Patent Publication Number: US-2016224948-A1

Title: Maintenance management device and maintenance management method

Description:
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE 
     This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-016516 filed on Jan. 30, 2015, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-016517 filed on Jan. 30, 2015, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. 
     BACKGROUND 
     This disclosure relates to a maintenance management device and a maintenance management method. 
     An electronic device such as an image processor, in view of quality control of provided functions, requires execution of regular maintenance. Conventionally, there are a plurality of technologies related to this maintenance. For example, there is an image processor which determines whether or not a maintenance operation for recovering a state of a head at time of printing is required, upon determination that the maintenance operation is required, acquires time which has passed since the determination, and notifies the user of the acquired passage of time. Also known is a printer maintenance system which evaluates a printer from various aspects and notifies a user that maintenance is necessary. 
     SUMMARY 
     As one aspect of this disclosure, a technology obtained by further improving the technology described above will be suggested. 
     A maintenance management device according to one aspect of this disclosure includes: an operation history section and an optimum operation extraction section. 
     The operation history section, upon execution of a plurality of maintenance adjustment operations by a service man, leaves the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations as a history for the purpose of resolving a specific error. 
     The optimum operation extraction section, based on the history, extracts, as an optimum maintenance adjustment operation, a common maintenance adjustment operation executed for the specific error in common by the plurality of service men. 
     A maintenance management method according to one aspect of this disclosure includes: an operation history step of, upon execution of a plurality of maintenance adjustment operations by a service man, leaving the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations as a history for the purpose of resolving a specific error; and an optimum operation extraction step of, based on the history, extracting, as an optimum maintenance adjustment operation, the common maintenance adjustment operation executed for the specific error in common by a plurality of service men. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a conceptual diagram showing overall configuration of an image processor provided with a maintenance management section according to an embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 2  is a functional block diagram of the image processor and the maintenance management section according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating execution procedures according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 4A  is a diagram showing one example of a service man call screen according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 4B  is a diagram showing one example of a maintenance adjustment operation table according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 5A  is a diagram showing one example of a maintenance screen according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 5B  is a diagram showing one example of an operation history table according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 6A  is a diagram showing one example of the operation history table according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 6B  is a diagram showing one example of a user maintenance screen according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 7A  is a diagram showing one example of the operation history table according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 7B  is a diagram showing one example of a manager maintenance screen according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 8A  is a diagram showing one example of the operation history table according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 8B  is a diagram showing one example of an all user maintenance screen according to the embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 9  is a functional block diagram of an image processor and a maintenance management section according to another embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 10  is a flowchart showing execution procedures according to another embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 11A  is a diagram showing one example of a service man call screen according to another embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 11B  is a diagram showing one example of a maintenance adjustment operation table according to another embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 12A  is a diagram showing one example of a maintenance screen according to another embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 12B  is a diagram showing one example of an operation history table according to another embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 13A  is a diagram showing one example of the operation history table according to another embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 13B  is a diagram showing one example of a maintenance screen provided with optimum maintenance adjustment operations according to another embodiment of this disclosure; 
         FIG. 14A  is a diagram showing one example of the operation history table according to another embodiment of this disclosure; and 
         FIG. 14B  is a diagram showing one example of the operation history table according to another embodiment of this disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, embodiments of a maintenance management device and a maintenance management method of this disclosure will be described for better understanding of this disclosure. Note that the embodiments below are each a detailed example of this disclosure and thus do not limit a technical range of this disclosure. An alphabet S marked in front of each number in flowcharts means a step. 
     Hereinafter, as one example of the embodiments of this disclosure, an image processor provided with a maintenance management device (maintenance management section) will be described. As the image processor, for example, a multifunction peripheral (MFP) combining facsimile, copy, scanner, and printer functions, a copier, or a printer can be adopted. 
     The image processor  100  receives, through an operation section  101 , setting condition of a specific job from a user, as shown in  FIG. 1 . The job includes: for example, copying, facsimile, scanning, and printing. 
     The image processor  100 , upon the reception of the setting condition of the job described above, drives each of an image reading section  102 , a paper conveyance section  103 , an image formation section  104 , etc., to execute this job. The image reading section  102  reads image data of a document loaded on a document stand or an automatic document feed section. The paper conveyance section  103  conveys paper from a paper feed cassette or a manual feed tray to the image formation section  104 . The image formation section  104  transfers, onto the conveyed paper, a toner image corresponding to the image data and fixes it with a fixing roller to execute image formation. 
     The image processor  100  has a maintenance management section  105  built therein, and the maintenance management section  105  displays a service man call screen at the operation section  101  upon occurrence of a specific error (for example, blurred printing) in the image processor  100 . Upon display of a maintenance screen through the operation section  101  by a service man, the maintenance management section  105  displays a plurality of maintenance adjustment operations for resolving the error described above, urging the service man to sequentially execute the maintenance adjustment operations. The maintenance management section  105  records the maintenance adjustment operations executed by the service man, and extracts the optimum maintenance adjustment operation capable of resolving the specific error. Upon reoccurrence of the specific error, the maintenance management section  105  displays an execute key for executing processing corresponding to the optimum maintenance adjustment operation described above, and upon selection of this execute key by the user, the maintenance management section  105  executes the specific processing described above to thereby resolve the specific error. 
     Note that control circuits of the image processor  100  and the maintenance management section  105  connect together, with an internal bus, a central processing unit (CPU), a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a hard disc drive (HDD), a solid state drive (SSD), and drivers corresponding to respective driving sections, all not shown. 
     The CPU of the image processor  100  and the maintenance management section  105  uses, for example, the RAM as a working area, executes a program stored in, for example, the ROM, the HDD, or the SSD, receives data, instructions, signals, commands, etc. from the driver based on results of the aforementioned execution, and controls an operation of each driving section related to the job execution. Moreover, for various sections (shown in  FIG. 2 ), to be described below, other than the driving sections, the CPU executes each program to thereby realize each of the various sections. Stored in the ROM, the RAM, the HDD, the SSD, etc. are a program and data for realizing the various sections described below. 
