Patent ID: 7440906

Claim:
A method for forming and operating a maintenance database, comprising: identifying a planned maintenance task on equipment; storing the planned maintenance task in a database; identifying a first planned maintenance location area on the equipment associated with completion of the planned maintenance task; identifying a first unplanned maintenance task associated with the first planned maintenance location area; identifying a first component location in the first planned maintenance location area for a first component involved with the first unplanned maintenance task; storing the first unplanned maintenance task in the database; linking the first unplanned maintenance task and the planned maintenance task in the database with first location data that specifies the first component location; and implementing multiple maintenance task location paths by: establishing a task pointer into the database that provides a first path to the planned maintenance task; and establishing a location pointer into the database that provides a second path through the first location data to both the planned maintenance task and the first unplanned maintenance task.