System and method for remote configuration of asphalt plant

Abstract

To provide remote configuration of an on-site computer system.SOLUTION: An on-site computer system is located at a material production facility and may be used for generating a ticket related to the transfer of bulk materials such as asphalt or concrete. A remote computer system may communicate with the on-site computer system and may be used for generating a ticket template and a configuration file that may be uploaded to the on-site computer system. Additionally, a remote computer system may access the on-site computer system to edit system software or perform other corrective actions if there are any errors in the on-site computer system.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The patent disclosure relates generally to remote configuration of on-site computer systems at bulk material handling facilities, and more specifically to a system and method for configuring an on-site computer system from a remote computer system. [Background technology]

[0002] Various types of bulk materials are used for various purposes in construction, industry, and similar fields. For example, asphalt is typically used in road construction and paving to provide a finished surface. Similarly, concrete is often used in the construction of buildings and other structures. Other examples include gravel, which is used as a filler material and in the manufacture of other materials. Bulk materials are typically stored and may be processed in one location and must be transported to the location of its intended use, which is a field known as bulk material handling. To transport bulk materials over land, road trucks carrying dump trailers or open hopper trailers are typically utilized. The trailers may be filled with the bulk material and the road truck transports the material to its location of use. Sometimes a convoy of trucks may make several trips a day between the material production plant or storage location and a construction job site or other destination. To document the material transportation process from the production facility, tickets are traditionally generated, which are paper receipts printed and given to the road truck operator to indicate acceptance of the loaded material. The information in the ticket may include the material supplier, customer, bulk material type, quantity, and price, and the material recovery date. The ticket may further be retained on the records of both the material provider and the material customer to document the exchange of the bulk material.

[0003] Prior art systems of local configuration management may have several disadvantages, as shown in FIG. 6, which depicts a prior art environment 500 in which an on-site configuration management system is deployed. As seen in FIG. 5, various costs may be associated with each software deployment 502, where service personnel may be required to travel to the facility where the on-site computer system is located. The on-site computer system may be located a continent away from the remote computer system. For example, the remote computer system may be located in the United States and the on-site computer system may be located in Asia. In this case, the traveling personnel must travel to the on-site facility for each deployment and bug fix, and incur the cost of travel from the United States to Asia, the expenses of which are indicated by reference numeral 504. Similarly, the traveling personnel incur living expenses 506 and other incidental expenses during the period of their stay. Prior art on-site configuration management mandates the physical presence of service personnel on-site, so service personnel must travel to the site where the systems they are configuring reside. Travel may cause service personnel to be unproductive during in-transit work hours 512.

[0004] Furthermore, the scale house where the service personnel need to work on-site may be provided in a small location. As a result, the service personnel may be confined to the scale house for hours while performing on-site configuration management tasks. This may cause stress and fatigue as indicated by reference numeral 508. In particular, the on-site system may shut down while performing on-site configuration management tasks. This may lead to loss of services provided by the on-site system. The loss of services may result in loss of revenue 510. Thus, each new deployment may result in generating a ripple effect where each expense contributes to the financial burden in the prior art on-site configuration system.

[0005] Recently, efforts have been made to automate the ticketing process using computers. For example, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2014 / 0244444 (hereinafter the '444 publication) describes a paperless ticketing system for documenting the loading and transportation of concrete from a concrete batching plant. The '444 publication specifically describes multiple computers interacting on a distributed network to generate electronic tickets that can be made available to concrete production operators, construction company personnel, and other stakeholders in the bulk material handling process. In an embodiment, the electronic tickets may be maintained on a server at a back office location to facilitate availability. However, the generation of individual tickets still occurs at the material production plant or storage facility as the bulk material is loaded onto road trucks for shipment. Thus, at least a portion of the computer system must be located at the material production facility, which may require technicians to travel to the facility to implement and debug the system, resulting in costs and downtime. For example, costs may involve technician travel time and lost wages due to travel. Additionally, technicians must communicate with other individuals to fix system problems, which may be hindered due to the remote location of the facility. In contrast, the present disclosure is directed to a system and method for ticket generation and management that takes advantage of a distributed computer architecture in a more efficient manner. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The present disclosure, in one aspect, describes a ticket processing system for generating tickets to document distribution of bulk materials from a material production facility. The system includes an on-site computer system including an on-site processor and a non-transitory on-site memory. The on-site computer system may be configured to store raw ticket data in the on-site memory and generate tickets from ticket templates stored in the on-site non-transitory memory. The ticket processing system also includes a remote computer system having a remote processor and a non-transitory remote memory. The remote computer system may be configured to selectively communicate with the on-site computer system to capture and download raw ticket data from the on-site memory and generate and upload ticket templates for ticket generation.