     Next, with reference to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , configuration and execution procedures according to the embodiment of this disclosure will be described. First, upon occurrence of a specific error (for example, blurred printing) for some reason during use of the image processor  100  after user authentication through the operation section  101  of the image processor  100  (S 101  of  FIG. 3 ), a sensor inside of the image processor  100  detects the specific error described above, interrupts an operation in use by a control section  201  of the image processor  100 , and notifies this to a processing reception and execution section  202  of the maintenance management section  105 . The processing reception and execution section  202  which has received this notice, with reference to a first memory M 1 , determines whether or not any optimum maintenance adjustment operation capable of resolving the specific error is present (S 102  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     At this point, the optimum maintenance adjustment operation is not stored, and thus as a result of the aforementioned determination, the processing reception and execution section  202  determines that no optimum maintenance adjustment operation is present (NO in S 102  of  FIG. 3 ), and notifies this to a display reception section  203  via the control section  201  of the image processor  100 . The display reception section  203  which has received this notice displays a service man call screen  400  on a touch panel of the operation section  101  (S 103  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     Displayed on the service man call screen  400  are: as shown in  FIG. 4A , a message  401  indicating the service man call screen; a message  402  indicating that an error has occurred; an error code  403  corresponding to the occurring specific error; and a message  404  urging a user to make contact with a service man. 
     While viewing the service man call screen, the user makes contact with a specific service man (for example, a service man A) and makes him/her come over, and requests this service man A for resolving the specific error. After the user authentication in the image processor  100 , the service man A operates a specific portion of the image processor  100  or the operation section  101  or performs a specific operation through the operation section  101  to thereby input, into the control section  201  of the image processor  100 , a specific instruction for shifting to a maintenance mode. Only a service man is permitted to input the specific instruction. 
     The control section  201  which has received the instruction notifies this to a maintenance control section  204  of the maintenance management section  105 , and the maintenance control section  204  which has received this notice shifts from a normal mode to the maintenance mode (YES in S 104  of  FIG. 3 ), and refers to a maintenance adjustment operation table  405  stored in a second memory M 2 . 
     On the maintenance adjustment operation table  405 , as shown in  FIG. 4B , adjustment items  406  (for example, “A”) for identifying respective maintenance adjustment operations and maintenance adjustment operation  407  (for example, “aging”) respectively corresponding to the adjustment items  406  are stored in association with each other. 
     Here, the maintenance adjustment operation  407  means an operation executed by the service man for resolving the specific error, and as a result of directing this operation to the maintenance management section  105  by the service man, processing corresponding to this operation is executed. 
     For example, the “aging” means processing of driving an engine (motor) of, for example, a photoconductor or a developing roller of the image formation section  104  for a specific period of time, and “image reading adjustment” means processing of executing document image data reading processing by the image reading section  102  and determining whether or not image reading can be done properly based on results of this processing. Moreover, “color shift adjustment” means processing of performing image formation on a full-color specific test pattern by the image formation section  104  and determining whether or not shift is occurring on each color of the test pattern, “print margin adjustment” means processing of changing, to a predetermined initial value, a size of a blank region located around a print region where the image formation (printing) is performed by the image formation section  104 , and “conveyance quality adjustment” means processing of conveying paper by the paper conveyance section  103  and determining whether or not a paper jam occurs during the paper conveyance. An additional plurality of maintenance adjustment operations  407  are present. The maintenance adjustment operations  407  according to the embodiment of this disclosure mean processing executable by the image processor  100  and does not mean processing (for example, set value adjustment) performed thorough manual operation by the service man. 
     The maintenance control section  204  which has referred to the maintenance adjustment operation table  405  acquires the maintenance adjustment operations  407 , and by using the maintenance adjustment operations  407 , displays a maintenance screen  500  on the touch panel of the operation section  101  (S 105  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     Displayed on the maintenance screen  500  are: as shown in  FIG. 5A , a message  501  indicating the maintenance screen; the occurring specific error  502  (“error code  1 ”); maintenance adjustment operation keys  503  corresponding to the maintenance adjustment operations  407 ; an adjustment interrupt key  504  for interrupting the adjustment; and an adjustment complete key  505  for completing the adjustment. Also displayed near the maintenance adjustment operation keys  503  is a switch key  506  for separately displaying a maintenance adjustment operation key which cannot be displayed on the maintenance screen  500 . 
     To resolve the specific error  502 , while viewing the maintenance screen  500 , the service man A selects the maintenance adjustment operation key  503 , whereby the maintenance control section  204  receives a maintenance adjustment operation  408  of this maintenance adjustment operation key  503  (S 106  of  FIG. 3 ) and makes the image processor  100  execute the processing corresponding to this maintenance adjustment operation  408  (S 107  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     For example, upon selection of the “aging” key included in the maintenance adjustment operation keys  503  by the service man A, the maintenance control section  204  receives this “aging” key as the maintenance adjustment operation (S 106  of  FIG. 3 ) and makes the control section  201  execute the processing corresponding to this “aging” (S 107  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     Here, in a case where the specific error cannot be resolved even by executing the processing described above, the service man A selects another maintenance adjustment operation key  503  (S 106  of  FIG. 3 ) without selecting the adjustment complete key  505  (NO in S 108  of  FIG. 3 ) and makes the image processor  100  execute the processing corresponding to this key  503  (S 107  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     As described above, the service man A can repeatedly perform the various maintenance adjustment operations in a trial-and-error manner to thereby resolve the specific error. Here, for example, assume that the service man A selects the “aging” key, the “image reading adjustment” key, the “color shift adjustment” key, and the “print margin adjustment” key in an order just mentioned, and the maintenance control section  204  sequentially executes the processing corresponding to the respective keys. 
     Then the specific error is resolved, the sensor inside of the image processor  100  no longer detects this specific error, and the control section  201  of the image processor  100  notifies this to the maintenance control section  204 . The maintenance control section  204  which has received this notice, for example, lights up the adjustment complete key  505  of the maintenance screen  500  to notify this adjustment completion to the service man A. Upon selection of the adjustment complete key  505  by the service man A (YES in S 108  of  FIG. 3 ), the maintenance adjustment operation for the specific error completes. 
     Here, upon the completion of the maintenance adjustment operations, the maintenance control section  204  notifies this to an operation history section  205 , and the operation history section  205  which has received this notice leaves, as a history, the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations executed by the service man for resolving the specific error (S 109  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     For example, the operation history section  205  acquires the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations (for example, the “aging” and the “image reading adjustment”), which have been executed for the specific error (the “error code  1 ”) by the service man A, in an order in which they have been executed (for example, “1” and “2”). Next, the operation history section  205 , with reference to the maintenance adjustment operation table  405 , acquires the adjustment items (for example, “A”) corresponding to the acquired plurality of maintenance adjustment operations (for example, “the aging”) in the order just mentioned. Then the operation history section  205 , with reference to a predetermined operation history table  507  previously stored in a third memory M 3 , stores the specific error, the adjustment items, and the order into this operation history table  507  in association with each other. 
