Patent ID: 7610171

Claim:
A method for determining a procedure to exchange a component of an apparatus, said method being executed by a computer comprising a storage unit, a procedure storage, a component data storage, an output data storage and a processor, and said method comprising: said processor executing operations including: storing data concerning a first component corresponding to an error code output from said apparatus into said storage unit; receiving failure data of a first operation verification of said apparatus, wherein said first operation verification was carried out after exchange of said first component and an assembling work of disassembled components; storing data concerning a second component corresponding to said error code into said storage unit; retrieving, from said component data storage storing data of components, and disassembling steps of each said component and assembling steps of each said component, a first disassembling procedure of said first component, wherein said first disassembling procedure comprises steps from a disassembling step that is a reverse step of an assembling step carried out immediately before said first operation verification to a disassembling step of said first component; retrieving from said component data storage, a second disassembling procedure of said second component, wherein said second disassembling procedure comprises steps from a primary disassembling step to be carried out when any component of said apparatus is exchanged to a disassembling step of said second component; storing said first and second disassembling procedures into said procedure storage; determining whether or not said first disassembling procedure is included in said second disassembling procedure; after determining that said first disassembling procedure is included in said second disassembling procedure, extracting, from said procedure storage, said disassembling step that is said reverse step of said assembling step carried out immediately before said first operation verification and subsequent disassembling steps among said second disassembling procedure, and storing the extracted disassembling steps into said output data storage; and outputting procedure explanation data corresponding to the steps stored in said output data storage.