(1) Field of the Invention
The present information relates to system products such as information technology (IT) items, each combining multiple product items including hardware such as personal computers and software, for supporting documentation of environmental information, and more particularly for supporting documentation of information on environmental loads imposed by system products in their respective life cycles.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Environmental issues, of which citizens' awareness is heightening every year, are now challenging whole human society. In particular, as exemplified by the Kyoto Protocol and the EU's Energy using Products (EuP) among others calling for cutbacks on carbon dioxide emissions, which are presumably the cause of global warming, there is a worldwide urge for restraints on the generation of loads that adversely affect the environment.
Against this background, development of technology is undertaken for environmental load reductions at every stage of the life cycle of products from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing and eventually discarding, even from the design stage for electrical household appliances and some other product categories, by such evaluation techniques as life cycle assessment, which covers all the load factors affecting the environment.
Furthermore, along with the expanding use of the Internet, the impact of system products on the consumption of energy and other physical resources came to be questioned and, to quantitatively assess the impact, life assessment techniques applicable to such products are now under development.
The life cycle assessment referred to above requires preparation of basic unit data for modeling environmental load evaluation items at each stage of the life cycle and converting these items into environmental loads. However, system products including IT products above all are made by combining multiple products including both hardware and software, and each product has complex and many life cycle stages. This entails the problem that a long time is taken to architect a model and prepare data for each product item.
To address this problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-94565 offers a technology that facilitates modeling and data preparation of an information communicating network for system products. However, this technology is intended for facilities and equipment for information communicating networks and, though its diversification to cover hardware of system products is possible, its adaptation to the whole life cycle is difficult, one of the most significant difficulties being the development of software designs.
The present invention, attempted in view of these problems, is intended to provide an apparatus and a method for documenting environmental information to facilitate environmental load evaluation over the whole life cycles of system products and to reduce the length of time required for evaluation.
To address the problem noted above, the invention provides an environmental information documenting apparatus including: a storage unit that stores an evaluative information table, a transport information table, a product compositional information table, and an environmental load factor table, in each of which the cost and the scale of use of system products, each being a combination of plurality of hardware and/or software products, at different stages the life cycle thereof is assigned IDs sorted by product class, a shipping work information table in each record corresponds to one of the IDs, and a constituent elements information table, an evaluative information management table and a product evaluation result table; a control unit; and an input unit and an output unit that constitute user interfaces and performs communication with an external system.
The control unit includes:
The control unit further has a section that reads out of the evaluative information table a record of the same field of product as the extracted record, computes a line form in which, out of dotted sequences plotted according to a coordinate system of (the scales of use and the stage-by-stage costs in the life cycle), only those satisfying a proportional relationship are left, computes the stage-by-stage cost of the life cycle according to the scales of use, and corrects the pertinent stage-by-stage cost of the life cycle.
The control unit has, in place of the section that displays a graph of the environmental load or the cost, a section that outputs an evaluation object selection table from the output unit, accepts on the screen inputting by the user of the evaluation object file name, the reference product and the object product, manages the same as stored in the table, outputs a product comparative evaluation output table in accordance with designation of an evaluation object file name by the user, and comparatively displays a graph of the environmental load or the cost of each of the reference product and the object product at each stage of the life cycle of the same according to selective inputting of the environmental load or the cost by the user.
The invention enables the quantity of input information required for environmental load evaluation of system products. This can contribute to enhancing the efficiency of the work which requires quantification of the greenhouse effect gas emission under the Carbon Footprint System and the product Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) among others.
The present invention will become fully understood from the detailed description given hereinafter and the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
An IT product to be described as this embodiment is supposed, for the sake of simplicity of description, to comprise hardware including a personal computer (PC) and a server and software operating on the hardware for inventory management and other purposes, but the description will also hold true with other kinds of system products, such as an electric power control system, because they are also made up of hardware and software for controlling the hardware, such as a power plant.
The configuration of the environmental information documenting apparatus, which is this exemplary embodiment, will be described with reference to
The input unit 150 is supposed to have not only a keyboard, a mouse and the like for direct information inputting by the user of the environmental information documenting apparatus 100 but also, in some cases, the function of a communication unit that accepts various kinds of information from external systems via a network.
