JPH02270069A - Cad system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To design and sell the order-made commodities desired by the customers in a short time by selecting the requested commodity and its basic structure based on the information obtained via an input means and extracting the corresponding commodity image out of a commodity image data base to display it. CONSTITUTION:When a customer inputs preference via an input device 100, a commodity setting back-up device 140 selects the corresponding commodity and its basic structure in response to the input preference of the customer. Then the device 140 extracts the commodity images (external appearance, internal design, etc.) out of a commodity image data base 160 in accordance with the basic structure and displays the extracted images on a synthetic picture display device 280. If the customer is not satisfied with the displayed images, the customer inputs again desire in the ordinary words via the device 100. The device 140 interprets the desired order contents of the customer which are inputted in an ambiguous expression and decides the propriety of the order. When the propriety is approved, a commodity image is produced by a picture synthesizer 260 in accordance with the corresponding order contents and displayed on the device 280. Thus the satisfactory forms and functions can be designed for customers.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a CAD system for the production and sales method of made-to-order products. The present invention relates to a CAD system that has a function that makes it possible to understand and determine product specifications.

[Prior art]

In recent years, instead of producing products by just combining standardized parts, some non-standard parts are combined according to customer orders to produce and sell products within a certain framework, which can also be called made-to-order mass production. A form of production is emerging. This is because customer demands for products have evolved from diversification to individualization.

Until now, when developing custom-made products, salespeople had no choice but to listen to the customer's wishes and then draw and show them an expected finished product in order to confirm those requirements.

There is a CAD system used for product development, but conventional CAD systems have been built for the purpose of designing detailed structures etc. after the product image has been solidified.

This is intended to free designers from routine tasks such as structural calculations. For this reason, it was not useful for creative tasks such as helping customers formulate a product image in a short period of time.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In recent years, customers have the following requirements when ordering products.

■ I want a product that suits my tastes and that no one else owns.

■ Not everything has to be custom-made, but I would like to include my own requirements in certain parts.

However, until now, the only ways for customers to convey their needs to salespeople were through words and pictures. On the other hand, from a salesman's perspective, it was important to: ■ Conduct business negotiations with customers efficiently and make purchases in a short amount of time. I want you to do it.

■ Unable to keep up with product diversification and shortening of product life cycles. I want tools that support me.

There was a request for this, but there was nothing that could answer it.

As mentioned above, with conventional methods, customers are unable to grasp the feeling of using the product in advance, so they often feel dissatisfied when checking the product after it is completed. The problem was that it was extremely difficult to deal with it.

Furthermore, in order to realize a production system that can respond to made-to-order products, it is necessary to change production methods in real time. In order to make this possible, it is necessary to evaluate production method changes through simulation and reflect the production method in the production management logic in real time.

In the past, some computer simulations have been used to solve problems such as production planning, but they are often performed using data that is too far from actual data, making it difficult to use simulations that directly reflect production. There wasn't. Furthermore, since the actual operational data is updated every moment, it was not possible to perform simulations using it.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to develop custom-made products, this is achieved by providing a means for customers to design not only the appearance and function of the product, but also the usability of the product. Since it is difficult to design a product, an effective way to have customers design the product themselves is to use product images (images) to design the product. The present invention uses image data of the product and the environment in which it will be used to give the customer the feeling of actually using the product, thereby supporting the design of a shape and function that will satisfy the customer. The CAD system is unique.

Specifically, the present invention is realized by, for example, providing the following means.

■Customer Preference Input Means Customers can specify their own wishes by asking "a little bit bigger" or "
It supports inputting non-quantitative expressions such as "a little greenish blue."

■ Product structure database A database that stores basic structural data for products.

■Product design support device When a customer designs a product based on external specifications or usability, it corrects related parts for partial corrections and outputs appropriate advice for parts that cannot be corrected.

■ Product image database Stores the exterior, interior, etc. of products in the form of images.

■ Image input device Inputs the customer's usage environment or the customer's appearance in the form of an image or image.

■ Image information understanding device Constructs a model of the input customer's usage environment or customer appearance.

■ Image synthesis device Composes the product image with the usage environment or customer appearance,
Create an image of the customer using the product.

