Device, method and program for managing multiple drawing data representing set of parts

Abstract

To support manufacture commission of a part represented by each drawing data in a method for managing a plurality of pieces of drawing data representing a set of parts.SOLUTION: A device 100 first acquires a plurality of pieces of drawing data representing a set of parts (S201). Next, the device 100 determines whether or not there is drawing data that is associated with existing drawing data that has already been stored for each drawing data (S202). When the determination result for target drawing data is affirmative, the device 100 acquires order record information on the part represented by the existing drawing data (S203). On the other hand, when there is no existing drawing data associated with the target drawing data, the device 100 determines the attribute of the part represented by the target drawing data (S204), and may acquire order record information linked to the existing drawing data representing parts with the same attribute (S205). Then, the device 100 transmits information for displaying the acquired order record information (S206).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for managing a plurality of drawing data representing a set of parts. [Background technology]

[0002] Just as there are about 30,000 parts in one automobile, a wide variety of parts are required in the manufacturing industry. Generally, manufacturers do not process all of these different types of parts in-house, but outsource the manufacturing to external processing companies.

[0003] When outsourcing manufacturing, the manufacturer provides the processor with part drawings showing the parts to be outsourced, either in electronic form or on paper printed from the electronic form, for the purposes of quotations, orders, etc., and the electronic media is mainly managed as data in PDF format. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] As mentioned above, purchasing staff in manufacturers who handle estimates, orders, etc. manage drawing data as image data in PDF format, but for example, inexperienced purchasing staff cannot determine which processing company to outsource manufacturing to from the drawing data. In many cases, the number of parts required for a product can be tens, hundreds, or even thousands, so it is not easy to select an appropriate outsourcing company for each part.

[0005] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and its purpose is to provide an apparatus, method, and program for managing multiple drawing data representing a set of parts, to support the outsourcing of manufacturing of parts represented by each drawing data included in the set of drawing data.

[0006] Although the above description takes PDF format drawing data as an example, similar problems exist for more general drawing data that includes raster data, and examples of data formats include JPG and TIFF formats. Here, "raster data" refers to data that includes multiple pixels. JPG or TIFF format drawing data generally includes only raster data, whereas PDF format drawing data may include vector data or text data in addition to raster data. PDF format drawing data often does not include layers, but may include multiple layers.

[0007] In addition, a purchasing clerk may manage drawing data as CAD (Computer Aided Design) data, typically in DXF format, and similar problems may occur even when at least some of the multiple drawing data representing a set of parts is CAD data. Here, "CAD data" refers to drawing data that can be edited with CAD software, and includes vector data. "Vector data" refers to data that includes multiple points and one or more line segments or arcs that each connect at least two of the multiple points.

[0008] In the above explanation, the purpose of the present invention has been described as supporting manufacturers in outsourcing production, but as will be described later, the present invention can also be applied to support processors in accepting manufacturing orders. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] In order to achieve this object, a first aspect of the present invention is a method for managing a plurality of drawing data representing a set of parts, comprising the steps of: determining whether or not target drawing data included in the plurality of drawing data is related to first existing drawing data that has already been stored; and, when a result of the determination is positive, acquiring first performance information linked to the first existing drawing data and stored, transmitting first performance display information for displaying the first performance information to a terminal.

[0010] Furthermore, a second aspect of the present invention is the method of the first aspect, further comprising, when a result of the judgment is negative, a step of acquiring the second performance information linked to second existing drawing data representing a part having the same attributes as the part represented by the target drawing data, and a step of transmitting, to a terminal, second performance display information for displaying the second performance information.

[0011] A third aspect of the present invention is the method according to the second aspect, wherein the attribute is the material, surface treatment, processing method, special processing, or a combination of two or more of these of the part.

[0012] Further, a fourth aspect of the present invention is a method according to any one of the first to third aspects, wherein the determination includes determining whether the target drawing data matches the first existing drawing data.

[0013] A fifth aspect of the present invention is the method according to the fourth aspect, wherein the determination is made using feature amounts extracted by vectorizing the target drawing data and the existing drawing data, respectively.

[0014] Further, a sixth aspect of the present invention is a method according to any one of the first to third aspects, wherein the determination includes determining whether or not the target drawing data is similar to the first existing drawing data.

[0015] Further, a seventh aspect of the present invention is a method of the fourth or sixth aspect, wherein the determination includes determining whether the first existing drawing data represents a part having the same attributes as a part represented by the target drawing data.

