JP2011070280A - Component information management system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a component information management system for allowing a company that needs a substitute to easily use component management information held by another company, allowing the companies to easily mutually exchange component information, and allowing the companies to have a close information link on a product or a component. <P>SOLUTION: The component management system includes: a database storing user information, component information including information on chemical substance contained in a component offered by a user, and regulation information on the contained chemical substance of the component; a means deciding whether the component violates a regulation on the contained chemical substance based on the component information and the regulation information stored in the database; a means retrieving a component which can be substituted for the component of one user and offered by another user from the component information stored in the database; and a means providing the one user with the component information of the retrieved substitute. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a system for managing information on chemical substances contained in parts of products sold by companies, and more particularly to a parts information management system capable of disclosing and providing parts information held by companies and the like. It is.

  There is a growing momentum for environmental protection worldwide, and regulations on hazardous chemical substances are becoming stricter. For example, the European REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of CHemicals) regulations came into effect on June 1, 2007. Conventionally, it was only asked whether or not it contains a designated prohibited substance, but in recent years, more specifically, the types of chemical substances that make up products and parts sold by companies, etc. Information disclosure is also required for each content.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a chemical substance management system based on a parts table (BOM) that manages products based on parts information and configuration information is known. Here, BOM stands for Bill Of Materials, and refers to a list or database showing the relationship of which parts, child parts, intermediate products, raw materials, etc., a product is composed of and manufactured. By adding the chemical substance information of each part to this BOM-based part information and creating a database, it is possible to construct a chemical substance management system for parts that can meet the above information disclosure request.
Patent Document 1 describes a system that manages a product by weight and calculates a content by converting a contained chemical substance by weight.
Patent Document 2 describes a system that obtains the type and amount of a chemical substance contained in a product and displays a law that regulates the chemical substance.

JP 2002-351947 A JP 2005-71338 A

Traditionally, manufacturers have held and managed information on parts contained in their products and information on chemical substances contained in each part as a parts management information database compliant with the BOM as described above. .
However, if your product has parts that do not meet legal standards, you should consider using alternative parts. In this case, if a part that meets the legal standards is not found from the parts information of the company, it is necessary to investigate whether or not there is a part that can be replaced by a part handled by another company.
However, in the system disclosed in the above-mentioned patent document, even though it is possible to manage its own parts information, it is not possible to investigate alternative parts handled by other companies. For this reason, in the past, it was necessary to make inquiries directly about the chemical substances contained in the parts for alternative parts candidates handled by other companies, or to obtain the parts for analysis and investigation. was there.
In addition, if parts information of parts handled by other companies are registered in the parts management information database in advance, the complexity described above can be avoided, but the collection and exchange of parts information between such companies There was no system that made it possible.

  The present invention aims to overcome the above-mentioned problems. When a company wants to search for a substitute part, the parts management information held by another company can be easily used, and the parts information held by each company can be easily obtained. In addition, it is intended to provide a parts information management system that allows companies to build close information links about products and parts.

  As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention stores user information, stores part information including information on chemical substances contained in the parts for the parts handled by the user for each user, and regulates the chemical substances contained in the parts. A database for storing information; determination means for determining whether or not the part violates regulations concerning contained chemical substances based on part information and regulation information stored in the database; and a part stored in the database Search means for searching for a part which is a substitute part of one user's part and handled by another user from information, and information providing means for providing the one user with part information of the searched substitute part A parts management system is provided.

In the component information management system of the present invention, the component information stored in the database includes setting information that is disclosed or undisclosed for each component, and the search means is set to be disclosed when searching for an alternative component. It is characterized in that only the selected part is included in the search result as an alternative part.
As a result, the use of the system can be promoted even for users who do not want to actively disclose the component information.
In the part information management system of the present invention, the search means, when searching for a substitute part, if a part that has been set as non-public exists as a substitute part, based on the user information stored in the database, A request for permission to publish the substitute part is requested from another user, and the substitute part is included in the search result only when the request for permission to publish is accepted by the other user.
Thereby, flexible information exchange according to each case between users can be performed.
In the component information management system of the present invention, the information providing means can download the component information of the searched alternative component to a user, or the component information of the searched alternative component handled by another user can be downloaded by the one user. The component information is stored in the database.
As a result, it becomes easy to acquire the component information that other companies have so far and use it as its own component information.
In the component information management system of the present invention, the search means searches for a substitute part based on the restriction information stored in the database through the determination means when searching for a substitute part from the part information stored in the database. Is determined whether it violates the regulations regarding contained chemical substances, and only the alternative parts that do not violate are included in the search result.
Thereby, the usefulness of a search result can be improved.

