Patent ID: 7613627

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for collecting and communicating inspection information for a mechanism, the method comprising: receiving, at a first computer, repair order information from an original electronic repair order to initiate a repair on the mechanism; generating, at the first computer, an electronic inspection form including a questionnaire for inputting inspection information; receiving, into the electronic inspection form, the inspection information while in the process of repairing the mechanism based on the repair order information; determining whether the electronic inspection form is complete based on whether at least one of the electronic inspection form is generated and the inspection information is received; transmitting, to a second computer, concurrent with the process of repairing the mechanism based on the repair order information, at least a portion of the received inspection information and the repair order information; causing the original electronic repair order, at the second computer, to be appended with the at least a portion of the received inspection information to obtain an electronic appended repair order, wherein information contained on the electronic appended repair order is suitable for communication to an individual requesting repair of the mechanism; executing at least one of the steps of generating the electronic inspection form and receiving the inspection information, and the step of determining whether the electronic inspection form is complete one or more times; and determining a value for a technician based metric which corresponds to a number of electronic inspection forms processed with a complete inspection as a percentage of those available to be completed by a technician based on the number of times the at least one of the steps of generating the electronic inspection form and receiving the inspection information are executed, and the step of determining whether the electronic inspection form is executed.