[0007] In another aspect, the present disclosure describes a method for enabling generation of tickets related to material transfers at a material production facility. The method captures raw ticket data from an onsite computer system operatively associated with the material production facility and downloads it to a remote computer system. The method then generates a ticket template for ticket generation at the remote computer system. The ticket template is then uploaded from the remote computer system to the onsite computer system. A configuration file can be generated at the remote computer system to configure operational settings on the onsite computer system. The configuration file can then be uploaded to the onsite computer system and the onsite computer system can be remotely rebooted to load and read the configuration file.

[0008] In yet another aspect, the present disclosure describes a ticket processing system including an onsite computer system and a remote computer system. The onsite computer system is configured to store raw ticket data in an onsite memory and generate tickets from ticket templates. The remote computer system is configured to selectively communicate with the onsite computer system to capture and download raw ticket data from the onsite memory and generate and upload ticket templates for ticket generation. The remote computer system is further configured to access and edit system software on the onsite computer system when an error signal is sent from the onsite computer system to the remote computer system. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a materials production facility for bulk materials processing and distribution by road truck that may be associated with a distributed computer system for ticket development and generation according to the present disclosure. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a distributed computer system in an on-site computer system, where remote computer systems can interact to configure various parameters, ports, and settings of the on-site computer system. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is an example ticket including data fields and a format for generating a ticket to record a material transfer event at a material production facility. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a diagram of a ticket interface module, which may be a dedicated embedded system or controller located at the material production facility for ticket generation. [Diagram 5]FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a possible process or routine for implementing a ticket processing system between an onsite computer system and a remote computer system at a material production facility. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a representative diagram of a prior art environment in which service personnel may travel to a location to configure an on-site computer system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] Referring now to the drawings, where like reference numbers refer to like elements wherever possible, there is illustrated a material production facility 100 for the production of bulk materials, such as an asphalt plant for the production of asphalt. Asphalt and other bulk materials are typically granular or broken materials that are handled without packaging. Other examples include concrete, gravel, and similar materials. In the illustrated embodiment of an asphalt plant, the material production facility 100 may include equipment for the preparation and processing of bulk materials from raw materials. In the example of asphalt, production begins with gravel, such as crushed rock or stone, which may be held in a gravel supply 102 and separated by size or grade. A bitumen supply 104 may store bitumen or another binder to provide the consistency and viscosity associated with asphalt. Other additives may be held and fed from similar storage supplies. The material processing facility 100 may also include a burner and drum assembly 106, where the raw materials are mixed and processed to provide a finished bulk material. The processed asphalt or other bulk material may be held in a storage hopper 108 or similar until it is ready for loading onto a road truck 110 or similar transport vehicle. In the illustrated embodiment, the storage hopper 108 may be a vertical, raised silo supported above ground and through the bottom from which the bulk material may be dispensed, although in other embodiments the storage hopper 108 may have other suitable configurations.

[0011] In the example of an asphalt plant, the bulk material is removed by a number of road trucks 110 configured to transport the material and make the transfer between the material production facility 100 and the location where the bulk material is to be used, such as, for example, a road construction process. In practice, a convoy of road trucks 110 may be utilized and may make several trips per day to continue the project. The road trucks 110 may include a dump body 112 or similar structure capable of holding the material and having an open top configuration to receive the bulk material from the storage hopper 108. The dump body 112 may be an open top configuration to receive the material and may be tilted relative to the remainder of the road truck 110 to dump the material at a desired location. The road truck 110 may be adapted to travel on a highway or a paved road. To load the road truck 110, it may be driven under the storage hopper 108 and the bulk material may be dispensed into the dump body 112. To determine how much material is actually contained per load, a scale 114 for measuring weight may be positioned below the storage hopper 108 and may support and weigh the load truck 110 thereon. The scale 114 may thus measure both the empty or tare weight of the load truck 100 and the loaded weight from which the weight of the bulk material in the load truck may be readily determined.

