WO2017021838A1

WO2017021838A1 - System and method of consultation and selection of hardware components for realization and composition selecting automatic measuring of geometric parameters of interior furnishings

Info

Publication number: WO2017021838A1
Application number: PCT/IB2016/054542
Authority: WO
Inventors: Antonio SQUEO
Original assignee: Kitchen Lifting S.R.L.
Priority date: 2015-08-05
Filing date: 2016-07-29
Publication date: 2017-02-09
Also published as: WO2017021839A1

Abstract

A modular system (100) for the realization and the composition of interior furnishings comprising a first module (WKB) configured to contain the information wealth for the selection of components which make the furnishing; a second module (WNS) configured for navigation and which is used by the user in order to access the information contained in the first module (WKB) to perform the search and selection of components; a third module (WAS) configured to proceed with the order of the selected material; a fourth interface and control module (WT) configured to refer to the first module (WKB) through the navigation mode provided for the second module (WNS) and comprising a controller with which a monitor touch screen is connected; the modular system (100) being characterized in that said fourth interface and control module (WT) is configured to manage said second module (WNS) for the search and selection of components of furnishing through the first module (WKB) and to manage with a third module (WAS) in an automatic and complete way the orders of all the individual components necessary for the realization of the furnishing according to the chosen environment.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD OF CONSULTATION AND SELECTION OF HARDWARE

COMPONENTS FOR REALIZATION AND COMPOSITION SELECTING AUTOMATIC MEASURING OF GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF INTERIOR

FURNISHINGS

DESCRIPTION

Technical field of the invention

Subject of the present invention is an innovative system and method for improving selection and purchase operations of components for the realization and composition of interior furnishings .

State of the art

As it is known, the manufacturing and assembly processes of furniture can be classified in two main great areas: in series and customized. The in series production provides for the study of design and the realization of structures and components in predetermined dimensions, with standard components and very few margins of freedom for customization of the finished product, in which the tailored production exceeds these limits, by granting to a person to design and create a personalized furniture in each of its characteristics in terms of size, material, finish, type of embodiment, etc.

The characteristics exposed in terms of freedom in design and realization of a "customized" furniture, even if on one hand they are an advantage for the customer, however they are an obstacle for the craftsman or designer physically making such furniture at the time in which they must select the most suitable components for the realization of the furniture. In fact, a very high number of components of hardware manufacturers exist who produce an equally very high number of articles often similar to each other (if not identical) or vice versa with a similar appearance between them in terms of functionality, but very different in terms of performance, reliability and sometimes also in terms of suitability for use, once assembled. For example, let us imagine a mechanism for the opening of doors in a vertical direction in which the choice of the code to be used depends on four factors: door width, door height, door thickness and door weight. They all look alike, and absurdly they are good even for similar height, width, thickness, whereas it is the weight which makes the difference. In the event of a mechanism for a small weight the furniture door once opened upwards would close suddenly with the possible risk to imagine .

To date, the choice of components to be used for the making of a "customized" furniture, comprises several steps: realization of the furniture design in all its components, detailed description of the list of required components, consultation of catalogs of suppliers for the search of the most suitable components for the solution to realize, component selection and subsequent acquisition of the same through the supplier's sales channels. Such selection has a number of issues. A first issue is to find information: the catalogs of hardware articles from different manufacturers are available both in paper and digital format, but they still retain a common structure based on a classification of products for macro-categories; specific items can be searched exclusively through the classification by product categories without the possibility (even with the current digital supports) of crossing information for multiple components.

Each item also has its own technical sheet with descriptive detail levels which vary from one supplier to another and are often more complete for a number of important information such as dimensions, mounting arrangements, etc. and at the same time they are in any case lacking of important information relating to the most suited usage fields for the specific articles. Such information have often a very technical nature and are owned only by the manufacturer and of its technical personnel and do not depend from the sale personnel of the supplier who often has the same problems of

"lack of orientation" among the different types of products made from different manufacturers.

A second problem is a substantial time expenditure for the selection of components. As mentioned, the number of manufacturers is high and if a craftsman would be sure to buy the best component for the furniture he wants to build, he should consult the catalogs of all suppliers and analyze punctually all the detailed sheets and technical specifications of each article, with a large amount of time needed for the selection of components. Another important issue relats to the name to be given to each component: the production activity of "customized" furniture is a deeply rooted craftsmanship activity in the territory, and also even identifying terms are not common, but are affected by variations of dialect and declinations typical of specific territories/ regions. For example the type of opening of a hinge is commonly referred as "with external door", but in some Italian regions it is known by the names "atoppa", "a ginocchio", "zanca" . This naturally involves a further difficulty in finding the item of interest or in interpreting one of its characteristics (such as the type of opening according to the example) , which is known by craftsmen with a name completely from that used by the supplier in writing his catalog .

