CaseBank Technologies, Inc.
Brampton, ON
Company Overview
CaseBank Technologies Inc (CaseBank) is the leading provider of guided-diagnostic knowledge management systems and services.
All facets of society are currently experiencing or are about to experience the effects of a massive loss of on-the-job knowledge and practical experience as the baby-boomer generation enters retirement age. This is the knowledge of how to quickly and efficiently deal with non-routine situations which arise or to quickly diagnose and correct problems when they occur. Most of this knowledge is not currently written down or, if it is written down, is not readily accessible to those attempting to deal with a problem. CaseBanks guided-diagnostic knowledge management systems and services can capture much of this experience from existing reports of investigations of past small or large catastrophes.
Often, it is not the existence of problems which cause catastrophes but rather the failure of the individuals involved to quickly apply the proper corrective action. Rare is the completely new, never-before-experienced problem. Most difficulties have been experienced before and could quickly be resolved by anyone who can be made aware of lessons-learnedboth successful and unsuccessfulwhen the problem happened before. Repeated mistakes can be avoided when lessons-learned from a new event can be quickly communicated to others experiencing similar events.
To date, CaseBank has also had success in applying this technology to two areas:
- Industrial activities related to maintenance of modern industrial equipment and processes
- Complex, procedure bound activities where it can be difficult to determine the exact procedure to apply in any particular situation out of a large number of potentially applicable procedures.
Industrial applications ----------------------- When applied to industrial equipment and processes CaseBanks guided-diagnostics assist maintenance and operational staff to quickly and accurately diagnose and repair faults which have happened before as they occur regardless of the level of experience of those involved.
Many industries unknowingly experience high rates of failed repair attempts specifically due to ineffective troubleshooting. As a result, they needlessly incur substantial direct and indirect costs including parts, labor, unscheduled downtime and underutilized capacity. Ineffective troubleshooting is pervasive, yet hard to detect. Our research in the aircraft maintenance industry, for example, showed almost 50% of non-routine repair attempts were unsuccessful due to ineffective troubleshooting, and 95% of the problems had known solutions.
CaseBanks guided-diagnostics technology was created specifically to advance troubleshooting to the next level. Guided-diagnostics is more than a search tool it is a comprehensive interactive diagnostic application which:
Guides users through diagnosis and repair with intelligent prompting of symptoms and tests, with instant recall of the most relevant known solutions, and with immediate access to pertinent technical documentation Aids in the capture and validation of solutions to new problems Enables effective help escalation and collaboration between users Captures an electronic record of the troubleshooting and repair process to aid collaboration and historical analysis
Industrial clients utilize our technology and services to build and deploy guided troubleshooting and repair applications to support their internal staff and to support their customers, resulting in lower equipment and process maintenance costs, increased equipment availability and process capacity, and lower technical support costs. SpotLight is CaseBanks guided-diagnostic technology utilizing a patented hybrid casebase reasoning methodology. The power of this technology is its ability to integrate experience-based knowledge with functional knowledge and technical support information providing the user with a comprehensive all-in-one tool.
Key reasons to deploy a SpotLight Guided-Diagnostic system in industry are:
Reduce unsuccessful repair attempts and improve First-Time-Fix rates Deliver significant cost savings:
Parts costs Labor costs Equipment disruption costs Process under-utilization costs Improve productivity of technical support personnel allowing higher equipment to personnel ratios Increase utilization of self-service and self-help web portals, lowering unnecessary support calls while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction
CaseBank is committed to your success, and offers a variety of software and services throughout the development cycle that cover the range from build-your-own to complete turn-key web-hosted systems. Our SpotLight software includes: the web-browser guided-diagnostic application; knowledgebase development tools; and optional remote access/synchronization. Our services include: developer and end-user training; comprehensive text mining to perform knowledge extraction from existing records; knowledgebase development services; usage monitoring; web hosting; and turn-key system development. CaseBank has successfully built and deployed many guided-diagnostic systems and that experience is an integral part of our products and services.
SpotLight integrates into your workflow and existing information technology infrastructures. It is delivered via the Web through standard browsers and industry-standard protocols, and on stand-alone laptop computers that replicate with the main server when a network connection is available. SpotLight integrates with corporate Web-site portals, merges user log-ons and access permissions with higher-level systems, and provides several layers of information confidentiality and security.