[0012] To generate tickets to document the loading and hauling process, the material production facility 100 may include a ticket house 120, which may be a physical on-site structure to house facility operators and equipment associated with the process. A ticket may be generated for each load distributed to the road trucks 110 to record receipt of the bulk material by the customer. Additionally, each load may be part of a bulk order by the customer and may be supplied by the material production facility 100. Thus, in the example of a road construction project, multiple tickets may be issued for multiple road trucks 110 over multiple days to fulfill customer orders for the same project. For example, referring to FIG. 2, separate events and examples of actions taken between a remote computer system 202 and an on-site computer system 204 to identify, diagnose, analyze, and resolve various issues that arise with the on-site computer system are illustrated. In FIG. 2, a network is illustrated in which a remote computer system 202 is configured to provide a hardware and software blueprint for an on-site computer system 204, which may be physically located in a separate location and may be separated by a significant distance. The remote computer system 202 may initially establish a communications link with the onsite computer system 204 to download initial network configuration information 206 .

[0013] A typical network configuration involves the process of configuring the network control, data flow, and operation to support network communications between the remote computer system 202 and the onsite computer system 204. This includes initiating a set-up process on the network hardware, software, and other devices and components associated with the onsite computer system 204. For example, the initial configuration may involve port configuration of the onsite computer system 204. In one embodiment of the disclosed invention, the onsite computer system 204 may have several input and output ports. The task of configuration management may involve defining which ports connect to which inputs. For example, a configuration management application interface may connect to a configuration management web service point, a printer proxy connects to a printer point, an in-field operations client connects to an Internet point, a software update service connects to a remote computer system server point, an onsite computer system server connects to an onsite computer system database server point, a reporting service connects to an alarm management system server point, etc. This port configuration defines the set of software tasks that will be performed by a specified piece of hardware.

[0014] Once configured, the network of FIG. 2 may perform on-site troubleshooting actions 208 that allow the remote computer system 202 to access the onsite computer system 204 if an error or bug occurs in the onsite computer system 204, such as a communication port failure. Additionally, the network may be capable of performing software deployment actions that allow the remote computer system 202 to deploy software upgrades to the onsite computer system 202. Similarly, the remote computer system 202 may be configured to perform debug / patch actions 212 to install bug fixes or software patches to software previously installed on the onsite computer system 204. In the prior art environment described above, each of these actions would require service personnel to individually physically travel from the remote computer system 202 to the onsite computer system 204, potentially multiple times. Over the life of the software and hardware systems, this travel can be costly.

[0015] In further embodiments of the disclosed invention, remote configuration management allows a remote computer system to configure and maintain an on-site computer system, including allowing the remote computer system to automatically back up configuration files, encrypt and store configuration files, track configuration changes in real time, and the like. For example, if an alarm is communicated to the remote computer system 202 indicating that a respective port is faulty, the remote computer system can take the port down. Additionally, the remote computer system 202 can record a history of configuration changes so that the remote computer system can take steps to immediately recover the onsite computer system from a potential network disaster.

[0016] In addition to managing the load on each port of the onsite computer system, the remote computer system 202 can be configured to ensure that the device configurations of the onsite computer system 204 comply with industry standards and updates to such standards. Additionally, the remote configuration system 202 can continuously and real-time monitor the onsite computer system to detect unauthorized changes made to the onsite computer system to provide enhanced network security and prevent unauthorized configuration changes, which may be intentional and implemented for malicious reasons. In such cases, the remote computer system can take appropriate measures to protect the onsite computer system. Conversely, if the configuration changes are unintended and unsatisfactory, the remote computer system can take corrective measures to restore settings and parameters. Advantageously, the remote computer system can generate insightful reports regarding configuration changes, compliance, raw material inventory status, and other critical network parameters.

[0017] 3, an example ticket is illustrated that may include data fields and portions of information relevant to the ticketing process. The ticket may be a physical copy of paper or an electronic token that encapsulates the relevant information of the ticket. Examples of relevant information include ticket number, order number, material production facility, customer ID, project ID, truck ID, material type, material grade, load amount (obtained from scale 114), date, time, price, etc. Additionally, the ticket may include the signature of one or more individuals to approve the transaction.