A third issue concern the risk of selecting wrong components: even if the step of careful and thorough analysis of the components can be careful and scrupulous, it is always possible to make mistakes in the selection and direct such selection on a component which, once assembled and integrated with the remaining parts of the furniture which is being realized, could prove inadequate or at least adequate, but not perfectly congruent with the desired quality and efficiency which it is intended to achieve by the making a furniture .

A fourth issue concerns the repetitiveness of the choices: often craftsmen or furniture designers tend to use still previously selected components for making other furniture similar to that they intend to make, but probably different for some characteristics. This repetitiveness is related both to the craftsman's skill, and also to the difficulties of quickly finding out which is of interest, as described above. Moreover, it is a common risk that for certain items the suppliers will stop the production or make their distribution with reference to more advanced models which can be more suitable for the specific piece of furniture that they want to make. In general such variability of the items and the tendency of the craftsman to always use the same types of articles, has the risk of compromising the selection of the components and in general for the craftsman there is the risk to remain unaware of the existence of a component which could be better than the one traditionally used .

A fifth issue concerns the speed in retrieving the various components for making a furniture and their acquisition from different manufacturers with various acquisition channels and reception at different times of the ordered goods. As already mentioned, a great number of manufacturers of hardware components and an equally large number of suppliers do exist, some of them being single-brand

(that is, they distribute components produced from a single manufacturer) , and others being multi-brand; this entails the need to procure from different suppliers, and then to create and manage a variable number of orders with consequent risk of delivery delays or time-shifting in the reception of the goods, with inevitable delays in the implementation of the customized furniture.

Today according to the state of the art no systems are known to overcome such drawbacks in the field of "customized" furniture .

There is therefore a need for a system and a method capable of overcoming the technical problem which can occur to a craftsman in the selection of components for the realization and composition of interior furnishing, or the incorrect selection of such components.

Summary of the invention

The finding subject of the present invention aims to solve the technical problem described above either by making the necessary selection and purchase operations of components in a complete automatic and reliable way, or without not correct choices, and in an extremely rapid way. Such system is therefore very helpful for the craftsman or the designer in choosing the correct components for the realization of a "customized" furniture, in order to obviate to each of the problems highlighted.

The aim of the invention is to support the work of the manufacturer (craftsman or entrepreneur or similar) so obtaining an automatic selection of the "best" component, a reduction of the selection times of single components by ensuring that the selected components are always the most suitable in relation to the furniture to be produced and which are available on the market, by unifying the acquisition process of the components produced by different manufacturers through a single order and supply channel.

The modular system has the characteristics set out in the annexed independent claim of the system.

The method which can be implemented by said modular system has the characteristics set forth in the independent claim of the method claim.

The dependent claims describe particular and further advantageous details and aspects of the invention.

The advantages subject of the present invention are therefore numerous in this field, especially regarding the retrieval of information. The system makes it possible, through a detailed classification of the different types of "customized" furniture in their main categories and according to the different components, to quickly find out the items of interest according to what is being made, by avoiding to consult several catalogs organized in a non directly usable way. The process of making the contents of catalogs uniform ensures that all items, regardless of the manufacturer producing them, are recorded and classified according to common characteristics. In addition, the system permits their consultation through dedicated hardware tools (smart phones, tablets and PCs) at any time without the need of any technical/expert advisor of a single component or of a representative of a specific manufacturer.

A further advantage consists in the great saving of time in the selection of the selected components. As already highlighted, the number of manufacturers is extremely high and even higher is the number of the available items. The system allows through the selection mechanism of the items based on filters to make the selection of the best component with few operations of previous selection expressed in a natural language (questions and answers) . Furthermore, the system permits the association of universal terms (defined as aliases) allowing to associate to a single component or a single characteristics a greater number of designations which could reproduce for example the different names relative to such characteristic in relation to the region of origin of the craftsman. For example, the type of "opening of a hinge" is known in the various Italian regions with different argon/dialect terms, therefore within the system, it is possible to introduce such associations in order that craftsmen or designers can find out the items of interest even through one of the terms commonly used from the same. In a paper catalog it would not be possible to reproduce dialect terms .

