Product incompatibility system

• US 7,188,333 B1
• Filed: 01/22/2002
• Issued: 03/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Rock, Joseph E., LaMotta, Charles M.
• Primary Examiner(s): STEELMAN, MARY J
• Application Number:
  US10/054,503
• Time in Patent Office: 1,869 Days
• Field of Search: 717/121
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A system and method are provided which may be used to determine part compatibility of a selected product configuration. First, a determination is made as to whether a new part is compatible with one or more existing parts of the product configuration. Thereafter, a determination is made as to whether a replacement part exists for one of the existing incompatible part or the new part.

Claims

1. A method in a computing environment for configuring a product by determining compatibility of parts in a selected product configuration, the method comprising configuring the product by:

receiving a selection of a new part;

determining whether said new part is compatible with one or more existing parts of the product configuration; and

if said selected new part is not compatible with one or more existing parts, a compatible replacement determination for a compatible product configuration selection to be made as follows;

if said new part is incompatible with a base part, deselect said new part, and select a compatible replacement for said new part;

if said new part is incompatible with an existing selected accessory part, and an alternate accessory part is not available, deselect said new part and select a compatible replacement for said new part;

else if said selected new part is incompatible with an existing selected accessory part, and an alternate accessory part is available, deselect said existing accessory part, select said alternate accessory part, and maintain the selection of said new part; and

displaying valid product configuration, comprising said compatible product configuration selections.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining whether said new part is compatible with the product configuration.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising consulting a product table to determine whether said new part is compatible with the product configuration.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising consulting a part incompatibility table to determine whether said new part is incompatible with one or more existing parts.

5. A computer system having a processor, a memory and an operating environment, the computer system operable to perform the steps recited in claim 1.

6. A computer system capable of configuring a product by determining the compatibility of parts in a product configuration, the computer system comprising a computer storage medium having a plurality of computer software components embodied thereon, the computer software components comprising:

a compatibility component which determines whether a selected part is compatible with existing parts of the configuration;

a replacement component which determines a replacement part for one of an existing incompatible part and said selected part if a determination of incompatibility is made,

wherein a replacement part for said selected part is determined as follows;

if said selected new part is not compatible with one or more existing parts, a compatible replacement determination for a compatible product configuration selection to be made as follows;

if said new part is incompatible with a base part, deselect said new part, and select a compatible replacement for said new part;

if said new part is incompatible with an existing selected accessory part, and an alternate accessory part is not available, deselect said new part and select a compatible replacement for said new part;

else if said selected new part is incompatible with an existing selected accessory part, and an alternate accessory part is available, deselect said existing accessory part, select said alternate accessory part, and maintain the selection of said new part; and

a product configuration component which configures said product, using compatible product configuration selections, and displays a valid product configuration.

7. The computer system as recited in claim 6, wherein the computer software components further comprise a part determination component which determines whether a selected part is compatible with the product configuration.

8. The computer system as recited in claim 6, wherein said compatibility component includes a part incompatibility table which indicates which parts are incompatible with one another.

9. The computer system as recited in claim 7, wherein said part determination component includes a product table for determining whether said selected part is one that can be added to said existing parts.

10. A computer storage medium containing a data structure for storing part incompatibility information, wherein the data structure comprises:

a plurality of records in a table, each record including at least two product identification values, said values representing that said products represented by said identification values are incompatible, and

an indication as to product identification values which are suitable replacements for at least one of said product identification values entered in said record;

said data structure to be used for suitable replacement determination as follows;

if said selected new part is not compatible with one or more existing parts, compatible replacement determination made as follows;

if said new part is incompatible with a base part, deselect said new part, and select a compatible replacement for said new part;

if said new part is incompatible with an existing selected accessory part, and an alternate accessory part is not available, deselect said new part and select a compatible replacement for said new part;

else if said selected new part is incompatible with an existing selected accessory part, and an alternate accessory part is available, deselect said existing accessory part, select said alternate accessory part, and maintain the selection of said new part; and

said data structure to be used in the determination of a valid product configuration for display.

11. A computer storage medium containing computer-useable instructions embodied thereon, the computer-useable instructions for causing a computing, device to perform a method for configuring a product by determining compatibility of parts in a selected product configuration, wherein the method comprises configuring a product by:

receiving a selection of a new part;

determining whether said new part is compatible with one or more existing parts of the product configuration; and

if said new part is not compatible with one or more existing parts, a compatible replacement determination for a compatible product configuration selection to be made as follows;

if said selected new part is not compatible with one or more existing parts, a compatible replacement determination for a compatible product configuration selection to be made as follows;

if said new part is incompatible with a base part, deselect said new part, and select a compatible replacement for said new part;

if said new part is incompatible with an existing selected accessory part, and an alternate accessory part is not available, deselect said new part and select a compatible replacement for said new part;

else if said selected new part is incompatible with an existing selected accessory part, and an alternate accessory part is available, deselect said existing accessory part, select said alternate accessory part, and maintain the selection of said new part; and

displaying valid product configuration, comprising said compatible product configuration selections.

12. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the method further comprises determining whether said new part is compatible with the product configuration.

13. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 12, wherein the method further comprises consulting a product table to determine whether said new part is compatible with the product configuration.

14. The computer storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the method further comprises consulting a part incompatibility table to determine whether said new part is incompatible with one or more existing parts.