Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/08—Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
  • G06Q10/087—Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Definitions

• This invention relates generally to a system and method for selecting a product
• microprocessors different amounts of memory, different size hard drives, different
• WWW World Wide Web
• Another conventional system may permit the consumer to
• the consumer receives the product configuration, the consumer may modify it as
• the consumer is selecting the configuration, to ensure that the selected configuration
• CD-ROM drive has a CD-ROM drive, a typical hard drive and a removable-media optical drive in a
• the configuration selected by the consumer can not be built. Even worse, the
• the late detection of an incompatibility may also cause the delivery of
• each different type of person may be easily ordered by the large corporation with a
• a software programmer may require a faster
• microprocessor and more memory in a computer than a receptionist so that the client
• the user profile may still be able to recommend an appropriate computer
• a configuration system and method are provided in which the configuration of
• a product may be recommended based on user input (need based). The recommended
• the final configuration recommended to the user may be manufactured by the
• the system may also store a user profile generated based on the user
• FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a World Wide Web (WWW) based configuration system
• Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating a screen shot of the user interface of a
• FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating more details about the configuration
• Figure 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for automatically configuring a
• Figure 5 is a flowchart illustrating more details about the interaction of the
• Figure 6 is a flowchart illustrating a more details of the profile development
• Figures 7A and 7B are diagrams illustrating a base profile and a modified
• Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for ranking the attributes of parts
• Figure 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of parts being ranked in
• Figure 10 is a flowchart illustrating a method for rule checking in accordance
• Figure 11 is a flowchart illustrating the interactions of the user with the
• the invention is particularly applicable to a WWW-based system for
• FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a World Wide Web (WWW) based
• a computer system 22 such as a web server, may
• server 22 may be connected to a communications network 26, such as the Internet and
• the communications network More particularly, the World Wide Web (WWW).
• WWW World Wide Web
• the computer system 28 of the consumer which may be a personal computer
• a display device 30 may include a display device 30, a chassis 32, and one or more user input devices, such
• the chassis 32 may house a permanent storage
• a hard disk drive such as a hard disk drive, an optical drive, a tape drive or the like which may store a software application 38 which may be a browser application.
• the consumer may connect to the web server 22 over the
• communications network 26 and receive graphical data, known as a web page, which
• the browser application 38 may be displayed on the display device 30.
• the browser application 38 may also be displayed on the display device 30.
• the browser application 38 may also be displayed on the display device 30.
• configuration system may also require a password so that only individuals with an
• Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating a screen shot of the user interface of a
• the web page 50 may include a profile input region 52, a
• input region 52 requests various information about the computer needs of the user from
• the recommendation region 54 displays various information about a
• the configuration modification region 56 permits the user of the configuration system to
• the profile input region 52 may include a drop-down menu region 58 and a
• slider region 60 which permit the user to interact with the configuration system
• a user profile which may be stored for later retrieval. For example, a
• job titles such as an accountant, a programmer and a sales manager so that each type
• an engineer may require a more expensive, faster computer system than a
• the corporate client may submit the user profile for the type of
• the drop-down menu region 58 may
• responses in the drop-down menu may include, for example, "Graphics and Video
• a base user profile may then be
• the slider region 60 may include one or more sliders 64 which permit the user
• drop-down menus and the sliders may include any techniques for gathering information from the user about his requirements and needs for the
• configuration system may modify the user profile, as described below.
• the final user may modify the user profile, as described below.
• the user profile may be stored for future use.
• the user profile may also be modified by the user
• the recommendation region 54 displays the computer system selected by the user
• the user of the configuration system may modify the
• the modification region 56 may include one or more attributes of the
• the modification region 56 are set to the positions representing the current attributes of
• a rule checker in the configuration system may check to ensure that
• the user may desire a hard disk, a tape
• Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating more details about a configuration
• the configuration system may receive
• the configuration system 70 may include an input receiver 72 which
• the user profile generated may be stored in a user profile database 76 so that the