A further advantage of the invention is given by the elimination of the risk of selection of wrong components. Through a mechanism for selection of articles based on the characteristics of each product and implemented through the pair question/answer, this allows to minimize the possibility of selection of wrong components.

Further advantage of this system relates to the repetitiveness of the choices. This permits to update with any frequency the basis of knowledge of the system and therefore it will always contain items available and still in production and it will immediately show all newly produced articles, allowing the craftsman to always have not just one catalog of a manufacturer, but all catalogs of all manufacturers, by taking them constantly updated in a totally transparent and immediate manner.

Another advantage consists in the speed of acquisition of the system. This allows to order products from different manufacturers and/or suppliers without producing for each one a different cost quotation and order. This is automatically perform by a module of the system so freeing the final customer and thus simplifying the ordering procedure.

In order to perform a branding of the system it is also possible to uniform the packaging and the different headers of the order showing as the sole reference the one of the company using the same, and by which the solution is placed. Brief Description of Drawings

These and other advantages will be better highlighted in the detailed description of the invention with specific reference to Figure 1, in which an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention in shown in an absolutely not limitative way. In particular:

Fig.l shows a schematic or system according to the invention .

Detailed description With particular reference to Figure 1, the proposed new system 100 includes a first module WKB configured for containing the information wealth permitting to enhance the component selection process. This wealth is provided by an expert team in the manufacturing of domain of "customized" furniture, who previously analyze the catalogs and products of different suppliers grouping the relative information in two main directions: the navigation for environments and the choice of a model of components based on the characteristics of individual items. The contained wealth, in short terms, formalizes the experience of experts in the domain by uniting it to the tacit knowledge present inside the catalogs and of which each item is intrinsically equipped. The navigation of environments is based on a selection phase of articles, i.e. not based on the minimum components necessary for building the "customized" furniture, but directly starting from the object to realize, that is the furniture itself (the only certain information that the craftsman or designer has when deciding to make the furniture) . The wealth then implements a system for storing categories of environments, macro- components, sub-components and minimum components. The definition of these objects is as follows: "environment" is the environment of the home where the furniture to produce will be placed; "macro-component" represents the main elements by which the furniture can be classified (for example, base, column, wardrobe, etc.); "sub-component" is the secondary type which provides a greater detail on the type of item to be made (for example a base - with removable doors, open base, column with drawers, etc.); "component" is the lowest level of subdivision of a furniture. In fact the breakdown of the furniture in all its minimum components (for example for a "open base" is as follows: door, hangers, joints, lighting, legs, shelf supports, body, throat systems); "item" represents the lowest level of detail which is the minimum selectable element for the realization of the furniture .

The navigation route starts from the broadest category of classification until reaching the minimum level of definition of a "customized" furniture. The classification hierarchy is shown in the following diagram: ENVIRONMENT→MACRO-COMPONENT→SUB-COMPONENT→ARTICLE .

With this approach within module WKB, it is possible to know all the "atomic components" necessary for the realization of a "customized" furniture starting from the environment in which it will be placed and gradually going down up to the constitutive details of the furniture itself and not as it occurs in a traditional manner of a "customized" work, where such information is tacit and is an exclusive wealth of the craftsman/designer.

Furthermore, such wealth is catalogued through a detailed classification of items of different suppliers according to their main characteristics. The decision to use such classification relates to providing a craftsman/designer of a set of decision parameters in order to accomplish the selection of most suitable item for a "customized" furniture he is making.

Such characteristics are associated with the previously formalized hierarchy: at the lowest level, i.e. that of "components", considering that each hardware item can belong just to one type of "component", items produced by different manufacturers will share the same characteristics obviously with different values. Therefore the inclusion of an "article" in the base of knowledge will be sufficient in order to associate it with a "component" among those already registered and to decline the characteristics of the item compared to those provided by the base of knowledge base. Below an example is given of such association: experts in the domain can formalize for the "component" hinge the following characteristics: type of door abutment on the side, door material, thickness, overhang of the door on the side, angle of opening of door, type of fixing of the hinge, distance between the axles of hinge holes, color of the hinges, type of closing of door, etc.