SpotLight integrates with and complements other troubleshooting tools, such as existing electronic technical publications (eg. Fault Isolation Manuals). SpotLight can communicate with devices that download equipment diagnostic data (including clustering those messages into related data groups for more effective troubleshooting). It can also transfer key data to and from maintenance record-keeping systems and CRM systems.
CaseBank is unique in offering a tool suite, the SpotLight Mentor, that utilizes the same knowledgebase developed for the guided-diagnostic application. Technical training authors can create relevant and challenging training exercises based on the field experience knowledgebase, and integrate it with their existing training curriculum.
SpotLights guided-diagnostic systems have the potential to dramatically improve maintenance and operational management business practices and processes, by capturing and re-using experience-based knowledge, linking critical repair procedures and other documentation into an integrated diagnostic knowledge portal, enabling a higher return-on-investment and a lower total-cost-of-ownership.
Company Information
Physical Address
1 Kenview Blvd.
Brampton, ON L6T 5E6
CA
Mailing Address
1 Kenview Blvd.
Brampton, ON L6T 5E6
CA
Additional Details
Legal Name: CaseBank Technologies, Inc.
Number of Employees: 40
Total Sales ($CDN): $100,000 - $200,000
CA
Developed to support equipment maintenance operations SpotLight is a knowledge management tool for decision support in any industry. SpotLight can be applied to capture the knowledge in any system, from the simple to the complex. Spotlight is especially useful in operation, maintenance and repair of large complex systems (an example an aircraft, chemical plant or steel rolling mill)
Air Canada Bombardier British Airways Department of National Defense (Canada) Dupont Canada General Electric Honeywell John Deere Methanex Corporation Northwest Airlink Rockwell Collins International
Airline Maintenance Technician We had one aircraft with a Steering Inop that had the aircraft down for 2 days and 48 man-hours were used in fixing it SpotLight did not have a solution but the information was captured. The same problem occurred a month later, and the Denver Mechanic fixed it in 1 hour based on what he found in SpotLight. The power of communication!
Airline Maintenance Technician As a result of situations like the following it has become a priority to have MX controllers trained on SpotLight. Rather than send a speed switch and a mechanic to change it, they sent 2 mechanics and an Air Turbine starter on a road trip to an outstation. The following day they sent another ATS, plus a Start Valve, Start control PNL and a start control relay (close to $100, 000 of parts). That did not fix the problem, so they then ferried the aircraft non revenue to a MX base for further troubleshooting. When I checked the plot notes for the out of service aircraft the problem was similar to a problem that I had experienced with another aircraft in phx and spotlight provided a solution that was a 100% fix the first time. I entered the symptoms into SpotLight and the solution that came back was the N1 monopole also called a speed switch. It was the first solution on the list.
Airline Senior Maintenance Technician Spotlight has been a great tool. I find the more I use and learn about it, the better my payback is. Following are three stories. Two show what happens when SpotLight is used, the third, sadly, shows what can happen when it is not.
Crew reported an overspeed warning horn sounding when it should not. Prior to entering Spotlight I considered replacing the obvious components... ADU, IOP, IOM, etc. Considered pitot static testing, etc. The cost of installing these components 1 at a time is horrible, and I still would have been wrong. Besides being wrong, the function test time would have been an entire day or more, plus there would have been a requirement to move people, equipment and parts to an outstation. We are fortunate that we normally stock these items, so delivery times are not involved. I entered the symptoms into SpotLight and Spotlight popped up with a 100% match for my entry. WOW#1 sensor bad. I asked outstation mtx to read me PSEU faults. WOW #1 nose sensor was faulted, and then replaced. The upshot is for 10% of the cost, the aircraft was returned to service in a matter of 2 or 3 hrs. Without Spotlight assistance, I would have never dreamed to check PSEU, and the aircraft would have been out of service for days (if I ever did fix it on my own).
Powerplant message was posted without supporting fault codes. Had no idea where to go with this: ADU, EMU, FADEC, PEC, IOM, IOP, DU's - who knows? Spotlight knows. This could well have been over $250, 000 in parts. SpotLight's solution, the PEC, was expensive, but correct.
Did not seem like a huge problem, but it got expensive anyway. The main battery did not show load on a particular a/c... It was such an obvious problem we didnt think to check SpotLight. The problem nagged on for days with delays and cancellations. Crew would report the problem and a part would get changed. This repeated 8 times, then we replaced the Shunt. That fixed the problem. Total cost over the 8 days was estimated to be over $75, 000. Just for fun, I decided to check SpotLight after the fact. SpotLight had the correct solution right away. We later had the same problem on 4 other a/c. Blushingly, I had the shunt sense lines re-terminated and the shunt contact areas thoroughly cleaned. No repeat problems with these a/c either. This red-face problem looked like it would grow into a fleet issue, so I had all the main battery shunts cleaned and sense lines checked for corrosion. No problem in the fleet since.