     On the operation history table  507 , as shown in  FIG. 5B , an error code  508  (“error code  1 ”) corresponding to the specific error, an order  509  (“1”, “2”, etc.) in which the maintenance adjustment operations have been executed, identification information  510  (“service man A”) of the service man who has executed the maintenance adjustment operations, and adjustment items  511  (for example, “A”, “B”, etc.) corresponding to the order  509  are stored in association with each other. In a case where, of the adjustment items  511 , the maintenance adjustment operations have finally completed, “adjustment complete” indicating this is stored in the last order (“5”). As a result, the maintenance adjustment operations actually performed by each service man can be left as a history. 
     Upon completion of the aforementioned storage by the operation history section  205 , this is notified to an optimum operation extraction section  206 , and the optimum operation extraction section  206  which has received this notice, based on the operation history table  507 , determines whether or not to extract the common maintenance adjustment operation executed in common by the plurality of service men for the specific error (S 110  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     Here, at this point, the operation history table  507  still has only the history of the maintenance adjustment operations performed by the single service man. In this case, there is low possibility that the specific error can be resolved through the aforementioned maintenance adjustment operations (lack of reliability). Thus, the optimum operation extraction section  206  determines not to extract the common maintenance adjustment operation (NO in S 110  of  FIG. 3 ), ending the processing. 
     On the other hand, assume that the specific error occurs again, and this time the different service man (service man B) displays the maintenance screen  500  and executes the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations to thereby resolve the specific error and completes the maintenance adjustment operations. Then in S 109 , the operation history section  205  leaves, as a history, the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations executed by the service man B (S 109  of  FIG. 3 ), and as shown in  FIG. 6A , on the operation history table  507 , the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations executed by the two different service men are left as histories. In this case, there is high possibility that the specific error can be resolved with the common maintenance adjustment operations extracted from the maintenance adjustment operations. Then in S 110 , the optimum operation extraction section  206  determines to extract the common maintenance adjustment operations (YES in S 110  of  FIG. 3 ), executing the extraction processing. 
     More specifically, the optimum operation extraction section  206  compares a plurality of adjustment items  511 A belonging to one (service man A) of the service men and a plurality of adjustment items  511 B belonging to the other one (service man B) of the service men with each other on an individual adjustment item basis and extracts the common (identical) adjustment items  511 Z (“A”, “B”, and “C”). As described above, the extraction of only the actually executed common maintenance adjustment operations can eliminate the operation assumed to be unnecessary and thereby shorten a period of time of the adjustment made by the user in the execution of the optimum maintenance adjustment operation. Moreover, permitting a general user to execute the maintenance adjustment operations may result in failure to perform a proper operation as a result of the execution of the unnecessary maintenance adjustment operation. Thus, limiting targets of extraction to the common maintenance adjustment operations can resolve the inconvenience described above. 
     Here, for the resolution of the specific error, an order of the individual maintenance adjustment operations is important in some cases. For example, in a case where the specific error is the “blurred printing”, as the optimum maintenance adjustment operations, the “aging” and then “the image reading adjustment” are executed, and then the “color shift adjustment” is executed, whereby the “blurred printing” may be effectively resolved. 
     Then the optimum operation extraction section  206  extracts the common maintenance adjustment operations, which have been executed in a common order by the plurality of service men, in the order just mentioned. For example, as shown in  FIG. 6A , in a case where the order of the common adjustment items  511 Z of one (service man A) of the service men is “A”, “B”, and “C” and the order of the common adjustment items  511 Z of the other one (service man B) of the service men is “A”, “B”, and “C”, the order of the common adjustment items is also common. In this case, the optimum operation extraction section  206  extracts the common adjustment items  511 Z “A”, “B”, and “C” in this order. As a result, the plurality of common maintenance adjustment operations which can reliably resolve the specific error can be extracted. 
     On the other hand, for example in a case where the order of the common adjustment items  511 Z of one (service man A) of the service men is “A”, “B”, and “C” and the order of the common adjustment items  511 Z of the other one (service man B) of the service men is “A”, “C”, and “B”, of the common adjustment items  511 Z, the common adjustment item  511 Z of which order is common is only “A”. In this case, the optimum operation extraction section  206  extracts the common adjustment item  511 Z “A” in this order. In other words, the common adjustment items  511 Z “B” and “C” are assumed to have no great contribution to the resolution of the specific error. As described above, the operation assumed to be unnecessary based on the order described above may be eliminated. 
     Upon completion of the extraction of the common maintenance adjustment operations (the common adjustment items  511 Z) by the optimum operation extraction section  206 , the common maintenance adjustment operations (common adjustment items  511 Z) are stored as the optimum maintenance adjustment operations for the specific error into the first memory M 1 . In a case where there are a plurality of the common maintenance adjustment operations, the optimum operation extraction section  206  creates procedures (a flow) with which the plurality of common maintenance adjustment operations are arranged in the order described above, and stores them into the first memory M 1 . As a result, the optimum maintenance adjustment operations for the specific error can be provided. 
     Then next, during use of the image processor  100  by the user, the specific error occurs, and in S 102 , the processing reception and execution section  202 , with reference to the first memory M 1 , determines that any optimum maintenance adjustment operation is present for the specific error (YES in S 102  of  FIG. 3 ). Then the processing reception and execution section  202 , through the control section  201  and the display section  203 , based on the optimum maintenance adjustment operation stored in the first memory M 1 , displays, on the touch panel of the operation section  101 , a user maintenance screen  600  to which the user can refer (S 112  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     Displayed on the user maintenance screen  600  are: as shown in  FIG. 6B , a message  601  indicating the user maintenance screen; the occurring specific error  602  (“error code  1 ”); an execute key  603  for executing the optimum maintenance adjustment operation; and an OK key  604 . 