■ Composite image display device Displays a composite image of the customer using the product using the image composite device.

■ Actual data accumulation system Historical data of operation results of production equipment (equipment, products, plans)
Accumulate.

[Co., Ltd.] Production status simulator Simulates production status under new production conditions based on data such as operational results.

[Effect]

Customers decide on the specifications of their products while interacting with salespeople.

The product image database contains new product planning data (product images, drawings) from the product planning results database.
is stored.

When a customer first inputs his or her preferences using the customer preference input device, the product design support device selects a product and its basic structure that match the customer's preferences, and creates a product image (exterior/interior) that corresponds to this structure. etc.) are extracted from the product image database and displayed on the composite image display device. When the customer looks at the displayed product image and is not satisfied, the customer inputs his/her wishes in ordinary language from the customer preference input device. The product design support device interprets the customer's desired order details entered in ambiguous expressions, determines whether this is possible, and
If possible, a product image corresponding to the order content is constructed using an image composition device and displayed on a composite image display device.

Once the customer is satisfied with the product image, the customer inputs the customer's desired usage environment or the customer's appearance in the form of an image or an image from the image input device into the image database. The image database stores in advance image data of a situation assumed as a usage environment of the corresponding product.

The image information understanding device constructs a model of the customer's usage environment or the customer's appearance using the input image stored in the image understanding rule base and the customer's usage environment or the customer's appearance stored in the image database.

Using these models, an image synthesis device synthesizes the product image and the usage environment or the appearance of the customer to create an image of the customer using the product.

Customers evaluate product specifications by experiencing the ordered product being used in an environment that they are familiar with or that they would like to use.

Once the customer's final approval regarding the product specifications is obtained, the product specifications are sent to the factory and put into production.

In the production process, production engineers perform production simulations by changing production conditions based on the received product specifications and data from the operation record database, find appropriate production conditions, and make changes to the production system. Create a production plan for the relevant product.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, five embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of a conventional system.

1000 is a workstation for sales personnel, 2000
1100 is an image database, 1100 is an ordering system, 1
500 is a CAD system, 4500 is a production base system, 4000 is an order management system, 4100 is an order file, and 5000 is a communication line.

When a customer visits a store, the sales person listens to the customer's requests, retrieves the product image that best matches the customer's request from the image database 2000 through the sales person's workstation 1000, and sends it to the sales person's workstation 1000. View and explore customer reactions.

Once the customer has found the product they want, we listen to the customer's detailed preferences regarding the product, and if we think that the request is possible within the scope of our knowledge, we draw an image of the product by hand.
Determine whether customer satisfaction is achieved.

When the customer decides on the final product specifications including his/her own preferences, the sales person uses the ordering system 1100 to send the order information to the order management system 4000 of the production base 4500.
through the communication line 5000 to the order management system 4.
000 stores this order data in the order file 4100.

An embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 and will be described below. 10
0 is a customer preference input device, 120 is a product structure data
Base 130 is a product selection rule base 140,
Product design support device, 150, change specification determination device, 16
0 is a product image database, 170 is a correction guidance base, 180 is an image input device, 200 is an image information understanding device, 220 is 1 image understanding rule base, 2
40 is an image understanding basic base, 260 is an image synthesis device, 2.80 is a synthesized image display device, 300 is a product design rule base, 320 is an order product specification database, 340 is an ambiguous expression rule base, 500 is a controller, 3000 is a new product planning base, 31oO is a new product planning system, 3200 is a new product image base, 3300 is a new product design system, 3400 is,
New product drawing base 520 is a selection input device.

Among them, the controller 500, the product design support device 140
, change specification determining device 150, image information understanding device 20
0 can be implemented using individual or common microprocessors. The same applies to the product planning system 3100, new product design system 330o, and order management system 4000.

Customers decide on the specifications of their products while interacting with salespeople.

Workstation 1 for sales personnel installed at the dealership
0oO contains new product images and product selection rules stored in advance in the new product image base 3200 from the new product planning system 3100 of the new product planning base 3000, and new product drawing bases from the new product design system 3300. The product drawing stored in 3400 is sent. The salesperson workstation 1000 stores these data in a product selection rule base 130, a product image database 160, and a product structure database 120, respectively.
Store in.