  The present invention also stores user information, stores, for each user, part information including information on chemical substances contained in the parts for the parts handled by the user, and stores regulatory information on chemical substances contained in the parts. In a computer having or using a component designation step for accepting designation of a component included in the component information stored in the database from one user, based on the component information and regulation information stored in the database, A determination step for determining whether or not the specified part violates a regulation relating to a contained chemical substance, and when the specified part is determined to be in violation of the regulation, from the component information stored in the database, A search step that searches for parts that are substitute parts of the specified part and that are handled by other users. And flop is the component information of the searched alternative component provides a component management program for executing an information providing step of providing to said one user.

In the component information management program of the present invention, the component information stored in the database includes public or non-public setting information for each component, and in the search step, only the component set to be public is replaced with a substitute component. It is included in the search result.
As a result, the use of the system can be promoted even for users who do not want to actively disclose the component information.
In the part information management program according to the present invention, in the search step, when there is a part that is set to be undisclosed as an alternative part, based on the user information stored in the database, to the other user A request for permission to publish the substitute part is requested, and the substitute part is included in the search result only when the request for publishing permission is accepted by the other user.
Thereby, flexible information exchange according to each case between users can be performed.
In the part information management program of the present invention, in the information providing step, the part information of the searched alternative part can be downloaded to the one user, or the part information of the searched alternative part handled by another user is stored in the one part. And stored in the database as part information of the user.
As a result, it becomes easy to acquire the component information that other companies have so far and use it as its own component information.
In the part information management program of the present invention, in the search step, it is determined whether the substitute part searched based on the restriction information stored in the database through the determination means violates the regulations regarding the contained chemical substances, Only the alternative parts that are not included are included in the search result.
Thereby, the usefulness of a search result can be improved.

According to the parts management system of the present invention, the user registers their parts information in the system,
-A function to check the laws of each part, a function to search for substitute parts from parts information owned by other users registered in this system for parts determined to be in violation of the standards by the law check,
・ If the parts information of the substitute parts owned by other users found is published, the function to acquire the parts information and make it own
・ If the retrieved parts information of the substitute parts owned by other users is not disclosed, ask the owner user to provide the parts information, obtain permission and acquire the parts information and make it their own The function can be used.
As a result, when searching for a substitute part for legal compliance, the user does not need to manually inquire about parts information from other companies as in the past, and can automatically and efficiently search for a substitute part. Since the parts information of the searched alternative parts can be easily obtained, the parts procurement work of the company is dramatically improved.

  In addition, a user company that uses the parts management system of the present invention has an opportunity to actively disclose information on its own products, which makes it easy to find new customers. Moreover, the troublesomeness which respond | corresponds to the separate inquiry about a contained chemical substance can also be avoided.

It is a block diagram of the components management system concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the user information database in the components information management system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the components information database in the components information management system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the link information database in the components information management system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the contained chemical substance information database in the components information management system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the chemical substance management legal information database in the components information management system shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the components information registration process which the components information management function part shown in FIG. 1 performs. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the law check process of components which the law check function part shown in FIG. 1 performs. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the search process of an alternative component which the components information search function part shown in FIG. 1 performs. It is a figure which shows notionally the component structure information grasped | ascertained from the storage information of a components information database, a link information database, and a contained chemical substance information database in the components information management system shown in FIG.

  The best mode for carrying out the component information management system of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 to 10 are diagrams illustrating embodiments of the present invention. In these drawings, the same reference numerals denote the same components, and the basic configuration and operation are the same. To do.

<System configuration>
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a parts management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, the component information management system of the present embodiment executes a component information management function unit 10, a law check function unit 20, a component information search function unit 30, and a component information disclosure function unit 40 as software modules. Has a program group. Further, the database includes a user information database 50, a parts information database 60, a link information database 70, a contained chemical substance information database 80, and a chemical substance management law information database 90.
The system is preferably provided in an ASP form so that it can be used from a user terminal via a network. Therefore, the input unit, the output unit, and the calculation unit are not explicitly shown in FIG.

The component information management function unit 10 is responsible for registration and management of component information. The user can register his / her parts information in the parts information database 60, the link information database 70, and the contained chemical substance information database 80 of this system by the parts information management function unit 10.
The law check function unit 20 determines whether the chemical substance content of the parts managed by this system complies with the law based on the chemical substance management law information database 90.
The part information search function unit 30 provides a means for searching the part information database 60 for a substitute part for a part whose chemical substance content does not comply with the law.
The component information disclosure function unit 40 provides a means for publishing component information possessed by each user to other users. Specifically, it is determined whether or not to disclose the information by using a disclosure flag that is an attribute field of the component information database 60. If the public flag is set, the component information can be searched by another company using the component information search function unit 30.