[0018] Referring again to FIG. 2, to prepare the tickets, the ticket house 120 may be associated with an on-site computer system 122 that includes physical hardware and software components. In one embodiment, the on-site computer system 122 may include an on-site central processing unit 124 having a microprocessor and associated circuitry for performing logical operations and executing software instructions related to the transportation and ticketing process. The central processing unit 124 may be enclosed in a cabinet or case for support. To interface with an operator and enable the exchange of information and data, the on-site computer system 122 may include input / output peripherals 126 (e.g., monitor, keyboard, mouse). To store data and information related to the transportation and ticketing process in computer readable form and to store software applications for implementing the process, the on-site computer system 122 may include on-site data storage 128, which may be a non-transitory computer readable and writeable memory, for example, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), EPROM memory, flash memory, or another suitable storage medium such as a magnetic or optical storage device. The on-site computer system 122 may also include or be operatively associated with other devices and peripherals to facilitate generation of tickets, such as handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs), touch screen tablets, barcode scanners, electronic readers, etc.

[0019] In one embodiment, tickets may be generated and exchanged in traditional format paper copies that can be physically exchanged with the road truck 110. To print tickets, the onsite computer system 122 may include a printer 130 located within the ticket house 120. Ticket information may be entered as data via the onsite computer system 122 and printed and stored on paper tickets using the printer 130. Additionally, ticket information may be stored in electronic form in the onsite data storage 128, which may act as a repository for raw data contained in tickets generated over time. In another embodiment, the onsite computer system 122 may be configured to generate and exchange electronic or paperless tickets in which all information is maintained in an electronic, digitally readable format. In such an embodiment, the ticket house 120 may be operatively associated with a wireless transmitter / receiver 132, such as a shortwave antenna, capable of exchanging radio wave communications. The road truck 110 may include a similar wireless transmitter / receiver 134 for electronically and wirelessly communicating with the onsite computer system 122 by exchanging message signals with the wireless transmitter / receiver 132 of the ticket house 120. In such an embodiment, the road truck 110 may include a suitable display or interface that allows the truck operator to visually perceive and verify the ticket information. Wireless communication between the road truck 110 and the onsite computer system 122 may utilize any suitable technology standard or protocol, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

[0020] The on-site computer system 122 may be part of a larger distributed computing environment or architecture 138 for the generation and processing of tickets related to bulk material handling and transportation. For example, the material handling facility 100 may interact with a remote facility 140, which may be a back office location, a headquarters, or another location that may be significantly remote from the material handling facility. The remote facility 140 may be maintained by the owner / operator of the material production facility or may be associated with an application service provider (hereinafter, "ASP"), such as via an independent contractor. The remote location 140 may include a physical building or structure for housing remote workers or technicians who may also contribute to ticket generation and processing. To support the remote workers, the remote facility 140 may be operatively associated with a remote computer system 142, which also includes physical hardware and software components for implementing a ticket generation system. For digitally processing data and instructions and executing software applications, the remote computer system 140 may include a remote central processing unit 144 having one or more microprocessors and associated circuitry, which may be enclosed in a case or cabinet. The remote computer system 142 may also include or be associated with a remote data storage 146, which may be a non-transitory, readable / writable memory and may be implemented electronically, magnetically, or optically. The remote data storage 146 may store substantial amounts of data in computer-readable bits and bytes and may organize the data to simplify retrieval in the form of a database. To interface with a remote worker and enable input and manipulation of computer-readable data, the remote computer system 142 may include input / output peripherals 148 (e.g., a monitor, keyboard, mouse). In particular, the input / output peripherals 148 may include a monitor or visual display device for supporting and displaying a user interface 150. The user interface 150 may be a graphical user interface or may support text-based navigation and manipulation of data. For printing physical documents and records, the remote computer system 142 may also include a printer 152. Although FIG. 1 depicts the components of the remote computer system 142 in a centralized manner at a single physical remote facility 140, the components and locations may be distributed across multiple computers and platforms networked together in different physical locations.

