JP4922015B2 - Environmentally conscious design support equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an environment- friendly design support apparatus that supports product design in consideration of improvement of environmental load.

  When considering product design, it is important to design and develop products that have a low environmental impact throughout the life cycle in addition to product performance and cost. In 2008, the EuP Directive came into force, and an obligation to attach a life cycle environmental load evaluation result as a profile to energy-using products listed on the EU market arises. Conventionally, the evaluation of the environmental load of a product has been performed by trial and error on the product in charge by the designer, so improvement efforts have been closed for each product. Further, since the environmental load information of the product is disclosed to the user, it is assumed that an effort for improving the environmental load is indispensable as a company.

LCA (Life Cycle) is a method for evaluating environmental impact throughout the product life cycle.
Assessments). The technology described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-57936 models the product life cycle to the environmental load during manufacturing, use, disposal, and recycling, and easily determines the environmental load amount of the product. It was to output a quantity comparison.

JP 10-57936 A

  In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-57936, it is possible to evaluate the environmental load of a product from the basic unit and the amount of material, but no method for reducing the environmental load and an improvement plan are presented.

  In addition, the current situation is that the designers are planning improvement plans in practice by trial and error for the products in charge. In order to improve the environmental impact, product materials, parts, or processes must be changed, but these changes are not independent of each other. For example, if the material is changed, the recycling method will be changed accordingly. Is involved. For this reason, if an improvement plan for a certain product is simply applied to other products, an effect trade-off occurs in the entire life cycle, and the environmental load may increase as a result.

Therefore, the present onset Ming, to evaluate the improvement plan in accordance with the environmental impact the designer was planning against the charge of products, the effect of taking into account the trade-off of the entire life cycle of when applied to other products to accurately The purpose is to be able to .

This onset Ming, parts for products, the configuration information of the materials, and processes, and product-specific environmental load information, and product-specific environmental storage means for storing in association with the individual products, parts relating to the product or materials or processes Information on the impact index indicating the location of related items that need to be changed in conjunction with the application to the target product. The improvement plan storage means for storing in association, the component, material, and process configuration information relating to the individual products stored in the product-specific environmental load storage means, and the improvement plan stored in the improvement plan storage means The applicability of the improvement plan for each individual product is determined based on the associated change contents, the application condition, and the information on the impact index. A good plan applicability determination unit, and an improvement effect evaluation unit that evaluates the effect when the improvement plan is applied to the product determined to be applicable by the improvement plan applicability determination unit, The improvement plan applicability determination means, in applying the change contents related to the improvement plan to the target product, in all of the related items that meet the application condition and traced based on the information of the impact index The most important feature is that, when necessary changes can be implemented in conjunction with the application of the improvement plan, the improvement plan is determined to be applicable.

With the present invention, it is possible to evaluate the proposed improvements according to the environmental impact for a certain product, the effect of considering the trade-off of the entire life cycle when applied to other products to accurately.

  Embodiments of an environment-conscious design support apparatus using the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of an environment-conscious design support apparatus according to the present invention. The environmentally conscious design support apparatus of FIG. 1 includes the configuration of product parts, materials, and processes, the environmental load storage means 10 for each product that stores the environmental load, the environmental load evaluation means 20 that evaluates the environmental load of the product, and the improvement. An improvement plan storage means 30 with application conditions for storing the plan together with the preconditions. The improvement plan applicability determination unit 40 determines the product-specific environmental load from the configuration of product parts, materials, and processes stored in the product-specific environmental load storage unit 10 and the improvement plan stored in the improvement plan storage unit 30 with application conditions. For the product stored in the storage means 10, it is determined whether or not the improvement plan stored in the application condition improvement plan storage means 30 can be applied. And the improvement effect evaluation means 50 evaluates the effect at the time of applying an improvement plan about the product determined that the improvement plan application possibility determination means 40 can apply the improvement plan.

  Each component of Example 1 is demonstrated. For the sake of explanation, the configuration of the product, the improvement plan, the value of the basic unit, etc. are illustrated, but these are all fictitious.

The product-specific environmental load storage means 10 is a means for storing product component configurations, materials, processes, and the like together with environmental loads. The contents of the data stored in the product-specific environmental load storage means 10 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 shows an example of the component configuration, material, and process of the product 1. This example is fictitious data simplified for the convenience of explanation of the data structure. The parts table 21 represents a part configuration of a product (product 1) by each element (211 to 215) of a part tree constituting the product. In this example, “product 1” 211 includes “main body” 212 and “upper cover”.
The “main body” 212 further includes an “exterior portion” 214 and a “front panel” 215. In this example, “upper cover part” 213 and “exterior part”
214 and “front panel” 215 are end parts in the product configuration that cannot be disassembled any more, but “product 1” 211 and “main body” 212 are assemblies, both of which are treated as parts of “product 1”. . The hierarchy 22 represents the material which comprises a terminal part among the parts contained in the parts table 21. FIG. Here, “PP” 221 is a symbol representing “polypropylene”, and “PS” 223 and 224 are symbols representing “polystyrene”.

The hierarchy 23 represents a process for each part and material in the parts table 21. The process hierarchy 23 is a process that places an impact on the environment by introducing and discharging each part and material in the parts table 21 from the production and disposal of each part and material at the life cycle stage. is there. For example, in the example of FIG. 2, the “exterior portion” 214 is provided with a material manufacturing process of “manufacturing” 231 of the material “PP” 221 and a manufacturing process of “injection” 232 of “PP” 221. Furthermore, a transportation process of “transport 10t truck” 233 is also provided. Also, a “use” 238 usage process is attached to “product 1” 211,
The “iron” 222 constituting the “front panel” 215 can be given a manufacturing process of “cutting” 235, and the “PS” 224 constituting the “upper cover” 213 can be given a process of “chemical recycling” 237. . In this way, the process hierarchy is a process that places an impact on the environment over the life cycle of the parts and materials constituting the parts table.

  As described above, the environmental load over the life cycle differs depending on how the component configuration, material, and process are set for the product.

3, 4, and 5 show examples of storage forms of the product-specific environmental load storage means 10. Among these, FIG. 3 is an example of storing information relating to the component configuration in the component configuration, material, and process shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, the parts PS information 31 is a table that stores information related to the parent-child relationship of the parts configuration. The part PN information 32 is a table for storing attributes such as names of parts constituting the part configuration. The parent part ID 33 of the part PS information 31 is information for specifying a parent part in a parent-child relationship of the parts. The child part ID 34 is information for specifying a child part having a parent-child relationship with the part. The mass / number 35 is information on the number or mass of the child parts constituting the parent part. In the table of the component PN information 32, the component ID 36 is information for identifying a component, and the component name 37 is a component name corresponding to each component ID.

  FIG. 4 is an example of storage of information regarding the material constituting the part among the component configuration, material, and process shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, the material PS information 41 is a table for specifying the material and the amount stored in the part, and the material ID 44 and the mass 45 of the material included in the part specified by the part ID 43 are stored. The material PN information 42 is a table for storing attributes including the name of the material. The material PN information 42 includes a material ID 46 for specifying the material and a material name 47 indicating the name of the material, and indicates the parent-child relationship between the part and the material. This is the PS information of the material.

FIG. 5 is a storage example of information regarding processes attached to parts and materials among the component configurations, materials, and processes shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, process PS information 51 is a table for storing process information attached to parts and materials. The process PN information 52 is a table storing attributes such as process names. The table 53 is a table for storing the calculated environmental load amount for the process attached to each part / material. The index 54 is information for specifying a process attached to each part / material. Stage 58 represents the classification of the process. In addition, in each item of product ID 55, part ID 56, material ID 57, and process ID 59, the index 54 uniquely identifies the process used for which part of which product. The process name 5b is the name of the process corresponding to the process ID 5a. The index 5 c in Table 53 is information for quoting the process of the process PS information 51 and corresponds to the index 54 of the process PS information 51. The inventory 5d is a type of environmental load. In addition to the CO ₂ and SOx listed here, there are many types of environmental loads in the inventory. These can be evaluated here, but for the sake of simplicity of explanation, here CO ₂ and SOx are used. It shall be illustrated. The environmental load 5e is an environmental load calculated for each inventory 5d of the process specified by the index 5c.