The output unit 160 is a display device or the like, which is supposed to have not only a function to display screens of user interface to the user of the apparatus but also a function of a communication unit to transmit various kinds of information to external systems via a network.
The storage unit 110 has a constituent elements information storage area 111, an environmental load-to-cost conversion information storage area 112, a business operator information storage area 113, a product compositional information storage area 114, an input information storage area 115, an evaluative information storage area 116, a temporary information storage area 117, an evaluation result storage area 118, a product field storage area 119 and a transport information storage area 120.
The constituent elements information storage area 111 stores constituent elements information which identify the environmental load, cost and attributes for computing the environmental load or the cost of each of the constituents making up a given system product.
The environmental load-to-cost conversion information storage area 112 stores environmental load-to-cost conversion information to specify conversion factors for computing environmental loads or costs from numerical values respectively corresponding to predetermined evaluation items.
The business operator information storage area 113 stores the pertinent business operator's sales of each work item and the environmental load level (the CO2 emission here).
The product compositional information storage area 114 stores information to specify the product items constituting the system product.
The input information storage area 115 stores information inputted to specify the evaluation items regarding the cost and environmental load at individual stages of a life cycle including the design and development, shipping, procurement, transport, installation, start-up, use, maintenance, collection and recycling of the system product, and the numerical values of the costs and environmental loads of the respective evaluation items.
The evaluative information storage area 116 stores information created by the environmental information documenting apparatus 100 to specify the evaluation items regarding the cost and environmental load at individual stages of a life cycle including the design and development, shipping, procurement, transport, installation, start-up, use, maintenance, collection and recycling of the system product, and the numerical values of the costs and environmental loads of the respective evaluation items.
The temporary information storage area 117 stores information whose inputting has been accepted by the control unit 130, to be described in more detail afterwards, and information computed by the control unit 130.
The evaluation result storage area 118 stores information related to the result of computation by the control unit 130 to be described in more detail afterwards.
The product field storage area 119 stores information for distinguishing the field to which the system product belongs.
The transport information storage area 120 stores information for defining the transport means.
The control unit 130 has a cost and scale input section 131, a stage information estimating section 132, a product constitutional information estimating section 133, a time of product use information estimating section 134, an environmental load computing section 135, an object of comparison input section 136, an environmental load reducing effect computing section 137 and an evaluation result output section 138.
The cost and scale input section 131 processes acceptance via the input unit 150 inputting of information to specify the system product, which is the object, and storing of the same into the temporary information storage area 117.
The stage information estimating section 132 performs processing to compute from information stored in the temporary information storage area 117 and information stored in the evaluative information storage area 116 the numerical values of the evaluation items regarding the cost and environmental load at each stage of the life cycle of the object product on the basis of the numerical values of the cost and environmental load at individual stages of the life cycle including the design and development, shipping, procurement, transport, installation, start-up, maintenance and collection of the system product, and to store these values into the temporary information storage area 117. Then, via the output unit 160, it performs processing to output values in the temporary information storage area 117, to accept correction of any of the values outputted via the input unit 150, to rewrite values in the temporary information storage area 117, and to store the rewritten values into the input information storage area 115. Further, this section performs processing to compute again the numerical values of the evaluation items regarding the cost and environmental load at each stage of the life cycle of the object product from the information accepted by the temporary information storage area 117 and the cost and scale input section 131 and stored into the temporary information storage area 117, and to store the re-computed values into the temporary information storage area 117 and the evaluative information storage area 116.
The product constitutional information estimating section 133 performs processing to extract from the product compositional information storage area 114 compositional information on the constituents making up the system product from the information accepted by the cost and scale input section 131 and stored into the temporary information storage area 117 and the information stored in the evaluative information storage area 116, to alter the extracted product constitutional information on the basis of the information stored in the temporary information storage area 117 and to store the altered information into the temporary information storage area 117. Then, this section performs processing to output via the output unit 160 numerical values in the temporary information storage area 117, to accept correction of any of the values outputted via the input unit 150, to rewrite values in the temporary information storage area 117, and to store the rewritten values into the input information storage area 115 and the evaluative information storage area 116.
