Electronic system for equipment repair orders

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention relates generally to a system for managing repair orders for equipment repair and, more specifically, to a networked computing system for managing orders for repair of intermodal transportation equipment such as trailers, containers and chassis.

#2. Description of Related Art

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic system for intermodal transportation equipment repair orders in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

#FIGS. 2-6 are logic flow diagrams of the repair data entry functions of an electronic system for intermodal transportation equipment repair orders in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

#FIGS. 7-26 are illustrations of various screens on a mobile unit of an electronic system for intermodal transportation equipment repair orders in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

#While the invention can be embodied in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings, and will herein be described in detail, a preferred embodiment of the present invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiments illustrated.

#Referring now to FIG. 1, a block diagram an electronic system for intermodal transportation equipment repair orders in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is shown. The system comprises a central computer 10 on which information is stored and to and from which information is transferred throughout the system to various server computers 30. The central computer 10 and server computers 30 are preferably personal computers, however, any type of computer with sufficient memory and processing power can be used. Please note that, for ease of illustration, a single server computer 30 is shown, however, the invention contemplates using one or multiple such server computers 30 networked together through the central computer 10. The server computer 30 can be connected to the central computer 10 via a local area network (LAN); via the global computer network, also known as the Internet; via remote communication through the airwaves (e.g. CDMA, GSM, GPRS or a cellular connection through the global computer network (CDPD)); via a radio frequency (RF) link; or by any other communication link suitable for transferring digital data.

#Also shown in FIG. 1 are a number of mobile units connected to the server computer 30 in a number of different ways. The connection of the mobile units to the server computer 30 can include, for example: computers 12, 14 and 16 that are connected to server computer 30 directly via a LAN; computer 18 that is connected to server computer 30 via the Internet 20; computer 22 that is connected to server computer 30 via remote communication through the airwaves (e.g. CDMA, GSM, GPRS or a cellular connection through the global computer network (CDPD)) generally designated as 24; and a computer 26 that is connected to server computer 30 via a RF link 28.