[0016] Moreover, an eighth aspect of the present invention is a method of the fourth or sixth aspect, wherein the determination further includes a determination of whether or not the first performance information linked to the first existing drawing data matches input conditions.

[0017] In addition, a ninth aspect of the present invention is a method of the sixth aspect, further comprising a step of acquiring the first existing drawing data similar to the target drawing data when the result of the judgment is positive, and the first performance display information includes the first existing drawing data.

[0018] A tenth aspect of the present invention is the method according to any one of the first to ninth aspects, wherein the first performance information includes a supplier or an orderer.

[0019] An eleventh aspect of the present invention is the method according to any one of the first to ninth aspects, wherein the first performance information includes an amount of money or a unit price.

[0020] In addition, a twelfth aspect of the present invention is a method of the first aspect, wherein a performance display screen displayed by the first performance display information has a selection area for selecting any one of a plurality of drawings displayed by the plurality of drawing data, a target drawing area for displaying a target drawing selected from the plurality of drawings and represented by the target drawing data, and an existing drawing display area for displaying one or more existing drawings related to the target drawing and represented by one or more existing drawing data.

[0021] Further, a 13th aspect of the present invention is a method of the 12th aspect, wherein the existing drawing display area includes a first existing drawing represented by the first existing drawing data and at least a portion of the first performance information.

[0022] In addition, a 14th aspect of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to execute a method for managing a plurality of drawing data representing a set of parts, the method including a step of determining whether or not target drawing data included in the plurality of drawing data is related to first existing drawing data that has already been stored, and when a result of the determination is positive, a step of acquiring the first performance information linked to the first existing drawing data and a step of transmitting first performance display information for displaying the first performance information to a terminal.

[0023] In addition, a fifteenth aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for managing a plurality of drawing data representing a set of parts, which determines whether or not target drawing data included in the plurality of drawing data is related to first existing drawing data that has already been stored, and if a result of the determination is positive, when first performance information linked to the first existing drawing data is stored, acquires the first performance information and transmits first performance display information for displaying the first performance information to a terminal. Effect of the Invention

[0024] According to one aspect of the present invention, the presence or absence of associated existing drawing data is determined for at least some of the target drawing data included in multiple drawing data representing a set of parts, and if there is, performance display information is transmitted to display performance information linked to the existing drawing data and stored, thereby enabling viewers of the performance information, such as manufacturers, processors, and intermediary businesses, to smoothly recommend the outsourcing of manufacturing of each part. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0025] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an apparatus for managing a plurality of pieces of drawing data according to a first embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the flow of a method for managing a plurality of pieces of drawing data according to the first embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of order record information according to the first embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing another example of order record information according to the first embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0026] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[0027] (First embodiment) 1 shows an apparatus for managing a plurality of pieces of drawing data according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The apparatus 100 communicates with a manufacturer terminal 110 used by a manufacturer via an IP network such as the Internet, and is capable of managing a plurality of pieces of drawing data. The apparatus 100 also communicates with a processor terminal 120 used by a processor in the same manner, and is capable of providing a drawing management service to the processor as well. In this embodiment, an example of a drawing management service for a manufacturer will be described.

[0028] The device 100 includes a communication unit 101 such as a communication interface, a processing unit 102 such as a processor or CPU, and a storage unit 103 including a storage device or storage medium such as a memory or a hard disk, and can be configured by executing a program for performing each process. The device 100 may include one or more devices, computers, or servers. The program may include one or more programs, and may be recorded in a computer-readable storage medium to form a non-transient program product. The program may be stored in a storage device or storage medium such as the storage unit 103 or a database 104 accessible from the device 100 via an IP network, and may be executed by the processing unit 102. Data described below as being stored in the storage unit 103 may be stored in the database 104, and vice versa.

[0029] The device 100 first acquires a plurality of pieces of drawing data representing a set of parts associated with a manufacturer using the manufacturer terminal 110 (S201). For example, the plurality of pieces of drawing data are stored in the storage unit 103 by a purchasing person of the manufacturer uploading and registering them from a web page provided by the device 100, and are acquired by reading out the data. A drawing displayed by the drawing data includes lines and symbols representing the parts, and further includes characters representing the parts. The characters include at least one of a serial number, a drawing number, and a part name, and may further include at least one of a material and a surface treatment. In the drawing data in raster format, these lines, symbols, and characters are simply pixel values, and can be recognized by a viewer viewing the drawing represented by the drawing data.