The time of product use information estimating section 134 performs processing to compute the wattage consumed by the electricity-consuming constituents from the information stored in the temporary information storage area 117 and the information stored in the constituent elements information storage area 111 outputted by the product constitutional information estimating section 133. Then, this section performs processing to extract from the information accepted by the cost and scale input section 131 and stored into the temporary information storage area 117 the information stored in the evaluative information storage area 116 the numerical values of the evaluation items regarding the environmental load, to output via the output unit 160 the values in the temporary information storage area 117, to accept correction of any of the values outputted via the input unit 150, to rewrite values in the temporary information storage area 117, and to store the rewritten values into the input information storage area 115 and the evaluative information storage area 116.
The environmental load computing section 135 performs processing to compute the environmental load from the information stored in the evaluative information storage area 116 according to year-by-year information stored in the environmental load-to-cost conversion information storage area 112 and the business operator information storage area 113, and to store the computed load into the evaluation result storage area 118.
The object of comparison input section 136 performs processing to output via the output unit 160 the results of the environmental load computation and relevant ones out of the list of evaluation results stored in the evaluation result storage area 118, to accept via the input unit 150 at least one object product as the reference product for comparative evaluation, and to output information that distinguishes the selected product or products to the temporary information storage area 117.
The environmental load reducing effect computing section 137 performs processing to output from the evaluation result storage area 118 to the temporary information storage area 117 the result of evaluation of the product distinguishing information stored in the temporary information storage area 117. Then it performs processing to compute, by using information stored in the temporary information storage area 117, information on the differential environmental load level of each object product relative to the reference product, and to store the computed information into the temporary information storage area 117.
The evaluation result output section 138 displays via the output unit 160 differential information stored in the temporary information storage area 117 and the environmental loads and costs classified block by block of the life cycle in
The storage unit 110, the control unit 130, the input unit 150 and the output unit 160 described above may either be mounted wholly on a standalone apparatus or mounted in a decentralized manner on multiple apparatuses connected by Ethernet or otherwise and used for transmission and/or reception of information via a network as required.
It is also conceivable to implement the invention in a form in which the processing to be accomplished according to the invention to be described below is realized as a program to be executed by a computer and the program is stored in a computer-readable recording medium.
Next,
To add, information until storing into the evaluation result storage area 118 is held in the temporary information storage area 117 while being processed.
Operation of the environmental information documenting apparatus 100 in this mode of embodying the invention will be described below with reference to the steps of
First, processing of product information definition S301 will be described. Here, the processing corresponds to the actions of the cost and scale input section 131, the stage information estimating section 132, the product constitutional information estimating section 133 and the time of product use information estimating section 134 of
Incidentally,
At step S401, the cost and scale input section 131 presents to the user a user interface expressed in a screen shown in
To explain
Next, when the enter button 506 is pressed, the name of product to be evaluated 501, the number of years of product use 502, the field of product 503, the product cost 504 and the scale of use 505 are respectively stored into the boxes of the name of product to be evaluated 701, the number of years of product use 702, the field of product 703, the product cost 704 and the scale of use 714 into the input information storage of the temporary information storage area 117 shown in
Then, steps S402 through S404 are executed as processing by the stage information estimating section 132.
