KR101783455B1 - Apparatus and method for sharing material data - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a material information generating apparatus and a method thereof. The material information generating apparatus recognizes whether a component material information sheet for a component constituting a product exists in a material information server, requests registration of the component material information sheet to the supplier of the component in which the component material information sheet does not exist, generates the material information sheet for the product using the component material information sheet registered in the material information server to register the product material information sheet in the material information server. Accordingly, the present invention can easily generate and register the material information for the product using the material information for each component registered in the material information server.

Description

[0001] Apparatus and method for generating material information [0002]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a material information generating apparatus and a method for easily generating material information for a product.

As the environmental regulations are strengthened, legal regulations on materials used in various products including automobiles are strengthened. In order to satisfy the requirements for materials that can be used in the product, the material information of each part of the product should be acquired and analyzed. However, since products such as automobiles are made up of thousands of parts, it is almost impossible for an automobile manufacturer to identify the parts and materials.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-2011-0086387

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a material information generating apparatus and a material information generating method thereof, which can easily generate material information for a product produced by each company using material information stored in a material information server, Method.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for generating material information by a material information generating apparatus connected to a material information server through a wired / wireless communication network, Determining whether a parts material information sheet for the parts constituting the product exists in the material information server; Identifying a supplier of a component that does not have a parts material information sheet in the material information server among the parts constituting the product; Requesting the supplier to register the parts material information sheet; Generating a product material information sheet for the product using the parts material information sheet registered by the supplier in the material information server; And registering the product material information sheet in the material information server.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for generating a material information, comprising: an inquiry unit for recognizing whether a parts material information sheet for a part constituting a product exists in a material information server; A registration request unit for requesting registration of the parts material information sheet by identifying the supply subject of the part in which the parts material information sheet does not exist in the material information server among the parts constituting the product; A generating unit for generating a product material information sheet for the product using the parts material information sheet registered by the supplier in the material information server; And a registration unit for registering the product material information sheet in the material information server.

According to the present invention, material information about a product can be easily generated and registered using material information for each part registered in the material information server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a view showing an example of parts supply relation of a company using a material information generating method according to the present invention;
Figure 2 shows an example of a standardized form for registering material information according to the present invention in a material information server,
Figs. 3 and 4 are views showing an example of product structure information constituting a material information sheet according to the present invention; Fig.
5 is a schematic flow diagram of a method for generating material information according to the present invention,
6 is a diagram showing a specific example of a flow of a material information generating method according to the present invention,
FIGS. 7 to 10 are views each showing a process of generating product structure information according to the present invention.
11 is a view showing an example of a concrete method of generating a material information sheet according to the present invention,
12 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a material information generating apparatus according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, an apparatus and method for generating material information according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a view showing an example of a parts supply relationship of a company using a material information generating method according to the present invention. FIG.

Referring to FIG. 1, a vendor can receive all or a part of parts constituting a product from a sub-vendor. For example, the first company 110 that manufactures the finished product receives parts from the second company 120, which is the first lower company, the third company 130, which is the second lower company, And supplies the assembled or processed parts to the second vendor 120. In this case, In addition, the fourth company 140 supplies the fourth company 140 with the products produced using the parts supplied from the fifth company 150, which is the third-tier subsidiary company. For the sake of convenience in the following description, this embodiment refers to a product or material produced by a manufacturer as a 'product', and designates a product or material constituting the product as a 'component'. For example, the 'product' produced by the third company 130 becomes a 'component' that constitutes the 'product' produced by the second company 120.

The top supplier who receives the parts from the sub company can receive the material information about the parts constituting the product from the subcontractor and can generate the material information about the product. For example, the second vendor 120 receives the material information about the parts supplied from the third vendor 130 and the fourth vendor 140 from the third vendor 130 and the fourth vendor 140 , And can generate material information about a product produced by the second vendor 120 using the received material information.