[0030] Next, the device 100 judges whether or not there is drawing data related to the existing drawing data already stored for each of the plurality of drawing data (S202). Here, the related drawing data includes at least one of drawing data that matches the existing drawing data already stored and drawing data that is similar to the existing drawing data already stored. Here, it is not necessarily required to judge for all drawing data included in the plurality of drawing data, and it is also conceivable that the judgment is not made for some drawing data.

[0031] Regarding the presence or absence of a match, for example, a feature amount may be extracted from the target drawing data to be judged, and a match may be judged if the difference between the feature amount and the feature amount of any of the existing drawing data already stored is within a first predetermined range. More specifically, the device 100 may vectorize the target drawing data and the existing drawing data as necessary, and extract the feature amount from the vectorized drawing data. An example of the feature amount is a frequency distribution or an angle distribution of a plurality of line segments possessed by the vectorized drawing data. As an example, it is possible to determine a coordinate with the horizontal direction of the drawing as 0°, and use the frequency of line segments having angles of -22.5° or more and less than 22.5°, 22.5° or more and less than 67.5°, 67.5° or more and less than 112.5°, and 112.5° or more and less than 167.5°. More preferably, it is possible to use an angle distribution in which each line segment is weighted by its length. In this specification, "vectorization" means conversion into data including a plurality of points and one or more line segments or arcs each connecting at least two points among the plurality of points.

[0032] Regarding the presence or absence of similarity, it is conceivable to determine that the target drawing data and the existing drawing data are similar when the difference between the feature amount of the target drawing data and the feature amount of any of the existing drawing data is not included within a first predetermined range but is included within a second predetermined range that is wider than the first predetermined range, using the same algorithm as the algorithm used to determine the presence or absence of a match. A different algorithm may be used.

[0033] When the determination result for the target drawing data is positive, i.e., the data is related to existing drawing data (corresponding to "first existing drawing data"), and there is actual order history information (corresponding to "first actual information") for the part represented by the existing drawing data, the device 100 acquires the actual order history information (S203). The actual order history information includes the supplier, and may further include at least one of the amount or unit price, the lot size, and the order date. In particular, when the target drawing data is similar to the existing drawing data, it is preferable to also acquire that drawing data.

[0034] In response to this, when there is no existing drawing data associated with the target drawing data, the device 100 may determine the attributes of the part represented by the target drawing data (S204), and acquire actual order information (corresponding to "second actual information") linked to existing drawing data (corresponding to "second existing drawing data") representing a part with the same attributes as the determined attributes (S205).

[0035] The attributes determined here include, for example, the material of the part, the surface treatment, the processing method, or a combination of two or more of these. The material can be determined based on characters extracted by applying character recognition to the drawing data. The surface treatment can be determined based on characters or symbols extracted by applying character recognition or symbol recognition to the drawing data. Like the surface treatment, the processing method can also be determined based on characters or symbols extracted by applying character recognition or symbol recognition to the drawing data.

[0036] For example, a drawing has a portion having a cell structure called a title block, in which a manufacturing number, drawing number, part name, material, surface treatment, etc. are often written. Therefore, it is possible to determine the material based on characters extracted from the drawing data. If the cell structure of the title block is registered for each user who uses the drawing management service provided by the device 100, it is possible to determine the material based on the characters written in the cells representing the material. If the surface treatment and processing method are written in the title block, they can also be determined based on characters extracted from the data for displaying the title block, which is included in the drawing data.

[0037] It may be possible to determine the processing method based on the characters that represent the dimensions of the part, rather than the characters in the title block. For example, if there is a description of "t3," this represents the thickness of the part, and it can be determined that the part is manufactured by sheet metal processing, one of the typical processing methods that include sheet metal processing, lathe processing, and milling.

[0038] Then, the device 100 transmits order record display information (corresponding to "record display information") for displaying the acquired order record information to the manufacturer terminal 110 (S206). The order record display information may be transmitted as a file in HTML format, for example, and may be information for displaying the order record information on a web browser on the display screen of the manufacturer terminal 110. Alternatively, an application (hereinafter also referred to as an "app") installed on the manufacturer terminal 110 may be operated, and the order record display information may be information for displaying the order record information on the app.

[0039] FIG. 3 shows an example of order history information according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The order history display screen 300 can display 24 drawings representing 24 parts (only a part of them is displayed in FIG. 3), and the presence or absence of related existing drawing data is determined for the drawing data representing each drawing. If there is matching existing drawing data, and the order history information is also linked and stored with the existing drawing data, a label of "order history present" is displayed, and if there is no matching existing drawing data, a label of "new drawing" is displayed. The order history display information may include label information for displaying a label corresponding to each drawing. In addition, the order history display information may be transmitted simultaneously for all of a plurality of drawing data representing a set of parts, or may be transmitted in a plurality of separate transmissions. In addition, the order history display information may include matching or similar existing drawing data.

