Website system and method for providing on-line data-exchange and a collaborative service of return and repair process

The present invention discloses a website system for providing on-line data-exchange and a collaborative service for return and repair processes via a network. The website system has: a website server connected to the network, which has: a database for storing attribute data provided by each member of the service community and generated by the website system; an access controlling means for generating a user ID code for each member of the service community according to the attribute information; a data exchanging means for providing three different interfaces for three parties, respectively, to receive and exchange different data real-time from three parties, the interface having a plurality of unified data formats; a return material authorization (RMA) processor for generating an RMA for a proper repair center and a service requester and managing a life cycle of the RMA, when receiving a service request with the associated data of a returned product from the service requester; a repair execution system (RES) connected to the RMA processor, for administering and tracking a repair activity (process) of the returned product, according to repair data provided by the repair center; a bill evaluating system for evaluating a bill of the repair activity (process) of the returned product for involved parties intelligently, according to the repair data and a predetermined bill splitting rule; and a part procuring system for processing parts procurement for the repair activity (process) by gaining repair data from the RES and the repair center, and sending part data to the product supplier and the bill evaluating system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the following detailed description numerous specific detailed are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances well known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detailed so as not to obscure the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 1 . FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the website system 100 according to the present invention. The website system 100 provides on-line data-exchange and a collaborative service for return and repair processes via a network 40 . The website system 100 enables integration of service information from a service community. The service community includes: a service requester party 10 , a repair center party 20 , and a product supplier party 30 . The website system 100 includes: a website server 110 connected to the network 40 , a database 120 , an access controlling means 130 , a data exchanging means 140 , a return material authorization (RMA) processor 150 , a repair execution system (RES) 160 , a bill evaluating system 170 and a part procuring system 180 . Please refer to FIG.2 . FIG. 2 is a main flowchart of the present invention. The following description explains more detail about the processing steps of the present invention. Step 201: the present invention provides the website system 100 on the network 40 for connecting three parties of the service community togetrher. The website system 100 provides a return and repair information processing platform for three parties 10 , 20 , 30 of the service community. Step 202: The website system 100 requests every joining member to provide associated attribute information and stores the information in the database 120 . The attribute information of member profile may include company location, business domain, product type, etc. Step 203: The access controlling means 130 of the website system 100 generates a user ID code for each member according to the attribute information to define a proper party role for every login user. Furthermore, every member of the service community can be defined as more than one party role and have more than one different user ID codes. Step 204: the data exchanging means 140 provides three different interfaces for three parties, respectively, to receive and exchange different data real-time from three parties. Additionally, the access controlling means 130 further comprises a power limiting means 132 for defining usage limitation of exchanged data for each party by controlling the content of the interfaces of the data exchanging means 140 . Please refer to FIG.3 . FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of user access controlling of the present invention. Therefore, when a user logins into the website system 100 and input its ID code, the website system 100 will identify the party role for the user and display a respective interface. The interface has a plurality of unified data formats for the user to input data and to obtain exchanged data. However, the power limiting means 132 enables a website system administrator to determine the interface with different information items for each party, respectively. Step 205: the website system 100 receives a service request for a returned product, the service request includes associated data of the returned product from a service requester. The service requester can be a customer, an OEM, a CEM, or an ASC. The associated data may include a series number and a failure description inputted by the service requester. After the website system 100 displays the respective interface to a login user of the service requester party 10 . The user utilizes the information items of the displaying interface determined by the power limiting means 132 to input data in a unified data format. Step 206: the return material authorization (RMA) processor 150 generates an RMA of the returned product for a proper repair center and the service requester and manages a life cycle of the RMA. The life cycle of the RMA includes status, turn-around time (TAT), yield rate, failure rate, and part usage. Please refer to FIG.4 . FIG. 4 shows a service route drawing of the three parties of the present invention. The return material authorization (RMA) processor 150 further