It is preferable that the expression format of the material information is standardized since the upper companies receive parts from various subcontractors as they move up from the subcontractor to the higher-level vendor. In addition, the parent company can receive material information in the form of an electronic document through e-mail or various communication methods from the sub-company. However, in this case, the parent company must store and manage the material information received by e-mail, There is an inconvenience that it is necessary to grasp the fact that the material information is omitted.

Thus, in the present embodiment, the material information about the products produced by each company is shared through the material information server 100. The material information server 100 registers and stores material information about products or parts from each company according to a predetermined standardized form. For example, the fifth company 150 registers the material information about the product to be supplied to the fourth company 140 in the material information server 100, and the fourth company 140 registers the material information And uses the material information registered in the server to generate material information about the product produced by the server. In this way, the parent company can easily generate the material information for the product that it produces by using the material information registered by the lower company.

2 is a diagram showing an example of a standardized format for registering material information according to the present invention in a material information server.

2, a standardized form (hereinafter referred to as a " Material Data Sheet ") used to register material information in the material information server includes product structure information 210, recipient information 220, And sender information 230 and the like. The material information sheet 200 may or may not further include various other information 240 according to the embodiment.

The product structure information 210 shows the components in a hierarchical structure by using the coupling relationship of the components constituting the product. For example, as shown in Fig. 3, when the product 300 is composed of the components A to N (310, 312, 314), the component A 310 is again composed of the component Aa 320 and the component Ab 322, 322 are constituted by the component Ab-1 330 and the component Ab-2 332, the coupling relationship between the components can be represented by a hierarchical structure such as a tree structure. The combination of components can be identified using product master information, which includes the product design plan and information on the components that make up the product. A method of grasping the hierarchical structure of the components constituting the product using the product master information will be described again with reference to FIG. 7 to FIG.

The recipient information 220 includes information on the recipient of the material information sheet. For example, referring to FIG. 1, when the fourth company 140 registers a material information sheet for a product to be supplied to the second company 120 to the material information server 100, To the recipient information 220. The sender information 230 includes the identification information of the manufacturer that generated the material information sheet.

The part code assigned to the component by the sub-vendor and the component code assigned to the component supplied by the sub-vendor may differ. For example, referring to FIG. 1, the fourth vendor 140 provides and manages a part code 'A' to a product supplied to the second vendor 120, Quot; B " to a component supplied from the component 140 and manage it. Therefore, the material information sheet can include the part code used for the superior company (that is, the receiver) and the part code of the lower company (i.e., the sender) in the material information sheet. The sender's part code and the recipient's part code may be added as part of recipient information 220 and sender information 230 or in another field 240. [ The material information sheet 200 can be created in various formats such as XML (eXtensible Markup Language).

Figs. 3 and 4 are views showing an example of product structure information constituting a material information sheet according to the present invention. Fig.

Referring to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the product structure information represents the component weight information 340, 342, 344, 346, 348 for the material of the components constituting the product 300 in a hierarchical structure. When the product 300 is composed of parts A to N (310, 312, 314), the product structure information includes information on the quantity and weight for each of the parts A to N (310, 312, 314) in the first layer. Since component A 310 is also comprised of component Aa 320 and component Ab 322, there is information on the quantity and weight of component Aa 320 and component Ab 322 in the second tier. In this way, the quantity and weight of each component constituting the product are expressed in a hierarchical structure.

There are component and weight information 340, 342, 344, 346, 348 of the material on the parts 320, 330, 332, 312, 314 located at the end of the product structure information. For example, when the material of the part Ab-2 332 is an alloy, the kind and the composition weight 344 of each chemical constituting the alloy are located under the part Ab-2.

The product structure information can be generated in the form of a tree structure from the highest node to the lowest node similar to the computer directory creation method. When the number of parts constituting the product is very large, the user creates a node for each part, and it takes a lot of time and effort to input information about the quantity and weight of the parts for each node.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the product structure information can be easily generated using the material information sheet for the parts supplied from the sub-vendor so that the inconvenience caused by the user's manual manipulation of the product structure information can be solved We suggest a method. This will be described later with reference to FIG.