     Upon selection of the execute key  603  by the user while viewing the user maintenance screen  600 , the processing reception and execution section  202  receives the selection of this execute key  603  (S 113  of  FIG. 3 ), and makes the image processor  100  execute the processing corresponding to the optimum maintenance adjustment operation (S 114  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     In the above, as the optimum maintenance adjustment operations, the common adjustment items  511 Z “A”, “B”, and “C” are stored in this order, and thus the processing reception and execution section  202  executes the processing of the “aging”, the “image reading adjustment”, and the “color shift adjustment” in correspondence with the common adjustment items  511 Z “A”, “B”, and “C”. As described above, providing the user with the right of executing the processing of the optimum maintenance adjustment operations which are included in the maintenance adjustment operations executed in the past by the service man and which may resolve the specific error makes it possible for even a general user to execute the processing of the maintenance adjustment operations that could not be executed by the service man, which makes it possible to eliminate labor of calling a service man and the adjustment operations by the service man. 
     As described above, the right of execution provided to the user is only the selection of the execute key  603 , and execution of the maintenance adjustment operation involving an manual operation is not permitted, and thus there is low possibility that the user comes to know details of the maintenance adjustment operations, which ensures confidentiality of this maintenance adjustment operation. 
     It is assumed that the specific error is resolved by the processing of the optimum maintenance adjustment operations, and if the specific error is not resolved, the user calls a service man, and the service man attempts to resolve the specific error through the maintenance screen  500 . 
     In this disclosure, the larger the number of service men who have executed the maintenance adjustment operations for a specific error is, the more the common maintenance adjustment operations are limited, which permits efficient extraction of the optimum maintenance adjustment operations. Thus, changing a kind of the user capable of execution in accordance with the number of operations forming the optimum maintenance adjustment operations may provide all the users with the right of executing the optimum maintenance adjustment operations reliably contributing to error resolution and may provide only authorized managers with the right of executing the optimum maintenance adjustment operations for which the error resolution is not reliable (lack of reliability). 
     For example, in a case where the number of operations forming the optimum maintenance adjustment operations exceeds a predetermined threshold value (for example, two third of the number of optimum maintenance adjustment operations stored at a first place), the processing reception and execution section  202  receives execution of the processing corresponding to the optimum maintenance adjustment operations for which only managers from among the users are provided with the right of execution. On the other hand, in a case where the number of service men who have executed the maintenance adjustment operations increases and the number of operations forming the optimum maintenance adjustment operations is equal to or smaller than the threshold value, the processing reception and execution section  202  receives execution of the processing corresponding to the optimum maintenance adjustment operations by all the users including the managers. 
     More specifically, as shown in  FIG. 7A , in a case where the three service men have executed the maintenance adjustment operations on a specific error in the past, the optimum operation extraction section  206  compares, on the operation history table  507 , a plurality of adjustment items  511 A belonging to the first service man (service man A), a plurality of adjustment items  511 B belonging to the second service man (service man B); and a plurality of adjustment items  511 C belonging to the third service man (service man C) on an individual adjustment item basis to extract the common adjustment items  511 Z (“A”, “B”, and “C”). In this case, the number of optimum maintenance adjustment operations corresponding to the common adjustment items  511 Z is “3”, and the number of the first optimum maintenance adjustment operations executed by the two service men is also “3”, which are identical. Thus, in S 102 , although the optimum maintenance adjustment operations are present, the processing reception and execution section  202  determines that the number “3” of operations forming the optimum maintenance adjustment operations exceeds the threshold value (the number of the first operations “3”×⅔=2). Then while the specific error is occurring, the processing reception and execution section  202  determines whether or not a login user for which user authentication is performed in the image processor  100  is a manager, and if this login user is the manager (user with a manager ID “AAA”), it displays, on the touch panel of the operation section  101 , a manager maintenance screen  700  to which only the manager can refer (S 112  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     Displayed on the manager maintenance screen  700  are: as shown in  FIG. 7B , a message  701  indicating the manager maintenance screen; a user ID  702  of the manager (a manager ID “AAA”); the occurring specific error  703  (“error code  1 ”); an execute key  704 ; and an OK key  705 . As a result, it is possible to select the execute key  704  only by the manager, making it possible for only the manager to make the image processor  100  execute the processing of the optimum maintenance adjustment operations. 
     On the other hand, in a case where the login user is not a manager, that is, in a case where it is a general user, the processing reception and execution section  202 , without receiving from this general user the execution of the processing corresponding to the optimum maintenance adjustment operations, notifies this to the display reception section  203 , and the display reception section  203  displays the service man call screen  400  on the touch panel of the operation section  101  (S 103  of  FIG. 3 ). In this case, the general user calls a service man to resolve the specific error. 
     Then upon resolution of the specific error by a fourth service man, as shown in  FIG. 8A , a history of the maintenance adjustment operations of the four service man is left. In this case, the optimum operation extraction section  206 , on the operation history table  507 , extracts the common adjustment items (“A” and “C”) based on the plurality of adjustment items  511 A belonging to the first service man (service man A), the plurality of adjustment items  511 B belonging to the second service man (service man B), the plurality of adjustment items  511 C belonging to the third service man (service man C), and a plurality of adjustment items  511 D belonging to the fourth service man (service man D), and the number of service men who have executed the maintenance adjustment operations consequently increases, and thus the number of optimum maintenance adjustment operations corresponding to the common adjustment items  511 Z is “2”, which is smaller than the number “3” of the first optimum maintenance adjustment operations. Thus, in S 102 , the processing reception and execution section  202  determines that the number “2” of operations forming the optimum maintenance adjustment operations is equal to or less than the threshold value (the number of the first operations “3”×⅔=2). Then when the specific error is occurring, the processing reception and execution section  202  confirms that all the users including the managers have performed user authentication with the image processor  100 , and then displays, on the touch panel of the operation section  101 , an all user maintenance screen  800  to which all the users can refer (S 112  of  FIG. 3 ). 
     Displayed on the all user maintenance screen  800  are: as shown in  FIG. 8B , a message  801  indicating a manager maintenance screen; a user ID  802  of the login user (user ID “BBB”); the occurring specific error  803  (“error code  1 ”); an execute key  804 ; and an OK key  805 . As a result, upon determination that the optimum maintenance adjustment operations can resolve the specific error with high accuracy, all the users can make the image processor  100  execute the processing of the optimum maintenance adjustment operations through the execute key  804 , making it possible to realize efficient error resolution. 