[0021] The distributed network system 138 may be operatively associated with a computer network 156 such that the onsite computer system 122 and the remote computer system 142 may communicate electronically by sending and receiving messages. The computer network 156 may be implemented in any suitable form, including the Internet, or as a private network, and the communications may be public, private, or otherwise. The computer network 156 may operate as a packet-switched network by communicating data packets. The computer network 156 may utilize any suitable communications protocol, such as, for example, TCP / IP. All or a portion of the communications may occur via conductive or optical conduits, or may occur wirelessly, for example, via a satellite network. The computer network 156 may include other elements, such as routers, gateways, hubs, etc., to facilitate communications. In addition to the onsite and remote computer systems 122, 142, the computer network 156 may communicatively connect other nodes or hubs. For example, in one embodiment, the remote computer system 142 may be operatively associated with multiple on-site computer systems 122 at different material manufacturing facilities 100 distributed throughout any conceivable geographic region.

[0022] In one embodiment, the computer network 156 and the distributed computer architecture 138 on which it operates may be configured as a peer-to-peer model interfacing equally with the onsite computer system 122 and the remote computer system 142. In another embodiment, the computer network 156 and the underlying architecture 138 may be configured as a client-server model with the onsite computer system 122 acting as a client and the remote computer system 142 acting as a server. In a further embodiment, the network and architecture may be configured for remote management of the onsite computer system 122 from the remote computer system 142. In particular, the remote computer system 142 may direct and control resources on the onsite computer system 122, as well as change the configuration, and process, analyze, and edit hardware components, software components, and data on the onsite computer system 122.

[0023] In a possible variation of the remote management embodiment, the on-site computer system 122 includes or may include a dedicated embedded system or controller 160, configured to perform certain dedicated tasks to implement the ticket generation and processing system. Referring to FIG. 4, an embodiment of a dedicated embedded controller 160, which may be referred to as a ticket interface module, is illustrated that may be physically installed in the material handling facility 100, for example in the ticket house 120, and operatively associated with the on-site computer system 122. The dedicated embedded controller 160 may be a stand-alone device configured for installation in a rack mounted in a larger cabinet or the like. The dedicated embedded controller 160 may be enclosed in a multi-sided box-like case 162. To communicate with other devices, including the computer network 156 associated with the on-site and remote computer systems 122, 142, the dedicated embedded controller 160 may include multiple ports 164 accessible through the case 162. Examples of ports include a serial port, a parallel port where data communication is accomplished by transfer of electrical signals through conductive pins that physically contact each other, a USB port, or similar data port. Other ports may include modular connectors such as Ethernet connectors or RJ-type jacks. In one embodiment, to communicate wirelessly, the dedicated embedded controller 160 may include a wireless transmitter / receiver 166 to exchange radio communications. Additionally, to provide visual signals regarding operating conditions, the dedicated embedded controller 160 may include a number of light emitting diodes 168 or similar visual indicators coded to communicate status information.

[0024] The dedicated embedded controller 160 may include suitable circuitry and hardware to implement programmable functions related to generating and processing tickets associated with bulk material transfers. For example, an embedded processor 170 may be included to process computer-executable instructions, programs, applications, and data in the form of software encoded as binary bits and bytes. Examples of suitable embedded processors 170 include programmable logic devices such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), dedicated or customized logic devices such as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), gate arrays, complex programmable logic devices, or any other suitable type of circuit or microchip. Additionally, to store the software and data processed by the embedded processor 170, the dedicated embedded controller 160 may include non-transitory computer-readable and writeable embedded data storage 172, such as read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), EPROM memory, flash memory, or another suitable storage medium such as magnetic or optical storage. [Industrial Applicability]

[0025] Referring to Figure 5, a flow diagram of an exemplary computer-implemented method for generating, managing, and processing tickets associated with the transportation of bulk materials from the material handling facility 100 as shown in Figure 1 is shown. In particular, the illustrated method may be implemented in a distributed computing application or architecture environment including an on-site computer system 122 located at the material handling facility 100 and a remote computer system 142 located at another location. Additionally, the method may facilitate remote management of the on-site computer system 122 by the remote computer 142. The methods depicted in the flow diagram for accomplishing these tasks may include a series of steps or instructions implemented as non-transitory computer-executable software code in the form of an application or program.