  Among them, the parts PN information 32, the material PN information 42, and the process PN information 52 specify the names, attributes, etc. of the parts / materials / processes, respectively, and can be used as master tables. For example, when the user inputs a component configuration, material, and process, an input method may be used in which the component PN information 32 is referred to, displayed as a candidate component when the component configuration is input, and selected by the user.

Next, the environmental load evaluation means 20 will be described. The environmental load evaluation means 20 is a device that calculates the environmental load over the life cycle of a product from information on the component configuration, material, and process of the product to be evaluated and the environmental load intensity defined in advance for each process. It is. There are more than 20 types of environmental impacts, including those classified into resource consumption such as crude oil and water, those discharged into the atmosphere such as CO ₂ and SOx, and those discharged into the hydrosphere such as BOD and COD. However, the environmental load is calculated for all or some of the environmental load items according to the purpose. The environmental load calculation method is generally obtained by using the following equation.

    A = Σ (a × W) (Formula 1)

  Here, W represents the mass of each material constituting the product for each target product, the processing amount, etc., “a” represents the basic unit for each environmental load item, and “A” represents the consumption or discharge amount for each item.

  For example, the case where the environmental load of the product shown in FIG. 2 is evaluated is taken as an example. In FIG. 2, there are a plurality of processes that give a load to the environment as shown in the hierarchy 23, and the result of calculating a × W for each of these processes is the load amount to the environment as a result of executing the process. is there.

Here, it is assumed that the basic unit for each environmental load item a has data in advance. The table of FIG. 7 is a table showing an example of the basic unit data for each environmental load item (value is fictitious), and has a set of information such as process name, inventory, value, and unit. This table shows an example of CO ₂ as an environmental load item (inventory). For example, as shown in the first row of the data row, the amount of CO ₂ emitted when “PP” is produced is defined as the mass with respect to the unit mass of the material and parts, such as 500 g per kg. The values listed in the input-output table can be used as they are, or for those that can be measured directly or indirectly, such as the environmental load originating from the amount of power used in a specific factory, the values measured independently. May be used.

For example, when the environmental load amount is obtained for the parts table of FIG. 2 by using this, the processes included in the process hierarchy 23 are sequentially read out, and the masses of materials or parts handled in the respective processes are shown in FIG. It is obtained by reading out and integrating the values of records having the same process name from the basic unit data shown. For example, if the mass of “PP” 221 in FIG. 2 is 5 kg, the environmental load amount in the PP manufacturing process of “manufacturing” 231 is obtained as a CO ₂ amount of 5 × 500 = 2500 g.

As described above, the environmental load over the product life cycle is calculated in parts × materials × process units. At the time when all the environmental load calculations are performed, the environmental load amount is calculated for each environmental load item for all processes. CO ₂ and SOx are calculated as typical environmental load items, but all environmental load items may be calculated for each process. Depending on the combination of the process and the environmental load, there is a combination that does not consume or discharge the corresponding environmental load item. Therefore, the environmental load amount is set to 0 for such a combination.

  The processing flow of the environmental load evaluation means 20 will be described with reference to FIG. In step S91, the product part x material x process shown in FIG. 2 are read in order, and the part mass, material mass, process attribute value, and the like are acquired. The process attribute value refers to a value other than the mass necessary for the environmental load calculation, such as a transport distance when the process is a transport process and a use time when the process is in use. In the process s92, the environmental load is calculated by Equation 1 using the value acquired in the process S91. In step s93, the calculated environmental load amount is written in the environmental load amount 5e column of Table 53 in the product-specific environmental load storage means 10. In step S94, it is determined whether the evaluation of all the parts × materials × process is completed. If completed, the process ends. If not completed, the process proceeds to the next part × material × process. The above is the processing content of the environmental load evaluation means 20.

  Next, the improvement plan storage unit with application condition 30 will be described. The application-conditional improvement plan storage means 30 formulates each improvement plan, and the application-conditional improvement plan storage means 30 reuses an improvement plan prepared for a certain product for other products and formulates an improvement plan. Necessary information to do (1) Restrictions / preconditions to be applied and (2) When a component (part / material / process) of a product design is changed It is a means to store links with other components, and (3) quantities such as parts / material mass that need to be changed along with the change, and change conditions of other processes that need to be changed in conjunction. . The person in charge of product environmental load evaluation and improvement plan changes, for example, the product information such as the component configuration, material, and process of product 1 stored in the product-specific environmental load storage means 10 at the time of planning the improvement plan. Then, the environmental load evaluation values of the products before and after the improvement are compared, and an improvement plan for the product 2 that further improves the environmental load evaluation value is made. For example, when the improvement plan for the product 2 is drafted by such a method, the improvement plan storage means 30 with application conditions stores the improvement points between the product 1 and the product 2.

FIG. 10 is an example of storage items of the improvement plan storage unit 30 with application condition, an improvement plan ID 101 for specifying an improvement plan, an ID 102 for specifying a data record, a stage 103 in which improvement contents are classified, Part ID 104 and material ID as information before change for improvement
105, process ID 106, part ID 107, material ID 108, process ID 109, which is information after change for improvement, mass 10 a which is a mass ratio of the material after change to the parent part, mass of the material after change relative to the material before change The mass 10b that is the ratio, the constraint condition ID 10c for referring to the constraint condition for applying the improvement plan, the cost 10d for improvement, and the change items that need to be changed in conjunction with the improvement of each record The influence index 10e which is the record ID of the record is stored.

  Further, FIG. 24 shows an example of storage items of the constraint condition (1). The constraint condition corresponding to the improvement plan of FIG. 10 can be specified by the constraint condition ID 243 of the constraint condition storage item of FIG.

  FIG. 10 shows an example in which there is one influence index, but there may be a plurality of influence indexes. In addition, here, the parts, materials, and processes are indicated by part IDs, material IDs, and process IDs. However, information such as names corresponding to the part IDs, material IDs, and process IDs is the part PN shown in FIG. Information 32 (component master), material PN information 42 (material master) shown in FIG. 4, and process PN information 52 (process master) shown in FIG. A configuration that can be referred to as needed.

Further, the improvement plan IDs 241 and 242 and the constraint condition ID 243 in FIG. 24 correspond to the improvement plan IDs 101 and 102 and the constraint condition ID 10c in FIG. 10, respectively. The constraint condition type 244 indicates whether the type of the constraint condition is a threshold value / configuration. When the constraint condition type is “threshold”, the threshold (type) 245 that is a column describing the type of threshold, the threshold (value) 246 that is a column describing the threshold value, The detailed condition is described in above / below 247, which is a column describing whether a value exceeding the value satisfies a constraint or the following satisfies a constraint.

In addition, when the constraint condition type is “configuration”, a target 248 that describes whether the search target is a part, a material, or a process, and a direction for searching for the target set in the target 248 from the parts table are set. (Parent-to-child direction is “Normal” / Child-to-parent direction is “Reverse” / Bidirectional is “Normal / Reverse”) Search direction 249, Hierarchy number column 24a for searching the target set in target 248 in the BOM, target The detailed condition is described in the presence / absence 24b for setting whether the target set in 248 is a condition or not is the condition, and the item 24c for setting the target to be actually searched.

