JP4865610B2 - Design support device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a design support apparatus for supporting product design for the purpose of improving environmental efficiency.

In recent years, with the enforcement of the recycling society formation promotion law, the demand for environmentally conscious products is increasing.
In order to manufacture an environmentally conscious product, it is necessary to quantitatively and objectively evaluate the environmental harmony of the product at the product design stage.

There is a life cycle assessment (hereinafter referred to as “LCA”) as a means for quantitatively evaluating the environmental harmony. LCA quantifies the degree of impact on the environment in all processes (life cycle) from resource collection to manufacturing, distribution, use, collection and finally disposal to what is called the environmental impact load. It is something to evaluate. Specifically, environmental impact load, coal used in the materials and energy, and resource consumption such as petroleum, NO _x, atmospheric emissions such as CO _2, BOD, the value of the water effluent COD, etc. The degree of environmental impact is evaluated by calculating for each process in the life cycle.

Conventionally, such an LCA requires a large amount of input data and requires specialized knowledge for evaluation, so that it is difficult to disseminate and the evaluation is expensive.
In order to solve such a problem, a technology is disclosed that can automatically calculate the environmental impact load amount of a product to be evaluated and can evaluate the environmental impact in the life cycle (see, for example, Patent Document 1). ).
In addition, by extracting items that should be evaluated for environmental suitability based on design changes that take into account customer requirements or designers' intentions, it is possible to extract evaluation target items that are useful for product design. A design support apparatus and a design support method that can reduce the time required for evaluation by evaluating environmental compatibility are disclosed (see Patent Document 2).
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-17832 JP 2007-25765 A

By the way, when designing a product, it is necessary to consider not only the environmental load described above but also the function improvement of the product to be designed. However, there may be a trade-off relationship between the functional improvement of the product to be designed and the environmental load, and it is possible to comprehensively evaluate the product from both viewpoints of the functional improvement and the environmental load. It is desired.
In addition, when a product is put on the market, the requirements for the product differ depending on the characteristics of the market. For example, environmental standards and functions required for products differ greatly between developing countries and developed countries. However, the conventional technology has failed to incorporate the attributes of the marketed countries into the evaluation.
Furthermore, there may be a trade-off relationship between design change items of the design target product, and a comprehensive evaluation of the entire design target product is required. However, in the conventional technique, the trade-off relationship between the above-described design change items cannot be incorporated into the evaluation.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and incorporates the relationship between the attributes of the country that is the market of the product to be designed and the design change items, and comprehensively improves the functionality of the product to be designed and the environmental load. An object of the present invention is to provide a design support apparatus having a function for evaluating the above.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following means.
That is, the design support apparatus according to the present invention calculates a function improvement evaluation value calculation means for calculating a function improvement evaluation value indicating the function improvement of the design target product, and calculates or inputs the environmental load of the design target product from the outside. Environmental load setting means for setting the environmental efficiency, and environmental efficiency calculation means for calculating environmental efficiency using the function improvement evaluation value and the environmental load , wherein the function improvement evaluation value calculation means is the design target product. A first weighting table in which a first weighting value is set for each design item according to an attribute of a country serving as a market for the product to be designed, and specific performance input for each design item Using the input value, the performance evaluation value calculating means for calculating the performance evaluation value for each design item, and for each design item, the item-specific evaluation value is calculated using the first weight value and the performance evaluation value. Evaluation by item A calculation unit, by integrating the said item based evaluation value, characterized by comprising a product-specific evaluation value calculating means for calculating the improvements evaluation value.

  According to such a design support apparatus, since the environmental efficiency of the design target product can be obtained as a numerical value, the environmental efficiency of the design target product can be quantitatively evaluated. As a result, it is possible to comprehensively and quantitatively evaluate the design target product from both viewpoints of the function improvement evaluation performance of the design target product and the environmental load.

  Since the evaluation value for each item is calculated using the first weighting value corresponding to the attribute of the country that becomes the market corresponding to the design item, and the function improvement evaluation value is calculated by integrating these, the country that becomes the market It is possible to obtain a function improvement evaluation value reflecting the attributes of

  Further, in the design support apparatus according to the present invention, the performance evaluation value calculation means obtains the second weighting value reflecting the trade-off relationship between the design items set for each design item and the performance input value. The performance evaluation value is calculated for each design item by multiplication.

  By calculating the performance evaluation value for each design item using the second weighting value that reflects the trade-off relationship between the design items, the trade-off relationship between the design change items of the design target product is converted into the performance evaluation value. It can be reflected. Furthermore, by calculating the function improvement evaluation value using this performance evaluation value, the tradeoff relationship between design items can be reflected in the function improvement evaluation value.