[0040] For new drawings, a further determination is made as to whether there is similar existing drawing data, and if there is similar existing drawing data, a "Similar" label is displayed along with the similar drawing displayed by the existing drawing data, and if there is no similar existing drawing data, a "Not Similar" label is displayed. If there is no matching or similar existing drawing data, a determination is made as to whether there is existing drawing data with the same attributes, and in the example of Figure 3, a set of attributes is determined, with material being iron, surface treatment being black dyeing, and processing method being sheet metal processing, and the top three suppliers are displayed as information on past ordering performance for parts with the same attributes.

[0041] FIG. 4 shows another example of the order performance information according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The order performance display screen 400 has a selection area 401 for selecting one of the multiple drawings displayed by the multiple drawing data acquired by the device 100, a target drawing display area 402 for displaying a selected target drawing from the multiple drawings, and an existing drawing display area 403 for displaying one or more existing drawings related to the target drawing. When any drawing displayed in the selection area 401 is selected, it is displayed larger in the target drawing display area 402, and the details of the drawing can be confirmed. In the existing drawing display area 403, at least a part of the order performance information linked to the existing drawing data for displaying the existing drawing may be further displayed for any existing drawing related to the target drawing. In the example of FIG. 4, the amount is displayed as the order performance information for the top existing drawing. In FIG. 4, a label such as "similar" is not displayed, but it may be displayed in the same manner as in FIG. 3.

[0042] In this way, by determining whether or not there is existing related drawing data for at least some of the target drawing data included in multiple drawing data representing a set of parts, and if there is, transmitting order history display information for displaying the order history information linked to the existing drawing data and stored, viewers of the order history information, such as purchasing staff at a manufacturer, can easily visually grasp promising candidates for manufacturing contractors for each part.

[0043] If the order record information includes amounts or unit prices, the viewer can easily understand the appropriate level for price negotiations with the contractor.

[0044] If there is no existing related drawing data, the system can obtain a broader understanding of potential manufacturing contractors by displaying, as necessary, order history information stored for parts with the same attributes based on attributes determined from each drawing data.

[0045] In the above description, an example was given in which a feature value extracted from each drawing data is used to determine whether or not there is existing drawing data related to a certain drawing data. However, characters extracted from data for displaying a title block included in the drawing data may be used additionally or alternatively by referring to the cell structure of the title block associated with the user. More generally, attributes determined based on characters or symbols extracted by performing character recognition or symbol recognition on the drawing data may be used additionally or alternatively. In addition, conditions may be received from the processor terminal 110, and the fact that order record information such as the supplier and amount matches the conditions may be additionally used in the above determination. It is possible to add points to the degree of match or similarity obtained from multiple analyses and determine the drawing data with the highest score as the matching drawing data, or to compare the score with one or more thresholds and determine the drawing data as the matching or similar drawing data. In addition, the degree of match or similarity may be calculated using a prediction model generated by machine learning.

[0046] In addition, although the processing method is determined based on the characters or symbols extracted by character recognition or symbol recognition of the drawing data, it is also possible to determine whether or not a predetermined special processing is required, and to use the result of the determination to determine whether or not there is related existing drawing data, or to identify parts with the same attributes. As an example, processing of a cam mechanism is difficult, and there are not necessarily many processors who can process it. Therefore, if it is known that the part represented by the drawing data requires processing of a cam mechanism, it is possible to effectively narrow down the candidates for manufacturing contractors. In addition, in bending, bending with a height of four times or less than the thickness is also difficult, and processing to finish a part made of aluminum without scratches is also difficult. There are many such special processes in the manufacturing industry, and the device 100 may perform a detection process of a predetermined processing on the drawing data. Examples of the predetermined processing include the above-mentioned processing of the cam mechanism, bending processing in which the ratio of height to thickness is equal to or less than a predetermined value, and processing without scratches on aluminum, as well as processing of gears.

[0047] In the above explanation, when there is no first existing drawing data related to the target drawing data, second performance information linked to second existing drawing data representing a part with the same attributes as the part represented by the target drawing data is obtained. However, when there is first existing drawing data, the second performance information may be obtained in addition to the first performance information, and it is also possible to obtain only the second performance information regardless of whether or not there is first existing drawing data.

[0048] Furthermore, the "start" and "end" shown in FIG. 2 are merely examples, and do not mean that the method according to this embodiment necessarily starts at S201 or necessarily ends at S206.