With reference to FIG. 24, the improvement plan and its constraint conditions will be supplementarily described. In order to improve the environmental impact, the restriction conditions when reviewing product parts / materials / processes are broadly divided.
(1) When setting restrictions on physical quantities such as mass, length, volume, etc., with “threshold”, (2) restrictions on product configuration, such as the presence or absence of specific materials or the presence or absence of processing in the manufacturing process It is considered that there are two ways to set Therefore, in order to describe the constraint conditions for applying the improvement plan, the table shown in FIG. 24 includes items necessary for appropriately determining these two types of constraint conditions.

  When the constraint condition is the threshold value of (1), the threshold value type (mass, volume, length, etc.), threshold range (upper limit / lower limit), and value information are included. is necessary. As an application example of this restriction condition, there may be a restriction on the mass or volume of the product when the transportation means is changed.

  When the constraint condition is (2), the parts / materials / processes to be improved are the starting points, and what parts / materials / processes are in any direction of the parent / child directions. Information is required on whether to search for the hierarchy, whether the constraint condition is satisfied when there is a search target, or whether the constraint condition is satisfied when there is no search target. Examples of the application of this constraint are that recycling is not possible if the parts are processed such as coating, plating, etc., and the transportation method for products containing materials such as glass is limited. Etc.

  Determine whether or not an improvement plan can be applied to other products in the situation where there is a restriction plan for applying each improvement plan as shown in FIG. 10 and each improvement plan as shown in FIG. What is performed is the improvement plan applicability determination means 40. Next, the improvement plan applicability determination unit 40 will be described. The improvement plan applicability determination unit 40 determines any or all of the improvement plans stored in the improvement plan storage unit 30 with application condition for any or all products stored in the product-specific environmental load storage unit 10. It is means for determining applicability.

  The processing flow of the improvement plan applicability determination unit 40 will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 17. This process refers to the products stored in the product-specific environmental load storage means 10 in order, and among the improvement plans stored in the application condition improvement plan storage means 30, (1) the process before the change is the same process, (2) Environmental load when determining an improvement plan that satisfies the three conditions of a process that satisfies the preconditions, and (3) a process that requires all the processes that need to be changed in conjunction with each other. Is a process of calculating

  First, the counter i for reading data from the product-specific environmental load storage means 10 is cleared to 0 (S111), and the counter j for reading data from the improvement plan storage section 30 with application condition is cleared to 0 (S112). Next, the i-th product data is read from the environmental load storage unit 10 for each product (S113), and the j-th improvement plan is read from the improvement plan storage unit with application condition 30 (S114). Then, it is determined whether or not the product i includes the pre-change parts, materials, and processes of the improvement plan j (S115). If it is included, the process proceeds to S116, and if it is not included, the process proceeds to S11j to determine the next improvement plan.

  S116 is processing for determining whether or not the constraint condition ID of the improvement plan j is NULL. If it is NULL, it is determined that a constraint condition exists, and the process proceeds to the constraint condition determination process of S11n. If it is not NULL, it is determined that there is no constraint condition, and the process proceeds to the improvement process (1100) of the product i by the improvement plan j.

  The constraint condition determination process (S11n) is a process for determining whether the product i satisfies the constraint condition of the improvement plan j. As an argument to this process, the part / material / process of the product i that matches the value of the constraint ID 10c in FIG. The constraint condition determination process (S11n) will be described separately with reference to FIG.

  S11o is a process of determining whether or not it is determined that the constraint condition flag is 1 and the constraint is satisfied as a result of the determination process of the constraint condition determination process (S11n). If the constraint condition flag is 1 and the constraint is satisfied, the improvement plan j is applied, and the process proceeds to the improvement process (1100) of the product i by the improvement plan j. If the constraint condition flag is 0 and the constraint is not satisfied, the process proceeds to S11j. Process improvement proposals.

  In the improvement process (1100) of the product i by the improvement plan j shown in FIG. 17, it is first determined whether or not the information of the product i has been copied to the work area (S117). In step S118, it is determined that the improvement plan j can be applied to the product i, and the improvement plan of the product i is copied to the work area as the product k (S118). Next, the product k is replaced with the changed part / material / process of the improvement plan j (S119), and the influence index 1 of the improvement plan j is referred to (S11a). Here, if the influence index 1 is NULL, the process is terminated.

  Next, it is determined whether or not the parts, materials, and processes before the change in the IDl improvement plan are all NULL (S11b). If all are NULL, the improvement plan of ID1 is assumed to be additional, and the process proceeds to S11c. If any of them is not NULL, it is determined that the improvement plan of ID1 is a change, and the process proceeds to S11e.

  In S11c, it is a process of determining whether or not the constraint condition ID of ID1 of the improvement plan j is NULL. If it is NULL, it is assumed that the constraint condition exists, and the process proceeds to the constraint condition determination process (S11p). If the constraint condition ID of ID1 of the improvement plan j is not NULL, it is assumed that there is no constraint condition, and the process proceeds to S11d. The constraint condition determination process (S11p) is a process for determining whether the product i satisfies the constraint condition of the improvement plan j, similarly to the constraint condition determination process S11n, and is the same as the process shown in FIG. In this case, the constraint condition ID 10c and the part / material / process of the product i that matches the ID 1 of the improvement plan j are passed as arguments.

  S11q is a process of determining whether or not it is determined that the constraint condition flag is 1 and the constraint is satisfied as a result of the determination process of S11p. When the constraint condition flag is 1 and the constraint is satisfied, the process proceeds to S11d to apply the improvement plan j. When the constraint condition flag is 0 and the constraint is not satisfied, the process proceeds to S11h.

  S11d is a process of adding parts, materials, and processes after changing the improvement plan of IDl when the product i satisfies the constraint condition of IDl. In this case, since it is a new addition process rather than a change process, it becomes a problem where to add the part configuration. However, in step S115, the part that matches the improvement plan j, that is, ID1 is improved. The parts, materials, and processes after the change of IDl are added to the hierarchy below the parts of the improved proposal. After the addition, the process proceeds to S11i, and the next influence index is processed.

  In S11e, it is determined whether or not the product i includes the pre-change part / material / process of the improvement plan ID1. If included, the process proceeds to S11f. If not included, the process proceeds to S11i, and the next influence index is processed.

  S11f is a process of determining whether or not the constraint condition ID of ID1 of improvement plan j is NULL. If NULL, it is determined that a constraint condition exists, and the process proceeds to the constraint condition determination process (S11r). If it is not NULL, it is determined that there is no constraint condition, and the process proceeds to S11g. Similar to the constraint condition determination process (S11n), the constraint condition determination process (S11r) is a process for determining whether the product i satisfies the constraint condition of the improvement plan j. The argument is the constraint condition ID 10c and the improvement plan j Pass the part / material / process of product i that matches IDl.

S11s is a process for determining whether or not the constraint condition flag is 1 and it is determined that the constraint is satisfied as a result of the constraint condition determination process (S11r). When the constraint condition flag is 1 and the constraint is satisfied, the improvement plan j is applied, and the process proceeds to the process of replacing the product k with the changed part, material, and process of the improvement plan l (S11g), and the constraint condition flag is 0 and the constraint is satisfied If not, proceed to S11h.

  In S11h, the product i does not satisfy the constraint condition of the improvement plan 1 in the determination of S11q or S11s, so the improvement plan j cannot be applied to the product i, and the information of the product i copied to the work area for change is deleted. Then, the process proceeds to the process of proceeding with the improvement plan (S11j). This is because it is possible to improve only when all the changes that need to be changed (changes linked by the influence index) can be changed as a certain improvement plan is implemented.

  In S11i, it is determined whether all the influence indexes of the improvement plan j have been processed. If it has been processed, the improvement process (1100) of the product i by the improvement plan j is terminated, and the process proceeds to S11j in FIG. 11. If not, the influence index is advanced to the next and the process of S11e is performed again.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 11, in S11j, the counter of the improvement plan j is advanced by 1, and the processing is shifted to the next improvement plan.