The user information database 50 stores information such as the name, location, and contact information of a company or the like who is a user of this system. FIG. 2 shows a table configuration example of the user information database 50.
The parts information database 60 stores information such as the names, types, standards, and flags indicating whether or not information is disclosed, of the parts managed by this system. FIG. 3 shows a table configuration example of the component information database 60. Note that the component information included in the component information database 60 has a data configuration conforming to the BOM generally used in the manufacturing industry.
The link information database 70 stores information on the parent-child relationship (part configuration information) of parts managed by this system. FIG. 4 shows a table configuration example of the link information database 70.
The contained chemical substance information database 80 stores information such as the names and contents of chemical substances contained in parts related to management of this system. FIG. 5 shows a table configuration example of the contained chemical substance information database 80.
The chemical substance management law information database 90 stores information such as the name of a law that is the basis for regulating a chemical substance, the name of the regulated chemical substance, and the content threshold value. FIG. 6 shows a table configuration example of the chemical substance management law information database 90.

<Operation>
The operation of the component information management system of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. First, the functions of each module will be described individually, and the processing flow of the system will be described in detail.

<Parts information registration process>
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a process in which the user registers his / her component information in the system. This component information registration process is executed by the component information management function unit 10 of this system.
First, the user accesses the system via the network, inputs his / her user ID and the like, and logs in to the system (step S71).
Next, the parts information of the company is uploaded (step S72). Here, the part information possessed by the user has a BOM-based data structure and is the same as or compatible with the data structure of the part information database shown in FIG. 3, so the part information management function unit 10 is uploaded by the user. The parts information thus obtained can be easily added and registered in the parts information database without requiring any special processing.
Next, for each component for which the component information has been uploaded, a value of a disclosure flag indicating whether or not to disclose the component information to other users is set (step S73).
In the component information registration process, the already registered component information can be edited or deleted.

<Legal check process for parts>
The flowchart of FIG. 8 shows a process of checking whether or not the parts of the company registered in advance by the user satisfy the legal standards regarding the contained chemical substances. The legal check process for parts is executed by the legal check function unit 20.
First, the user selects a part to be checked for compliance with the law from his / her part information registered in advance in the part information database 60 (step S81).
The law check function unit 20 compares the total amount of the chemical substance contained in the specified part with the law information stored in the chemical substance management law information database 90 (step S82), It is determined whether or not (step S83).
If it is determined in step S83 that the amount of chemical substances contained in the part specified by the user does not exceed the legal standards, the legal check function unit 20 displays a message “No legal compliance status problem” (step S84). End the legal check process for parts.
If it is determined in step S83 that the amount of chemical substances contained in the part specified by the user exceeds the legal standard, the legal check function unit 20 displays a message “There is a problem with legal compliance status” (step S85). The legal check process is finished.
When the part specified by the user does not comply with the law, the law check function unit 20 can also identify the child part that causes the part from the part configuration information of the part and display it to the user.

<Search processing for alternative parts>
FIG. 9 is a search for a substitute part for searching whether there is a part that can be replaced by a part owned by a user company other than the user for a part that is determined not to satisfy the legal standards by the legal part check process for the part described above. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of a process. The component information search function unit 30 executes this substitute component search process.

First, the user selects a part to be searched for an alternative part from his / her part information registered in advance in the part information database 60 (step S91). Note that when this process is performed subsequent to the above-described law check process, the part for which “There is a problem with the law compliance status” is already selected in step S85 of the law check process.
The part information search function unit 30 searches for an alternative part for the part specified in the part information database 60 (step S92). That is, a part having the same application, function, standard, material, size and shape as the designated part is searched from the part information of all users registered in the part information database 60. At this time, in cooperation with the law check function unit 20, only parts having the same usage, function, size and shape as the designated parts and satisfying the law standards may be searched as substitute parts. Is possible.

Subsequently, in step S93, if no alternative component candidate is found by this search, a message of “no alternative component candidate” is displayed to the user (step S94), and the alternative component search process is terminated.
On the other hand, if an alternative part candidate is found by this search in step S93, it is determined whether or not the part information of the part is set to be public (step S95). If the component information of the component is set to be public, the component information and the information of the user who is the owner of the component stored in the user information database 50 (for example, company name, company code, industry, location) , Information such as contact information) is displayed to the searching user (step S96). The user performing the search can confirm the display and, if necessary, acquire the part information of the substitute part in his / her terminal or add it to his / her part information in the part information database 60 (step). S97).

