part manufacturer  1  and the information managing server  20  of a part manufacturer  2 ; and, as the subordinate hierarchy nodes of the information managing server  10  of the part manufacturer  1 , there are set the information managing server  11  of a part manufacturer  11  and the information managing server  12  of a part manufacturer  12 . 
         [0026]    Further, the information managing server  100  of the assembling manufacturer is connected to an assembling line for carrying out an assembling processing. Thus, the information managing server  100  manages manufacture information about the manufacture of the electronic equipment including part information about parts assembled together as well as trouble part information about the troubles or failures of parts found in the assembling line. 
         [0027]    Other information managing servers (information managing server  10 , information managing server  20 , information managing server  11 , and information managing server  12 ) (which are hereinafter generically called [information managing server] simply), which are disposed in the subordinate hierarchies of the information managing server  100  of the assembling manufacturer, respectively manage the manufacture information including part information about parts used in the segments of the respective hierarchies or about parts manufactured there as well as trouble part information about troubles found in such parts. 
         [0028]    That is, the information managing servers of the respective hierarchies manage the manufacture information about the parts. 
         [0029]      FIG. 2  shows a detailed structure of an information managing server in the above case. 
         [0030]    The information managing server shown in  FIG. 2  includes a trouble information collecting portion  101 , a time series distribution forming portion  102 , a change point extracting portion  103 , a change amount calculating portion  104 , a trouble related information forming portion  105 , a storage portion  106 , a relationship analyzing portion  107 , a manufacture information managing portion  108 , and a trouble information storing portion  109 . 
         [0031]    When trouble information relating to a trouble occurred in a certain piece of electronic equipment is received or such trouble information is input by a manager, the trouble information collecting portion  101  not only analyzes the contents of the trouble according to the trouble information but also, according to other piece of trouble information stored in the trouble information storing portion  109 , classifies the analyzed trouble contents into a group of the same or similar trouble contents and stores them as the related trouble information. 
         [0032]    When the troubles in the trouble information at the then time are shown by error numbers respectively, the trouble shown by the error number is classified according to a trouble error group code; or, when the trouble information is shown by a character string, the trouble is classified according to a keyword searched by a keyword search. 
         [0033]    When troubles are classified into a group of the same or similar troubles according to the contents of the troubles, the trouble information collecting portion  101  demands the time series distribution forming portion  102  to form the time series distribution of the occurrence rates of the classified trouble contents (“trouble occurrence rates”) and also the time series distribution of the use rates concerning parts involved with the trouble contents (“part use rates”). 
         [0034]    On receiving the time series distribution forming demand from the trouble information collecting portion  101 , the time series distribution forming portion  102 , firstly, according to trouble contents which are the same as or similar to the trouble contents classified by the trouble information collecting portion  101 , forms the occurrence rates of the trouble contents in a time series manner. 
         [0035]      FIG. 3  shows an example of a distribution of the occurrence rates of the trouble contents in the above case. 
         [0036]      FIG. 3  is a time series distribution view in which the time passage is shown by the horizontal axis, while the occurrence rates of the trouble contents are shown by the vertical axis. In  FIG. 3 , there is shown a distribution of the trouble occurrence rates of “troubles A” which occurred on the “manufactured day” of the electronic equipment. 
         [0037]    The distribution view illustrated in  FIG. 3  shows that the trouble occurrence rate on “May 20” increases suddenly with respect to the trouble occurrence rate on “May 15”, and also shows that the trouble occurrence rate on “May 20” exceeds a given trouble occurrence rate (an allowable limit trouble occurrence rate=5%). Also, the distribution view further shows that the increase rate of the trouble occurrence rates on “May 20” is equal to or larger than a given increase rate from the trouble occurrence rate on the reference day (for example, “May 15”. 
         [0038]    The time series distribution forming portion  102 , which has formed such time series distribution of the rates of occurrences of the contents of the troubles, next, forms such a time series distribution of the use rate concerning parts involved with the contents of the troubles as shown in  FIGS. 5A and 5B . 
         [0039]    In this case, the time series distribution forming portion  102  refers to such a correspondence table between trouble contents and parts involved with the trouble contents as shown in  FIG. 4  to obtain information about parts involved with troubles having occurred (in the example shown in  FIG. 3 , the “trouble A”) from the manufacture information managing portion  108 . 
         [0040]    In  FIG. 4 , there is shown a correspondence table between trouble contents and parts involved with the trouble contents; and, the correspondence table of  FIG. 4  includes a “trouble content” item  401  revealing the contents of troubles having occurred, and a “list of parts involved” item  402  revealing parts involved with the trouble contents shown in the “trouble content” item  401 . 
         [0041]    For example, when the “trouble content” item  401  corresponds to the “trouble A”, the parts involved are shown in the “list of parts involved” item  402 , thereby revealing that the parts are a “part X” and a “part Y”. 