  In S11k, it is determined whether or not the counter j has exceeded the total number of records in the application condition improvement plan storage means 30. If not, since there is an unprocessed improvement plan, the process proceeds to S114, and the next improvement plan is processed. If it exceeds, the process proceeds to S11l. In S11l, the product i counter is incremented by 1, and preparations are made to move to processing of the next product. In subsequent S11m, it is determined whether or not the counter i exceeds the total number of records in the product-specific environmental load storage means 10. If it does not exceed, there is an unprocessed product, the process proceeds to S113, and if it exceeds, the process is ended assuming that the processing is completed for all products.

  The above is the process flow of the improvement plan applicability determination unit 40.

  Next, the flow of the constraint condition determination process will be described with reference to FIGS. 24 and 8.

  In the processing of FIG. 11 and FIG. 17, the constraint condition determination processing shown in FIG. 8 is called in the processing of three locations S11n, S11p, and S11r. In this process, the constraint condition ID 10c and the part / material / process of the product i that matches the part / material / process before change of the improvement plan j to be applied are received as arguments (S251).

  Hereinafter, the process flow will be described in order. First, the existence flag and the constraint condition flag used for the determination of the process are cleared to 0 (S252). Among these, the existence flag is a flag that searches for the presence or absence of a structural component when the type of constraint condition is a configuration of threshold / configuration, and is set to 1 when found. The constraint condition flag is a flag for determining whether or not configuration constraints are finally satisfied after searching for the presence / absence of a component. For example, there are two kinds of constraint conditions: a case where a specific material can be used and a case where it can be applied when a specific material is not used.

  In S253, a record in which the argument improvement plan ID, item ID, and constraint ID match is acquired from the constraint condition table shown in FIG. This is a restriction condition to be targeted in this processing.

  In S254, it is determined whether or not the constraint condition of the constraint condition type 244 is “threshold”. If it is a threshold value, the process proceeds to step S255, and if it is not the threshold value, the process proceeds to step S257. In S255, it is determined whether the change candidate part / material / process of the product i passed as an argument satisfies the threshold condition. The threshold condition is the contents described in each column of threshold (type) 245, threshold (value) 246, and above / below 247, and this is compared with the attribute of the change candidate part / material / process of product i. It is determined whether or not it is satisfied. A description using a specific example will be described later. If the threshold value is satisfied, the constraint condition flag is set to 1 (S256), and the constraint condition determination process is terminated. If not satisfied, the constraint condition determination process is terminated while the constraint condition flag remains 0.

  In S257, when the type of constraint condition is not “threshold” but “configuration” in the process of S254, each constraint condition determination from the constraint condition to the target 248, the search direction 249, the number of search layers 24a, the presence / absence 24b, and the item 24c is made. Get the contents of the column required for. Then, it is determined whether the content of the acquired object 248 is a part / material / process (S258). The subsequent determination process flow differs depending on which one is used. If the content of the object 248 is “part”, the process proceeds to step S259, if it is “material”, the process proceeds to step S25f, and if it is “process”, the process proceeds to step S251.

  In the processing from S259 to S25e, as a constraint condition, when the target to be searched from the product configuration is “part”, the component to be searched by the constraint condition from the component configuration (part PS information 31 in FIG. 3) of the parts table. If there is a presence in the part configuration of the product, the positional relationship on the configuration between the search target part and the part / material / process of the improvement candidate of the product j passed as an argument is restricted. This is a process for determining whether or not a condition is satisfied.

  First, in S259, the counter m referring to the component PS information 31 is cleared to zero. In S25a, it is determined whether or not the child part ID 34 of the record m of the part PS information 31 matches the restriction condition item 24c. If they match, the process proceeds to S25b. If they do not match, the process proceeds to S25d, and the process proceeds to the determination regarding the next record of the parts PS information 31.

  In S25b, if there is an item to be searched in the determination in S25a, it is the search direction in the constraint condition in the positional relationship on the product configuration with the change candidate part / material / process of the product that is the search base point. It is determined whether or not the constraints of H.249 and the number of search layers 24a are satisfied. Although a specific example will be described later, as a result of the determination, if both the search direction 249 and the number of search hierarchies 24a are satisfied, the process proceeds to S25c. Otherwise, the process proceeds to S25d, and the next record of the part PS information 31 is related. Proceed to judgment.

  S25c is a process of setting the existence flag to 1 when the restrictions of “search direction” and “number of search hierarchies” are satisfied in the determination of S25c. In S25d, the counter m referring to the component PS information 31 is advanced by 1. In S25e, it is determined whether or not the part PS information 31 has been processed to the end. When the process is completed to the end, the process proceeds to S25r. When there is an unprocessed record, the process returns to S25a and the determination process up to S25e is repeated.

  The processing from S25f to S25k is, as a constraint condition, when the target to be searched from the product configuration is “material”, from the information on the material constituting the parts in the parts table (material PS information 41 in FIG. 4), A search is made for the presence / absence of a material to be searched, and when it exists as a product material, a configuration between a component formed by the search target material and a component formed by a material of an improvement candidate of product j passed as an argument This is a process for determining whether the upper positional relationship satisfies the constraint condition.

  First, in S25f, the counter m referring to the material PS information 41 is cleared to zero. In S25g, it is determined whether or not the material ID 44 of the record m of the material PS information 41 matches the constraint condition item 24c. If they match, the process proceeds to S25h. If they do not match, the process proceeds to S25j, and the process proceeds to the determination regarding the next record of the material PS information 41.

  S25h, in the case where there is a material to be searched in the determination of S25g, in the positional relationship on the configuration of the product between the component included in the material and the component constituting the product change candidate material that is the search base point, It is determined whether or not the constraints of the search direction 249 and the number of search hierarchies 24a are satisfied. Although a specific example will be described later, as a result of the determination, if both the search direction 249 and the number of search layers 24a are satisfied, the process proceeds to S25i. If not, the process proceeds to S25j, and the next record of the material PS information 41 is related. Proceed to judgment.

  S25i is a process of setting the existence flag to 1 when the restriction of the search direction 249 and the number of search layers 24a is satisfied in the determination of S25h. S25j is a process for advancing the counter m referring to the material PS information 41 by one. In subsequent S25k, it is determined whether or not the record of the material PS information 41 has been processed to the end. If the process is completed to the end, the process proceeds to S25r. If there is an unprocessed record, the process returns to S25g, and the determination process up to S25k is repeated.

  The processing of S25l to S25q is based on the process information (process PS information 51 in FIG. 5) on the parts and materials in the BOM when the target to be searched from the product configuration is “process”. If there is a process to be searched by the condition and exists as a process included in the product or material, the part including the search target process and the improvement candidate process of the product j passed by the argument are included This is processing for determining whether or not the positional relationship between the components and the component satisfies the constraint condition.

First, in S25l, the counter m referring to the process PS information 51 is cleared to zero.
In S25m, it is determined whether or not the process ID 59 of the record m of the process PS information 51 matches the restriction condition item 24c. If they match, the process proceeds to S25n. If they do not match, the process proceeds to S25p, and the process proceeds to determination regarding the next record in the process PS information 51.

  If there is a process to be searched in the determination of S25m, S25n is restricted in the positional relationship on the product configuration between the part included in the process and the part including the product change candidate process serving as a search base point. It is determined whether the search direction 249 and the search hierarchy number 24a of the conditions are satisfied. As a result of the determination, if both the search direction 249 and the number of search layers 24a are satisfied, the process proceeds to S25i. If not satisfied, the process proceeds to S25j, and the process proceeds to determination regarding the next record of the process PS information 51. S25o is a process of setting the existence flag to 1 when the restriction of the search direction 249 and the search hierarchy number 24a is satisfied in the determination of S25n. In S25p, the counter m referring to the search direction 249 and the search hierarchy number 24a is incremented by one. In S25q, it is determined whether or not the record of the process PS information 51 has been processed to the end. If the process is completed to the end, the process proceeds to S25r. If there is an unprocessed record, the process returns to S25m, and the determination process up to S25k is repeated.