5 is a diagram showing a schematic flow of a material information generating method according to the present invention. In order to facilitate the understanding of the present invention, only one parent company 120 and one subsidiary company 130 will be described in this embodiment. Further, it is assumed that a part of the components constituting the product is manufactured by the superior maker 120 itself, and a part of the components are supplied from the lower maker 130.

Referring to FIG. 5, a material information generating apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as a "superior company apparatus") implemented in a user terminal 500 of a superior company accesses a material information server 100, Is referred to. If the material information sheet (that is, the parts material information sheet) for the parts constituting the product is not retrieved from the material information server, the third-party apparatus requests registration of the material information sheet to the supply subjects 510 and 520 of the relevant part.

For example, suppose that a product is composed of a part A and a part B, a part A is produced in a parent company 120, and a part B is supplied from a lower company 130. If the material information sheet for both of the parts A and B is not registered in the material information server 100, the superior company apparatus sends a material information sheet registration request to the terminal 510 of the internal department manager and the lower company terminal 520 Lt; / RTI >

When the registration of the material information sheet for the parts A and B is completed in the material information server 100, the superior company apparatus uses the material information sheet for the parts A and B, , Product material information sheet) and registers it in the material information server 100.

Although the upper-level vendors may inquire all the material information sheets of all the parts constituting the product to register for the non-received material information sheets, when expressing the components constituting the product in a hierarchical structure as shown in FIG. 9, 960, and 930 located in the non-receivable material information sheet, and requests registration of the non-receipt material information sheet to each supplier. Since the intermediate layer parts 920 and 950 are parts produced by assembling the lower layer parts, the material composition of the middle layer can be known as long as the lower layer layer material components are present.

As another example, when an upper-level vendor expresses a component constituting a product as a hierarchical structure as shown in FIG. 9, the component located at the middle layer (for example, component A (920) It may be supplied. In this case, the higher-level vendor device ignores the components 970 located below the component 920 located at the middle layer from the lower-level vendor, regards the component 920 located at the middle layer as a component positioned at the end, If a material information sheet exists, it can be requested to subordinate company if it is not received.

6 is a diagram showing a more specific flow of an embodiment of the material information generating method according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the superior-supplier apparatus inquires whether a material information sheet for the parts constituting the product exists in the material information server (S600). As described above with reference to FIG. 4, when referring to the presence or absence of the material information sheet, the upper-level vendor device refers to a middle-layer It is possible to inquire whether the material information sheet exists for the part of the product.

Since a material information sheet registered by various companies exists in the material information server, it is necessary for the superior company apparatus to select and inquire only the material information sheet for the parts supplied thereto. To this end, the master company device inquires of the material information server about the material information sheet having the master company as the receiver. And, when the top company produces various kinds of products, the types of parts are different for each product. Therefore, the top supplier device selects the corresponding product based on the part code constituting the corresponding product among the material information sheets, It is determined whether or not a material information sheet for the constituent parts exists.

The superior-supplier apparatus determines whether there is a non-received material information sheet among the parts of the product through inquiry of the material information server (S610). If there is an unreceived material information sheet (S620), the superior supplier apparatus identifies who supplies the component for which the material information sheet does not exist, and then requests the supplier to register the material information sheet (S640). For example, referring to FIG. 5, parts may be manufactured within the parent company or may be supplied by the lower company. If there is no material information sheet for the parts manufactured by the superior supplier, the superior supplier device requests registration of the material information sheet to the person in charge of the production department of the relevant part.

If there is a material information sheet for the part but there is an error (S630), the superior vendor device rejects the material information sheet and requests re-registration (S640). The superior vendor device can predefine the rules for grasping errors in the material information sheet, etc., and then can detect the material information sheet in violation of the rule and automatically detect the error. For example, in the product structure information of FIG. 3, the difference between the total calculated weight and the measured weight of the product 300 calculated by the weight of the sub-parts 310, 312, and 314 of the product 300 in the product structure information of FIG. It is determined that an error has occurred, the material information sheet is rejected, and re-registration is requested (S640). The measured weight of the product 300 may be entered directly by the user or automatically entered into the top vendor device after the automatic metering by the measuring device.