At step S402, by the processing from steps S801 through S809 charted in
Further, a record in which the reference ID 715 and the ID 1001 coincide is extracted from the shipping work information table in the evaluative information storage area 116 shown in
At step S403, information stored at the foregoing step into the input information storage, the shipping work information storage and the transport information storage in the temporary information storage area 117 is displayed via the output unit 160. It has to be noted, however, that inputting of display and corrections by the user is accepted according to the screens from
To recapitulate the description in the order of pertinent drawings, at the design and development stage shown in shown in
At the shipping stage shown in
At the procurement stage shown in
At the transport stage shown in
At the installation stage shown in
At the start-up stage shown in
At the maintenance stage shown in
At the collection stage shown in
At the recycling stage shown in
Then, to create a record for the evaluative information management table to be stored in the evaluation result storage area 118 shown in
Further, a record is documented, in which the ID 2401 is supposed to be the ID 2501, in the input information table in the input information storage area 115 shown in
Herein, the environmental load computation by the environmental information documenting apparatus 100 in this mode of embodying the invention includes, at the stage of design and development 201 in the product life cycle shown in
(Indicator for environmental load computation)=(Monetary value of sales of all products belonging to items of totalization)/(Environmental load quantity of items of totalization) [Equation 1]
Further, since some environmental load factors, such as the consumed wattage, increase with the scales of use of the respective system products, each of such environmental loads is proportional to the scale of use. Therefore, the scale of use and the cost at individual stages also are in a proportional relationship as represented by [1] in
Then at step S404, every stage cost stored until the previous step except the procurement cost 707 and the recycling cost 713 in the input information storage in the temporary information storage area 117 is corrected according to the scale of use 714. This processing is accomplished at steps S2701 through S2715 charted in
Next, processing at step S405 and step S406 charted in
At step S405, out of a record in which the reference ID 715 and the ID 901 coincide with each other in the input information storage in the temporary information storage area 117 stored at the steps up to the previous one in the evaluative information table in the evaluative information storage area 116 shown in
Then, a record in which the product constitution ID 914 and the ID 2801 coincide with each other is extracted out of the product compositional information table in the evaluative information storage area 116 shown in
Next, if the product class 2901 is a client in a record in the product compositional information storage in the temporary information storage area 117 shown in
At step S406, data in the product compositional information storage are displayed via the output unit 160 on the system product information screen of
After the enter button 3007 is pressed, the values of the product class 3002, the type number 3004 and the quantity 3005 are stored into the columns of the product class 2901, the type number 2902 and the quantity 2903, respectively. Then, in a record in the evaluative information management table shown in
Next, processing at step S407 and step S408 shown in
At step S407, a record in which the environmental load factor ID 915 extracted at step S405 coincides with the ID 3201 in the environmental load factor table in the evaluative information storage area 116 shown in
At step S408, the data in the environmental load factor storage referred to above are displayed via the output unit 160 on the time of product use environmental load factor screens shown in
To add, all of 3401, 3501 and 3601 representing the scale of use only represent the scale of use 714 in the input information storage in the temporary information storage area 117, but none accepts correction inputting.
Whereas the following description refers to record-by-record displaying and corrective inputting, as stored in the environmental load factor storage in the temporary information storage area 117 shown in
The scale of use coefficient 3402, 3502 and 3602 boxes display the scale of use coefficients 3302, 3304, 3307, 3309 and 3311 of the respectively pertinent records in this order. The number of man-hours worked 3403, 3503 and 3603 boxes display the number of man-hours worked 3303 in the pertinent record. The communicated data quantity 3404, 3504 and 3604 boxes display the communicated data quantity 3305 in the pertinent record. The shift 3405, 3505 and 3605 boxes display the shift 3308 in the pertinent record. The traffic means 3406, 3506 and 3606 boxes display the traffic means 3306 in the pertinent record as the initial value, and it is made possible to display and select as data of the pull-down menu the transport means 1801 of the transport means information table shown in
After the enter buttons 3409, 3509 and 3609 are pressed, one of the scale of use coefficients 3402, 3502 and 3602 is stored into the scale of use coefficient 3203, 3205, 3208, 3210 and 3212 boxes according to the object of use 3202 in the environmental load factor table in the evaluative information storage area 116 shown in
Next, records for the evaluative information table in the evaluative information storage area 116 shown in
Further from the shipping work information storage in the temporary information storage area 117 shown in
Similarly, from the transport information storage in the temporary information storage area 117 shown in
This completes the processing at step S301 in
Next, environmental load computation at step S302 in
First, the processing at step S3701 will be described. In the record in the evaluative information management table shown in
Here, the design and development is represented by E1, the procurement by E2, the recycling by E3 and the consumed wattage by E4 as variables regarding the environmental load. Variables regarding the cost are the procurement represented by C2, the recycling by C3 and the consumed wattage by C4. Every one of these variables is 0 in its initial value.
