Method of Evaluating Easiness of Works and Processings Performed on Articles and Evaluation Apparatus

1. An apparatus for aiding evaluation of easiness of work to be performed on an article or parts thereof, said apparatus comprising an input unit, a storage unit, an arithmetic unit and a display unit, wherein said input unit has a function for selecting at least one of work and processing elements comparable to works and processings to be performed on the article under evaluation or parts thereof, respectively, and a function for inputting an improvement instance for enhancing easiness of the work and the processing, said storage unit has a function for storing basic elements and others for the article or parts thereof, respectively, as inputted through said input unit, an analysis database, an improvement instance database, contents of the works and the processings estimated for said article or said parts by said analysis database, function formulae, functions and results of arithmetic operations for the evaluation, wherein said arithmetic unit has a function for estimating the contents of the work and the processing for said article or parts on the basis of data read out from said storage unit and said analysis database, a function for calculating an index indicating degrees of difficulty of the work and the processing for the article under evaluation or parts thereof on the basis of the estimated contents of the work and the processing for the article under evaluation or parts thereof, and a function for extracting from said improvement instance database an improvement instance for facilitating the work for the article under evaluation or parts thereof, and wherein said display unit has a function for displaying indexes indicating degrees of difficulty of the work and the processing as calculated by said arithmetic unit.

2. A method of operating a computer for quantitatively evaluating whether an article has a structure which facilitates work to be performed thereon, comprising: registering data in said computer and processing the data to evaluate easiness of work to be performed on an article under evaluation, said registering delta in said computer includes the steps of: (a) inputting into an input unit and registering in a basic element storage part of a storage unit(i) a plurality of states corresponding to parts constituting said article, said states being classified into basic elements, respectively, (ii) at least one value of standard work cost and required time and indexes thereof associated with performing work on a part having said basic elements in a standard state, and (iii) corresponding identification symbols of said basic elements, (b) inputting into the input unit and registering in a supplementary element storage part of said storage unit, (i) a plurality of factors other than said basic elements which exert influence to the work cost and the required time for each of said basic elements, and the indexes thereof, said factors being classified into supplementary elements, respectively, (ii) values of standard work costs and standard required times associated with the work to be performed on said parts in each of said states and indexes thereof, respectively, and (iii) corresponding identification symbols of said supplementary elements, respectively, (c) selecting as standard elements from the registered basic elements, those basic elements which represent predetermined states to serve as standards, while supplementary standards representing predetermined states serving as standards, are inputted for said registered supplementary elements, respectively, both of said standard elements and said supplementary standards being registered in a standard storage part of said storage unit, (d) determining basic elimination scores indicating degrees of difficulty of the works to be performed for said basic elements, respectively, based on at least one of the work costs, the required times and the indexes thereof for said basic elements, respectively, with reference to at least one of the work costs, the required times and the indexes thereof for said standard elements, and subsequently registering the basic elimination scores in said basic element storage part, and (e) determining supplementary coefficients representing degrees of difficulty of the works for the states of said supplementary elements based on at least one of the work costs, the required times and the indexes thereof for the states of said supplementary elements with reference to at least one of the work costs, the required times and the indexes thereof for supplementary standards of said supplementary elements, respectively, and subsequently registering the supplementary coefficients in said supplementary element storage part, said data processing to evaluate easiness of work to be performed on the article under evaluation includes the steps of: (f) inputting through said input unit, the identification symbols representing the basic elements and the supplementary elements for each of the parts constituting said article under evaluation, (g) reading basic elimination scores and supplementary coefficients from said basic element storage part and said supplementary element storage part on the basis of the inputted identification symbols representing the basic elements and the supplementary elements of each of said parts,, and determining part elimination scores based on said basic elimination scores and said supplementary coefficients as read out, in accordance with a first index function prescribed such that an increasing value is given when at least one of the work cost, the required time and the indexes thereof for each of said parts, increases as compared with at least one of work cost, required time and index thereof for a part standard corresponding to said part, said part standard having said standard elements, and all of the supplementary elements other than the supplementary element representing size being the supplementary standards and each having a size of a predetermined ratio, (h) arithmetically determining a part-based work easiness evaluation score indicating the degree of difficulty of work for each of the parts, by decreasing or increasing the part elimination score from a predetermined standard value, (i) determining an article elimination score based on said part-based work easiness evaluation scores, in accordance with a second index function which produces an increasing value when at least one of the work cost, the required time and the indexes thereof for said article under evaluation, as determined by summing at least one of the work costs, the required times and the indexes thereof, increases as compared with at least one of the work cost, the required time and the indexes thereof for an article standard, said article standard being a standard of the article under evaluation which is assumed to be constituted by a combination of said part standards, (j) generating an article-based work easiness evaluation score indicating a degree of difficulty of the work for the article under evaluation by decreasing or increasing the value of the article elimination score from a predetermined standard value, and (k) outputting said article-based work easiness evaluation score through an output unit.