Salespeople first ask customers about their preferences,
When a non-quantitative expression such as "sports type" or "large size" is input from the customer preference input device 100, the customer preference input device 100 refers to the ambiguous expression rule base 340, interprets the input content, and sells it. The input contents are sent to the workstation 1000 for the person in charge.

Upon receiving the initial input, the controller 500 of the salesperson's workstation 1000 sends it to the design support device 140 .

The product design support device 140 uses the product selection rule base 130 based on the content sent from the customer preference input device 100.
is searched to determine the applicable product, the basic structure (drawings and related spec data) of this product is read from the product structure database 120, and the piece is sent to the controller 500.

Controller 500 stores this data in order product specification base 320. Next, the product design support device 14
0 is extracted from the product image database 160 such as the exterior and interior of the corresponding product, and is extracted via the controller 500.
It is displayed on the composite image display device @280. At the same time, the controller 500 stores this product image in the ordered product specification base 320.

If a customer is not satisfied with the displayed product image, they can express their wishes to the sales representative using qualitative expressions such as ``a little thicker'' or ``a little greenish blue.'' The sales representative then informs the sales representative of the customer, and the sales representative inputs this into the customer preference input device 100 again. In response to input for modifying displayed product images based on customer preferences,
The customer preference input device 1.00 interprets the customer's desired order details inputted in ambiguous expressions and sends them to the sales person fax station 1000.

Upon receiving the correction input, the controller 500 of the salesperson's workstation 1000 sends it to the design support device 140 .

When the product design support device 140 receives the customer modification order content from the customer preference input device 100, the product design support device 140 sends the controller 50
0, reads the product specifications stored in the order product specification base 320, individually checks the contents of customer modification orders, and determines whether this is possible using the product specification change rules of the product design rule base 300; If possible, the contents of the change are sent to the changed specification determining device 150 to determine the new specifications of the product. Next, the product design support device 140 sends the new specifications of this product to the image synthesis device 260. The image composition device 260 creates a product image corresponding to the new specifications of this product, and displays this on the composite image display device 280 via the controller 500. At the same time, controller 5
00 stores this new product specification/image in the ordered product specification 320.

If the customer order contents cannot be implemented in light of the change rules, the product design support device 140 reads the modification guidance base 170 and provides appropriate advice regarding changes via the controller 500 for the parts that cannot be modified. Output to image display device 2°80.

When the customer is satisfied with the displayed product image,
A salesperson inputs the usage environment desired by the customer, the appearance of the customer, etc. in the form of an image or image from the image input device 180 to the salesperson workstation 1000.

When the controller 500 of the salesperson's workstation 1000 receives this image input, it is sent to the content image database 1 via the image information understanding device 200.
Enter 90. The image database 190 stores in advance image data of a situation assumed as a usage environment of the corresponding product.

An example of the operation flow of the image information understanding device 200 is shown in the fifth example.
As shown in the figure.

When the image information understanding device 200 receives an input image to the content image database 190, it stores it in the image database 190 (step 201). At the same time, the image information understanding device 200 uses the image understanding basic base 240 to determine the basic size and size of the customer's usage environment or the customer's appearance.
Read configuration step 202), selection input device 52
0, the customer selects and inputs the dimensions of the object in the input image from a selection menu (step 203). For example, in the case of a road, the customer indicates the road on the screen, and then selects the closest road from among the road selections (6m, 4m, 3m, 2m) displayed on the screen. Next, based on this information,
A rule for estimating a customer model or a building model is read from the image understanding rule base 220 (step 204), and the input image stored in the content image database 190 is interpreted using this rule. The input model of the customer's usage environment or customer appearance is constructed (step 207) and stored in the model base 380 (step 208). If there is no information necessary for model creation, a request is made to the customer using the selection input device 520 for inputting the necessary information (step 209).

The image synthesis device 260 uses the model in the model base 380 and the product specifications stored in the order product specification base 320 to create a product usage image of the customer by combining the product image and the usage environment or the customer's appearance number, and then sends the product to the controller. 500 and displayed on the composite image display device 280.