  In S25r, as a result of the above determination processing, the constraint condition is finally determined depending on whether the presence flag is 1 and whether the content of the constraint condition satisfies the constraint condition when there is a search target or not. This is a process for determining whether or not the condition is satisfied. In other words, if a specific material is included in the search direction and the search range, the constraint condition “Yes / No” is “Yes”, the Yes flag = 1, and the constraint condition When “is”, the constraint condition is finally satisfied. In addition, if the specific material is not included in the search direction and the search range, if the condition satisfies the constraint condition, the constraint condition “Yes / No” is “No”, the flag is 0, and the constraint condition In the case of “No”, the constraint condition is finally satisfied. If the determination in S25r is satisfied, the constraint condition flag is set to 1 (S25S), and the constraint condition determination process is terminated. If not satisfied, the constraint condition flag 0 remains unchanged, and the constraint condition determination process ends.

The reference, determination, and change of data by the processing of the above improvement plan applicability determination unit 40 will be described with a specific example. FIG. 5 shows an example of the environmental load of the product stored in the product-specific environmental load storage means 10, and FIG. 10 shows an example of the improvement plan stored in the improvement plan storage means 30 with application condition. 12, 13, and 14 are examples of work areas for creating an improvement plan for a product that is determined to be applicable by the improvement plan applicability determination unit 40, and the storage items are shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, respectively. 5 is the same as the product-specific environmental load storage means 10 shown in FIG. 5, but when the change index 126 of the table 121 and the change index 136 of the table 131 are provided and the data in each table is changed, the improvement plan shown in FIG. Of these, the improvement plan based on the change is stored. This information is used for mass calculation after the change. In addition, a change flag 14p is added to the table 141 in order to clearly indicate the record changed from the product before improvement when calculating the environmental load. The meaning of the flag value is 0: no change, 1: change, 2: addition.

  In S113 of FIG. 11, the records (5g to 5n) of product_1 (corresponding to the product 1) of the process PS information 51 of FIG. 5 are acquired by reading the products from the environmental load storage unit 10 for each product. In S114, the ID1 record (10g) of improvement plan 1 in FIG. 10 is acquired by reading the improvement plan from the application condition improvement plan storage means 30.

In the determination in S115, the record (5h) in which the index 54 of the product 1 in FIG. In the determination in S116, since “1” is entered in the constraint condition ID 10d of the improvement plan 1, the process proceeds to the constraint condition determination process S11n. In S253, a record whose constraint condition ID is 1 is acquired from the constraint condition table of FIG. In S254, since the constraint condition type 244 is “threshold”, the process proceeds to S255. In the determination of S255, the “mass of 20 kg or less” obtained from the combination of threshold (type) 245, threshold (value) 246, and above / below 247, which are the constraints of improvement plan 1, is “exterior” in the material PS information 41 of FIG. ”Is 5 kg, it can be determined that this condition is satisfied. Therefore, the constraint condition flag is set to 1 (S256), the constraint condition determination process S11n is terminated, and the flow returns to the flow of FIG.

  In the determination of S11o, since the constraint condition flag is 1, the process proceeds to the improvement process 1100 of the product I based on the improvement plan j. In the determination of S117, the information of the product 1 is stored in the work area as the product 2 because there is no copy yet. Copy (S118). In this state, the values of product_1 (product 1) in the tables of FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 are replaced with the values of product_2 (product 2), and the corresponding locations in FIGS. Is written to.

  In S119, the value “10t_track” (10t track) of the record 14i having the same process ID 149 in the table 141 of the product 2 based on the process IDs 106 and 109 after the update in the improvement plan with the improvement plan ID 101 of “1” is set to “ Replace with "JR" (JR cargo) and set the change flag to 1 (change). In S11a, since the value of the influence index of improvement plan 1 is 2, the data of the record (10h) with ID 102 of 2 is acquired as the influence item.

In S11bs, ID102 and material ID before improvement for improvement plan with ID102 of 2
105. It is determined whether all process IDs 106 are NULL. In the improvement plan with ID 102 of 2, the pre-improvement parts / materials / processes are null (not set), and if this determination is “yes”, this is a content that must be newly added along with the application of improvement plan 1. However, since the constraint condition ID with ID 102 of 2 is null (not set), the determination of S11c is skipped and the process proceeds to S11d.

In S11d, the part ID 107, material ID 108, and process ID 109 after the improvement plan with ID 102 of 2 is added to the product 2 in the work area. In this case, ID of improvement plan 1
Since the record that matches (“1”) is the record 5h of the process PS information 51, the parts and materials after the change of ID 2 for the part ID value “exterior” (exterior part) of this record Add a process. Specifically, as shown in record 129 in FIG. 12, “exterior” (exterior part) is set as a parent part, “packing” (packing material) is added as a child part, and the change index is set to ID “2” of record 10h. Further, as shown in a record 14o in FIG. 14, a process of “PS_production” (PS production) relating to “packing” (packing material) is added, and the change flag is set to “2” (addition).

  Since the influence index of the improvement plan 1 is only ID 2, the improvement process 1100 of the product I by the improvement plan j is terminated, and next, the applicability determination for the improvement plan 2 is made.

  The first record (10i) of the improvement plan (improvement plan 2) having the improvement plan ID 102 of FIG. 10 is acquired. The record 5k of the process PS information 51 of the product 1 matches the part / material / process before improvement of the improvement plan 2 (determination in S115). In the determination of S116, the improvement plan 2 is skipped to the improvement process (1100) of the product i by the improvement plan j because the constraint condition is null (not set).

  Since the information of product 1 has already been copied to the work area in the determination of S117, the process of S118 is skipped. 13 of the product 2 in the table 131 of FIG. 13 is replaced with “PS” (PS) from “iron” (iron) copied from the material PS information 41, and the change index 136 is replaced with the record 10i of FIG. The value of ID102 of “3” is assumed. 14 is replaced with “PS”, the process ID 149 is replaced with “PS_production” (PS production), and the change flag 14p is set to “1” (change) (S119). Data (record 10j) with ID102 of 4 is acquired as an influence item from the influence index of the record with ID102 of improvement plan 2 (S11a). Since the influence index is not NULL, the process proceeds to S11b as a result of the determination in S11b.

  In the determination of S11b, the parts / materials / processes before improvement of the record with ID 102 of 3 are not NULL, so the process proceeds to S11e. In the determination of S11e, the parts / materials / processes before improvement of the record with ID 102 of 3 are records 14l. The process proceeds to S11f. In the determination process of S11f, since the constraint condition ID 10d of the record whose ID 102 is 3 is NULL (not set), the process skips to S11g.

  In S11g, the material ID 147 of the record 141 in the table 141 of the product 2 in the work area is replaced with “PS”, the process ID 149 is replaced with “PS_projection” (PS injection), and the change flag is set to “1” (change). In the subsequent determination of S11i, since the processing has been completed for all the impact indexes of the improvement plan 2, the processing of the improvement process 1100 for the product I by the improvement plan j is ended.

  Next, in S11j, the index is advanced, and it is determined whether or not the improvement plan 3 is applicable. The first record (10k) having the improvement plan ID 3 (improvement plan 3) in FIG. 10 is acquired. Similarly, the record 5n in the process PS information 51 of the product 1 matches the parts / materials / process before the improvement plan 3 (determination in S115). Since “2” is entered in the constraint condition ID 10c of the improvement plan 3, the process proceeds to the constraint condition determination process (determination in S116). A record having a constraint condition ID 243 value of 2 is acquired from the constraint condition table of FIG. 24 (S253). Since the constraint condition type 244 of this record is “configuration”, the process proceeds to S257. The object 248 is “process”, the search direction 249 is “positive” (parent to child direction), the search hierarchy number 24 a is “999” indicating infinity, the presence / absence 24 b is “no”, and the item 24 c is “coating”. (S257).