  Further, in the design support apparatus according to the present invention, the performance evaluation value calculating means has a trade-off table in which design items having a trade-off relationship are registered in association with each other, and a trade-off relationship from the trade-off table. A design item is read and displayed, input instruction means for instructing the user to input a priority order between the design items having a trade-off relationship, and each design item having a trade-off relationship based on the priority order. And a second weight value setting means for setting the second weight value.

  Design items that are in a trade-off relationship are displayed, and the user is instructed to input a priority order for these items, so that the user can check the design items that have a trade-off relationship and which design items are important. You can choose to see. As a result, it is possible to assign a high weighting value to a design item with a high priority after grasping the influence on the entire design target product due to a part of the design change.

  According to the present invention, there is an effect that the design target product can be comprehensively and quantitatively evaluated from both viewpoints of the function improvement evaluation property and the environmental load of the design target product.

An embodiment of a design support apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of a design support apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the design support apparatus 1 is a so-called personal computer, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), HD (Hard Disc), ROM (Read
An arithmetic processing device 6 having only memory (RAM), RAM (Random Access Memory), etc., a display device 5 connected to the arithmetic processing device 6, and an input device 7 connected to the arithmetic processing device 6 are provided.

The display device 5 is, for example, a CRT (cathode-ray tube) or LCD (liquid Crystal).
Display) and the like. The input device 7 is, for example, a mouse, a pointing device, a keyboard, or the like. Further, the function of the input device 7 can be added to the display device 5 by forming the display screen of the display device 5 as a touch panel.

FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of the arithmetic processing unit 6. As shown in FIG. 2, the arithmetic processing unit 6 includes a function improvement evaluation value calculation unit (function improvement evaluation value calculation means) 2 that calculates a function improvement evaluation value indicating a function improvement property of a design target product, and a design target product. The main components are an environmental load setting unit (environmental load setting unit) 3 for calculating the environmental load and an environmental efficiency calculation unit (environmental efficiency calculation unit) 4 for calculating the environmental efficiency obtained by dividing the function improvement evaluation value by the environmental load. As an element.
The processing realized by the function improvement evaluation value calculation unit 2, the environmental load setting unit 3, and the environmental efficiency setting unit 4 is mainly such that the CPU or the like included in the arithmetic processing device 6 is stored in ROM, HD, or the like. It is realized by reading out various programs and executing information processing and arithmetic processing.

  The function improvement evaluation value calculation unit 2 includes a first weight value setting unit 14, a performance evaluation value calculation unit (performance evaluation value calculation unit) 11, an item-specific evaluation value calculation unit (item-specific evaluation value calculation unit) 12, and a product An evaluation value calculation unit (product-specific evaluation value calculation unit) 13 and an input instruction unit (input instruction unit) 16 are provided as main components.

The first weight value setting unit 14 includes a first weighting table 10. The first weighting table 10 stores the main issues of the product to be designed, and a first weight value corresponding to the attribute of the country that is the market of the product to be designed is set for each main issue. ing. For example, as shown in Fig. 3, developed countries such as Europe are environment-oriented (TYPE-1), economic powers such as the United States and Japan are function-oriented (TYPE-2), and developing countries such as Southeast Asia are economic-oriented. It is classified as a type (TYPE-3), and a weight value for each design item is set according to each type.
Specifically, for example, in the TYPE-1 country, a high weight is set in the order of environment, function, and economy. In other words, the main issues corresponding to the environment, such as environmental impact reduction, post-use ease of processing, and safety improvement, are set higher than other main issues.
On the other hand, in TYPE-3 countries, a high weight is set in the order of economy, function, and environment. In other words, the product life / maintenance management and energy / resource saving points, which are the main issues corresponding to the economy, are set higher than other main issues.
In addition, the first weighting value is set so that, for example, the weight value disparity between design items is larger than the second weighting value described later, and the total value is set to 100. .

  The performance evaluation value calculation unit 11 includes a design item table 18, a trade-off table 15, an input instruction unit 16, a second weight value setting unit 17, and a calculation unit 19.

In the design item table 18, design items for each design target product are registered. For example, in the design item table 18, as shown in FIG. 4, design items are subdivided and set for various main issues such as improvement in function, improvement in operation, and improvement in environmental harmony. For example, in the four lift example, driving performance, cargo handling performance, and turning performance are set as improvement functions for the main problem of function improvement, and further, acceleration, lift speed, and turning radius are set as design items for each improvement function. Is set.
In the trade-off table 15, design items having a trade-off relationship are registered in association with each other.
The input instructing unit 16 reads design items in a trade-off relationship from the trade-off table 15 and displays them on the display device 5 and instructs the user to input the priority between the design items in the trade-off relationship. A design item is read from the design item table 18 and a specific performance input for the design item is instructed.
The second weight value setting unit 17 sets the second weight value of each design item based on the priority set by the user for the design item having a trade-off relationship.
The computing unit 19 calculates a performance evaluation value for each design item using the second weighting value and the performance input value set for each design item.

