Patent ID: 7831543

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for standardizing a reporting of defects in an aircraft support and service environment, the method comprising: displaying a graphical user interface on a display screen of a portable terminal connected to the Internet and to a plurality of external data providers and a plurality of external data consumers, the graphical user interface having a process view and a current step view; determining a location of a data provider using a geographical positioning system; using a sensor to capture a real time status of a part on an aircraft; responsive to the data provider inspecting the part, identifying a defect, and selecting, at the current step view, a template corresponding to the defect, displaying a plurality of questions configured to prompt the data provider to write a plurality of responses to the plurality of questions on the graphical user interface, the response to be interpreted by the portable terminal using a handwriting recognition function, wherein the plurality of responses are a plurality of variable entries, each response to a variable entry corresponding to a standard text regarding the defect; responsive to receipt of the plurality of responses to the plurality of questions from handwriting recognition function, combining the plurality of responses with one or more of a plurality of standard texts selected to form a plurality of structured data; capturing, by the data provider at the portable terminal, an image of the defect, inputting the image into the portable terminal, and annotating the image in the portable terminal using the handwriting recognition function to form an annotated image; converting, at the portable terminal, the structured data into an aircraft nonconformance report comprising the annotated image and a representation of a document containing both a human readable output and a machine readable representation of the document, wherein the reporting of quality defects in the aircraft nonconformance report in the aircraft support and service environment is standardized.