A customer evaluates the specifications of a product by actually seeing the ordered product being used in an environment that he/she is familiar with or in an environment that he or she wishes to use.

When the customer is satisfied with the product specifications displayed on the composite image display device 280, the sales person
The product specifications stored in 0 are sent to the production process management system 4000 in the production system 4500. The production process management system 4o00 stores this order data in the order file 4.
400 and put this into the production plan.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, ■ the customer:
Participate in product design (get the impression that you designed it yourself).

■ Customers can design the exterior of the product rather than the internal structure. Customers can design the usability of the product.

■ Since customers can express their requests in the form of images, it is possible to shorten the time for business negotiations (the time required to understand the customer's requests) and improve the efficiency of salespeople.

This becomes possible.

FIG. 3 shows one configuration example of the customer preference input device 100 and will be described below.

111 is a customer preference inference device, 112 is a customer preference inference rule file, 113 is a membership function extraction device, 114 is a membership function file, 115 is a membership function synthesis device, 116 is a metal rule file, 117 is a history file, and 118 is a customer file.

When the customer preference inference device 111 inputs the customer's preference in a non-quantitative expression (for example, "sporty and small"),
Customer preference inference rule file 112 and customer file 11
8 and search for the corresponding preference selection pattern.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the configuration of the customer preference inference rule file 112. For example, if there is a customer preference inference rule that extracts factors that influence preferences from customer characteristic information (Figure 4), in the case of a customer who is 40 years old, has an annual income of 1,000 years, and is a freelancer, age and occupation are Extracted as the main influencing factor.

The membership function extraction device 113 extracts customer preference inference bag M
After receiving the main influencing factors and customer preferences (for example, "sporty/small") from 111, the membership function file 114 is read and the corresponding plurality of membership functions (
For example, age rank 4 and sporty, occupation rank 3 and sporty, occupation rank and small size, age rank 4 and small size) are read out, and the membership function synthesizer 11
Send to 5. The membership function synthesis device 115 reads synthesis rules for a plurality of membership functions from the meta-rule file 116 and creates a synthesis membership function (for example, age rank 4, sporty and small, occupation rank 3, sporty and small). , and stored in the history file 117. At the same time, it outputs the composite membership function.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, ■ the customer:
Convert vaguely expressed preference contents into concrete preference objects.

■ It is possible to select products that have a high probability of meeting the customer's selection criteria.

■ Since customers can express their requests in their own words, it is possible to shorten the time for business negotiations (the time required to understand the customer's requests) and improve the efficiency of salespeople.

This becomes possible.

FIG. 9 shows one configuration example of the production base system 4500, which will be described below. 4510 is a production system, 4050
4300 is a production management system, and 4310 is a performance data collection system.

Stage tooth current status performance data file, 4320, product current status performance data file, 4330, planned current status performance data file, 4400, performance data accumulation system, 441
0 is an equipment history data file, 4420 is a product history data file, 4430 is a planning history data file, 4650 is a production plan change alternative plan creation device, 4600
is a production method simulator, 4610 is a production simulation result status display device, 4700 is a production change instruction creation support device, 4630 is an alternative plan file, 4640
is a production control file.

The production management system 4050 reads an order file 4100 that stores order information from the salesperson workstation 1000, makes a production plan, and sends it to the production system 45.
Manage and control 10.

Note that the production plan change alternative creation device 4650, the production method simulator 460o, and the production change instruction creation support device can be configured with individual or common microprocessors.

The performance data collection system 4300 is the production system 45
10 and the production management system 4050, equipment operation performance data, product current state performance data, and planned current state performance data are collected, and these are respectively stored as an equipment current state performance data file 4310, a product current state performance data file 4320, and a planned current state performance data file. 4330. The performance data collection system 4300 performs this data collection and storage processing at regular time intervals. Moreover, when storing, data is stored by rewriting previously stored data.

Therefore, the latest performance data is stored in the equipment current status performance data file 4310, the product current status performance data file 4320, and the planned current status performance data file 4330.

The performance data accumulation system 4400, the performance data collection system 4400, the performance data collection system 4300, the equipment current status performance data file 4310, the product current status performance data file 4320, the planned current status performance data file 4
330, these files are read and the data in the equipment current status performance data file 4310 is stored in the equipment history data file 431o, and the data in the product status performance data file 432o is stored in the product history data file 4320. , Planned current status actual data file 43
30 data is copied to the plan history data file 4330. Equipment a history data file 4310, product history data file 4320, planning history data file 433
All files 0 are time-series files, and actual data is accumulated in chronological order.

The production plan change alternative creation device 4650 receives the signal from the order management system 4000 and creates the order file 410.
0 and the production management file 4640, create a change plan for the current equipment and its operating conditions for the made-to-order product, and store it in the alternative plan file 4630.

The production method simulator 4600 uses the alternative plan file 46
The production plan alternatives are read out one by one from 3o, and at the same time, history information is read out from each of the equipment history data file 4310, product history data file 4320, and planning history data file 4330, and the given change alternative calculation (production engineer Production equipment 4 when adopting the determined equipment conditions)
500 situations (how parts, work-in-progress, and products flow within the factory) are simulated, and the results are displayed as moving images on the production status display device 4610. The production engineer watches this video and, if it is contrary to his/her intention, sets another condition and inputs the change plan from the controller into the production plan change alternative plan creation device 4650 again to perform a simulation, thereby making it appropriate. The user selects suitable change alternatives and conditions and inputs them into the production change instruction creation support device 4700. The production change instruction creation support device 4700 includes a production management system 4050,
and instructs generation system 4510 to immediately reflect the changes.

In the above embodiment, "the performance data accumulation system 4400 includes the performance data collection system 430o, the equipment current state performance data file 4310, the product current state performance data file 43"
20. In synchronization with storing data in the planned actual status data file 4330, read these files and transfer the data of the equipment status actual status data file 4310 to the equipment history data file 431o and the data of the product status actual status data file 4320. Product history data file 4320
However, the actual data collection system 4 is configured to copy the data in the plan current status data file 433o to the plan history data file 4330 without synchronization.
The performance data storage system 440 stores data at regular intervals, selecting an appropriate time period between them.
0 is the equipment current status performance data file 4310, the product current status performance data file 4320. It is also possible to configure the system to read the planned actual status data file 4330. In the above example, "Achievement data accumulation system 4400 stores equipment current status performance data file 4310, product current status performance data file 4320, planned current status performance data file 433,
After reading ゜, the data from the equipment current status performance data file is transferred to the installation history data file 431o, and the data from the product current status performance data file 4320 is transferred to the product history data file 4.
32o, the data of the planned current status actual data file 4330 is copied in chronological order to the planned history data file 4330, but the equipment history data file 431
0, product history data file 4320. It is also possible to configure each of the plan history data files 4330 to have a database management system dedicated to time series, so that the time series data is handled by this database management system.

According to this embodiment, (1) a production engineer can evaluate a new production method based on actual data without making a prototype, so that it is possible to respond to frequent changes in production methods such as made-to-order production.

FIG. 7 shows another configuration example of the customer preference input device 100. 101 is an image input device, 102 is an audio input device, 1
03 is an image cutout identification device, 104 is a basic image file, 1o5 is an image identification rule file, and 106 is a correction input device.

108 is an image correction device; 109 is an image correction rule;
1111 is a customer data file, 1112 is a customer preference identification device, 1113 is a product basic pattern file,
602 is a term judgment rule base, 603 is a voice input recognition device, 604 is a customer preference determination device, and 605 is a synthesis rule file.

The customer inputs his or her preferences using the image input device 101 or the voice input device 102. For example, image input bag layer 10
From step 1, the user inputs a picture he or she has drawn, or inputs words that are used on a daily basis such as "cool" and "smart" from the voice input device 102.

The image cutting/identification device 103 uses the one-image identification rule file 105 to identify the input image,
Furthermore, the degree of approximation to the basic image is determined using the basic image file 104, and this is sent to the customer preference determination device 604. The speech recognition device 603 also recognizes the meaning of the input word and sends it to the customer preference identification device 1112.

The customer preference identification device 1112 uses the customer data file 11
The customer information (age, annual income, occupation, etc.) is read out from 11, and the input words and customer data are applied to the rules in the term judgment rule base 602 to determine the true meaning of the customer's words. For example, even with the same word "cool", IF (customer age = 40s) and (r cool)
) [Registered trademark] Then (Silvia's external shape) IF (customer age = 20s) and (r cool)
) [Registered Trademark] - Then (External shape of Fairey Eye), different characteristics are extracted.

The customer preference determining device 604 matches the image features and the audio features sent from the customer preference identifying device 1112 using the synthesis rule file 605 and outputs the result.

The synthesis rule file 605 specifies which of the rules that suggest a specific product group based on the product shape based on the customer's image input and the product characteristics based on the voice input, and which is to be prioritized if they are different based on the customer's image input. It consists of rules. For example, IF (customer age = 40s) and (image feature = degree of approximation to Silvia external shape 5,
The degree of approximation to the shape of Sunnybe is 3) The degree of approximation to the shape of the sunny trunk is 3) Then (Applicable product = External shape of Silvia GLH and ToC registered trademark) Rank, interior of Cima) rF (JB customer age = 40 ) and (Image feature = Sylvia's external shape) and (Voice input feature = Sunny's external shape) Then
(Applicable product = product with the external shape of Silvia) When the customer is dissatisfied with the presented shape, the correction input device 106 allows the customer to trace the desired shape on the screen displaying the shape, and this information is imported. The constructed 0-image correction device 108 reads the image correction rule file 109 for the traced shape, learns the correction method, and performs correction processing.

In the above embodiment, the configuration was such that the customer inputs his or her own preferences, but the system can also ask the customer multiple words such as "cool, cute" and have the customer answer. It can also be configured to understand.

FIG. 8 shows still another configuration example of the customer preference input device 100, 7o1 is a selection input device, 1111 is a customer data file, 705 is a synthesis rule file, 703 is a synthesis pattern creation device, 702 is, Customer preference correction rule file.

706 is a display device, 708 is a modification selection file, 7
04 is a customer preference utility function file, 709 is a modification device, and 710 is a recognition device.

The composite pattern creation device 703 creates the customer data file 1
111, read the age-specific and car-specific preference utility functions corresponding to the customer from the customer preference utility function file 704 according to the customer characteristics, synthesize these multiple preference utility functions, and generate the result. Basic image file based on 1
04 are geometrically synthesized to determine the optimally preferred shape and function, and this is displayed on the display device 706.

Next, when the customer is not satisfied with the presented product shape, when the customer inputs a correction signal through the selection input device 701, the recognition device 710 inputs the word previously input by the customer and the corresponding word into the selection input device 701. Present correction terms and wait for the customer to make corrections.

When the customer selects a correction term from the selection input device 701,
The recognition device 710 sends this to the modification device 709. The modification device 709 reads the customer preference correction rule file 702, modifies the customer preference function used for synthesis, and sends a signal to the composite pattern creation device 703. Synthetic pattern creation device!
Step 703 synthesizes a new product image using the modified customer preference utility function.

The basic image file 104 has selection utility functions classified by customer characteristics and customer preferences for each term. According to this, the product shape is determined.

When making corrections, the customer first inputs ``sporty'' and ``luxurious,'' but it is possible to input selections such as ``more'' or ``another expression''. When an additional expression such as "more" is made, the modification device 709 translates the selection utility function related to the relevant characteristic by a certain amount in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 9, for example.

As explained above, according to the present invention, ■ the salesperson can:
Since candidate images can be obtained without asking the customer's requests in advance, it is possible to proceed with business negotiations using this as a basis for negotiation. It becomes possible to formulate sales strategies based on customer attitudes, etc. ■ It is possible to shorten the time required for sales and conduct effective sales.

There is an effect.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to design and sell custom-made products desired by customers in a short time.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a system of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the image information understanding device, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a production base system 4.
7 is a diagram illustrating another configuration example of the yH customer preference input device 100, and FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating still another configuration example of the customer preference input device 100. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the customer preference utility function file 704. Explanation of code 1000...Salesperson workstation 200
0...Image database 300o...Issuing/receiving system 4500...Production base system 4000...Order management system 4100...Order file 5000...Communication line 100...Customer preference input device 120...・Product structure data base 140...Product design support device 150...Change specification determination device 160...Product image database 170...Revision guidance base 180...Image input device 200...Image information understanding Device 220... Image understanding rule base 40... Image understanding degree basic base 260... Image synthesis device 280... Composite image display device 300... Product design rule base 320... Order product specification database 340...
Ambiguous expression rule base 500... Controller 520... Selection input device 3000... New product planning base 3100... New product planning system 32oO... New product image base 3300... New product design system 111. ...Customer preference inference device 112...Customer preference inference rule file 113...
Membership function extraction device 114...Membership function file 115...Membership function synthesis device 11
6...Metal rule file 117...History file 118...Customer file 4050...Production management system 4300...Actual data collection system 4320...
Product current status performance data file 433o... Planned current status performance data file 4400... Performance data accumulation system 441o... Equipment history data file 4420...
・Product history data file 443o...Planning history data file 4500...Production equipment 4510...Production system system 4650...Production plan change alternative plan creation device 4600・
... Production method simulator 4610 ... Production simulator result status display device 47
00...Production change instruction creation support device 4630...Alternative plan file 4640...Production management file 101...Image input device 102...Audio input device 103...Image cutting/identification device 104... - Basic image file 105... Image identification rule file 106... Battle input device 108... Image correction device 109... Image correction rule 1111... Customer data file 1112... Customer preference identification device 1113 ...Product basic pattern file 602...
Term judgment rule base 603...Voice input recognition device 604...Customer preference determination device 605...Synthesis rule file 701...Selection input device 603...Speech recognition device 705...Synthesis rule file 703... ...Synthetic pattern creation device 702...Customer preference correction rule file 706...
Display device 709...Modification device 708...Image modification device 704...Customer preference utility function file 710...Recognition device Mayu District Fig. 4 71), F "

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An input means for inputting a request regarding a product in a non-quantitative expression, and based on information from the input means, a product and its basic structure that meet the request are selected, and a corresponding product is selected. A CAD system comprising: a design support means for extracting a product image from a product image database; and a display means for displaying the extracted product image. 2. The CAD system according to claim 1, wherein said input means has customer preferences in the form of a membership function based on fuzzy theory, and the input regarding customer preferences is determined based on this membership function. 3. The CAD system according to claim 1, wherein the input means infers customer preferences and characteristic data of the customer from input contents of the customer. 4. The CAD system according to claim 2, wherein the input means modifies the form of the membership function related to customer preferences using the input related to customer preferences. 5. The CAD system according to claim 1, wherein the input means inputs customer preferences in parallel using a plurality of input means, and infers a product shape suggested by the plurality of inputs. 6. The CAD system according to claim 1, further comprising image information understanding means for constructing a model of the customer's usage environment or the customer's figure inputted from the input means. 7. In the above-mentioned image information understanding means, the customer's usage environment inputted, or the angle of the customer's figure, the rule for estimating the actual size and the customer's usage environment, or the customer's usage environment inputted from the basic size of the customer's figure. Alternatively, the CA according to claim 6 constitutes a model of the customer's appearance.
D system. 8. A production method characterized by simulating the production situation with changed production conditions based on production performance data and determining the production conditions. 9. The performance data production method according to claim 8, wherein the production performance data is stored separately into latest performance data and historical data. 10. The production method according to claim 8, wherein the production process performance data is stored in three categories: equipment operation performance, product performance, and planned performance. 11. A product image database that stores the exterior and interior of products in the form of images/images, an image input device that inputs the customer's usage environment or the appearance of the customer, etc. in the form of images or images, and product images and usage. By synthesizing the environment or customer image,
C, characterized by comprising an image synthesis device that creates an image of the customer using the product, and a composite image display device that displays the image of the customer using the product synthesized by the image synthesis device.
AD system. 12. A product structure database that stores the basic structure data of products, and when a customer designs a product based on external specifications or usability, determines new specifications for partial modifications, and provides advice on parts that cannot be modified. CA according to claim 14, further comprising a product design support device that outputs
D system. 13. The CAD system according to claim 1, wherein the input means infers customer preferences from customer characteristic data and customer input contents, and at the same time adds a sales strategy to determine the corresponding product group.