The item-by-item evaluation value calculation unit 12 calculates the item-by-item evaluation value by, for example, multiplying the first weighting value and the performance evaluation value for each design item.
For example, the product-specific evaluation value calculation unit 13 calculates the function improvement evaluation value by integrating the item-specific evaluation values calculated by the item-specific evaluation value calculation unit 12 with respect to all design items.

  Next, the operation of the design support apparatus 1 according to this embodiment having the above-described configuration will be described mainly with reference to FIG.

  First, in step SP1, the user is allowed to select an attribute of a country that is a market for the product to be designed (see FIG. 3). Specifically, the first weighting value setting unit 14 reads from the first weighting table 10 the above-mentioned environment-oriented type (TYPE-1), function-oriented type (TYPE-2), and economy-oriented type (TYPE-3). The three types of attributes classified into (3) are read out, the attributes are displayed on the display device 5, and the user is instructed to select the attributes of the country that is the market for the product to be designed.

  In response to this instruction, when the user operates the input device 7 (see FIG. 1) and any one of the above-mentioned three types of attributes is designated, the first weight value is set in the subsequent step SP2. Is called. Specifically, the first weight value setting unit 14 reads out the first weight value corresponding to the attribute designated by the user from the first weight table 10 and sets the first weight value for each design item. To do.

  Next, in step SP3, the input instruction unit 16 of the performance evaluation value calculation unit 11 reads design items from the design item table 18, and instructs the user to input specific performance values for each design item (FIG. 4). reference). For example, in the example of the four lift shown in FIG. 4, the input of specific performance values such as acceleration, lift speed, turning radius, etc. of the product to be designed is instructed. When a performance value for each design item is input by the user in response to this instruction, the performance evaluation value calculation unit 11 stores each design item and the performance value in association with each other in a predetermined memory area owned by itself.

Next, in step SP4, the user is instructed to confirm the trade-off relationship between design items. Specifically, the input instructing unit 16 reads design items in a trade-off relationship from the trade-off table 15 and displays them on the display device 5, and inputs the priority order between the design items in the trade-off relationship to the user. Instruct. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the input instruction unit 16 arranges each design item (in FIG. 5, each design item is indicated as T ₁₁ , T ₁₂ ,...) In rows and columns. A so-called star chart is displayed, and among these, combinations of setting items that are in a trade-off relationship are displayed in a visible manner. For example, between setting items that are not in a trade-off relationship, by automatically setting “2” in each input field, the trade-off relationship is established for the setting items that do not display “2”. Recognize that. Further, the input instructing unit 16 instructs the setting item for which the input is blank to input “3” for the setting item with the higher priority and “1” for the setting item with the lower priority. As a result, the user sequentially compares the setting item in the row and the setting item in the column, and inputs “3” to the row of the setting item having a high priority.
For example, in the screen example shown in FIG. 5, when the design items T ₁₁ and T ₁₂ are in a trade-off relationship, if T ₁₁ has a higher priority, the user is in the row of T ₁₁ and T _12. “3” is set in the column of “1”, “1” is set in the row of T ₁₂ and the column of T ₁₁ . In the above example, if 3 is set in the T ₁₁ row and the T ₁₂ column, the input field corresponding to this combination, that is, the T ₁₂ row and the T ₁₁ column, “1” may be automatically set.

  In this way, when the priorities are input for the setting items having the trade-off relationship, the second weighting value setting unit 17 sets the second weighting for each design item in step SP5 based on the priorities. Value is set. Specifically, on the screen shown in FIG. 5, the second weighting value is set by integrating the values set in association with each design item for each row.

Next, in step SP6, a function improvement evaluation value is calculated. First, the calculation unit 19 uses the specific performance value input to the input instruction unit 16 and the second weighting value set by the second weighting value setting unit 17 to evaluate the performance evaluation value of each design item. Is calculated. Specifically, for each design item, the performance evaluation value is obtained by multiplying the value obtained by dividing the performance value of the design target product input by the user in step SP3 by the performance value of the conventional product by the second weight value. calculate. Thereby, the performance evaluation value of each design item can be made dimensionless.
Subsequently, the item-specific evaluation value calculation unit 12 multiplies the performance evaluation value of each design item calculated by the calculation unit 19 by the first weighting value set in step SP2 for each design item. Another evaluation value is calculated.
Furthermore, the product-specific evaluation value calculation unit 13 calculates the function improvement evaluation value by integrating the item-specific evaluation values calculated by the item-specific evaluation value calculation unit 12.

  Next, in step SP7, the environmental load of the product to be designed is set by a database provided in the environmental load setting unit 3. This environmental load may be set by an input from the outside of the environmental load setting unit 3.