Michael Fox, Director of Maintenance, Horizon Air 'The benefits of SpotLight are real and potentially very significant. A CRJ700 showed a fault in the nosewheel steering. We changed a fairly expensive part suggested by the troubleshooting manual, but the fault persisted. We changed several more parts without success and the aircraft remained out of service. We decided to see if SpotLight would help. Within seconds, SpotLight came up with a similar problem and pointed to a situation that had been experienced and solved previously. Once we recognized the solution, we realized with some frustration that we had resolved the same fault on another aircraft only a few months earlier.'
Tom Nelson, Maintenance Lead, Pinnacle Airlines 'I use SpotLight a lot. Sometimes I use it for help, but even when I think I know what the fix is, I will run SpotLight to confirm my thinking. It's nice to know that someone else has encountered the same problem and that my fix is likely the correct one.'
Contacts
Darius Knight
Title: Vice President
Area of Responsibility: Domestic Sales & Marketing, Export Sales & Marketing, Management Executive
Phone: Show phone
Fax: Show fax
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Phil D'eon
Title: Chief Executive Officer
Area of Responsibility: Management Executive, Government Relations
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Tony O'hara
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Area of Responsibility: Administrative Services, Management Executive, Finance/Accounting, Customer Service, Manufacturing/Production/Operations
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Services
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Case-base Development And Knowledge Management Services
CaseBank provides services ranging from simple software support, to complete turn-key system development, operation and maintenance, including subscription-based development and operation of strategic, industry-specific knowledge bases.
SpotLight Casebase Development Services
Our trained knowledge engineers review and mine equipment maintenance documentation as well as existing maintenance and service records. Using our proprietary data-mining tools, CaseBank can provide case development quickly and efficiently, eliminating the burden of dedicating, or recruiting additional personnel. SpotLight Integration Services
CaseBank offers consulting and development services, to support the implementation of decision support applications in customer environments. This includes installation, training and integration with legacy systems, including Service and Maintenance Management suites, ERP systems and Call Management systems. SpotLight Casebase Administration Services
CaseBank offers complete turn-key solutions to your knowledge management challenges. In addition to the services mentioned, our staff can administer and maintain your knowledgebase for you. That knowledge can be made available to others wherever they might be within your organization, regardless of geography. SpotLight Training Services
CaseBank offers scheduled training courses at its facilities in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, or on-site at the customers facilities:
- SpotLight User Training
- SpotLight Case Content Developer Training
- SpotLight Casebase Administrator Training
SpotLight Support Services ========================== In addition to contracted software support, providing ongoing maintenance and enhancement of the SpotLight software, CaseBank can provide as much or as little hands-on support as required, to transition customers at their own pace, to complete self-sufficiency in supporting their own knowledge systems. This can include monitoring and periodic audits of knowledge bases, to ensure that customers are making the best use of their knowledge base and maximizing their benefits from SpotLight.
For more information please see our company website at: http: //www. casebank. com
Products
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Specialized Knowledge Bases
Each knowledge base or 'case-base' is a specialized collection of Case Studies relevant to one particular knowledge domain--e. g. the CC130 aircraft, departmental operating procedures or in vivo drug interactions. Only real, documented events are developed into cases and published in the case-base. The case-base contains no theoretical cases or events which have never been observed or documented. Most case-bases developed by CaseBank to date have documented faults within a type of equipment and support fault diagnosis within maintenance, repair and overhaul operations.
Each case study within the knowledge base generically describes a particular event. Considering equipment failure events, a case can be considered a mini root-cause analysis of the generic version of a particular pattern of failure which has occurred one or more times. It is important to note that a case is not the same as a record of any particular event, as would be found in a logbook. Rather, a case is a single representation of all similar events.
With respect to failure events, a case normally contains all symptom descriptions, the root cause, and appropriate repair information. It can also include tips, explanations, contacts, and links to related information such as on-line service bulletins or maintenance manuals. Each case has one or more attributes which describe symptoms of the fault, (e. g. Is a low pressure warning shown?), and each attribute has two or more answers associated with it (e. g. Shown on left side/Shown on right side). Each case has a set of attributes and attribute values which uniquely identify the case within the case-base. Attributes are weighted according to multiple criteria, and can tolerate variations in their values (e. g. answering temperature: warm is similar to hot).