[0026] To configure the onsite computer system 122 to generate and process tickets using the ticket templates, the remote computer system 142 may also perform a configuration generation step 220 in which one or more configuration files 222 are generated. The configuration files 222 may be computer-readable files and may contain settings, parameters, and specifications for generating tickets on the onsite computer system 122. For example, in an embodiment in which the onsite computer system 122 includes a dedicated embedded controller 160, the configuration files 222 may define which ports 164 are intended to transfer and receive specific data or information, what data rates and which protocols to use, etc. The configuration generation step 220 may be performed at least partially manually by an operator or technician having knowledge of the system configuration required to implement the ticket template on the onsite computer system 122. After the remote computer system 142 generates the configuration file 222, the remote computer system may perform a configuration upload step 224 in which the configuration file is uploaded and sent to the onsite computer system 122. The computer network 156 may be used to transfer the system configuration file 222. The remote computer system 142 may perform a reboot step 226 to remotely reboot the onsite computer system 122 to load the configuration file 222 and activate and replace any previous configuration files or settings. In another embodiment, the configuration file 202 may be configured for dynamic configuration in which settings may take effect without a remote reboot.

[0027] In an embodiment, the method 200 may include a data capture step 230 in which the remote computer system 142 accesses the onsite computer system 122 to capture and download raw ticket data 232. The raw ticket data 232 may be a computer-readable file containing data and information after a series of operations to convert the raw data into human-readable data, which is incorporated into the generated ticket. For example, the raw ticket file 232 may contain data fields and data types or information that may be included in the ticket when it is generated, may contain other information regarding the format or formation of the ticket, and may also contain information about how the ticket is generated by the onsite computer system 122. The data of the raw ticket data 232 may be captured when the onsite computer system 122 sends the ticket to the printer 130 for printing, and may be raw, unformatted data, such as raw text strings or information from the generated ticket. The data capture step 230 may be initiated from the remote computer system 142, and the raw data file may be downloaded and stored in the remote data storage 146 for further analysis.

[0028] In a template generation step 240, one or more ticket templates 242 may be generated on the remote computer system 142, in part, from the raw data files 232. The ticket templates 240 may be pre-designed documents including a format and general text that may be used to generate tickets to record individual material transfer events, such as the loading of a load truck 110. The ticket templates 242, which may be computer-readable files and may be similar to the example shown in FIG. 3, may define the data fields to be included in the ticket and may describe the presentation and configuration of those fields in the ticket. In an embodiment, the ticket templates may be implemented as markup files written in a markup language such as HTML. The ticket templates 242 allow for the development of customized ticket formats for a particular material process facility 100. The ticket templates 242 may specify data field lengths, data file population rules, etc. To develop and generate the ticket templates 242, the remote computer system 142 can analyze and parse the information captured in the raw ticket file 232 from the onsite computer system 122 to determine what ticket data and information would typically be captured for the material handling facility 100. In one embodiment, the template generation step 240 may be performed at least partially manually by a remote technician or operator analyzing the raw data file 232. The remote computer system 142 may include functionality or software tools to aid in the development of the ticket templates 242. For example, the remote computer system 142 may include a number of sample templates stored in the remote data storage 146. A user interface 150 on the remote computer system 142 may be formatted with menus, commands, and the like to aid in the development of the ticket templates.Once the ticket template 242 is generated, the remote computer system 142 can perform a template upload step 244 where the template is uploaded and transferred to the onsite computer system 142 where it can be stored in the onsite data storage 124 .

[0029] Once the ticket template 242 and configuration file 222 have been transferred, stored, and implemented on the onsite computer system 122, the onsite computer system 122 in a print / transfer ticket step 246 can generate a ticket to document a material transport event, such as the loading and transportation of material by the road truck 110. The tickets may be physically printed utilizing a printer 130, or in one embodiment may be electronic tickets that are wirelessly transferred between the ticket house 120 and the road track 110 using transmitters / receivers 132, 134. Additionally, the data and information contained on the individual tickets may be stored electronically in on-site data storage 134 and periodically communicated using a computer network 156 to a remote computer system 142 or another node for further processing, analysis, billing, etc.