  Next, in step SP8, the environmental efficiency calculation unit 4 reads the environmental load set in the environmental load setting unit 3 and the function improvement evaluation value calculated by the function improvement evaluation value calculation unit 2, and obtains the function improvement evaluation value. Divide by environmental load to calculate environmental efficiency. The unit of environmental efficiency obtained here is determined based on the environmental load by making the performance evaluation value dimensionless in step SP6. This facilitates comparative examination of the environmental efficiency of the product to be designed.

  In step SP9, the environmental efficiency calculation unit 4 causes the display device 5 to display the calculated environmental efficiency. The display method may be other than the display on the display device 5, for example, it may be printed out.

As described above, according to the design support apparatus according to the present embodiment, the environmental efficiency of the product to be designed can be obtained as a numerical value, so that the environmental efficiency of the product to be designed can be quantitatively evaluated. As a result, it is possible to comprehensively and quantitatively evaluate the design target product from both viewpoints of the function improvement evaluation performance of the design target product and the environmental load.
In addition, since the evaluation value for each item is calculated using the first weighting value corresponding to the attribute of the country that becomes the market corresponding to the design item, and the function improvement evaluation value is calculated by integrating these, the market and It is possible to obtain a function improvement evaluation value reflecting the attribute of a country.
In addition, by calculating the performance evaluation value for each design item using the second weighting value reflecting the trade-off relationship between the design items, the performance evaluation of the trade-off relationship between the design change items of the design target product is performed. It can be reflected in the value. Furthermore, by calculating the function improvement evaluation value using this performance evaluation value, the tradeoff relationship between design items can be reflected in the function improvement evaluation value.
In addition, since design items that are in a trade-off relationship are displayed and the user is instructed to input a priority order for these, the user can check the design items that have a trade-off relationship, and any design item Can be selected. As a result, it is possible to assign a high weighting value to a design item with a high priority after grasping the influence on the entire design target product due to a part of the design change.

In this embodiment, the user selects the attribute of the country that is the market for the product to be designed. Instead, the first weight value setting unit 14 sets all the countries and their attributes as initial settings. It is good also as registering and an attribute being automatically set by a user selecting a country.
Further, the performance evaluation value may be calculated by using the performance value of the design target product input by the user without being divided by the performance value of the conventional product. Specifically, the performance evaluation value of the design target product may be calculated by multiplying the performance value of the design target product input by the user by the second weighting value.
Furthermore, when confirming the trade-off relationship between design items, preferential design items are registered in advance, and values based on the registered priority order are displayed on the screen shown in FIG. It may be instructed whether or not the priority order needs to be changed.

It is the block diagram which showed typically the structure of the design assistance apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a functional block diagram of the arithmetic processing unit of the design support apparatus shown in FIG. It is the figure which showed an example of the various information stored in the 1st weighting table. It is the figure which showed an example of the information input into a performance evaluation value calculation part. It is the figure which showed an example of the various information stored in the trade-off table. It is the flowchart which showed the outline of operation | movement of the design support apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Design support apparatus 2 Function improvement evaluation value calculation part 3 Environmental load setting part 4 Environmental efficiency calculation part 10 1st weighting table 11 Performance evaluation value calculation part 12 Evaluation value calculation part 13 Item-specific evaluation value calculation part 15 Trade-off Table 16 Input instruction unit 17 Second weight value setting unit

Claims (3)

A function improvement evaluation value calculating means for calculating a function improvement evaluation value indicating the function improvement of the product to be designed;
Environmental load setting means for setting the environmental load of the product to be designed by calculating or inputting from the outside,
Environmental efficiency calculating means for calculating environmental efficiency using the function improvement evaluation value and the environmental load;
Equipped with,
The function improvement evaluation value calculation means is
A first weighting table in which a first weighting value is set for a design item of the design target product according to an attribute of a country serving as a market for the design target product;
A performance evaluation value calculation means for calculating a performance evaluation value for each design item using a specific performance input value input for each design item;
For each design item, item-specific evaluation value calculating means for calculating an item-specific evaluation value using the first weighting value and the performance evaluation value;
A product-specific evaluation value calculating means for calculating the function improvement evaluation value by integrating the item-specific evaluation values;
A design support apparatus comprising: The performance evaluation value calculation means multiplies the performance input value by a second weighting value that reflects a trade-off relationship between the design items set for each design item, so that the performance is calculated for each design item. design support apparatus according to claim 1 for calculating an evaluation value. The performance evaluation value calculation means is
A trade-off table in which design items in a trade-off relationship are registered in association with each other;
Input instruction means for reading out and displaying design items in a trade-off relationship from the trade-off table, and instructing the user to input a priority between the design items in a trade-off relationship;
The design support apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising: a second weight value setting unit configured to set a second weight value for each design item having a trade-off relationship based on the priority order.

Images