The SpotLight reasoning engine matches the symptoms that a user is experiencing to one or more of the cases in the case-base. Users enter symptoms by answering as few or as many questions as convenient with a 'point and click' interface. Users need not be 'computer literate'. Only the most basic of mouse and keyboard skills are necessary. Once symptoms are entered, SpotLights reasoning engine searches for similar cases, applying fuzzy logic so that relevant cases may be found even if symptoms are not reported exactly as previously experienced. A preliminary search may present many possible cases, and the user may continue to answer more questions to narrow the search with SpotLight reasoning-on-the-fly after each new input. The list of questions presented is continually updated to reflect the information that has been entered.
When a user consults SpotLight about a problem, the system opens up a 'session'. A session has two possible outcomes: either the system finds a case that solves the problem, or it does not. If a solution is found, the case 'hit count', giving the number of times the case has occurred, is incremented. If no solution is found, SpotLight flags the information entered by the user. This data is passed on to the case-base developers within the organization, who may use it to create a new case in the case-base. Users can also help to improve an existing case by adding the electronic equivalent of a 'sticky note', which is passed along to the case-base developers.
The case-base grows with use. The more it is used, the better it becomes and the more complete it's contents.
Field results show that traditional diagnostic systems have gaps in their problem solving abilities. CaseBank researchers found that in aircraft equipped with comprehensive diagnostic support systems, approximately 20 percent of the fault events recorded in the logbooks could not be resolved using these systems. Further, they found that many of the faults had been solved before, but that there was no easy way to identify and retrieve the knowledge when it was next needed.
SpotLight complements, and integrates with traditional fault isolation manuals. These manuals are normally derived from an engineering analysis of the particular system or equipment and address only those faults foreseen by its designers. For this reason, many of the failures that occur in practice are not identified by the fault isolation procedures in the manuals. SpotLight deals with the failures that actually occur when the system or equipment is in everyday use, and is particularly effective in dealing with intermittent faults and complex interactions between interacting systems.
SpotLight allows fault-finding experience and knowledge to be shared by technicians at multiple locations, across the country or around the world. Yet another benefit is its ability to capture the vital unwritten knowledge that people gain through experience on the job, and thus help prevent the loss of expert 'know-how' as personnel move on to other assignments, employment opportunities, or retirement.
As a troubleshooting or diagnostic tool, SpotLight not only saves time by delivering solutions to known problems but also in writing up fault reports. As it searches, SpotLight automatically gathers all the information needed for a thorough fault report.
SpotLight can serve organizations in two ways: as a powerful tool to minimize unplanned downtime on their own processes, systems, and equipment, and as a value-added sales and marketing tool that wins and keeps customers by delivering high quality support for the organization's products.
Currently specialized knowledge bases exist for most Bombardier regional aircraft, Honeywell gas turbine engines, the CC-130 and CP-140 aircraft and the T-56 turbo-prop engine common to these two aircraft. Many other specialized knowledge bases are currently under development. CaseBank appreciates any opportunity to discuss your requirements
For more information see our website at: http: //www. casebank. com
- Spotlight
NAICS Categories
- 541510 Computer Systems Design and Related Services
- 541619 Other Management Consulting Services
- 561490 Other Business Support Services
Additional Information
541510, 541619, 561490
4910-Motor Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Shop Specialized Equipment, 4920-Aircraft Maintenance and Repair Shop Specialized Equipment, 4921-Torpedo Maintenance, Repair, andCheckout Specialized Equipment, 4923-Depth Charges and Underwater Mines Maintenance, Repair, and Checkout Specialized Equipment, 4925-Ammunition Maintenance, Repair, and Checkout Specialized Equipment, 4927-Rocket Maintenance, Repair and Checkout Specialized Equipment, 4931-Fire Control Maintenance and Repair Shop Specialized Equipment, 4933-Weapons Maintenance and Repair Shop Specialized Equipment, 4935-Guided Missile Maintenance, Repair, and Checkout Specialized Equipment, 4940-Miscellaneous Maintenance and Repair Shop Specialized Equipment, 4960-Space Vehicle Maintenance, Repair and Checkout Specialized Equipment, AC00-Defense Systems, AD00-Defense - Other, AN00-Medical, AT00-Transportation - General, AZ00-Other Research and Development, R112-Information Retrieval (non-automated), R199-Other Administrative and Management Support Services
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