As another example, if a specific component such as lead in the parts included in the product structure information is out of the regulation range, it is determined that an error has occurred. In this case, however, it is desirable to notify the person in charge of the superior company that an error has occurred without promptly requesting re-registration of the material information sheet. If it is outside the regulation range, there is no error in the preparation of the material information sheet itself, and other operations such as replacement of parts may be necessary.

According to an embodiment, the parent company apparatus may further include a user interface for receiving the approval of the material information sheet from the person in charge of the parent company. For example, if an upper-level vendor determines that an error does not exist after performing an error detection process on a material information sheet using a preset rule or the like, Include the sheet in the approval wait list. The person in charge of the parent company reviews the at least one material information sheet existing in the approval waiting list, and inputs approval if there is no other abnormality. The person in charge of the top vendor does not have to check the basic information of the material information sheet of the product, including various errors, etc., and only reviews the material information sheet with the first error check. .

In another embodiment, when all of the material information sheets (for example, the material information sheets for the parts positioned at the ends of the hierarchical structure) of the parts constituting the product are retrieved from the superior-supplier apparatus, , The person in charge can decide whether to approve or not at once. That is, the person in charge can efficiently perform the approval operation all at once if he / she is informed whether the reception from the parent company device is completed without checking every time whether the material information sheet for the product has been received.

If all the material information sheets for the product are present, the superior supplier apparatus generates a material information sheet for the product using these material information sheets and registers them in the material information server (S650). Although the present embodiment has been described with reference to a parent company that produces a product by supplying parts from at least one subsidiary company, there may be a subsidiary company that supplies the initial material without receiving any component from the other subsidiary company . In this case, the subordinate company first generates and provides the material information sheet for the material, so that the material information sheet for the product can be obtained without having to perform the steps (S600 to S630) The process of generating a sheet is performed. A more specific method of generating the material information sheet is shown in Fig.

The superior supplier apparatus can receive the wide area identification number assigned to the product material information sheet from the material information server after registering the material information sheet for the product in the material information server. Since the material information server receives material information sheets for various products from a plurality of companies, it is necessary to assign unique identification information (i.e., wide area identification information) to each product in the material information sheet for management of these material information sheets . The material information server gives wide area identification information to the products of the material information sheet registered by the superior company apparatus and the wide area identification information for each part, and the superior company apparatus informs the wide area identification information received from the material information server And substitutes the used identification information (i.e., narrow-band identification information).

7 to 10 illustrate an example of generating product structure information according to the present invention.

Referring to Fig. 7, the product master information 700 describing the coupling relationship of the components constituting the product is shown. The product master information 700 may have different content and presentation style for each vendor. For example, the product master information is described in a general text document format, but may be described in an Excel format. Each vendor describes the combination of each part constituting the product in its product master information by its own notation.

Referring to FIG. 8, the material information generation apparatus analyzes the product master information 700, and generates a table 800 in which the up-and-down relationship between the parts and the quantity are grasped. In the present embodiment, for convenience of description, a coupling relationship between components is indicated by a table 800. However, the coupling relationship may be expressed in various forms other than a table, or may be expressed in a hierarchical structure as shown in FIG. 9 It is possible.

The material information generation apparatus may include an algorithm capable of preliminarily grasping the form of the combination relation of the parts, the quantity, the weight, and the like in the product master information, and analyzing and sorting them in advance. For example, when the product master information is a text form as shown in FIG. 7, and the combination relation of the parts is indicated as '-', the material information generation device parses the text content of the product master information, Information can be selected and displayed in the table 800.

Referring to FIG. 9, the material information generating apparatus uses the table 800 of FIG. 8 to represent it in a hierarchical structure 900. 8, since the product 910 is the coupling relationship between the product 910, the component A 920, the product 910, and the component B 930, the product 910 is divided into the component A 920 and the component B Component A 920 and components A 940 and component A 920. Since component A 920 is a component A 940 and component A 920 is component A 950, . This can be represented by a hierarchical structure such as a tree form as shown in FIG.