comprises an intelligent service routing means 152 for determining the proper repair center for each service request according to the location of the repair center provided by the user ID. The intelligent service routing means 152 deals with how to process the RMA, RMA shipping information, parts purchasing order (PO) and part shipping information are routed to the right destination. RMA shipping information is the detailed information of RMA product shipped from or to CEM, such as request date, shipped date, types of transportation and carrier name etc. This information as well as RMA are routed between the service requester and the repair center, which both can view this information. Similarly, parts purchasing order (PO) and parts shipping information are routed between the repair center and product supplier. When the data exchanging means 140 receives the service request with the associated data of at least one returned product from the service requester to generate a RMA No to send to the service requester and the repair center. Step 207: the repair execution system (RES) 160 is connected to the RMA processor 150 , the repair execution system 160 administers and tracks a repair process of the returned product(s), according to repair data provided by the repair center. The repair execution system 160 receives repair data for a repair process of the returned product(s) provided from the repair center party and shares repair data with the other parties. The repair data includes return product(s) data, broken symptom, replaced part and repair result etc. The repair execution system 160 further monitors any quality issue discovered in the repair process and altering quality control personnel. Step 208: the bill evaluating system 170 evaluates a bill of the repair process of the returned product(s) for involved parties intelligently, according to the repair data and a predetermined bill splitting rule. The predetermined splitting rule includes a warranty agreement provided by the product supplier party and repair execution. Please refer to FIG.5 . FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of service charge billing of the present invention. The bill includes the repair cost, the parts procurement cost, and the other return and repair related cost. The bill evaluating system 170 solves the problem of how to split service charge to the product supplier, the repair center and the service requester. Basically, the charge is allocated according to warranty, symptom code and repair result. 1) Warranty is managed by one of the following ways. Serial number inference—The ability to inference warranty information by the serial number of repair item. The suppliers provide the algorithm. Best judgment algorithm—it can be stored as business policy in the product supplier member profile. 2) Symptom code indicates the cause of failure of repair item. The cause decides the charge responsibility. Additionally, repair result (pass or scrap) also has effects on the charge splitting. Step 209: the part procuring system 180 processes parts procurement for the repair process by gaining repair data from the RES and the repair center, and sends part data to the product supplier and the bill evaluating system. Please refer to FIG.6 . FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of inventory managing of the present invention. The part procuring system 180 further comprises a part logistic means 182 . The part logistic means 182 is connected to every inventory database of the repair center party and the product supplier party and the part logistic means 182 orders lacking parts for the repair process from the related product supplier. The part logistic means 182 enables users to set, view, adjust and add inventory. The part logistic means 182 also creates alert information, which could lead to PO if users confirm the alert. Delivery lead-time is the time from the part logistic means 182 sending PO to the time the part logistic means 182 receiving shipment. As shown in FIG. 6 a , the part logistic means 182 initiates data provided by different the repair center members. Wherein Daily depletion speed of parts&equals;annual consumption of parts/365 or&equals;monthly consumption of parts/days in that month Expected holding inventory is the amount of inventory that the part logistic means 182 wants to carry. ATP (available-to-promise) inventory is available-to-promise inventory, ATP&equals;on-hand physical inventory−on-order parts from repair center&plus;on-ship parts from product supplier. As shown in FIG. 6 b , the part logistic means 182 generates an order to product supplier. Wherein Re-ordering point&equals;delivery lead time (days)×depletion speed of the parts&plus;safety inventory ATP inventory&equals;on-hand physical inventory−on-order parts from repair center. When ATP&plus;on-order parts to supplier<&equals;Re-ordering point, the website system 100 will alert the part logistic means 182 . If the part logistic means 182 agrees to place an order, a PO (purchasing order) will be issued to the supplier. Quantity of Order&equals;Expected Holding inventory−Safety Inventory, expected holding inventory is the inventory the part logistic means 182 is willing to carry. As shown in FIG. 6 b , the part logistic means 182 updates inventory after receipt of shipment. Please refer to FIG. 7 to FIG. 16 . FIG. 7 to FIG. 16 are a series of displaying screens of a RMA process for three parties of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 7, a service requester, “Inventec”, logins in the website system 100 , the website system 100 displays an interface with a plurality of information items in the left side of the screen for the service requester party. The Inventec is a CEM company for the notebook product. The Inventec clicks the “RMA Request” information item with a unified data format to input request data. In order to sort the request data for the parts, the Inventec needs to select the brand of product supplier of the parts and