[0049] Second Embodiment In the first embodiment, an example of supporting a manufacturer in accepting a contract for manufacturing is described. In the present embodiment, an example of supporting a processor in accepting a contract for manufacturing is described.

[0050] The method of this embodiment is similar to the method of the first embodiment, but differs in that the actual information acquired by the device 100 is actual order information rather than actual order information, and the information transmitted by the device to the processor terminal 120 is actual order display information rather than actual order display information.

[0051] When a processing company submits an estimate in response to a request for quotation, if the processing company can understand the order amount or unit price of parts previously ordered from the manufacturer for which the quotation was requested, the processing company can confirm in advance that the newly submitted estimate is at an appropriate level. Although it is useful to determine drawing data representing parts previously ordered from different manufacturers as related drawing data, it is preferable to determine related drawing data from drawing data representing parts previously ordered from the same manufacturer. This also applies to the determination of drawing data representing parts with the same attribute.

[0052] In order to identify the manufacturer, the device 100 preferably stores a manufacturer identifier for identifying the manufacturer to which the device 100 outsources the manufacturing of a set of parts when storing a plurality of pieces of drawing data representing the set of parts transmitted from the processor terminal 120. Any method may be used to associate the manufacturer identifier with the plurality of pieces of drawing data, and as one example, the manufacturer identifier may be input on a web page provided by the device 100 by a processor using the processor terminal 120.

[0053] In addition to cases where a processor receives a direct commission from a manufacturer, there are also cases where a trading company that has received a commission from a manufacturer commissions the work to a secondary processor. In this case, the intermediary such as a trading company manages the drawing data it provides to the processor, in addition to the drawing data it receives from the manufacturer, on the drawing management service provided by the device 100. If the above-mentioned manufacturer identifier is more generally considered to be a contractor identifier, the former can be associated with an identifier that identifies the manufacturer, and the latter can be associated with an identifier that identifies the intermediary.

[0054] In the above-mentioned embodiments, it should be noted that unless there is a statement of "only" such as "based only on", "depending only on", or "only in the case of", it is assumed in this specification that additional information may be taken into consideration. Also, as an example, it should be noted that the statement "do b when a" does not necessarily mean "always do b when a" or "do b immediately after a" unless expressly stated. Also, the statement "each a constituting A" does not necessarily mean that A is composed of multiple components, but includes the case where the component is singular.

[0055] Also, just to be clear, even if there is an aspect of a method, program, terminal, device, server or system (hereinafter referred to as a "method, etc.") that performs an operation different from that described in this specification, each aspect of the present invention is directed to an operation that is the same as any of the operations described in this specification, and the existence of an operation different from that described in this specification does not make the method, etc. outside the scope of each aspect of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0056] 100 devices 101 Communications Department 102 Processing section 103 Storage section 104 Database 110 Manufacturer terminal 120 Processor Terminal 300 Order history display screen

Claims

1. A method for a computer to manage a plurality of drawing data representing a set of parts, comprising: determining whether the target drawing data included in the plurality of drawing data is related to existing drawing data already stored; when the result of the determination is affirmative and performance information associated with the existing drawing data is stored, acquiring the performance information; transmitting performance display information for displaying the performance information to a terminal and including.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determination includes determining whether the existing drawing data represents a part having the same attributes as the part represented by the target drawing data.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determination is further performed using feature amounts extracted by vectorizing the target drawing data and the existing drawing data respectively.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the feature amounts are frequency distributions or angular distributions of a plurality of line segments included in the vectorized drawing data.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the performance display information includes the existing drawing data, and the price or unit price, lot number, and attributes of the part represented by the existing drawing data.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the performance information is order performance information.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the determination includes determining whether the existing drawing data represents a part that was ordered in the past from the same manufacturer as the part represented by the target drawing data.

8. A program for causing a computer to execute a method for managing a plurality of drawing data representing a set of parts, the method comprising: determining whether the target drawing data included in the plurality of drawing data is related to existing drawing data already stored; when the result of the determination is affirmative and performance information associated with the existing drawing data is stored, acquiring the performance information; transmitting performance display information for displaying the performance information to a terminal and including.

9. An apparatus for managing a plurality of drawing data representing a set of parts, comprising: determining whether the target drawing data included in the plurality of drawing data is related to existing drawing data already stored, When the result of the determination is affirmative and performance information associated with the existing drawing data is stored, it is configured to acquire the performance information and transmit performance display information for displaying the performance information to a terminal.

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