For each of these characteristics the experts in the domain will include in the list possible values which the characteristics may contain. Such information is extracted both by the official catalogs of the suppliers and from the experience of the personnel assigned to formalize the basis of knowledge. Examples of possible values for some features of the "components" of hinges are shown below:

Type of abutment of the door on the side EXTERIOR DOOR

CENTRAL HALF DOOR INTERNAL THREAD

Door material

WOOD MDF

CHIPBOARD BLOCKBOARD ALUMINUM GLASS

During the insertion of the "items" into WKB unit, it is provided that each article is declined, compared to the features provided by the component to which the item is associated, so a model hinge XXX of an ABC supplier will be characterized by certain values, whereas a hinge model YYY of a CDEF supplier may have the same characteristics or differ in some of these. With this approach, inside the unit WKB, you can define a product through its characteristics, and then implement a navigation mechanism beginning from these properties and then up to a certain item and not vice versa as is done in standard catalogs, where it is started from the list of items, to arrive at the detail of the individual characteristic .

A second module WNS is configured for navigation that the craftsman or designer can use in order to access to the information contained in the first module WKB, to physically perform the search and selection of components. The unit implements an evolved navigation, since it is not based on the traditional trade subdivisions of the products, those traditionally used in product catalogs but, as mentioned, it implements a system based on the well-known taxonomy provided in the WKB unit, that is linked to the environment and to the specific item you want to accomplish.

The navigation system is based on the following taxonomy: ENVIRONMENT → MACROCOMPONENT → SUBCOMPONENT → COMPONENT → FILTER → ARTICLE

As it is evident with respect to the classification implemented by the WKB module, in the consultation phase an additional layer is present, that of the filter. The filter represents the link between the two routes of innovation implemented in the WKB module, and in the WNS module it is further clear. The navigation filter is based on a series of questions that the system asks to the user, to help him in the selection of most suitable items to his needs. The questions that the system gives are exactly the characteristics with which the article was listed in WKB module. Returning to the example of the previous section, the questions that will be given to the user in the consultation phase are the following: "how is the beating of the door on the side? what is the material of the door? What is the thickness of the door? How deep it surmounts the door on the side in mm? what opening angle must have the door? How the hinge must be fixed? what kind of distance have the holes of the hinges? what color you want for the hinge? what type of closure the hinge must have? The possible answers to these questions are exactly the lists of values established within the WKB module, and they are reported with the definition of the characteristic, by the way, as reported in the WKB module: "how is the beating of the door on the side? Type of door beating on the side: external door, half door, central internal thread; what is the material of the door? The material of wood door, MDF, chipboard, hardboard, aluminum, glass .

Through the answers to these simple questions, the navigation system on WNS module is able to filter, in fact, the list of items in the WKB module, to return to the craftsman only those having the requested characteristic.

In conclusion, wanting to create a complete furniture for a certain environment, by selecting the necessary articles using the system 100 will be possible, starting from the destination environment of the "customized" furniture, navigating through different levels to achieve a complete list of components constituting the furniture, and through the filters, selecting for each of these the most suitable article of interest to what you want to accomplish. The advantages of this immediately perceivable navigation mode are being used by anyone (even non-domain experts) and provide automatically useful information about the components necessary to the realization of a furniture. To emphasize, with regard to the selection of items based on questions and answers, the implemented features are completely "general purpose", that is, you can classify the articles according to any type of information (color, material, size, type of fitting, etc) . Furthermore, the features and, consequently the questions that will be posed to the craftsman/designer in the selection phase of the article can be implemented inside the WKB unit according to two types: with a single response, i.e. the craftsman/designer can choose only one value among those in the list of values (for example: the hinges have as opening angle 90° only) or multiple choice questions, i.e. the craftsman/designer can choose one or more values from those in the list of values (for example: hinges in black or white) .

In general, the answers to several questions in the consultation phase of the items' list are mutually united with the AND logical operator: two questions X and Y given with their possible values /answers X {a, b_r c_r d_r e_r .. n} and {Y p, q_r r_r s_r t ... zj the selection is made according to the following formula:

X question - answer question n AND Y - q response response t Example: select all hinges <white or black> AND < having as opening angle 90° >.

A third WAS module, configured to proceed immediately with the order of the selected material. Before the actual order creation, the WAS module queries a management software connected to the WKB unit, which for each product is able to check and calculate the following parameters: availability of stock for the store using the system or for the distributor from which it supplies, the price of each product for the specific customer who is working on the WOE system (for each customer is planned a possibly combined an association with a customized price list with discounts diversified policies), estimated delivery date (calculated according to the actual availability and/or the supply frequency for the specific product and the average delivery times of the manufacturer) . This information enables WAS to show (on the WT screen as it will be explained below) a summary, called quote, of the list of items ordered by price and the expected delivery date. The customer at this point can save the quote to be consulted at a later time or to confirm the quote itself and proceed with the order. In this second case, WAS proceeds with the actual calculation of delivery dates and prices, as these may be varied and this requires a further confirmation to proceed with the order. In case of acceptance by the end customer, the quote is changed into an actual order.