     In the embodiment of this disclosure, the optimum operation extraction section  206  puts its target on the completed maintenance adjustment operations completed by the service man when the specific error has been resolved, but different configuration may be provided. For example, the operation history section  205  may leave, as a history, the interrupted maintenance adjustment operations which have been interrupted by the service man when the specific error has not been resolved. Then permitted configuration is such that the optimum operation extraction section  206 , based on the completed maintenance adjustment operations, extracts the common maintenance adjustment operations and extract, as the preferential common maintenance adjustment operations, the common maintenance adjustment operations which are included in the interrupted maintenance adjustment operations. For example, permitted configuration is such that the optimum operation extraction section  206  extracts, as the optimum common maintenance adjustment operations, only the common maintenance adjustment operations of the completed maintenance adjustment operations not included in the interrupted maintenance adjustment operations. As a result, the maintenance adjustment operations not related to the specific error resolution can efficiently be eliminated. 
     Moreover, in the embodiment of this disclosure, it is configured such that the optimum operation extraction section  206  extracts the common maintenance adjustment operations, which have been executed by the plurality of service men in a common order, in this order, but different configuration may be provided. As described above, for the specific error resolution, an order of the individual maintenance adjustment operations is important in some cases, but executing the common maintenance adjustment operations not in order resolves the specific error in some cases. In this case, the optimum operation extraction section  206  may extract all the common maintenance adjustment operations without considering the order, and the maintenance control section  204  may display all the common maintenance adjustment operations as the optimum maintenance adjustment operations. 
     Moreover, in the embodiment of this disclosure, it is configured such that, in a case where only a history of maintenance adjustment operations performed by the single service man is present on the operation history table  507 , the optimum operation extraction section  206  does not extract the common maintenance adjustment operations, but different configuration may be provided. For example, even for the less reliable maintenance adjustment operation, the manager may be provided with the right of execution. Thus, for example, permitted configuration is such that the optimum operation extraction section  206  may extract, as the common maintenance adjustment operations, the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations executed by the single service man, and the processing reception and execution section  202  may receive, only from the manager, execution of the processing corresponding to the common maintenance adjustment operations executed by the single service man. As a result, the common maintenance adjustment operations can be open to the manager as much as possible. 
     Moreover, in the embodiment of this disclosure, it is configured such that, upon occurrence of the specific error, in a case where the optimum maintenance adjustment operation is present (YES in S 102  of  FIG. 3 ), the processing reception and execution section  202  receives the execution of the processing corresponding to the optimum maintenance adjustment operation through the user maintenance screen  600 , but different configuration may be provided. For example, permitted configuration is such that, in a case where a user maintenance key prompting user maintenance is previously prepared on the service man call screen  400  or a normal operation screen and the user selects this user maintenance key, the processing reception and execution section  202  displays the user maintenance screen  600  again. 
     Typically, only service men can operate a maintenance-related software of an electronic device, and normal users cannot operate this software. Thus, in a case where a specific error occurs in, for example, this electronic device, the user calls a service man and requests this service man for resolving the specific error. As described above, preventing a general user from operating the software prevents operation stop of the electronic device as a result of operating the software. 
     However, in a case where the specific error frequently occurs, the only thing the user can do is calling a service man, thus bringing about a problem of much labor and time on both a user side and a service man side. Moreover, permitting the user to perform only operations capable of resolving the specific error to allow execution of an operation of the software by the user himself or herself no longer requires the labor and time for calling a service man. 
     According to the embodiment of this disclosure described above, such a problem can be resolved, and as described above, loads on a user and a service man for resolution of a specific error can be reduced. 
     Moreover, described in the embodiment of this disclosure is the image processor  100  provided with the maintenance management section  105 , but this disclosure is also applicable to an electronic device which requires resolution of an error by a service man upon occurrence of the error. 
     The description of the embodiment above is based on the assumption that the image processor  100  includes the aforementioned various sections (at least the processing reception and execution section  202 , the operation history section  205 , and the optimum operation extraction section  206 ), but a program realizing the aforementioned various sections (at least the processing reception and execution section  202 , the operation history section  205 , and the optimum operation extraction section  206 ) of the image processor  100  may be stored in a recording medium such as the HDD or memory of the image processor  100 , and the CPU of the image processor  100  may operate in accordance with this program and may thereby function as the aforementioned various sections (at least the processing reception and execution section  202 , the operation history section  205 , and the optimum operation extraction section  206 ). 
     Next, the program itself read from the recording medium provides effect as the embodiment of this disclosure. 
     Moreover, the procedures of processing by the image processor  100 , which procedures have been shown in the embodiment above, are also recognized as a method of image processing performed by the image processor. 
     Next, an image processor provided with a maintenance management device (maintenance management section) according to another embodiment of this disclosure will be described. In the description of another embodiment, configuration common with that of the embodiment described above with reference to  FIGS. 1 to 8B  will be omitted, and unless otherwise specified, configuration of the image processor  1100  according to another embodiment is identical to that of the embodiment described above with reference to  FIGS. 1 to 8B . 
     Next, referring to  FIGS. 9 and 10 , configuration and execution procedures according to another embodiment of this disclosure will be described. First, upon occurrence of a specific error (for example, blurred printing) for some reason during use of the image processor  1100  by a user (S 1101  of  FIG. 10 ), a sensor inside of the image processor  1100  detects the specific error, and a control section  1201  of the image processor  1100  interrupts an operation in use and notifies this to a display reception section  1202 . The display reception section  1202  which has received this notice displays a service man call screen  1400  on a touch panel of an operation section  1101  (S 1102  of  FIG. 10 ). 
     Displayed on the service man call screen  1400  are: as shown in  FIG. 11A , a message  1401  indicating the service man call screen; a message  1402  indicating that the error has occurred; an error code  1403  corresponding to the occurring specific error; and a message  1404  urging the user to make contact with a service man. 
     While viewing the service man call screen  1400 , the user makes contact with the specific service man (for example, the service man A), makes him or her come over, and requests this service man A for resolving the specific error. The service man A performs user authentication in the image processor  1100  and then operates a specific portion of the image processor  1100  or the operation section  1101  or performs a specific operation through the operation section  1101  to thereby input a specific instruction for shifting to a maintenance mode to the control section  1201  of the image processor  1100 . The inputting of the specific instruction is permitted to only the aforementioned service man A or a manager. 
     The control section  1201  which has received the instruction notifies this to a maintenance control section  1203  of a maintenance management section  1105 , and the maintenance control section  1203  which has received this notice shifts from a normal mode to a maintenance mode (YES in S 1103  of  FIG. 10 ) and notifies this to an optimum operation display section  1204 . The optimum operation display section  1204  which has received this notice, with reference to a first memory M 11 , determines whether or not any optimum maintenance adjustment operation for the specific error is present (S 1104  of  FIG. 10 ). 