         [0042]    Also, it is shown that the parts involved with the “trouble B” are a “part K”, a “part L”, a “part M” and the like. 
         [0043]    From this correspondence table, as the parts involved with the “trouble A”, there are specified a “part X” and a “part Y” and thus, information about these parts is obtained from the manufacture information managing portion  108 . 
         [0044]    When there are specified the parts involved with the trouble contents having occurred in this manner, the time series distribution forming portion  102 , next, according to the information about the parts obtained from the manufacture information managing portion  108 , forms a distribution view in which, for the respective parts, the rates of use of respective manufacturing lines where they were manufactured are distributed in a time series manner. 
         [0045]    The manufacturing lines for manufacturing the parts are set in the respective segments shown in  FIG. 1  and are used to manufacture and assemble the parts. The manufacturing lines are also designated as “lots”. 
         [0046]    Examples of the time series distribution views formed in this manner are shown in  FIGS. 5A and 5B . 
         [0047]      FIGS. 5A and 5B  are views where the use rates concerning the “part X” and “part Y”, which are parts involved when the “trouble A” has occurred, are shown in the respective lots such as the manufacturing lines. 
         [0048]      FIG. 5A  is a view of distribution of the use rates of the respective manufacturing lines for manufacturing the “part X”.  FIG. 5B  is a view of distribution of use rates of the respective manufacturing lines for manufacturing the “part Y”. 
         [0049]      FIG. 5A  shows that the “part X” is manufactured in three manufacturing lines (that is, a lot X 1 , a lot X 2 , and a lot X 3 ), while the use rates of the respective manufacturing lines for the “part Y” are shown by their manufacturing days. 
         [0050]    The rate of use in  FIG. 5A  shows that, at the time of May 10, the parts X manufactured in the lot X 1  are used more than the parts X manufactured in the lots X 2  and X 3  for manufacturing the electronic equipments; however,  FIG. 5A  also shows that, at the time of May 15, the difference between the use rate of the lot X 1  for manufacturing the parts X and the use rate of the lot X 2  for manufacturing the parts X is smaller than the difference at the time of May 10. 
         [0051]    Further,  FIG. 5A  shows that, at the time of May 20, an increase rate from the reference day (in  FIG. 5A , May 15) is a given rate or higher, whereby the use rate of the lot X 2  for manufacturing the parts X is higher than that of the lot X 1  for manufacturing the parts X. 
         [0052]    Here,  FIG. 5A  shows that, at the time of May 20, the use rate of the parts X manufactured in the lot X 3  tends to decrease, although slightly, when compared with the use rate thereof at the time of May 10. 
         [0053]    On the other hand,  FIG. 5B  shows that the parts Y are manufactured in the two manufacturing lines (that is, lot Y 1  and lot Y 2 ) and, specifically, it shows that the use rates of the respective manufacturing lines for manufacturing the parts Y are shown by their manufacturing days.  FIG. 5B  also shows that the use rates of the respective manufacturing lines for manufacturing the parts Y continue substantially constantly although they vary slightly. 
         [0054]    In this manner, the time series distribution forming portion  102  forms the time series distribution of the use rates concerning the parts involved with the trouble contents for the respective manufacturing lines. 
         [0055]    After the time series distribution forming portion  102  forms these time series distribution views, time series distribution forming portion  102  demands the change point extracting portion  103  to extract change points in the time series distribution views. On receiving the extraction demand, the change point extracting portion  103  extracts change points according to the time series distribution views respectively shown in  FIGS. 3 and 5 . 
         [0056]    The change point is a point at which the number of trouble occurrences increases at a given rate or higher or provides a given rate of occurrence and also which characterizes the states of the trouble occurrences; however, actually, the change point is shown by a given range. 
         [0057]    In the time series distribution view shown in  FIG. 3 , the time, when the occurrence of troubles exceeding the allowable limit occurrence rate (5%) set as a given value and an increase rate from the reference day reaching and exceeding a given rate are detected, is May 20; and, therefore, the change point of the trouble occurrence rate is extracted as “May 15˜May 20”. 
         [0058]    Here, although, in the above-mentioned example using  FIG. 3 , as the change point, there is shown a point where the number of trouble occurrences increases at a given rate or higher and also exceeds a given value (allowable limit occurrence rate), actually, a point satisfying at least one of these two conditions is extracted as the change point. 
         [0059]    Also, referring to the time series distribution view shown in  FIG. 5A ,  FIG. 5A  shows that the use rate of the lot X 2  for manufacturing the parts X increases at a given rate or higher from the reference day (in  FIG. 5A , May 15); and,  FIG. 5A  also shows that the use rate of the part X manufactured in the lot X 1  decreases at a given rate or higher from the reference day (in  FIG. 5A , May 15). 