[0030] The method may further perform an error detection step 250 to detect errors or bugs that may affect the operation of the onsite computer system 122 in generating the ticket. For example, the error detection 250 may be performed continuously or periodically on the onsite computer system 122, and if an error or bug is detected, an error communication step 252 may send an error signal 254 to the remote computer system 142. If no error is detected, the method may return to the print / forward ticket step 248 and continue generating the ticket. In an embodiment, the error detection step 230 may be performed by error detection software stored in the onsite data storage 126 and executed from the onsite computer system 122. In another embodiment, the error detection step 250 may be executed from the remote computer system 142 by periodically logging into the online computer system 122 and performing diagnostic analysis. For example, the onsite computer system 122 may generate and store a log file 256 recording events, including errors, in the onsite data storage 126. In a log capture step 258, the remote computer system 142 may capture and download log files 256 that can be analyzed to assess the technical performance of the onsite computer system 122 and expose errors and bugs. In another embodiment, in the diagnosis step 260, the remote computer system 142 can execute diagnostic software on the onsite computer system 122 to develop and communicate with the onsite computer system a diagnostic report detailing the error or bug. If the error detection step 250, the log capture step 258, or the diagnosis step 260 detects an error, the remote computer system 142 can access the onsite computer system 122 and a technician working remotely can edit the system software to correct the error. Editing the system software on the onsite computer system 122 from the remote computer system 142 may be referred to as flashing and may be accomplished in a flash step 262. For example, this type of remote corrective action performed during the flash step 262 may involve regenerating the configuration file 202, uploading and sending the configuration file from the remote computer system 142 to the onsite computer system 122, and rebooting the onsite computer system 122 to implement the correction.

[0031] A possible advantage of the foregoing disclosure is the elimination of the need for a technician to travel to the material production facility 100 to configure and debug the on-site computer system 122. A related possible advantage is that travel expenses, lodging costs, lost wages, and stress of remote work may be reduced or eliminated. Another possible advantage is that when configuration and debugging occurs at the material production facility, additional resources and technicians may be available for consulting at the remote facility that would not otherwise be available. These and other possible advantages and features of the present disclosure will be apparent from the detailed description and figures set forth above.

[0032] Of course, the foregoing description provides examples of the disclosed systems and techniques. However, it is contemplated that other implementations of the present disclosure may differ in details from the above-described embodiment. All references to the present disclosure or its embodiments are intended to refer to the specific embodiment discussed therein and are not intended to imply limitations on the general disclosure. All language of distinction and disparagement regarding specific features is intended to indicate a lack of preference for those features, but does not completely exclude such from the scope of the present disclosure unless otherwise indicated.

[0033] The recitation of ranges of values ​​herein is intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each individual value within that range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each individual value is incorporated herein as if each was individually set forth herein. Unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context, all methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order.

[0034] The use of the terms "a" and "an" and "the" and "at least one," and similar reference words, in the context of describing the present invention (particularly in the context of the claims which follow) should be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. When the term "at least one" is used following a list of one or more items (e.g., at least one of A and B), it shall be construed to mean one item selected from the listed items (A or B), or any combination of two or more of the listed items (A and B), unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context.

[0035] Accordingly, this disclosure includes all modifications and equivalents of the subject matter recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicable law. Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof is encompassed by this disclosure unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.

Claims

1. an onsite computer system configured to store raw ticket data in an onsite memory and to generate tickets from the ticket templates; a remote computer system configured to selectively communicate with the onsite computer system to capture and download the raw ticket data from the onsite memory and to generate and upload the ticket templates for generation of the tickets; Equipped with the remote computer system is further configured to access and edit system software of the onsite computer system when an error signal is sent from the onsite computer system to the remote computer system.

2. 10. The ticket processing system of claim 1, wherein the onsite computer system is further configured to continue generating the ticket if no error is detected.

3. 2. The ticket processing system of claim 1, wherein the onsite computer system is further configured to perform error detection by periodically logging into the onsite computer system from the remote computer system and performing diagnostic analysis of the onsite computer system.

4. 2. The ticket processing system of claim 1, wherein the remote computer system is further configured to capture and download log files, the log files being analyzed to assess technical performance of the onsite computer system and to expose errors or bugs.

5. 2. The ticket processing system of claim 1, wherein the remote computer system is further configured to execute diagnostic software of the onsite computer system to develop and communicate with the onsite computer system a diagnostic report detailing an error or bug.

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