  In other words, the intent of this constraint condition is that if the "coating" process is included in the hierarchy below the parts in which this material is included, it cannot be changed from chemical recycling to material recycling, which is the content of improvement plan 3. It is a condition.

  Since the target 248 of this constraint condition is “process”, the process proceeds to S251 (determination in S258). When the records of the process PS information 51 in FIG. 5 are sequentially referred to, the search target “coating” exists in the seventh record 5k (determination in S25m).

  In the determination of S25n, the positional relationship on the product configuration between the part included in the search target found in the product and the part included in the process to which the improvement plan 3 is applied is determined. This is a constraint condition. It is determined whether the set search range is satisfied. The constraint condition of the improvement plan 3 to be searched is that the “coating” process is included in the “forward direction” (child component direction). The part including the found “coating” process is found to be “front_panel” from the value of the part ID 56 in the record 5m of the process PS information 51 of FIG. On the other hand, the part including “chemical_recycle” which is the process to be improved is found to be “cover” from the value of the part ID 56 of the record 5n of the process PS information 51. From these pieces of information, the part PS information 31 in FIG. 3 is referred to, and it can be seen from the parent-child relationship information that there is no “front_panel” in the lower part of “cover” and that front_panel is a separate part from cover.

  Accordingly, the positional relationship in the configuration of the determination of S25n does not satisfy the constraint condition, and the process proceeds to the next record while the existence flag remains 0. Since there is no other “coating” process, the flag is 0 when all the processes are processed and the process proceeds to the determination of S25r. Since the constraint condition is that there is no “coating” process, the constraint condition is satisfied (determination in S25r), the constraint condition flag is set to 1, and the constraint condition determination process S11n is terminated.

The process proceeds to the process flow of the improvement process 1100 for the product I based on the improvement plan j. Since the information on the product 1 has already been copied to the work area, the process of S118 is skipped (determination in S117). The process ID 149 of the record 14n in the table 131 of FIG.
“recycle” is replaced with “material_recycle”, and the change flag 14p is set to “1” (change) (S119). Since the improvement plan 3 has no influence index, the processing is terminated (determination in S11i).

As described above, all the products in the product-specific environmental load storage unit 10 are processed, and the determination process for all the combinations in the application condition improvement plan storage unit 30 is completed. The tables shown in FIG. 12, FIG. 13, and FIG. 14 show the state of the work area at the time when the process of the improvement plan applicability determination means 40 is completed. FIG. 16 schematically shows the state of the product 2 after the processing of the improvement plan applicability determination unit 40 is completed. “PS” 161, “JP Cargo” 162, “Manufacturing” 164, “Injection”
165 is a changed content and “packaging material” 163 is added.

  As described above, it is possible to apply the improvement plan after determining whether the improvement contents having an influence between the stages are applicable. Further, regarding the constraint conditions, the constraint conditions related to values such as mass and the constraint conditions related to the product configuration conditions are also provided with data in the format shown in FIG. 24, and the determination process is performed by tracing the product configuration. By doing so, it is possible to determine whether or not the constraint condition related to the product configuration is applicable. In particular, the accuracy of applicability determination can be improved in that the applicability of the improvement plan can be determined from the positional relationship in the product configuration with the parts / materials / processes to be improved.

  As described above, by extracting the improvement plan applicable to each product from the product stored in the product-specific environmental load storage unit 10 and the application condition improvement plan storage unit 30, and creating the applied plan is there. In this example, the embodiment in which all products stored in the product-specific environmental load storage means 10 and all the improvement plans stored in the application condition improvement plan storage means 30 are collated has been described. It is also possible to provide an input means for designating improvement candidate products and extract improvement proposals applicable only to the designated products. It is also possible to provide an input means for the user to specify an arbitrary improvement plan, and to extract products that can be improved with the specified improvement plan.

  Next, the improvement effect evaluation means 50 in the block diagram shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The improvement effect evaluation unit 50 is a unit that evaluates and displays the improvement effect when the product and the improvement plan determined to be applicable by the improvement plan applicability determination unit 40 are applied.

  Specifically, the improvement plan applicability determination means 40 calculates the change in W (the mass of the material, the processing amount) in Equation 1 by changing the parts, materials, and processes, and then uses the Equation 1 to calculate the environment. This is a process of recalculating the load. The improvement effect evaluation means 50 is divided into a mass calculation process for calculating the mass of the changed / added part and an environmental load calculation process for calculating the environmental load of the changed / added process.

  The mass calculation process will be described with reference to FIG. 15, FIGS. 12 and 13 showing information on the work area, and FIG. 10 showing the storage information of the improvement plan storage unit with application condition 30. The mass calculation process is applied to each of the table 121 in FIG. 12 and the table 131 in FIG.

  In S151, the record counter i referring to the record in the table 121 or 131 is cleared to zero. In S152, it is determined whether or not the change index of the record i is 0. If it is not 0, it has been changed, and since the index for improvement is included, the process proceeds to S153. If it is 0, it has not been changed, so the process proceeds to S158, and the record reference counter i is incremented by 1.

In step S153, the improvement plan index j is set to the change index value of the record i. In S154, it is determined whether or not the value of the mass (parent component ratio) 10a is NULL by referring to the record in which the ID 102 of the application condition improvement plan storage means 30 shown in FIG. 10 matches the value of the index j. If it is not NULL, it is assumed that the changed mass is set by the ratio with the parent part, and the process proceeds to S154. If NULL, the process proceeds to S155. In S155, the value of the mass (parent component ratio) 10a in the record in which the ID 102 of the application condition improvement plan storage means 30 matches the value of the index j is acquired. Further, the mass of the parent part is acquired from the mass 135 of the table 131 in FIG. Then, by integrating these, the mass of the changed part / material is calculated. S156 refers to whether or not the value of the mass (pre-change ratio) 10a in the record in which the ID 102 of the application condition improvement plan storage unit 30 matches the value of the index j is NULL.
If it is not NULL, the process proceeds to S157 on the assumption that the mass after the change is set at the ratio with the pre-change. If NULL, it is assumed that there is no change in mass, and the process proceeds to the process of incrementing the record counter i in S159.

  S157 acquires the value of the mass (pre-change ratio) 10a in the record in which the ID 102 of the improvement plan storage unit 30 with applied condition matches the value of the index j. Further, the mass of the part / material before the change is acquired from the part PS information 31 in FIG. 3 and the material PS information 41 in FIG. Then, by integrating these, the mass of the changed part / material is calculated.

  In S158, the masses of the changed parts and materials are stored in the number / mass column 125 in the table 121 in FIG. 12 or the mass 135 in the table 131 in FIG. In S159, the record counter i is incremented by one. In S15a, it is determined whether the record counter i exceeds the total number of records in the table 121 or the table 131. If it exceeds, the process ends. If not, the process returns to S152 to process the next record i.

  An example of calculation of mass by this mass calculation process will be described with reference to FIGS.

Since the record 129 in the table 121 of FIG. 12 has a change index of 2, the record with the ID 102 value of 2 in the application condition improvement plan storage means 30 is referred to. From FIG. 10, the value of ID102 is 2 in the record 10h, and a value of 0.2 is obtained from its mass (parent component ratio) 10a. Further, from the record 129 in the table 121 of FIG. 12, since the parent part 123 is “exterior” (exterior part), the value of the mass 135 in the record 139 whose part ID 133 is “exterior” from the table 131 of FIG. Get 5kg of information. From these values, the mass of the added “packing” is 0.2 × 5 = 1.0 kg. The calculated mass is stored in the number / mass 125 of the record 129 in the table 121 of FIG.