As said before, it is possible that desired products are from different manufacturers and suppliers and then to be able to fulfill the order of the end customer it does not just run a single order, but as many as the various suppliers involved:

WAS is doing just that. Through a dedicated management software, the component is able to subdivide the list of desired products by the customer, in classifying groups for each manufacturer. For each of these groups, WAS system generates a specific order to the supplier in a totally transparent way to the end user. The different orders are digitally processed and sent by WAS to the individual manufacturer which send the goods to the store. This will then the same to collect all of the single order products made by a customer and ship them to the destination specified by the end user.

A fourth WT interface module configured for consultation to the well-known binary form, through the one provided for the

WNS navigation module and including an information totem to be placed in stores of hardware components both mono-brand and multi-brand. Through the interaction by the end user with the WT module will be possible to see the WKB by using the

WNS navigation system already described. The WT module is designed as a plastic panel with custom finishing depending on the hosting exhibition space (colors, logos, brand of supplier or retailer, etc) . Within the same, a modern large

LCD monitor (42'' or greater) is mounted vertically and equipped with touch screen (touch screen and responsive to the touch) to interact with WNS. Within WT is a computer with pre-installed software that implements WNS to show the user on the WT screen. The touch screen display enables the user to interact with the unit of the 100 system and, as mentioned, starting from the selection of the environment will be able to select the components needed for the realization of the furniture, and sent directly to the purchase of these. This can either be made directly in the store, WT interacting with WAS will automatically send the clerk a list of products to buy or deferred, by sending the same list to the headquarter of the supplier who will take care of the home delivery of the requested material.

Although at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the summary and in the detailed description, it should be understood that there is a large number of variants falling within the scope of the invention. It must also be understood that the realization or the presented works are only examples that are not intended to limit in any way the scope of protection of the invention or its application or configurations. Rather, the summary and the detailed description will provide to the technical a convenient guide sector to implement at least one exemplary embodiment, being well clear that numerous variations can be made in the function and assembly of the elements described herein, without departing from the scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims and their technical-legal equivalents .

Claims

0 A , JG 2016WO 2017/021838 PCT/IB2016/054542 CLAIMS

1. Modular system (100) for the realization and composition of interior furnishings, comprising:

- a first module (WKB) configured to hold the wealth of information for the selection of components making the furnishing,

a second module (WNS) configured for navigation used by the user in order to access to the information contained in the first module (WKB) , for performing the search and selection of components,

- a third module (WAS) configured to proceed with the order of the selected material,

a fourth interface and control module (WT) configured to consult the first module (WKB) through the navigation mode provided in the second module (WNS) and comprising a controller to which monitor touch screen in connected,

the modular system (100) being characterized in that said fourth interface and control module (WT) is configured for managing with said second module (WNS) the search and selection of the components of furnishing through the first module (WKB) and to manage with a third module (WAS) in an automatic and complete way the orders of all individual components required for the realization of the furnishing according to the chosen environment.

2. System (100) according to claim 1, wherein said first module (WKB) is configured for cataloging through a detailed classification of the items from different suppliers based on their main characteristics.

3. System (100) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said first module (WKB) is configured to group the information according to the navigation within environments and the model of choice of the components is based on the characteristics of the individual items.

SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)

4. System (100) according to claim 1, wherein said module (WNS) is configured to perform the taxonomy of ENVIRONMENT→MACROCOMPONENT→SUBCOMPONENT→COMPONENT→FILTER→I TEM.

5. System (100) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said module (WNS) is configured according to a filter for a navigation based on a series of questions made by the system to the user to help him in selecting the item better indicated to his needs.

6. Method for the design and selection of components for the construction of furnishings, comprising the following steps:

- defining the target environment of the furnishing;

- navigation among the different levels in order to reach the complete list of components which make the piece of furniture;

- selecting for each component the most suitable item according to which is to be accomplished, by using filters or the selection of items based on questions and answers;

- checking the stock availability for the selling store or distributor from which he is supplied;

- checking the price of the individual product and any discount for the specific customer;

- estimating the expected delivery date;

- preparing the quote including the list of products ordered with their price and the expected delivery date; confirming the quote itself and proceed with the order;

- calculating the actual price and the delivery date;

- reconfirm the quote;

- preparing the actual order, one for each supplier involved .