         [0060]    On the other hand, from  FIG. 5B , it can be determined that no change of a given rate or higher is found. 
         [0061]    Due to this, in the change point extracting portion  103 , the change point of the use rate concerning the part X is extracted in the form of May 15˜May 20. 
         [0062]    Here, in  FIGS. 5A and 5B , the use rates the respective manufacturing lines for the parts are distributed in a time series manner. Besides this, there may also be employed a structure in which, as shown in  FIG. 8 , the rates of manufacture by the respective operators involved with the manufacture of parts are distributed in a time series manner and, using such time series distribution view, the change point can be extracted. Here, in the time series distribution shown in  FIG. 8 , the rates of production concerning an operator  1  and an operator  2  vary at a given rate or higher between May 15 and May 20; and, therefore, as the change point, there is extracted the range of May 15˜May 20. 
         [0063]    When the change point extracting portion  103  extracts the respective change points in this manner, the change point extracting portion  103  sends information about these change points and information about the use rates concerning the parts in the change points to the change amount calculating portion  104  of the relationship analyzing portion  107 . Here, when the change points cannot be extracted by the change point extracting portion  103 , the change point extracting portion  103  informs the change amount calculating portion  104  of this effect. 
         [0064]    When the change amount calculating portion  104  receives the information about the change points, and also even when the change points cannot be extracted, the change rate calculating portion  104  calculates the change amount (change rate) of the use rates in the change points extracted by the change amount calculating portion  104 .  FIGS. 6A and 6B  show the thus calculated change amounts by the respective manufacturing lines (lots) at the then time. 
         [0065]      FIGS. 6A and 6B  are view in which, when troubles having occurred belong to the “trouble A”, the change amounts of the parts X and Y involved with the “trouble A” in their respective manufacturing lines (lots) are shown. 
         [0066]      FIG. 6A  shows the change amounts of the part use rates concerning the “parts X” in the change points; and  FIG. 6A  includes a “change point extraction trouble” item  601 , an “involved lot” item  602  and a “change amount of use rate” item  603 . 
         [0067]    The “change point extraction trouble” item  601  shows the content of the trouble and, specifically, as the trouble that has occurred, there is shown the “trouble A”. The “involved lot” item  602  shows the information about the “part X” manufacturing lines involved with the “trouble A” shown in the “change point extraction trouble” item  601 ; and, specifically, it shows that the “parts X” are manufactured in the “lot X 1 ”, “lot X 2 ” and “lot X 3 ”. Also, the change amount of use rate” item  603  shows the change amounts in the change points, that is, the increase or decrease rates. Specifically, the change amount of use rate” item  603  shows that, for the “parts X” manufactured in the “lot X 1 ”, the increase or decrease rate in the change point thereof is −32%; for the “parts X” manufactured in the “lot X 2 ”, the increase or decrease rate in the change point thereof is +40%; and, for the “parts X” manufactured in the “lot X 3 ”, the increase or decrease rate in the change point thereof is +2%. 
         [0068]    On the other hand,  FIG. 6B  shows the change amounts of the part use rates of the “parts Y” in the change points thereof; and,  FIG. 6B , similarly to  FIG. 6A , includes a “change point extraction trouble” item  601 , an “involved lot” item  602  and a “change amount of use rate” item  603 . 
         [0069]    In the “change point extraction trouble” item  601 , as the trouble that has occurred, there is shown the “trouble A”; and, in the “involved lot item  602 ”, as the manufacturing lines of the “parts Y”, there are shown a “lot Y 1 ” and a “lot Y 2 ”. Also, the change amount of use rate” item  603  shows that the increase or decrease rate in the change points of the “parts Y” manufactured in the “lot Y 1 ” is +2%, and the increase or decrease rate in the change points of the “parts Y” manufactured in the “lot Y 2 ” is −3%. 
         [0070]    The change rate calculating portion  104  informs the trouble related information forming portion  105  of information about the change amounts of the part use rates in the change points calculated in the change amount calculating portion  104 . 
         [0071]    The trouble related information forming portion  105 , from the information about the change amounts calculated by the change amount calculating portion  104 , forms trouble related information serving as information (in the above example, the lots representing the manufacturing lines) that is determined to be related to the cause of the trouble. 
         [0072]    The trouble related information is, for example, such information as shown in  FIG. 7 . The trouble related information shown in  FIG. 7  designates information about a manufacturing line of a given threshold value or more, of the change amounts of the part use rates of the parts in the change point thereof. 
         [0073]      FIG. 7  includes an “involved lot” item  701  and a “change amount of use rate” item  702 , while  FIG. 7  shows information about a manufacturing line (lot) in which the change amount of the use rates of the parts exceeds the threshold value of 7%. 