the model type of the parts provided by different product supplier members, then the Inventec inputs the serial number and the fault description of the 9 returned parts individually, on the date: Dec. 12, 2000. The website system 100 tells if the returned part is in warranty by the serial number. The series number indicates manufacturing data about the returned product, like producing factory, producing time, etc., which is predetermined by the respective product supplier member. As shown in FIG. 8 , after the Inventec finish filling 9 returned parts in the “RMA Request”, the RMA processor 150 generates a “RMA Confirmation” displaying screen automatically to the Inventec. The “RMA Confirmation” displays a RMA No. “DPT00L220”, the content of request and a selected proper repair center “Display Products Technology” (DPT) and associated data in the “RMA Confirmation”. As shown in FIG. 9, a “RMA Summary” information item will be displayed a RMA status summary for the Inventec, the Inventec can choose different statuses of RMA and different date range to obtain the life cycle of the RMA, which is transferred by the data exchanging means 140 and provided by the related repair center. In FIG. 9 , according to the chosen condition, the life cycle of the RMA No. “DPT00L220” is shown in the RMA status summary from the date: Nov. 19, 2000 to the date: Dec. 19, 2000. When the RMA processor 150 generates the RMA No. “DPT00L220” for the service requester, the selected repair center “DPT” will also receive the data of RMA No. “DPT00L220”. First, all relative RAM is shown in a “RMA List“ displaying, as shown in FIG. 10 . For more detail data, the DPT can enter in a “RMA Receiving” displaying to obtain the data transferred by the data exchanging means 140 and provided by the Inventec. After the DPT finishes repair work for the RMA No. “DPT00L220”, the DPT needs to report a broken symptom and a repair result in a “RMA Closing” displaying for each returned part of the RMA No. “DPT00L220”, as shown in FIG. 12 . After closing the RMA, the DPT has to ship the repaired parts back to the Inventec. As shown in FIG. 13, a “RMA Shipping” displaying shows all RMAs an associated data needed to be shipped to the Inventec. For generating a shipping list for the two selected RMA items in FIG. 13 , the DPT inputs more detail shipping information for this shipment. For the product supplier—“TOSHIBA” company, the interface of the website system 100 provides several different RMA reports, such as TAT report, failure rate report, yield rate report, RMA detail report, etc., as shown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16 . So the TOSHIBA can observe the quality of the its parts and study the failure reason to improve. The present invention provides several premier advantages over other alternatives: The application of the present invention provides can be customary designed for the repair and return process. No “duct tape” system in picture. All the return and repair process related information is stored in a centralized location with unified format. It makes the task of information sharing easily achieved. The present invention becomes the major coordinator of collaboration. No member needs to take the burden as the beacon for process streamlining. There is only one set of applications running in the present invention. The development and maintenance cost for the software is thus lower. No additional installation cost for the members, either. The operating cost of the present invention can be evenly shared by the members. But most importantly, the present invention employs a “pull” mechanism instead of the “push” mechanism imposed by the network. The present invention pulls the information out from its database, aggregate the information if necessary, and present the aggregated information to members in a unified format. Furthermore, the present invention can pull the data from members' information system and then compile and aggregate this information. In short, the present invention now serves as the centralized information aggregator and feeds appropriate information to its members. The e2R (eReturn&Repair) paradigm is a new thought that advocates using Internet as a platform for the return and repair process. With the rapid growth of today's net economy, e2R is the natural next step for the fast growing B2B e-commerce. In the meantime, the present invention model solves many issues regarding the information sharing and enterprise collaboration, which are the major problems for today's return and repair process. By adapting the present invention model as the foundation, companies can now start moving toward to e2R (eReturn&Repair) paradigm to streamline the two R processes. Some company, mostly major OEM, is taking the role as the present invention in order to promote the e2R paradigm while some new start-up company is entering the e2R market as the present invention. Regardless the present invention is initiated by the OEM or third party, the importance of e2R has been well perceived among the industries. There is no doubt that the e2R is the next major trend in the B2B e-commerce. The only question that remains is which companies will emerge as leaders adopting this new paradigm quickly for competitive advantages, and which will be the followers. For companies that want to streamline their return and repair process, reduce the waste and get better quality control, e2R can provide these and many other benefits. The rapid maturation of Internet technologies has made e2R much easier to implement and more cost effective than other paradigms such as extranet. In addition, e2R paradigm can be part of the many-ends-to-many-ends eBusiness integration approach that includes business process automation inside the enterprise, with repairing partners and customers over the Internet. With e2R paradigm, the eBusiness integration can now cover all aspects of the business process. Although the present invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.