Data processing: presentation processing of document – operator i – Presentation processing of document – Layout
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-09
2004-12-07
Shah, Sanjiv (Department: 2176)
Data processing: presentation processing of document, operator i
Presentation processing of document
Layout
C715S252000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06829743
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 11-274706, filed Sep. 28, 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method of acquiring environment consideration condition information used for a green procurement system or the like which is an information survey/processing system associated with material procurement with consideration given to environmental problems.
The disposal and incineration of toxic substances have seriously affected the terrestrial environment. In order to reduce environmental pollution, attempts have been made to avoid the use of materials, for industry products, which contain toxic substances or discharge toxic substances depending on the manner in which they are processed.
As part of such attempts, product makers as buyers that promote environmental management and environmental load reduction activities in conformity with ISO14000 need to order environment-conscious (materials with a low degree of environmental load influence) in material procurement in order to comprehend, maintain/improve, manage the eco-friendliness of products.
A system that can meet such a requirement is disclosed in, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 10-312417. In this system, material item data that can be ordered are formed and stored in units of material classes on the material procurement side, whereas the environment consideration degrees of the respective material items are evaluated and the resultant environment consideration degree evaluation data are stored on the design side. In ordering materials, material items that can be ordered are selected on the basis of requested material data from the production side, and material order data is output, with environment consideration degree evaluation data being added thereto.
In order to construct and operate an information processing system that effectively uses such environment consideration conditions of procurement materials (materials to be procured) as data, data about the environment consideration conditions of the procurement materials must be prepared. To obtain such data about the environment consideration conditions of procurement materials, a survey must be conducted in cooperation with material sellers.
Such a survey is executed by a plurality of buyers. Conventionally, however, in conducting a survey, a survey table written or printed on a paper sheet is handed to a material seller, and answers are acquired in the form of an answer table written or printed on a paper sheet.
For this reason, similar contents about similar procurement materials must be written repeatedly over lines, resulting a heavy load on a person who writes answers.
In order to check consistency in the answer contents, and process and reuse the data, the operator must electronically input the answers written on the paper sheet, imposing a heavy load on the operator. In addition, errors may be caused in this step.
Under the circumstances, a system for ordering materials with consideration given to the environment (materials with low degrees of environmental load influence) has been proposed. In this system, material item data that can be ordered are created for each material class and stored in advance on the material procurement side. On the design side, the environment consideration degrees of the respective material items are evaluated, and the resultant environment consideration degree evaluation data are stored. In ordering materials, material items that can be ordered are selected on the basis of requested material data from the production side, and material order data is output after the environment consideration degree evaluation data is added thereto.
In order to construct an information processing system that fully uses such environment consideration conditions of procurement materials as data, the data of the environment consideration condition of the procurement materials must be prepared. In addition, sellers for parts and raw materials (sellers of parts and raw materials) must cooperate to acquire data about the environment consideration conditions of procurement materials.
In conducting such a survey, a survey table on a paper sheet is handed to a material seller (sellers of parts and raw materials), and answers are obtained by asking the material seller to write the answers on an answer table on a paper sheet.
For this reason, similar contents about similar procurement materials need to be repeatedly written over lines, resulting in a heavy load on a person who writes the answers.
In addition, to check consistency in answer contents, and process and reuse data, the answers written on a paper sheet must be electronically input. This operation also imposes a heavy load on the operator, and may cause errors.
With the widespread use of general-purpose personal computers, it is natural that acquired data are used through general-purpose personal computers. In addition, general-purpose personal computers are popularized and can be used by many people. Under such present conditions, it is preferable that a survey based on material item data and acquisition of survey results be performed on a computer network, or such data be exchanged through electronic storage media.
More specifically, electronic survey document data having survey items written in a tabular form with blank answer columns is prepared. For example, this data is stored in a portable storage medium such as a flexible disk, MO (magneto-optical disk), or memory card, and this medium is handed to a material seller. On the material seller side, an operator is asked to open the electronic survey document data on a computer, e.g., a personal computer, and enter answers to necessary items in survey items in the table. The operator is then asked to store the answer-entered electronic survey document data in a portable storage medium. Thereafter, this medium is collected. The answer contents are loaded in the personal computer and stored. With the use of this method, redundant operations can be omitted, and errors such as transcription errors can be effectively prevented. Alternatively, a buyer may ask a material seller to access the above electronic survey table data prepared on a personal computer on the buyer side by using a personal computer on the material seller side through a computer network to as to enter/answer necessary items in survey items in the table. The operator on the buyer side then loads the answer contents in the personal computer and stores it.
The construction of a mechanism for forming electronic data and exchanging them will reduce time and labor required in half and greatly eliminate trouble in the prior art, preventing input errors. Such a mechanism cannot be simply implemented for the following reasons no matter how it is desired.
First, it is difficult to prepare an environment that allows common use of files as electronic data. Basically, electronic data is generated by a buyer that is to use the data, and the buyer asks a material seller to provide information for such data. However, such data need not essentially be prepared or used on the material seller. On the buyer side, in order to manage and use many procurement parts data, a large-scale processing system is constructed and used. On the material seller side, however, data are processed within the range of materials that are handled by the material seller. That is, the scale of data processing in a material seller greatly differs from that in a buyer. With regard to applications, an application aiming at large-scale data processing tends to be unsuited to small-scale data processing, whereas an application aiming at small-scale data processing is unsuited to large-scale data processing. For this reason, it is difficult to implement a processing system that can serve as both a simple electronic data processing system that allows even a small-scale material seller to input data and
Haruki Kazuhito
Hongu Akinori
Nishimura Kazuhiko
Shimada Hideki
Takahashi Miho
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Shah Sanjiv
LandOfFree
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