         [0074]    In the “change amount of use rate” item  702 , there are shown, as the change amounts, −32% and +40% respectively. And, in the “involved lot” item  701 , there are shown, as the manufacturing lines, the “lot X 1  and lot X 2 ” respectively. 
         [0075]    When the trouble information including such information is formed by the trouble related information forming portion  105 , the thus formed trouble information is stored into the storage portion  106 . Here, when the trouble information is formed in the trouble related information forming portion  105  and is stored into the storage portion  106 , the relationship analyzing portion  107  obtains information for specifying the segments of the manufacturing lines (in the above-mentioned example, the “lot X 1 ” and “lot X 2 ”) specified by the trouble information, and then transmits the trouble information based on the thus obtained information. 
         [0076]    The segments are, as shown in  FIG. 1 , parts manufacturers and the like (that is, for the side for transmitting the trouble information, the nodes of the subordinate hierarchies) Thus, the information about the trouble is transmitted to the information managing servers of the above-specified segments. 
         [0077]    And, the information managing server, who has received the information about the trouble, specifies the segments of the further subordinate hierarchies involved with the trouble according to the information about the trouble, and transmits the information about the trouble to the information managing servers of the specified segments. 
         [0078]    For example, suppose the part manufacturer  1  of the part X is manufacturing the part X using a part a (which is manufactured by the part manufacturer  11 ) and a part b (which is manufactured by the part manufacturer  12 ), when the information managing server  10  of the part manufacturer  1  receives information about the part X from the information managing server  100  of the assembling manufacturer, it specifies the factors of the trouble according to the thus received information. 
         [0079]    Here, when it is specified that the trouble is caused by the part a, the information managing server  10  of the part manufacturer  1  transmits the information about the trouble to the information managing server  11  of the part manufacturer  11 . Also, when parts a respectively manufactured by different manufacturers are used according to the lots of the part X, the information managing server  10  of the part manufacturer  1  specifies the lot that has caused the trouble, and then it specifies the manufacturer of the part a used in the specified lot. 
         [0080]      FIG. 9  is a flow chart to show the flow of the processings that are carried out by the information managing servers of a control system according to the exemplary embodiment of the invention. 
         [0081]    In  FIG. 9 , when the information managing server receives information showing the occurrence of a trouble, it starts the processing thereof and also, based on the other pieces of trouble information, it classifies the contents of the analyzed troubles into a group of the same or similar trouble contents and adds them up (S 901 ). 
         [0082]    And, the distribution of the rates of occurrence of the contents of the classified and totaled troubles is formed in a time series manner (S 902 ). Next, a part involved with the trouble content is specified (S 903 ), and there are formed such time series distributions of the use rates of the respective parts as shown in  FIG. 5A and 5B  (S 904 ). 
         [0083]    The rates of use of the respective parts are calculated from the thus formed time series distributions of the part use rates (S 905 ) and, based on the calculated use rates of the respective parts, there are calculated the change amounts of the use rates in a period of time which is used for extraction of the above-mentioned change points (S 906 ). 
         [0084]    It is checked whether the change amount is equal to or larger than a threshold value (S 907 ). When the change amount is found equal to or larger than a threshold value (in S 907 , Yes), there is formed trouble related information including information for specifying such manufacturing lines (lots) of a part as shown in  FIG. 7  the change amount of which is equal to or larger than a threshold value (S 908 ). 
         [0085]    When the change amount is found not equal to or larger than a threshold value (in S 907 , No), or after the processing of S 908  is carried out, it is checked whether the processings of S 905  to S 908  have been carried out on all of parts specified (S 909 ). When it is found that the processings have not been carried out on all of the parts (in S 909 , No), these processings are carried out on such parts. Also, when it is found that the processings have been carried out on all of the parts (in S 909 , Yes), the formed trouble related information is transmitted to the information managing server of a segment in charge of the manufacturing line for manufacturing a part the change amount of the use rate of which contained in such trouble related information is equal to or larger than a threshold value (S 910 ). 
         [0086]    Here, the invention can also execute the above-mentioned operations using a quality control system having a communication function, or can structure a quality control system which, from a recording medium (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or the like) for storing therein a program for structuring the above-mentioned units, installs the program into a computer and allows the computer to execute the program to thereby executes the above-mentioned processings. To the computer constituting the quality control system, there are connected a CPU (Central Processor Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and a hard disk. The CPU executes its processing using the RAM as its operation area according to a program stored in the ROM or hard disk. 
         [0087]    Also, a medium for supplying a program may also be a communication medium (a medium such as a communication line or a communication system which holds a program temporarily or in a fluid manner). For example, the program may also be put up on the BBS (Bulletin Board Service) of the communication network and distribute it through a communication line. 
         [0088]    The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obviously, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with the various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents.