TW494332B - Product substitution search method - Google Patents

Abstract

A system and method for responding to user requests for a product provides a selection of alternate products that are similar to the requested product. Available products each have a plurality of attributes, which are compared to corresponding attributes of the requested product. Available products having attributes which are similar to those of the requested product are ranked in order of a similarity measure, and presented to the user.

Description

494332 V. Description of the invention (1) Technical scope of the invention The invention is generally related to the scope of the supply chain, the enterprise and the location planning. More specifically, the invention is related to a partner k that cooperates with a multiple enterprise. The system and procedures for product substitutes. Background of the invention

Supply chain, corporate, and floor planning applications and environments have been widely used by the manufacturing industry to support decision-making and assist in managing complex manufacturing operations. Compared to the traditional planning software application that provides a single application architecture, the product can now support various fields, decentralized, and different nature planning environments, and has become a feature of today's supply chain. One such product is the RHYTHM COLLABORATION package software. Development of the company. The fundamental characteristics of this product and the RHYTHM COLLABORATION software package in various fields and different natures lies in its support for the product's transition to various fields. The product is provided by the cooperating seller's field, and is reduced by the buyer. It is uncommon to restrict and fail to meet the buyer ’s needs. This (in general) will result in the loss of sales to the buyer ’s field ^ and customer contemplation, and when the Phi side ’s field is unable to meet the bean's household in a timely manner ' Will further harm the supply chain of various enterprises. The solution to the confrontation problem is to provide a series of capabilities in the buyer's field.

Different alternatives to the original products will also extend the decision support area of various companies in the application chain. Support for decision-making software: Erqi ^ In the decision-making process, it is necessary to cover areas that are more than a. Two: = The larger the t-field, the better the decision-making can be achieved. The cost lies in development-systems and procedures. Corporate cooperation

$ 4 pages

These products are provided to replace their similar products. Wall J Abstract _ u road v ”y y However, in the stop, the poor rg circulate, the products are replaced by similar products. Xi Yibei η < Ten τ Consumers this": System and procedures' It will Enhance consumption: those who are full of thought, meet the demand of Xiao Jin, and make cross-optimization decisions. Recording room lt Dare to RH YTHM COLLABORAT I ON 奈 梦 ▲ σ ^ You can use π 最佳 目 古 袪 a to produce the best product from a computer application module in the mouth. This procedure is-two-stage person is the first In one phase, a graphical user interface is used for self-use. Product requirements, which include details of the original product requested by the user and the similarity required, and seek the two methods to replace the original product to meet the user's needs. The products are ranked with each of them in the-search step with the original sequence 3. The algorithm will execute a detailed one; = :: The identified product has a specific feature with more detailed attributes ^ ^ and the result of a product algorithm will be related to the original product The overall cable value is the value of 'the alternative products and then combined ::: generation of product generation-ranking' last-graphical user interface meeting; the index value of the product generation. τ The user shows a series of alternatives to the fact that a product usually exists and lacks an expert system (it is a substitute for 品 口, and the user must rely on what is described in the invention), , The second test will be a suitable alternative

Page 5 Fifth, the description of the invention (3) The product collection was screened to be able to put Λ. ^ ^ And the number of T s, and the probability of the best substitute being deleted by the program e + > ^ N of. The system and program of the present invention can organize the program to objectively select the best suitable product for a product. Another technical advantage of the present invention is that the necessity of the user to understand the steps is omitted, and qa and use =: to list details through a menu operation to perform search and sort operations. &# 4 + The technical advantages will be immediately understood by those skilled in the art with the following illustrations, descriptions, and applications. Schematic diagram; ^ £ A more complete understanding of the invention of _ and its advantages can be obtained by referring to the attached description, where the same reference values are substituted, and where: is the procedure for identifying alternative products The schematic diagram is a diagram to prove the calculation of the similarity index value of the attribute. The important purpose of the mouth is to identify two products with a moderate supply that are similar to candidate products that do not have a moderate supply & the order of rights will be applied to the system to make it efficient and consistent: the stage will be based on The product attributes required for the selected product are quickly graded; ί: substitute products used ☆ ', and the second stage only evaluates the identified substitute products, and based on the detailed product attribute classification, according to which L users can review only a few The most relevant ΐϊ 对 Demand for Hou products by increasing the estimated amount of one or more alternative products. This subjective provides a detailed description of the alternative production method, the patent scope, the following companion tables, and the same thing: and the alternative production 0 is a coincidence. Geographical identification has been replaced in the analysis

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& 'Explanation of the Invention (4) Referring to FIG. 1, a user inputs requirements through a certain type of user interface 10 known in the art, and the detail of the interface 10 is not important to the present invention. , And many different kinds of interfaces are available. ~ The search engine 12 will operate to identify similar products, and occasionally use the detailed product information of the database worker 4. The operation of the search engine 12 will be described in detail below. The search ^ engine 12 generates an output 16, which includes the previous 16 A similar part of a set of standards, this output has not yet been displayed to the user.

The ranking engine 18 receives output 16 from the search engine 12 as input, and sorts a series of similar parts according to the order in which the user is most acceptable. The detailed procedure is also described below. Once the priority order has been determined, the sequence that is sorted will be revealed to the user through the user interface 20. In many cases, the interfaces 10 and 20 will actually be the same interface, regardless of whether they are Figure 1 is divided for clarity. The user will be shown a wide range of product characteristics that are specific to the production environment being processed. The verification of this method here is to apply it to the computer industry. For computers, a wide range of product features can include processing speed, multimedia support, data storage, etc. Through a graphical interface, the user enters the characteristics of the requirements based on a detailed search and the similarity input for each product feature Search intent.

Each product characteristic is divided into basic elements called attributes. For example, the processing speed can be divided into internal processing frequency speed, bus speed, random access memory (RAM) of the central processing unit (cpu). ) Types and sizes. Considering products p i and p j, X represents a set of all attributes that a product may have, for example, a computer may have a set of the following attributes:

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x = {processing speed, memory size, hard disk size, display, CD-ROM, operating system}, the attributes of the two types should be explained: a. continuous numerical attributes: the values of such attributes have a decisive similarity to each other And the size of the attribute similarity index value represents the degree of similarity. Such examples may include processor speed, random access memory size, and hard disk size. b. Binary value attribute: The value of this attribute is single, and there is no consistent similarity between them can be identified. Such examples can include different / type operating systems.

In order to integrate one component in X, V (XmPj ·) is the attribute of the product] ·. When trying to evaluate whether a product can be a substitute for another product, the value of each attribute of the candidate substitute product will be Compare with the corresponding value of the original product ~, based on a special attribute used to calculate the phase of a substitute product to the original product = degree is called the attribute similarity index value, assuming a user is trying to decide = No production πσ P j is a substitute product of pi, and the product is being compared according to the attribute X claw, then the attribute similarity index value is expressed as s 丨 ij (Xm). First, the reference (1) represents the original product. Pi, and the second index (j) represents the replacement port. P j, and the similarity index value for a particular attribute is given by

It is used to calculate the similarity of the original product with the alternative product. If the product is imported, it is called the product similarity index value. Assume that a user 3 decides whether to replace the product with PUPl. , The product similarity index value is expressed as SI 1 j ', the first index (i) represents the original product Pi, and the second index

Page 8 494332 V. Description of the invention (6) Bow I (j) represents the substitute product P j. The similarity index value of the product is the weighted sum of the attribute similarity index values. Each attribute will be given a weight. The value is entered by the user through a graphical interface. Algorithm 1 · For each continuous numerical attribute in the set X, the maximum and minimum values in all products will be determined. 2. Consider a single product P j. Calculate the product similarity index S I i j for all other products of P j, j 妾 i. The calculation steps are as follows: a. Consider products Pj other than Pi. b. For each attribute in the set X, calculate the attribute similarity index value Sli j (Xm). c. Calculate the similarity index value SI i j of the product. d. Compare SI ij with a user ’s threshold for defining the product similarity index value SI i, min. For any product related to the original product, SI i, mi η ° e. Only in the product similarity index When the value exceeds SI i, mi η, P j is accepted as a substitute product. 3. The series generated in stage 2 will be arranged in descending order of the product similarity index value. If the product similarity index value is the same, the product will be indexed by the attribute similarity according to the attribute with the highest weight. Values are sorted. If this method also produces the same index value problem, the attribute with the second highest weight value will be referenced, and so on, and the final product sorting sequence for the product P i will be represented by Pi, subs. . 4. Generate this list for all products.

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V. Description of the invention (7) Calculation of similarity index value A The attribute phase with numerical numerical attributes is to be considered in consideration of the following situation. The user wants product P to have product P0 with -attribute XA and its value is V (XaP〇) = A, the total value of the substitute product does not have r Μ α machine y Shi α, Shi Lishan A 〇Λ〇 The maximum and minimum attribute values of the attribute XA have been generated, and are respectively ν. —Α 客 αρ «吝 口 Ρτ , Shitu maxQXA) = Amax and Vmin (XA) —Amin, production. 〇PQ and production a〇PR are being tested whether 1 is a product substitute, the value of the property \ of the product PR is v (xapq) = Aq, and the system will replace the attribute value AQ of the replacement product and the original product Z ' ; Generate value, compare, if AQ is less than AQ, the attribute of the product and attribute \

The similarity index value SI0Q (XA) will be calculated as follows: s I〇Q (XA) = (X2-A2min) / (A02-A2min) If Aq is greater than AQ, the attribute similarity index value for the product PQ and attribute XA SI0 (3 (XA) will be calculated as follows: SI〇Q (XA) = (x2-A2max) / (VA \ ax) If Aq specializes in AQ 'product PQ and attribute XA, the attribute similarity index value SI0Q (XA ) Equals 1.

The example in FIG. 2 is a graph of the attribute similarity index value of the "processor". In the figure, the product attribute similarity index value is A of 1. Is 233 megahertz, Amax is 400 megahertz, and Amin is 1 33 megahertz, then the following equation holds: SI0Q (XPr〇cessor) = (x2 — 1 3 32) / (2 3 32 — 1 3 32 ) When 1 33 Sx < 233 SI〇Q (Xp rocessor) = 1 When x = 233

Page 10 494332 V. Description of the invention (8) SI〇〇 (Xprocessor) = (x2 -40 02) / (23 32-40 02) when 23 3 < x $ 400 binary_attribute similarity index value if The attribute value of a substitute product is not the same as the attribute value of the original product, the attribute similarity index value of the substitute product is 0. If the attribute value of the substitute product is equal to the attribute value of the original product, the attribute similarity is The index value is 1. Product similarity index value Product similarity index value of product PQ is calculated as follows:

S I〇q {S Iqq (Xpr〇cess〇r) X Wpr〇cess〇r} + {S I〇q (XMem〇ry >) X WMemory}

+ {S I0Q (XHD) X WHD} + {S I0Q (XCDR0M) x wCDR0M} + {S I0Q (XMonitor) X

Wwonitor} + {SI〇Q (X〇s) XW〇s} The sum of the above ownership values is equal to 1, that is, Σ i W i = 1 The list of substitute products for each original product will be reduced, only including enough Replacement products of supply. The supply information can be obtained from an existing advanced planning engine like 'the required number of top-ranked alternative products in the series and the user will be displayed. Extension of this method

A. One of the important characteristics of this method is its extensibility. The scope of the invention can be extended to include the use of a wider range of analysis procedures to determine the weight of alternative product choices, and to show users a wide range of product characteristics rather than details. , And the need for all generations in the first stage of the above method can be omitted. Fine product belongs to product calculation. Although the present invention has been described in detail, we should understand that

Page 11 494332 V. Description of the invention (9) Variations and alternatives can be used without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, as in the scope of the attached patent application. Page 12 494332

O: \ 64 \ 64799.ptd Page 13

Claims (1)

494332 _Case No. 89119922? / April / April, Amendment VI. The scope of patent application requires the production of substitute products. 1. A system similar to that provided to a user, comprising: a first user interface for receiving demand, such products have product attributes; a search process for selecting products having the same attributes as the requested product A set of candidate alternative products with similar attributes; a sorting procedure that sorts candidate alternative products according to a decreasing order of similarity with the requested product; and a second user interface displays the candidate products to the user. 2. The system according to item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein the first and second user interfaces can be combined into a single interface function. 3. If the system of item 1 of the patent application scope further comprises: a database connected to the search process, the database contains information identifying available products, the availability of such products, and the attributes of such products. 4. The system of claim 3, wherein when the user selects an alternative product, the second user interface updates the availability information of the selected alternative product. 5. — A method for providing a user with a substitute product similar to a requested product, including the following steps: receiving a demand for a requested product from the user; selecting a user with similar attributes to the requested product A set of replacement products; sorting replacement products according to how similar they are to the required product; and displaying a list of replacement products to the user. O: \ 64 \ 64799-910404.ptc Page 14 494332 Amendment_Case No. 89119922 6. Application for Patent Scope 6. For the method of applying for the scope of the patent No. 5 item, the H-p step includes the following steps: '; | Decide one of the required product attribute assemblies ^ .... .. »— —.” Calculate the evaluation of the similarity of the attributes of other products except the required product; calculate the similarity of the products of the other products 'Make it a function of attribute similarity; and select other products with product similarity greater than a selected threshold into a set of alternative products. O: \ 64 \ 64799-910404.ptc Page 15