First, the constituent elements information is searched for a record in which the type number 2803 of the product constitutional information coincides with the type number 3102 in the constituent elements information shown in
Regarding the environmental load:
E1=E1+design and development load 3107×quantity 2804 [Equation 2]
E2=E2+manufacturing load 3106×quantity 2804 [Equation 3]
E3=E3+recycling load 3109×quantity 2804 [Equation 4]
The evaluation class that is the environment, the evaluation item that is the consumed wattage and the numerical value that is the consumed wattage 3104 are delivered to the environmental load computing section 135, and the result is represented by EE4:
E4=E4+EE4×quantity 2804 [Equation 5]
Regarding the cost:
C2=C2+product price 3105×quantity 2804 [Equation 6]
C3=C3+recycling cost 3108×quantity 2804 [Equation 7]
The evaluation class that is the cost, the evaluation item that is the consumed wattage and the numerical value that is the consumed wattage 3104 are delivered to the environmental load computing section 135, and the result is represented by CC4:
C4=C4+CC4×the quantity 2804 [Equation 8]
The foregoing calculations are repeated until there is no more of type number 2803 of the product constitutional information.
After completion, two records are created with the ID 2401 extracted in the previous processing being used as the ID 3801 in the product evaluation result table in the evaluation result storage area 118 shown in
To add, the product evaluation result table shown in
Next, life cycle documentation at step S3702 is processed. Here, the life cycle conditions of the temporary information storage area 117 shown in
First, in a record in the evaluative information management table shown in
To begin with, a record having design and development as the block 3901, cost as the evaluation class 3902, introduction cost as the evaluation item 3903, 999 as the division 3904 and input to the product cost 903 as the numerical value 3905, and another record having environment as the evaluation class 3902, design and development cost as the evaluation item 3903, 999 as the division 3904 and the design and development cost 904 as the numerical value 3905 are created.
Four records having shipping as the block 3901 are created. Herein, 999 is selected for the evaluation class. Where the evaluation item 3903 is CD, the numerical value 3905 is the number of CDs 1002; where the evaluation item 3903 is paper, the numerical value 3905 is the number of paper sheets 1003; and where the evaluation item 3903 is cardboard, the numerical value 3905 is the number of cardboard boxes 1004, and in every case, 0 is selected for the division 3904. Where the evaluation item 3903 is shipping work cost, the shipping cost 905 is selected for the numerical value 3905 and 999 for the division 3904. The four records are created on this basis.
One record having procurement as the block 3901 is created. Herein, cost is the evaluation class 3902, procurement cost is the evaluation item 3903, 999 is the division 3904 and the procurement cost 906 is the numerical value 3905.
Records having transport as the block 3901 are created, in which 999 is the division 3904. As regards data for the records in which transport is the type 1202 of the transport information table, where environment is the evaluation class 3902, the transport means 1203 is selected for the evaluation item 3903 and the number of units 1204×the distance 1205, for the numerical value 3905. Where cost is the evaluation class 3902, transport cost is selected for the evaluation item 3903 and transport cost 907, for the numerical value 3905.
One record having installation as the block 3901 is created. Herein, 999 is selected for both the evaluation class 3902 and the division 3904. Installation work cost is the evaluation item 3903, and installation cost 908 is the numerical value 3905.
One record having start-up as the block 3901 is created. Herein, 999 is selected for both the evaluation class 3902 and the division 3904. Start-up work cost is the evaluation item 3903, and start-up cost 909 is the numerical value 3905.
Fifteen records having use as the block 3901 are created. Where business operations is the object of use 3202, 0 is selected for the division 3904, where management is the object, 1 for the division 3904, and where the use is for the customer, 10 for the division 3904, five records being created for each object.
Each record will now be described. Where 999 is the evaluation class 3902 and the number of man-hours worked is the evaluation item 3903, the numerical value 3905 is the product of the number of man-hours worked 3204×the scale of use 913×the scale of use coefficient 3203. Only where the division 3904 is 10, environment is selected for the evaluation class 3902.
Next, where environment is the evaluation class 3902 and communicated data quantity is the evaluation item 3903, the numerical value 3905 is the product of the communicated data quantity 3206×the scale of use 913×the scale of use coefficient 3205. Where 999 is the evaluation class 3902 and the traffic means 3207 is the evaluation item 3903, the numerical value 3905 is the product of the shift 3209×the scale of use 913×the scale of use coefficient 3208. Where 999 is the evaluation class 3902 and consumed wattage is the evaluation item 3903, the numerical value 3905 is the product of the consumed wattage 3211×the scale of use 913×the scale of use coefficient 3210. Where 999 is the evaluation class 3902 and paper is the evaluation item 3903, the numerical value 3905 is the product of the paper 3213×the scale of use 913×the scale of use coefficient 3212.
A record having maintenance as the block 3901 is created. Herein, 999 is selected for both the evaluation class 3902 and the division 3904. The record is created in which maintenance cost is the evaluation item 3903 and the maintenance cost 910 is the numerical value 3905.
Records having collection as the block 3901 are created, in which 999 is the division 3904. Where environment is the evaluation class 3902 as record data for the transport information table in which collection is the type 1202, the transport means 1203 is the evaluation item 3903, the numerical value 3905 is the product of the number of units 1204×the distance 1205. Where cost is the evaluation class 3902, transport cost is the evaluation item 3903, and collection cost 911 is the numerical value 3905.
One record having recycling as the block 3901 is created. Herein, cost is the evaluation class 3902, recycling cost is the evaluation item 3903, 999 is the division 3904 and the recycling cost 912 is the numerical value 3905.
This completes the processing at step S3702. Now, the processing of production evaluation at step 3703 will be described. The environmental load and cost of a given system product are evaluated according to the life cycle conditions shown in
Two records are created with the ID 2401 extracted in the previous processing being used as the ID 3801, wherein environmental load and cost is the evaluation class 3802 and system is the unit of totalization 3803.
Data converted by the environmental load computing section 135 are inputted to the lines from 3803 through 3826 in the product evaluation result table shown in
It has to be noted, however, that when use is entered in the block 3901, 0 entered in the division 3904 means use for business operations and inputs are to the lines from 3810 through 3814; 1 entered in the division 3901 means use for administration and inputs are to the lines from 3815 through 3818; and 10 entered in the division 3904 means use by customer and inputs are to the lines from 3820 through 3824.
Next, when the environmental load computing section 135, as its basic processing, receives the evaluation class 3902, the evaluation item 3903 and the numerical value 3905 together with the environmental load and the cost, searches for a conversion factor 4003 corresponding to the evaluation class 4001 and the evaluation item 4002 in the environmental load-to-cost conversion table stored in the environmental load-to-cost conversion information storage area 112 shown in
Where the entry in the block 3901 is anything else than use and multiple records are present, the results of conversion are totalized separately for environment and cost.
However, where the environmental load is to be computed with 999 being entered as the evaluation class 3902 and 999 as the division 3904, upon receipt of the evaluation class 3903 and the numerical value 3905, the quotient of division of the environmental load 4103 by the sales 4102 according to the human work conversion factor stored in the business operator information storage area 113 shown in
It has to be noted that, however, when use and maintenance are entered in the block 3901, in the record in the evaluative information management table shown in
Each of these results is entered into the pertinent item in environmental loads and costs listed in the evaluation class 3801 category.
After completing the processing described above to all the records of the life cycle conditions shown in
This completes the processing at step S3703, and the processing at step S302 is also completed.
Next, processing of evaluation result output S303 will be described. Herein, the results preserved in the product evaluation result table are processed by the evaluation result output section 138 and displayed via the output unit 160.
First, out of the records in the evaluative information management table shown in
Then on the product evaluation output table screen shown in
To add, 4204 denotes the button for selection between environmental load and cost, and the selected object is displayed on the graph 4205. In this case, for both environmental load and cost, all the entries from the design and development 3804 through the recycling 3827 are displayed item by item as elements of the life cycle. Also, the entries from the number of man-hours worked 3810 through the paper 3824 are displayed item by item as the time of product use.