     At this point, the optimum maintenance adjustment operation is not stored, and thus as a result of the determination described above, the optimum operation display section  1204  determines that the optimum maintenance adjustment operation is not present (NO in S 1104  of  FIG. 10 ) and notifies this to the maintenance control section  1203 . The maintenance control section  1203  which has received this notice refers to a maintenance adjustment operation table  1405  stored in a second memory M 12 . 
     On the maintenance adjustment operation table  1405 , as shown in  FIG. 11B , adjustment items  1406  (for example, “A”) for identifying maintenance adjustment operations and maintenance adjustment operations  1407  (for example, “aging”) respectively corresponding to the maintenance adjustment operation items  1406  are stored in association with each other. 
     For example, “image reading confirmation” means processing of scanning a document by an image reading section  1102  and determining whether or not the document can be properly scanned based on results of this scanning. Moreover, “print margin confirmation and adjustment” means processing of making the service man confirm a size of a blank region located around a print region where an image formation section  1104  performs image formation (printing) and adjust this size. The “aging”, “conveyance quality confirmation”, and “color shift adjustment confirmation” are identical to those in the embodiment described above with reference to  FIGS. 1 to 7B . In addition, a plurality of maintenance adjustment operations  1408  are present. 
     The maintenance control section  1203  which has referred to the maintenance adjustment operation table  1405  acquires the maintenance adjustment operations  1407 , and displays a maintenance screen  1500  on the touch panel of the operation section  1101  by using the maintenance adjustment operations  1407  (S 1105  of  FIG. 10 ). 
     Displayed on the maintenance screen  1500  are: as shown in  FIG. 12A , a message  1501  indicating the maintenance screen; the occurring specific error  1502  (“error code  1 ”); maintenance adjustment operation keys  1503  corresponding to the maintenance adjustment operations  1408 ; an adjustment interrupt key  1504  for interrupting the adjustment; and an adjustment complete key  1505  for completing the adjustment. Also displayed near the maintenance adjustment operation keys  1503  is a switch key  1506  for separately displaying a maintenance adjustment operation key that cannot be displayed on the maintenance screen  1500 . 
     To resolve the specific error  1502 , while viewing the maintenance screen  1500 , the service man A selects the maintenance adjustment operation key  1503  to thereby receive the maintenance adjustment operation  1407  of the maintenance adjustment operation key  1503  and makes the image processor  1100  perform the processing corresponding to the maintenance adjustment operation  1407  (S 1106  of  FIG. 10 ). 
     For example, the service man A selects the “aging” key from among the maintenance adjustment operation keys  1503 , upon which the maintenance control section  1203  executes processing corresponding to this “aging” key. 
     Here, in a case where the specific error is not resolved even by executing the processing described above, the service man A selects another maintenance adjustment operation key  1503  without selecting the adjustment complete key  1505  (NO in S 1107  of  FIG. 10 ) or without selecting the adjustment interrupt key  1504  (NO in S 1108  of  FIG. 10 ) and makes the image processor  1100  execute the processing corresponding to this key  1503  (S 1106  of  FIG. 10 ). 
     As described above, the service man A can resolve the specific error through repeated trials and errors on the various maintenance adjustment operations  1408 . Here, for example, assume that the service man A selects the “aging” key, the “image reading confirmation” key, the “print margin confirmation and adjustment” key, the “conveyance quality confirmation” key, and the “color shift adjustment confirmation” key in an order just mentioned, and the maintenance control section  1203  sequentially executes the processing corresponding to the respective keys. 
     Then the specific error is resolved, and the sensor inside of the image processor  1100  no longer detects this specific error and the control section  1201  of the image processor  1100  notifies this to the maintenance control section  1203 . The maintenance control section  1203  which has received this notice lights up the adjustment complete key  1505  on the maintenance screen  1500  and notifies the service man A that the adjustment has completed. Upon selection of the adjustment complete key  1505  by the service man A (YES in S 1107  of  FIG. 10 ), the maintenance adjustment operations corresponding to the specific error complete. 
     On the other hand, in a case where the specific error is not resolved even by selecting the various keys, the service man A may select the adjustment interrupt key  1504  (YES in S 1108  of  FIG. 10 ) without selecting the adjustment complete key  1505  (NO in S 1107  of  FIG. 10 ) to thereby forcibly interrupt the maintenance adjustment operations without resolving the specific error, 
     Here, upon the completion or interruption of the maintenance adjustment operations, the maintenance control section  1203  notifies this to an operation history section  1205 , and the operation history section  1205  which has received this notice leaves, as a history, the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations executed by the service man for resolving the specific error (S 1109  of  FIG. 10 ). 
     For example, the operation history section  1205  acquires the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations (for example, the “aging”, the “image reading confirmation”, etc.) executed by the service man A for the specific error (“error code  1 ”) in an order in which the execution has taken place (for example, “1”, “2”, etc.). Next, the operation history section  1205 , with reference to the maintenance adjustment operation table  1405 , acquires the adjustment items (for example, “A”) corresponding to the acquired plurality of maintenance adjustment operations (for example, the “aging”) in the order described above. Then the operation history section  1205 , based on the specific error, the adjustment item, and the order, creates a predetermined operation history table  1507 , and stores this created operation history table  1507  into a third memory M 13 . 
     On the operation history table  1507 , as shown in  FIG. 12B , an error code  1508  (“error code  1 ”) corresponding to the specific error, an order  1509  (for example, “1”, “2”, etc.) in which the maintenance adjustment operations are executed, identification information  1510  of the service man (“service man A”) who has executed the maintenance adjustment operations, and adjustment items  1511  (for example, “A”, “B”, etc.) corresponding to the order  1509  are stored in association with each other. In a case where the last maintenance adjustment operation of the adjustment items  1511  has completed without any problem, “adjustment complete” indicating this is stored into the last order (“6”). As a result, the maintenance adjustment operations actually performed by each service man can be left as a history. 
     Upon completion of the aforementioned storage by the operation history section  1205 , this is notified to an optimum operation extraction section  1206 , and the optimum operation extraction section  1206  which has received this notice extracts the common maintenance adjustment operations executed for the specific error in common by the plurality of service men (S 1110  of  FIG. 10 ). 