The record 13a in which the part ID 133 in the table 131 in FIG. 13 is “front_panel” and the material ID 134 is “PS” has the value of the change index 136 of 3, so the record (10i) in FIG. The mass (ratio before change) 10a obtains a value of “0.3”. Before the change of this record, the material ID 44 is “iron” and the mass before the change is “0.33” from the record 48 in the material PS information 41 of FIG. From these values, the mass of the changed material “PS” is 0.3 × 0.33 = 0.99 kg. The calculated mass is stored in the number / mass 135 of the record 13a in the table 131 of FIG.

  In the above example, it is assumed that the mass is set by either (1) the ratio to the part before change or (2) the ratio to the parent part. This is based on the assumption that the content of the change is (1) the mass changes by changing the material with the same part, and (2) the mass changes depending on the mass of the target used, such as a packing material. However, it is not necessarily limited to only these examples. Further, in the above example, the mass is taken as an example, but the amount of change may be calculated similarly by treating the processing amount and the like in the same manner as the mass.

Next, environmental load calculation processing will be described. In the environmental load calculation process, the process information of the improved product is read from the work areas shown in FIGS. 12, 13, and 14, the environmental load is calculated for the changed process, and the environmental load amount 14e in Table 143 is calculated. It is a process to store in. Compared with the processing of the environmental load evaluation means 20 in FIG. 1, it is not the product-specific environmental load storage means 10 that reads product information and outputs the environmental load, but the work area, and the processing target is a change flag. Is the same except that it is only a process of 1 or 2, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

  The above is the improvement effect evaluation means 50.

  By adopting the configuration of this embodiment, an improvement plan that can be applied to a product is formulated without going through a trial and error planning process that has been performed by a designer in the past, and the effects when applied are also evaluated. be able to.

  Next, Example 2 will be described with reference to FIG. In the second embodiment, the improvement information input means 60 is added to the first embodiment shown in FIG. The improvement information input means 60 is a means for editing the part configuration, material, process, etc. of the product at the time of design change or improvement plan, and inputting the contents of the change and storing it in the improvement plan storage section 30 with application conditions. . A specific example will be described with reference to the storage form of the improvement plan storage unit with application condition 30 shown in FIG. 10 and FIG.

  FIG. 18 shows an input screen example of the improvement information input means 60. The user calls a product for which a design change or improvement plan is desired from the product-specific environmental load storage means 10 and displays it as shown in FIG. On the screen, a product configuration 181 in the parts table, a material configuration 182 in the parts table, and a process configuration 183 are displayed.

For example, it is assumed that each component included in the product configuration 181, the material configuration 182, and the process configuration 183 can be selected by the device 184 that selects an object on the screen. For example, when “Iron” 18a of the material configuration 182 is selected, a window 185 is opened, and contents that can be edited for “Iron” 18a are displayed. When “change” 186 is selected, a window 187 is opened, and candidate materials to be changed are displayed. This means can be realized by reading out the material from the material master table (material PN information 42 in FIG. 4) of the product-specific environmental load storage means 10 and displaying the list. By selecting the material of “PS” 188 from the displayed material list and pressing the “change” button 189, the material “iron” 18a on the screen of FIG. 18 is changed to “PS”. The above changes are stored in the material ID 105 before the change and the material ID 108 after the change in the record 10i of FIG.

As the material constituting the part changes, the mass also changes. This affects the environmental load. For example, when the “Change” button 189 is pressed, the “mass ratio setting” window 18d is continuously opened and input. A configuration that encourages In the “mass ratio setting” window 18d, the mass ratio setting method is selected from “parent component ratio” and “pre-change ratio”. Then, according to the selected mass ratio setting method, in the case of “parent component ratio”, the mass ratio of the part / material after change to the mass of the parent part of the selected part / material is input. For example, in another window, the name and mass of the parent part of the selected part / material are acquired from the part PS information 31 in FIG. 3 and the material PS information 41 in FIG. is there. In addition, when the selected mass ratio setting method is “ratio before change”, for example, the material PN information 42 in FIG. 4 has specific gravity as a material attribute, and is acquired and displayed in another window. Thus, it is possible to assist user input. As a result of the input to the window 18d, the mass ratio is the ratio before change, and the value of “0.3” is stored in the mass (pre-change ratio) 10b in the record 10i of FIG.

  Changing the material requires a change in the process for the material. When a material is changed, it is also desirable to display the process of the material in a different color so as to determine whether or not the change is necessary.

  FIG. 19 shows the configuration after changing the process “iron production” 18b to “PS production” 19b. In this way, when a process is changed, a method of displaying sibling elements having the same parent in different colors and determining whether or not the change is necessary is desirable. In this case, “PS recycling” 19c, which is another process of the parent material “PS” 19a, is displayed in different colors.

When “recycle” 18c in FIG. 18 is selected by the selection device 184, a window 193 for selecting the editing content for the selected element is opened. When “Change” 194 is selected, a window 195 for selecting a process after the change is opened. The window 195 can be realized by acquiring the process master of the process PN information 52 in FIG. 5 and displaying it as a list. When “PS recycling” 196 which is the process after the change is selected and the “change” button 197 is pressed, a window 198 is opened. In the window 198, the process executed by the influence of the change executed in the window 195 is input. This selection list can be realized by keeping a history of changes and displaying a changed process list. In this case, since it has been changed in accordance with the change of “PS manufacture” 19b, “PS manufacture” 199 is selected, and the “select” button 19d is pressed to register the process change due to the change of “PS manufacture”. Can do. If there is no influence process, it can be registered by pressing the “no influence” button 19e. By entering the window 198, “4” is entered in the influence index 10e in the record 10i of FIG. 10, and the change from “iron_recycle” (iron recycling) to “PS_recycle” (PS recycling) starts from “iron_production” (iron production). "PS_
Associated with being affected by process changes to “production” (PS manufacturing).

FIG. 6 shows an example of a method for inputting change constraint conditions as input of improvement information. This state is the state after changing the process of “transport 10t truck” 18h in FIG. 18 to “JR cargo” 18i in FIG. 6 by the method described in FIG. In this state, the selection device 184 is used to select “JR cargo” 18i. A window 61 is opened, and edit contents for the selected element are set. Here, “constraint condition input” 62 is selected. A window 63 is opened and a constraint condition type is selected. As the types of constraints, for example, as described here, the constraints of “mass” 64 and the types of parent parts can be used. However, the types of constraints are not limited to this. Anything that needs to be considered is acceptable. When the “select” button 65 is pressed, a window 66 is opened, and specific contents of the constraint condition are input. The constraint condition is set by pressing the “set” button 69, and the data in this example is stored in the constraint condition ID 10c in the record 10g of the application condition improvement plan storage means 30 in FIG.

As described above, the improvement information input means 60 allows the application conditions to be input together when changing the component configuration, material, and process, and is improved with application conditions so that it can be reused when planning improvement plans for other products. It is means for storing in the plan storage means 30. Although not shown, it is assumed that the contents of the change in the improvement information input means 60 are also stored in the product-specific environmental load storage means 10 shown in FIGS. Further, in the improvement information input means 60, the association between processes highlights the affected range and the range of influence by the parent-child relationship of the component configuration, the material configuration, and the process configuration as described above. There is an effect of preventing omission of judgment by a method in which the user judges whether or not the element needs to be changed.

Further, as another support method, for example, a method as shown in FIG. 21 can be used in order to check the process change without omission over the life cycle stage. A window 211 in FIG. 21 shows each stage of the life cycle, and any stage can be selected by selecting a check button under each stage. For example, when the user selects the “transportation” 212 stage, the “transportation 10t truck” 18h, which is a process classified into the selected “transportation” 212 stage, is highlighted from the product configuration displayed in the window 213. This mode of realization can be realized by providing means for acquiring and emphasizing processes classified into the selected stage based on the stage 58 and the process ID 59 of the process PS information 51 of FIG. The user checks each life cycle stage and confirms the process classified into each, thereby checking whether there is no omission in the process change.