In step S95, when the part information of the found alternative part candidate is set to be not disclosed, the part information search function unit 30 sends the substitute part to the user who owns the part information of the alternative part candidate. An alert is sent to the effect that another user has requested the provision of candidate parts information (step S98). Upon receiving this alert, the user confirms the parts requested to provide the part information and the information of the requesting user, and notifies the system whether or not the provision is permitted (step S99). Here, a response period for the alert is set in advance, and if there is no notification within the predetermined period, the request for providing the component information can be treated as being rejected.
When the provision of component information is rejected by the user who has received the alert (including the case where there is no notification within a predetermined period), the component information search function unit 30 sends a message “no alternative component candidate” to the user. This is displayed (step S94), and the substitute part search process is terminated.
On the other hand, if the provision of the component information is permitted by the user who has received the alert, the process proceeds to step S96, and the same processing as the access to the component information set to be publicized can be performed.

FIG. 10 is a diagram conceptually showing the component configuration information grasped from the storage information of the component information database 60, the link information database 70, and the contained chemical substance information database 80 in the component information management system of the present embodiment.
FIG. 10A shows BOM configuration information that configures the part [A-001]. Here, the part [A-001] is composed of one part [A-002] and one part [A-005]. The part [A-002] includes three parts [A-003] and two parts [A-004]. The part [A-005] is composed of one part [A-006]. In addition, information on chemical substances contained in each part is included.
In addition, as shown in FIG.10 (b), you may comprise the chemical substance information of each component as another data.

  As mentioned above, although the specific embodiment was shown and demonstrated about the components information management system of this invention, this invention is not limited to these. A person skilled in the art can make various changes and improvements to the database configuration and modules in the above embodiments without departing from the scope of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention is a system mainly intended for implementation in an ASP form, and is constructed on hardware resources including a computer CPU, memory, auxiliary storage device, display, input device, and the like. Realized by OS, application software, database, network system, etc., which specifically realizes information processing such as management, disclosure, and retrieval of chemical content information of parts using the above hardware resources Therefore, it falls under the technical idea using the laws of nature, and can be used in industries such as the manufacturing industry.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Parts information management function part 20 Law check function part 30 Part information search function part 40 Part information disclosure function part 50 User information database 60 Parts information database 70 Link information database 80 Contained chemical substance information database 90 Chemical substance management law information database

Claims (10)

A database for storing user information, storing part information including information on chemical substances contained in the parts for the parts handled by the user for each user, and storing regulation information on chemical substances contained in the parts;
Based on the part information and regulation information stored in the database, a determination unit that determines whether or not the part violates regulations on contained chemical substances,
Search means for searching for a part that is a substitute part of one user's part and handled by another user from the part information stored in the database;
A component management system comprising: information providing means for providing component information of the retrieved substitute component to the one user. The component information stored in the database includes public or non-public setting information for each component,
The component information management system according to claim 1, wherein the retrieval unit includes only a component for which disclosure has been set in a retrieval result as a substitute component in a search for a substitute component.   In the search for a substitute part, if there is a part set as non-public as a substitute part in the search for the substitute part, the search unit is configured to send the substitute part to the other user based on the user information stored in the database. 3. The component information management system according to claim 1, wherein the substitute part is included in the search result only when the publication permission is requested and the publication permission request is received by the other user.   The information providing means can download to the user the component information of the searched alternative component, or store the searched component information of the alternative component handled by another user in the database as the one user's component information. The component information management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3.   When the search means searches for a substitute part from the part information stored in the database, the substitute part searched based on the restriction information stored in the database through the determination means violates the regulations regarding the contained chemical substances. 5. The component information management system according to claim 1, wherein only a substitute part that does not violate is included in the search result. User information is stored, part information including information on chemical substances contained in the parts for parts handled by the user is stored for each user, and a database for storing regulation information on chemical substances contained in the parts is provided or used. In the computer,
A component designation step for accepting designation of a component included in the component information stored in the database from one user;
A determination step for determining whether or not the designated part violates the regulation on the contained chemical substance based on the part information and the regulation information stored in the database;
A search step of searching for a part that is a substitute part of the specified part and is handled by another user from the part information stored in the database when the specified part is determined to be in violation of regulations. When,
A component management program for executing an information providing step of providing component information of the searched alternative component to the one user. The component information stored in the database includes public or non-public setting information for each component,
The part information management program according to claim 6, wherein in the search step, only parts for which disclosure has been set are included in a search result as substitute parts.   In the search step, when there is a part set as non-disclosure as a substitute part, a request for publishing the substitute part is requested to the other user based on the user information stored in the database. The part information management program according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the substitute part is included in a search result only when a public permission request is accepted by the other user.   In the information providing step, the part information of the searched alternative part can be downloaded to the one user, or the searched part information of the alternative part handled by the other user is stored in the database as the part information of the one user. The part information management program according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the part information management program is stored.   In the search step, it is determined whether or not the substitute part searched based on the restriction information stored in the database through the determination means violates the regulations regarding the contained chemical substances, and only the substitute parts that do not violate the substitute parts The part information management program according to claim 6, wherein the part information management program is included in a search result.