When the hierarchical structure for the product is completed, the material information generation apparatus can determine whether the material information sheet for the parts (940, 960, 930) positioned at the end of the hierarchical structure exists in the material information server. If the parent company that produces the product 910 receives the component A 920 from the subsidiary company, then the parent company is the sub-components 970 of the component A 920, that is, the component Aa 940 and the component Ab 950 , It is possible to easily receive the material information sheet by receiving the material information sheet for the component A 920 registered in the material information server by the lower company without having to grasp the respective material information about the component Ab-1 960 Can be generated.

In other words, as shown in Fig. 10, the material information generating apparatus includes product structure information 1000 including the wide area identification information of the material information sheet 1010 for the part A and the wide area identification information of the material information sheet 1020 of the part B, And the weight of each node of the product structure information is calculated using the weight information and the like of the material information sheet of each component and reflected in the product structure information 1000. [ Then, the material information generating apparatus generates a material information sheet (FIG. 3) including the product structure information 1000 and registers it in the material information server.

11 is a view showing an example of a concrete method of generating a material information sheet according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 11, in the step S1100, the material information server inquires the material information sheet about each part constituting the product. At this time, the top vendor apparatus can grasp the hierarchical structure of each component constituting the product through the method described with reference to FIG. 7 to FIG. The higher-level vendor inquires whether there is a material information sheet for the part located at the end in the hierarchical structure of the product, rather than inquiring whether the material information sheet exists for the entire parts constituting the product.

As another example, if a part located at the middle layer, such as part A of FIG. 9, is supplied from a sub-supplier, the upper-vendor device ignores all the parts located below the sub- The part supplied from the sub-supplier is regarded as a part located at the end and inquires whether the material information sheet exists. Namely, if the component A shown in FIG. 9 is supplied, the third-party apparatus inquires the material information sheet for the component A, not the material information sheet for the component Aa or the component Ab-1.

When inquiry of the material information sheet for the parts constituting the product is completed, the superior company apparatus generates a material information sheet for the product using the material information sheet of each part (S1110). If the component A of FIG. 9 is supplied from the subordinate company as in the previous example, it is not necessary to individually prepare the material components, the weight, and the like for the subordinate components constituting the component A, And generates the product structure information for the product including only the identification information of the material information sheet for the product.

The higher-level vendor accumulates the weight of the components located in each layer of the product structure information sequentially from the lower layer (S1120). 3, the weight of the component Ab is calculated by summing the weight of the component Ab-1 and the weight of the component Ab-2, and the weight of the component A is calculated by weighting the weight of the component Aa And the weight of the component Ab is calculated. In this way, the weight of the final product can be calculated by summing and calculating the weights.

The third-party apparatus generates a material information sheet including the product structure information, the receiver and the sender information, and transmits the material information sheet to the material information server (S1130).

12 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a material information generating apparatus according to the present invention. The material information generation apparatus may be implemented in a user terminal of each vendor in FIG. 1, or may be implemented in a separate server to provide a material information generation service to each vendor.

12, the material information generation apparatus 1200 includes an inquiry unit 1210, a registration request unit 1220, a generation unit 1230, and a registration unit 1240.

The inquiry unit 1210 determines whether a material information sheet for the parts constituting the product exists in the material information server. At this time, the inquiry unit 1210 preferably grasps whether a material information sheet exists only for a part positioned at the end in the hierarchical structure of the parts constituting the product. In the hierarchical structure for the product, if a component located at the middle layer is supplied from the sub-vendor, the inquiry unit 1210 ignores the sub-hierarchical components located under the component supplied from the sub-vendor, In the hierarchical structure, a material information sheet for the part is regarded as a part located at the end.

The registration request unit 1220 grasps the supply subject of the component and if there is a part in which there is no material information sheet among the parts constituting the product, the registration request unit 1220 requests the supply subject to register the material information sheet of the relevant part. For example, if the part is manufactured inside the company, the registration request unit 1220 requests registration of the material information sheet of the relevant part through various communication methods such as e-mail or messenger to the person in charge of part production inside the company. If the part is to be supplied to the sub company, the registration request unit 1220 requests the person in charge of the sub company to register the material information sheet through various communication methods such as e-mail or message.

