Remote order acceptance design system and elevator remote order acceptance method

• US 7,359,840 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2007
• Issued: 04/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Oka, Masahiro, Morita, Akihiko, Akasaka, Shingo, Ishida, Atsuhiro, Suzuki, Hideaki, Taniguchi, Shinichi
• Primary Examiner(s): ELAMIN, ABDELMONIEM I
• Application Number:
  US11/812,692
• Publication Number:
  US 20070250199A1
• Time in Patent Office: 299 Days
• Field of Search: 703/1, 705/10, 700/97, 700/121
• US Class Current: 703/1
• CPC Class Codes: B66B 19/00 Mining-hoist operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/02 CAD in a network environment, e.g. collaborative CAD or distributed simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/04 Constraint-based CAD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/13 Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A specification plan of an order-made product suitable for a building structure plan is generated promptly. A WWW server 11 and a database server 12 are provided to the equipment designer'"'"'s side. The database server 12 has a drawing database 9 that registers a CAD symbol for each product. A CAD symbol for each product includes: effective space information, which expresses a space to be secured for installation of the product; product name information expressing a name of the product; structure information expressing structural features (size, shape, etc.); product specification information; option data; etc. On the other hand, WWW server 11 has a symbol generation data interface 3, through which requirements specification data for an order-made product can be received from a WWW client terminal 2, and a CAD symbol of the order-made product can be taken out from the side of the WWW client terminal.

Claims

1. A remote order acceptance design method which provides basic specification information of a product to a customer'"'"'s terminal from a computer of a manufacturer of the product via a network, and gradually completes a design of the product according to a specification request from the customer'"'"'s terminal, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the manufacturer'"'"'s computer, listed information with respect to basic specifications of manufacturer'"'"'s available products to the customer'"'"'s terminal according to a request from the customer who is thinking of installing the product to his or her design;

retrieving, by the manufacturer'"'"'s computer, in response to the customer'"'"'s designation of products selected out as a candidate for placing an order from the listed information with respect to the basic specifications, at least corresponding structure information and CAD symbol information including information about an occupying space necessary to secure so as to place the candidate product from a database, and transmitting, by the manufacturer'"'"'s computer, the retrieved CAD symbol to the customer'"'"'s terminal;

receiving, by the manufacturer'"'"'s computer, customer design data from the customer'"'"'s terminal, wherein the customer design data is generated by positioning the CAD symbol in the customer'"'"'s design still in progress and by installing the candidate product to the customer'"'"'s design;

determining, by the manufacturer'"'"'s computer, whether or not an interference exists within an installing area of the candidate product which the CAD symbol indicates, by extracting, from the received customer design data, structural features near the installing area of the customer'"'"'s design based on the position of the CAD symbol and the occupying space;

when it is determined that no interference exists within the installing area of the candidate product, obtaining, by the manufacturer'"'"'s computer, arrangement regulation information of an equipment included in the candidate product corresponding to the CAD symbol from the product specification database, and generating, by the manufacturer'"'"'s computer, a plan data for installing the candidate product to the customer'"'"'s design, based on the arrangement regulation information and the customer design data; and

transmitting the plan data for the candidate product to the customer'"'"'s terminal.

2. A remote order acceptance design method according to claim 1, further comprising:

when the manufacturer'"'"'s computer receives the designation of the candidate product from the customer'"'"'s terminal, but cannot retrieve the CAD symbol corresponding to the candidate product from the database, converting the basic specification information to a shape and size of each constituting member of the candidate product by predetermined rules, based on the received specification request, determining the occupying space necessary to place the candidate product based on the conversion results, and generating a CAD symbol for the candidate product based on the determined occupying space, the specification request, and the shape and size of each constituting member.

3. A remote order acceptance design method according to claim 1, further comprising:

when the manufacturer'"'"'s computer receives from a customer'"'"'s terminal a specification request input with respect to a design of an interior member of the candidate product via the network, generating a design plan corresponding to the specification request and returning the design plan to the customer'"'"'s terminal.

4. A remote order acceptance design method according to claim 1, wherein in at least one of the above steps, information including reception data and return data in the at least one of the above steps is stored under a control of the manufacturer'"'"'s computer, and identification information to utilize the stored information in a next step is returned along with the return data, so that when the manufacturer'"'"'s computer receives the identification information, the manufacturer'"'"'s computer uses the reception data and return data of the past which has been made corresponding to the identification information as the reception data of the next step.