Patent ID: 7051044

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for identifying critical faults from unranked fault data collected from a fleet of locomotives, the method comprising: a) collecting from a group of the fleet of locomotives respective locomotive data indicative of each fault logged over a predetermined period of time; b) classifying respective faults in the collected locomotive data based on the following criteria: 1) relative frequency of fault occurrence; 2) number of locomotives affected in the group; and 3) expected level of reduction in locomotive operational performance; wherein any of the three criteria comprises a first basis of classification, and a second classification is based on the results of the first classification so that any faults found to be critical include properties in at least two of the classifications, and further wherein all three criteria are separately considered in sequence and further wherein each classification is based on the results of any previous classification so that the faults found to be critical include properties in all three classifications; and c) storing any faults found to he critical in a database comprising critical faults.