QR O&M: Mechanical Equipment Operations, Maintainence and Repair Field Documentation Project

Expected Audience

Maintainence Engineers, Union Training Centers

The Current State of the Art

The state of the art for access to documentation for Operations, Maintainence and Repair (O&M) of mechanical equipment in the field currently consists of:

Paper O&M manuals distributed by equipment manufacturers, commonly stored in a paper filing system in the Engineering/Maintainence shop
Online O&M manuals, commonly available on the equipment manufacturers' website
YouTube "HOW-TO" videos -- the best of which are often by independent content creators that themselves work in the field

The Problem

Any or all of these documentation resources are used by the maintainence engineer in the field to effect a repair. Each has its' distinct advantages, and each has drawbacks in the form of time and efficiency. They all share a common drawback: finding the correct documentation for the equipment the engineer is standing in front of, and in the case of paper documentation, and having it immediately available. Some of the options that present themselves when the engineer discovers the machine he is looking at requires maintainence (and the O&M documentation is required), are:

Travel to the engineering/maintainence shop to find the documentation for the machine/equipment in a paper filing cabinet (Stone Age)
Finding the correct documentation for the machine/equipment online (Bronze age)
Finding YouTube "HOW-TO" videos visually detailing how to effect non-trivial repairs (Space Age)

The first option takes time to locate the O&M documentation in the shop paper filing system and bring it to the equipment. In addition, care must be taken to keep it clean and undamaged in an often dirty/greasy environment, and then it must be returned to the proper location in the shop paper filing system. All of this results in wasted time not repairing the equipment. In addition, over time, such documentation can become illegible or go missing.

The second option, online documentation is a big step up (with the advent of the iPads, etc. typically carried by engineers during equipment "rounds") in that it is available online and never really needs to be "returned". However, digging the CORRECT documentation out of an equipment manufacturers' website can be a maddening affair which often takes longer than getting the paper documentation from the shop. Each manufacturer has a different layout to their website and often the search tools provided are inadequate, with the engineer sometimes looking at a similar, but slightly different piece of machinery, causing more waste of time.

A New Solution?

These days, most mechanical equipment the engineering department is responsible for maintaining is labeled with a "QR" code (a machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares) which is scanned by the engineer into an iPad or smartphone as part of the mechanical "rounds" (where the engineer inspects all machines, typically at the start and/or end of their shift). The engineer then enters readings of the equipment state (pressure, temperature, condition, etc) into the maintainence application. This is quick and efficient -- scan the QR code on the machine, tap in the readings, move to the next machine and repeat.

What if the engineer could use the same mechanism (scan the machines' QR code) to also pull up the exact correct online O&M manual, replacement parts ordering list, or even any YouTube videos detailing how to effect non-trivial repairs? As a maintainence engineer, you can probably see how useful this would be and much time this could save.

It is my intention to make a simple such application that can be installed on a smartphone or iPad. This will be a working "proof-of-concept". The capabilities I would like to implement in this proof-of concept would be:

The ability to scan the QR code on the machine and be provided a simple menu which contains:
A button to display the machines' Operations and Maintainence manual, at a minimum
A way for the engineer be able to to add additional buttons linked to URL's (web address) of other helpful information (Youtube repair videos, parts ordering lists, etc)
A way for the engineer to add their own "notes" detailing any quirks, workarounds, warnings, shortcuts etc (learned wisdom)
A way to update/remove buttons (change web URL, etc)
If the machines' QR code has been scanned for the first time, notify the engineer of this, and provide the ability to add the machine to this QR-O&M "system"
The ability to delete/update old machines in the system that have been physically upgraded/replaced/removed

Next Steps