     Here, at this point, the operation history table  1507  still has only the history of the maintenance adjustment operations performed by the single service man. Thus, in a case where only the history of maintenance adjustment operations performed by the single service man is present, the optimum operation extraction section  1206  also ends the extraction and subsequent creation of a flow of optimum maintenance adjustment operations (S 1111  of  FIG. 10 ). 
     On the other hand, assume that the specific error occurs again, and this time the different service man (service man B) displays the maintenance screen  1500  and executes the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations to thereby resolve the specific error and end the maintenance adjustment operations. Then in S 1109 , the operation history section  1205  leaves, as a history, the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations executed by the service man B (S 1109  of  FIG. 10 ), and as shown in  FIG. 13A , on the operation history table  1507 , the plurality of maintenance adjustment operations executed by the two different service men are left as the histories. In this case, the optimum operation extraction section  1206 , based on the operation history table  1507 , extracts the common maintenance adjustment operations executed for the specific error in common by the plurality of service men (S 1110  of  FIG. 10 ). 
     More specifically, the optimum operation extraction section  1206  compares, on an individual adjustment item basis, a plurality of adjustment items  1511 A belonging to one (service man A) of the service men and a plurality of adjustment items  1511 B belonging to the other one (service man B) of the service men to extract common (identical) adjustment items  1511 Z (“A”, “C”, and “E”). As described above, extracting only the common maintenance adjustment operations actually executed makes it possible to eliminate the operations assumed to be unnecessary and shorten adjustment time in the optimum maintenance adjustment operation. 
     Here, an order of the individual maintenance adjustment operations is important for resolution of the specific error in some cases. For example, in a case where the specific error is “blurred printing”, as the optimum maintenance adjustment operations, following the “aging”, the “print margin confirmation and adjustment” may be executed and then the “color shift adjustment confirmation” may be executed to thereby effectively resolve the “blurred printing”. 
     Thus, the optimum operation extraction section  1206  extracts the common maintenance adjustment operations, which have been executed in a common order by the plurality of service men, in this order. For example, as shown in  FIG. 13A , in a case where an order of the common adjustment items  1511 Z of one (service man A) of the service men is “A”, “C”, and “E” and an order of the common adjustment items  1511 Z of the other one (service man B) of the service men is “A”, “C”, and “E”, the orders of the common adjustment items  1511 Z are also common. In this case, the optimum operation extraction section  1206  extracts the common adjustment items  1511 Z “A”, “C”, “E” in this order. This consequently permits extraction of the plurality of common maintenance adjustment operations which can reliably resolve the specific error. 
     On the other hand, for example, in a case where the order of the common adjustment items  1511 Z of one (service man A) of the service men is “A”, C″, and “E” and the order of the common adjustment items  1511 Z of the other one (service man B) of the service men is “A”, “E”, and “C”, the common adjustment items  1511 Z of which orders are common are “A” and “C”. In this case, the optimum operation extraction section  1206  extracts the common adjustment items  1511 Z “A” and “C” in this order. In other words, the common adjustment item  1511 Z “E” is assumed not to have great contribution to the specific error resolution. As described above, any operation assumed to be unnecessary based on the order described above may be eliminated. 
     Upon completion of the extraction of the plurality of common maintenance adjustment operations (the common adjustment items  1511 Z), a flow in which the plurality of common maintenance adjustment operations (common adjustment items  1511 Z) are arranged in the order described above is created (S 1111  of  FIG. 10 ) and this flow is stored as the optimum maintenance adjustment operations into the first memory M 1 . This creates the optimum maintenance adjustment operations. 
     Then, if the specific error has occurred and the service man has made shifting to the maintenance mode again in S 1103  (YES in S 1103  of  FIG. 10 ), the optimum operation display section  1204 , with reference to the first memory M 11 , determines that the optimum maintenance adjustment operations for the specific error are present (YES in S 1104  of  FIG. 10 ). Then the optimum operation display section  1204 , based on the optimum maintenance adjustment operations (flow) stored in the first memory M 1 , displays, on the touch panel of the operation section  1101 , a maintenance screen  1600  with the optimum maintenance adjustment operations (S 1112  of  FIG. 10 ). 
     Displayed on the maintenance screen  1600  with the optimum maintenance adjustment operations are: as shown in  FIG. 13B , a message  1601  indicating the maintenance screen; the occurring specific error  1602  (“error code  1 ”); maintenance adjustment operation keys  1603  corresponding to the optimum maintenance adjustment operations; an order  1604  of the optimum maintenance adjustment operations; a switch key  1605  for separately displaying a maintenance adjustment operation key; an adjustment interrupt key  1606 ; and an adjustment complete key  1607 . This makes it possible for the service man to confirm the optimum maintenance adjustment operations, and execution of the optimum maintenance adjustment operations in accordance with the order  1604  makes it possible to easily resolve the specific error. 
     Conventionally, a service man has resolved the specific error by individually performing repeated the trial and error method. In particular, in a case where the service man comes over a site upon error occurrence and resolves the error of the image processor  1100 , the error is resolved by returning to an optimum adjustment value in the maintenance adjustment operation or executing specific processing, but it is not ensured that each service man recognizes optimum operation procedures for this error and thus several maintenance adjustment operations are executed at the site, seeking for measures for resolution in a trial-and-error manner. The maintenance adjustment operations executed in the trial-and-error manner by each service man involves a great deal of unnecessary work. 
     In this disclosure, in order that the maintenance adjustment operations executed in the trial-and-error manner by each service man is not repeated, the unnecessary maintenance adjustment operations are eliminated, only the common maintenance adjustment operations are extracted, and the optimum maintenance adjustment operations are presented, whereby the repeated performance of the trial-and-error method by the service man can be eliminated, making it possible to achieve an efficient adjustment operation and then greatly shorten a period of time of the adjustment by the service man (working hours). 
     In this disclosure, the larger the number of service men executing the maintenance adjustment operations for the specific error is, the more the common maintenance adjustment operations are limited, making it possible to extract the efficient optimum maintenance adjustment operations. 
     For example, as shown in  FIG. 14A , in a case where the three service men executed maintenance adjustment operations for a specific error in the past, the optimum operation extraction section  1206 , on the operation history table  1507 , compares a plurality of adjustment items  1511 A belonging to the first service man (service man A), a plurality of adjustment items  1511 B belonging to the second service man (service man B), and a plurality of adjustment items  1511 C belonging to the third service man (service man C) with each other on an individual adjustment item basis to extract the common (identical) adjustment items  1511 Z (“A” and “C”). As described above, the larger the number of service men is, the more the common adjustment items  1511 Z are limited, thus making it possible to extract the efficient optimum maintenance adjustment operations. 