According to the embodiment, the inquiry unit 1210 repeatedly inquires whether all the material information sheets for the parts constituting the product are present in a predetermined cycle, and periodically requests the supplier of the parts for which the material information sheet does not exist .

The generating unit 1230 generates a material information sheet for the product using the material information sheet of the parts if all the material information sheets for the parts constituting the product exist. At this time, the generating unit 120 may generate product structure information including identification information of the material information sheet of each part registered in the material information server as shown in FIG.

The registering unit 1240 registers the material information sheet generated by the generating unit in the material information server. When the registration unit 1240 receives the product of the material information sheet and the wide area identification information for each part from the post-registration material information server, the registration unit 1240 identifies the wide area identification information received from the material information server, Identification information).

And maps and stores the products used in the company and the narrowband identification information for each component.

The present invention can also be embodied as computer-readable codes on a computer-readable recording medium. A computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording apparatuses in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage, and the like. The computer-readable recording medium may also be distributed over a networked computer system so that computer readable code can be stored and executed in a distributed manner.

The present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope of equivalents thereof should be construed as being included in the present invention.

Claims (7)

A method for generating material information by a material information server connected to a material information server through a wire / wireless communication network,
Determining whether a parts material information sheet for the parts constituting the product of the first company exists in the material information server;
Identifying a supplier of a component that does not have a parts material information sheet in the material information server among the parts constituting the product;
Requesting the supplier to register the parts material information sheet;
Wherein when a material information sheet for all of the parts constituting the product is registered in the material information server as a recipient of the first company as a receiver, a part material information sheet registered in the material information server is used for the product Creating a product material information sheet;
And registering the product material information sheet on the material information server as a receiver of a second company to which the product is supplied,
The step of determining whether the parts material information sheet is present includes:
When a component located at the middle layer is supplied from a sub-supplier, when the components constituting the product are expressed in a hierarchical structure, And determining whether a parts material information sheet for the part of the layer exists,
Wherein a part material information sheet for a part that is manufactured by the first company among the parts constituting the product is registered in the material information server by the first company. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the parts material information sheet is present comprises:
And a step of determining whether a parts material information sheet for a part located at an end exists when the parts constituting the product are expressed in a hierarchical structure. delete The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of generating the product material information sheet comprises:
Generating product structure information in which identification information of the parts material information sheet is arranged according to a hierarchical structure of parts constituting the product;
Accumulating weights from a lower layer of the hierarchical structure to an upper layer sequentially using weight information included in the parts material information sheet to calculate weight of the product and adding the weight to the product structure information; And
And generating a product material information sheet including the product structure information. The method according to claim 1,
Receiving the product included in the product material information sheet from the material information server and the wide area identification information assigned to each part; And
And identifying and managing a mapping relationship between the narrow-band identification information and the wide-area identification information for the product and the respective components. An inquiry unit for recognizing whether a parts material information sheet for the parts constituting the product of the first company exists in the material information server;
A registration request unit for requesting registration of the parts material information sheet by identifying the supply subject of the part in which the parts material information sheet does not exist in the material information server among the parts constituting the product;
Wherein when the parts material information sheet for the parts constituting the product is registered in the material information server as the recipient of the first company as a receiver, the parts material information sheet registered in the material information server is used for the product A generating unit generating a material information sheet; And
And a registration unit for registering the product material information sheet on the material information server as a receiver of a second company to which the product is supplied,
When the component located at the middle layer is supplied from the sub-supplier, the inquiry unit determines that the sub-vendor, not the component material information sheet for the end component located below the middle layer, It is determined whether or not there is a parts material information sheet for a part of the intermediate layer supplied by the customer,
Wherein a part material information sheet for a part that is produced by the first company among parts constituting the product is registered in the material information server by the first company. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for performing the method of claim 1 is recorded.

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