When the end 4206 is inputted via the input unit 150, processing of the evaluation result output S303 is ended.
Then, evaluation object selection S304 shown in
To add, where the evaluation object file name 4302 is selected, instead of directly inputting a new file name, for the evaluation object file name 4301 out of the ID 4501 record in the comparative evaluation object product management table shown in
If in the foregoing the evaluation object file name 4301 is newly inputted after the enter button 4305 is pressed, a new ID 4401 is issued, and a record is created in which the evaluation object file name 4301 is entered as the evaluation object file name 4402 and the system time as the day and hour of evaluation 4403.
Further, a required number of records, bearing the ID 4401 as the ID 4501, are created whose ID 2401 is consistent with the reference product entered as the product class 4502 and the reference product 4302 entered as the product to be evaluated ID 4503 and further is consistent with the object product entered as the product class 4502 and the object product 4303 entered as the product to be evaluated ID 4503, and processing at S304 is thereby ended.
The comparative evaluation management table shown in
Finally, the processing of comparison result output S305 will be described. The processing is accomplished by the environmental load reducing effect computing section 137 and the evaluation result output section 138. As stated earlier, there is only one object product.
First, the environmental load reducing effect computing section 137 extracts the record of the ID 3801 of the product evaluation result table corresponding to the product to be evaluated ID 4503 and the total entered as the unit of totalization 3803 coinciding with the ID 4401 of the comparative evaluation management table shown in
Whereas two records in which environmental load and cost are the evaluation class 3802 separately for the reference product and the object product, the totals from the design and development 3804 through the recycling 3827 are computed for each record. These totals are used as the reference product life cycle environment, the reference product life cycle cost, the object product life cycle environment and the object product life cycle cost.
Similarly, for each of the same records, the totalized value of the paper 3824 is computed from the number of man-hours worked 3810. Each of the totalized values is used as the environment at the time of using the reference product, the cost at the time of using the reference product, the environment at the time of using the object product and the cost at the time of using the object product.
Then, the evaluation result output section 138 displays in the product comparative evaluation output table shown in
Regarding the environmental load reducing effect, (the reference product life cycle environment minus the object product life cycle environment) is displayed in the life cycle 4603 box and simultaneously (the environment when using the reference product minus the environment when using the object product) is displayed in the time of using the product 4604 box.
Next, regarding the cost reducing effect, (the reference product life cycle cost minus the object product life cycle cost) is displayed in the life cycle 4605 box and (the cost when using the reference product minus the cost when using the object product) is displayed in the time of using the product 4606 box.
Regarding the environmental load reducing effect and the cost reducing effect discussed above, where multiple object products are involved, the reference product and the object product are compared as many times as the number of object products.
To add, 4607 denotes the button for selection between the environmental load reducing effect and the cost reducing effect, and the result of selection is displayed in the graph 4608.
When the environmental load reducing effect is selected here, out of the two records from the ID 3801 of the product evaluation result table extracted at S302, in which the total is entered as the unit of totalization 3803 and the environmental load is entered as the evaluation class 3802, items from the design and development 3804 through the recycling 3827 of the record of the reference product are displayed item by item as references for the graph 4608. Similarly, items from the record of the object product are displayed as the objects of the graph 4608.
Or when the cost reducing effect is selected, out of the two records from the ID 3801 of the product evaluation result table extracted at S302, in which the total is entered as the unit of totalization 3803 and the cost is entered as the evaluation class 3802, similarly to the foregoing, items from the design and development 3804 through the recycling 3827 of the record of the reference product are displayed item by item as references for the graph 4608. Similarly, items from the record of the object product are displayed as the objects of the graph 4608.
Incidentally, the graph 4608 may as well be displayed in a tabular form at the output terminal. Or the graph and the table may as well be outputted to a medium, such as paper.
When the end 4609 is inputted via the input unit 150, processing at S305 is ended, and the whole sequence of processing by the environmental information documenting apparatus 100 in this mode of embodying the invention is completed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2010-041285 | Feb 2010 | JP | national |