     In the above, the completed maintenance adjustment operations completed by the service man when the specific error has been resolved are targeted, but different configuration may be provided. For example, the operation history section  1205  may leave, as a history, in addition to the completed maintenance adjustment operations, the interrupted maintenance adjustment operations interrupted by the service man when the specific error has not been resolved. Then the optimum operation extraction section  1206 , based on the completed maintenance adjustment operations, extract the common maintenance adjustment operations, and extracts, as the preferential common maintenance adjustment operations, the common maintenance adjustment operations not included in the interrupted maintenance adjustment operations. 
     For example, in a case where the three service men have completed the maintenance adjustment operations for the specific error and one of the service men has interrupted the maintenance adjustment operations for the specific error, as shown in FIG.  14 B, the optimum operation extraction section  1206 , on the operation history table  1507 , targeting on the completed maintenance adjustment operations (the adjustment items  1511 A,  1511 B, and  1511 C) of the three service men, compares the plurality adjustment items  1511 A belonging to the first service man (service man A), the plurality of adjustment items  1511 B belonging to the second service man (service man B), and the plurality of adjustment items  1511 C belonging to the third service man (service man C) with each other on an individual adjustment item basis to extract the common adjustment items  1511 Z (“A” and “C”). Next, the optimum operation extraction section  1206 , targeting on the interrupted maintenance adjustment operations (adjustment items  1511 D) of one of the service men, compares a plurality of adjustment items  1511 D belonging to a fourth service man (service man D) and the common adjustment items  1511 Z with each other on an individual adjustment item basis, and searches for any common adjustment item  1511 Z not present in the adjustment items  1511 D. In  FIG. 14B , the plurality of adjustment items  1511 D belonging to the fourth service man do not include “C” as the common adjustment item  1511 Z, and thus the optimum operation extraction section  1206  extracts the absent “C” of the common adjustment item  1511 Z as the preferential common adjustment item. This “C” of the common adjustment item  1511 Z is assumed to be an essential adjustment item for resolving the specific error, and thus for example, the optimum operation extraction section  1206  provides the searched “C” of the common adjustment item  151   z  with a high priority level “1” and provides the non-searched “A” of the common adjustment item  1511 Z with a low priority level “0”. Then the optimum operation display section  1204 , upon display of the optimum maintenance adjustment operations, performs this display in a manner such as to make the service man preferentially execute the optimum maintenance adjustment operation “C” of the common adjustment items  1511 Z which is included in the optimum maintenance adjustment operations and which is provided with the high priority level. For example, the maintenance adjustment operation “C” of the common adjustment items  1511 Z provided with the high priority level is displayed at an upper position and the maintenance adjustment operation “A” of the common adjustment items  1511 Z provided with the low priority level is displayed at a lower position. This makes it possible for the service man to execute the even more efficient optimum maintenance adjustment operations. 
     Typically, an electronic device such as an image processor, in view of quality control of provided functions, requires execution of regular maintenance. For example, there is a printer which manages a printer history and which provides an alarm prompting an operator to perform maintenance based on this history information. Also known is an image forming apparatus which, upon performance of maintenance requiring confirmation of a plurality of maintenance items in the image forming apparatus, avoids inconvenience such that the screen is switched many times. 
     However, as described above, in such a printer and an image forming apparatus, repeatedly performing the maintenance adjustment operations for an error (trouble) of, for example, the electronic device in a trial-and-error manner by the service man requires finding of procedures of the optimum maintenance adjustment operation capable of resolving the error, which raises a problem such that it takes much time and labor. 
     According to another embodiment of this disclosure described above, it is possible to present an optimum maintenance adjustment operation based on a history of past maintenance adjustment operations. 
     In another embodiment of this disclosure described above, it is configured such that the optimum operation extraction section  1206  extracts the common maintenance adjustment operations, which have been executed in a common order by the plurality of service men, in the order just mentioned, but different configuration may be provided. As described above, an order of the individual maintenance adjustment operations is important for the specific error resolution in some cases, but executing the common maintenance adjustment operations in a random order resolves the specific error in some cases. In such a case, the optimum operation extraction section  1206  may display the common maintenance adjustment operations as the optimum maintenance adjustment operations without considering the order. 
     In another embodiment of this disclosure described above, the optimum operation display section  1204  displays the plurality of common maintenance adjustment operations as the optimum maintenance adjustment operations on one maintenance screen  1600 , but a display mode is not specifically limited. Of the optimum maintenance adjustment operations, the individual common maintenance adjustment operations may be displayed through operation by the service man in correspondence with the order (flow procedures). 
     Moreover, in another embodiment of this disclosure described above, the image processor  1100  provided with the maintenance management section  1105  has been described, but this disclosure is also applicable to an electronic device, which upon error occurrence, requires resolution of this error by a service man. 
     Described in another embodiment described above is that the image processor  1100  includes the aforementioned various sections (at least the optimum operation display section  1204 , the operation history section  1205 , and the optimum operation extraction section  1206 ), but a program realizing the aforementioned various sections (at least the optimum operation display section  1204 , the operation history section  1205 , and the optimum operation extraction section  1206 ) of the image processor  1100  may be stored in a recording medium such as the HDD or the memory of the image processor  1100  and the CPU of the image processor  1100  may operate in accordance with this program to thereby function as the aforementioned various sections (at least the optimum operation display section  1204 , the operation history section  1205 , and the optimum operation extraction section  1206 ). 
     In this case, the program itself read from the recording medium provides effects as the embodiments of this disclosure. 
     Moreover, the procedures of the processing performed by the image processor  1100 , which have been shown in another embodiment described above, are also recognized as an image processing method performed by the image processor. 
     Various modifications and alterations of this disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this disclosure, and it should be understood that this disclosure is not limited to the illustrative embodiments set forth herein. 
     INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY 
     As described above, the maintenance management device and the maintenance management method according to this disclosure are useful for electronic devices including an image forming apparatus such as a multifunction peripheral, a copier, a printer, or a scanner, and are effective as a maintenance management device and a maintenance management method capable of reducing loads on a user and a service man for specific error resolution.