• user profile may be later used to produce a recommended computer system.
• generated user profile may also be fed into a recommender 78 which uses the user
• the parts database 80 may contain a list of
• the rule engine 82 using rules stored in a rules database
• 84 may determine if a particular configuration can be actually manufactured. In other words,
• the rule engine ensures that various limitations are not exceeded. For example,
• a particular type of chassis may be only able to house a particular type of microprocessor due to overheating concerns.
• the rule checking process will be
• the configuration system combines typical need-based
• the configuration system also permits the profile
• Figure 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method 100 for recommending a
• the part ranking process 104 be a profile generation process 102 and a part ranking process 104.
• process may occur constantly as new parts data is received so that the parts data is
• step 106 may provide the configuration system in step 106 with information about the user's needs in connection with the product to be purchased
• step 108 may generate a user profile in step 108.
• each part of the product is assigned an
• step 112 the
• configuration system ranks the available parts for each part of the product on a
• step 114 the configuration system
• based on the user profile and the percentages assigned to each part, may recommend a
• the configuration system may
• Figure 5 is a flowchart 120 illustrating more details about the interaction of the
• step 122 the user answers questions
• step 124 based on the needs of the user
• the configuration system recommends a configuration to
• step 126 the user reviews the configuration and determines if the
• the method may loop back to
• step 122 so that the user may redefine his needs or the method may go to step 130 in
• Figure 6 is a flowchart illustrating more details of the profile development
• FIGS. 7A and 7B are diagrams illustrating a base profile and a modified
• step 142 the user makes choices using the
• step 144 the configuration system selects a base profile
• a base profile 146 shown in Figure 7 A may be
• the base profile 146 may contain a plurality of attributes of the computer
• This base profile may then be modified based on the user's responses
• step 148 the user may make choice via the sliders and in step 150, the configuration system may modify the base profile.
• the configuration system may modify the base profile. For example, the
• each percentage associated with each attribute is multiplied by 1.1 to
• the modified profile is generated. Then in step 154, the modified profile may be used for the
• the user profile As described above, the user profile
• Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for ranking the attributes of parts
• Figure 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of
• step 162 the attributes for one
• step 164 for
• a percentage rank is calculated. In particular, for each part, a
• the max- min values calculated for the hard drives may be 0%, 0% and 100%.
• step 166 the ranks of each part may be compared to
• Figure 10 is a flowchart illustrating a method 170 for rule checking in
• This rule checking process may occur automatically
• step 172 the configuration to ensure it does not violate any of the rules.
• configuration system may select parts whose values most closely match the user
• step 174 the configuration system may check the proposed
• card may be incompatible with a specific version of an operating system so the rule
• one part may require another part to function properly.
• Part Number Part there may be three parts such as Part Number Part
• a rule may define a compatibility problem between parts 11111 and 22222
• proposed configuration contains parts 11111 and 22222, the configuration system may
• the configuration system may also be implemented using the SCSI controller card in this example.
• the configuration system may also be implemented using the SCSI controller card in this example.
• number of spaces in the chassis may limit the number of a particular type of devices
• step 176 the rule engine determines if any rule has been violated. If no rule
• step 178 the configuration of the computer system is optimal
• step 180 the rule checking method is completed. If a rule is violated, then in step 180, the rule checking method is completed. If a rule is violated, then in step 180, the rule checking method is completed. If a rule is violated, then in step 180, the rule checking method is completed. If a rule is violated, then in step 180, the rule checking method is completed. If a rule is violated, then in step 180, the rule checking method is completed. If a rule is violated, then in step 180, the
• rule engine may identify the conflicting parts and in step 182, may adjust the
• the configuration system may
• Figure 11 is a flowchart 190 illustrating the interactions of the user with the
• step 192 the system checks
• step 194 checks for any rules
• step 196 the user may wish to further change the configuration by
• step 198 moving a slider to change a part in step 198. If the user changes a part, the rule
• step 200 If a rule has been violated at any time, in step 200, the
• step 202 the configuration system may move the slider back to
• configuration system may base a recommendation on a user's needs, but may also

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• 1999
  • 1999-12-17 WO PCT/US1999/030176 patent/WO2000036544A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1999-12-17 JP JP2000588715A patent/JP2003535381A/ja not_active Withdrawn
  • 1999-12-17 EP EP99968500A patent/EP1208516A4/en not_active Withdrawn

Non-Patent Citations (2)

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