  Next, Example 3 will be described with reference to FIG. The third embodiment has a configuration in which improvement effect display means 70 is added to the first embodiment shown in FIG. The improvement effect display means 70 is a means for showing to the user by displaying the improvement effects evaluated by the improvement effect evaluation means 50 side by side.

  When displaying the improvement effect, the environmental load before and after the improvement is tabulated for each stage (material manufacturing, manufacturing, transportation, use, disposal, recycling, etc.) for each product, and the values are compared and displayed on a graph. At this time, the reduction amount can be calculated for each stage by the ratio of the environmental load before improvement, and the reduction effect can be displayed more clearly.

  Further, FIG. 22 shows an example in which the parts / materials and process configurations of the design plan before and after the improvement are compared and displayed on the tree, and the environmental loads for each part, material, and process are arranged and compared. . In FIG. 22, 221 indicates the component configuration, material, and process configuration of the product, and 222 indicates the presence / absence of the component / material / process indicated by 221 for each of the product 1 before improvement and the product 2 after improvement. Represents. That is, the product 1 indicates that the flag “227” of “227 truck” is 1, and the product 2 indicates that the flag “JR cargo” is 1. In this way, in 221, products can be expressed in a configuration that combines the configurations before and after improvement, and the difference in configuration can be compared and displayed by the 222 flag.

  Further, 223 shows the environmental load for each part, material, and process of the product 1 by life cycle stage, and 224 shows the environmental load for each part, material, and process of the product 2 by life cycle stage. Yes. Since environmental loads by materials and processes can be compared and displayed, it is possible to analyze which improvement is particularly effective.

  For example, when it is found from the values aggregated by stage that the environmental load reduction amount of the “material manufacturing” stage contributed to the reduction of the overall environmental load amount, the display is switched to FIG. In product 1, the environmental load in the material production of “iron production” was 7 kg, as in 225, whereas in product 2, the environment in the material production of “PS production” with the “iron production” process changed. It can be seen that the drastic reduction of the load, such as 226, to 0.0075 kg, had an effect on the improvement.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the improvement effect can be evaluated in parts, materials, and process units. Therefore, the improvement effect is not a rough estimate but can be evaluated in detail.

  In the example of FIG. 23, a single inventory is assumed as the environmental load, but a plurality of environmental load inventory may be switched and displayed.

  Further, the cost for improvement can also be stored in the improvement plan storage means 30 with application condition according to the present invention. Therefore, it is possible to produce the cost for the improvement plan made by the improvement effect evaluation means 50 and display it by the improvement effect display means.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of Example 1 of the environment consideration design support apparatus by this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a component structure of the product 1, material, and a process. It is a storage example of the information regarding a component structure in the environmental load storage means classified by product. It is a storage example of the information regarding the material which comprises components in the environmental load storage means classified by product. It is a storage example of the information regarding the process concerning parts and materials in the environmental load storage means classified by product. It is a figure for demonstrating the input method of a product information input means. It is an example of basic unit data according to environmental load items. It is a figure for demonstrating the flow of a constraint condition determination process. It is a figure for demonstrating the flow of a process of an environmental load evaluation means. It is a figure for demonstrating the example of the storage item of the improvement plan storage means with an application condition. It is a figure for demonstrating the process of an improvement plan application availability determination means. It is a storage example of the information regarding a component structure of the work area which produces the improvement plan of a product. It is an example of the information regarding the material which comprises a part of the work area which produces the improvement plan of a product. This is an example of storing information on processes related to parts and materials in a work area for creating a product improvement plan. It is a figure for demonstrating the process of a mass calculation process. It is the figure which showed typically the state of the product 2 after completion | finish of a process of the improvement plan application possibility determination means. It is a figure for demonstrating the process of an improvement plan application availability determination means. It is a figure for demonstrating the input method of a product information input means. It is a figure for demonstrating the input method of a product information input means. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of Example 2 of the environment consideration design support apparatus by this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the input method of a product information input means. It is a figure for demonstrating the example of the display form of an improvement effect display means. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of Example 3 of the environment consideration design support apparatus by this invention. The example of the storage item of the constraint condition for applying an improvement plan is shown.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Environmental load storage means according to product 20 Environmental load evaluation means 30 Improvement plan storage means with application conditions 40 Improvement plan applicability determination means 50 Improvement effect evaluation means 60 Improvement information input means 70 Improvement effect display means

Claims (9)

Parts for products, the configuration information of the materials, and processes, and product-specific environmental load information, and product-specific environmental storage means for storing in association with the individual products,
Changes to parts, materials, or processes related to products, details of changes related to the proposed improvements, application conditions for application to the target products, and the location of related items that need to be changed in conjunction with application to the target products Improvement plan storage means for storing in association with information of the impact index representing
Configuration information of parts, materials, and processes related to the individual products stored in the product-specific environmental load storage unit, the change contents associated with the improvement plan stored in the improvement plan storage unit, and the application Improvement plan applicability determination means for determining applicability of the improvement plan for each individual product based on conditions and information on the impact index;
Wherein the improvement proposals applicability determination means products the improvement proposals is determined applicability by, the improvement effect evaluating means for evaluating the effect of applying the proposed improvements,
Equipped with a,
The improvement plan applicability determination means, in applying the change contents related to the improvement plan to the target product, in all of the related items that meet the application condition and traced based on the information of the impact index When necessary changes can be implemented in conjunction with the application of the improvement plan, the improvement plan is determined to be applicable.
Environmentally conscious design support device, characterized in that. In the environment-conscious design support device according to claim 1,
One product components stored in the product-specific environmental load storage means, materials, to change the configuration information of the process, the product information input to the input with application condition for applying the content of the change to another product With means,
An environmentally conscious design support device that stores changes in parts, materials, and processes input from the product information input means and application conditions for application to other products in the improvement plan storage means. In the environment-conscious design support device according to claim 1,
An environmentally conscious design support apparatus comprising improvement effect display means for collecting and comparing the improvement effects evaluated by the improvement effect evaluation means before and after the improvement for each stage for each product. In the environment-conscious design support device according to claim 1,
The application conditions for applying changes to other products, the relationship between individual part, material, process changes, or the mass when applying individual part, material, process changes to other products An environmentally conscious design support device characterized by the above-mentioned constraints. In the environment-conscious design support device according to claim 1,
The improvement plan storage means stores the mass of the part or material after the improvement as a mass ratio with the parent part or a mass ratio with the part or material before the improvement. In the environment-conscious design support device according to claim 4,
When entering the relationship between individual part, material, and process changes as an application condition for applying the changes to other products, the part with the same parent as the changed part, material, or process, An environment-friendly design support device that highlights materials and processes as candidate elements that need to be changed in relation to each other. In the environment-conscious design support device according to claim 4,
If you want to enter the relationship between individual part, material, and process changes as applicable conditions for applying the changes to other products, click “Material Manufacturing”, “Manufacturing”, “Transport”, “Use” , "Recycle", "Disposal", and other checklists for selecting lifecycle stages are displayed, and processes classified into the selected lifecycle stages are highlighted as candidate elements that need to be changed in relation Environmentally conscious design support equipment. In the environment-conscious design support device according to claim 4,
When entering the relationship between individual parts, materials, and process changes as application conditions for applying the changes to other products, the changed parts, materials, parts that are components below the process, An environment-friendly design support device that highlights materials and processes as candidates for elements that need to be changed in relation. In the environment-conscious design support device according to claim 1,
The application condition for applying the changes to other products, particular the parts or materials or processes are included in the product configuration, and environmentally friendly design support apparatus characterized by.

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