3. A method according the claim 2, wherein in said step (d), an arithmetic unit reads out from said basic element storage part at least one value of the work cost, the required time and the indexes thereof for each of said basic elements while reading out at least one value of the work cost, the required time and the indexes thereof for the corresponding standard element registered in said standard storage part, to determine the basic elimination score indicating the degree of difficulty of the work to be performed on each of said basic elements on the basis of the values of the basic elements as read out with reference to the values of the standard elements as read out, said arithmetic registering each of said basic elimination scores in said basic element storage part, the registration processing mentioned above being executed repeatedly for said basic elements, respectively, and in said step (e), the arithmetic unit reads out from said supplementary element storage part at least one value of the work cost, the required time and the indexes thereof in one of the states classified into said supplementary elements while reading out at least one value of the work cost, the required time and the indexes thereof registered in said standard storage part for the corresponding supplementary standard registered in said standard storage part to determine a supplementary coefficient indicating the degree of difficulty of the work in the state of said supplementary element on the basis of said value of the state of said supplementary element as read out with reference to said value of the supplementary standard as read out, said arithmetic unit registering said supplementary coefficient as determined in said supplementary element storage part, the registration processing mentioned above being executed repeatedly in the states of all the supplementary elements, respectively.

4. A method of evaluating easiness of work and processing to be performed on an article according to claim 2, wherein for a plurality of parts constituting the article under evaluation, easiness evaluation scores of works and processings for said parts, are arithmetically determined, and an easiness evaluation score of work and processing for said article, is arithmetically determined in accordance with a function formula or a function which is prescribed to determine a mean value of the easiness evaluation scores of one or plural works and processings as determined for said plurality of parts.

5. A method of evaluating easiness of work and processing to be performed on an article according to claim 2, wherein the arithmetic determination of the work costs or the work times and the part compositions or processing time for the articles under evaluation and the indexes thereof, is performed on the basis of work costs or work times and part compositions or processing time for an existing article and existing parts bearing similarities to said article and parts under evaluation, in accordance with a function formula or a function prescribed for comparing the easiness evaluation score of the works and the processings for the parts and the article under evaluation with the easiness evaluation score of the works and the processings for the existing article and part similar to those under evaluation.

6. A method of evaluating easiness of work and processing to be performed on an article according to claim 2, wherein an analysis database is utilized which has at least one analysis data obtained by selecting for the article or part under evaluation work and processing, elements comparable to the work and the processing for said article and part under evaluation from a plurality of basic work and processing elements classified in association with the contents of work and processing for the article and parts under evaluation, and said analysis database being capable of estimating the contents of the work and processing for said article and part under evaluation on the basis of said analysis data.

7. A method of evaluating easiness of work and processing to be performed on an article according to claim 2, wherein an item constituting a cause for increase in the time or the cost involved in the work and the processing, is automatically recognized and outputted on the basis of work and processing easiness indexes, arithmetically determined by said method for the article and parts under evaluation, respectively.

8. A method of evaluating easiness of work and processing to be performed on an article according to claim 2, further including automatically displaying an improvement instance for an item providing a cause for increase in the time or cost involved in the work and the processing on the basis of said article-based work easiness evaluation score as derived.

9. A method of evaluating easiness of work and processing to be performed on an article according to claim 2, further including cumulatively storing improvement instances which are effective for enhancing the easiness of the work and the processing of said article or parts thereof.

10. A method of operating a computer for evaluating whether an article has a structure which facilitates work to be performed thereon, comprising: registering data, in said computer and processing to data to evaluate easiness of work to be performed on an article under evaluation, said registering delta in said computer includes the steps of: (a) inputting into an input unit and registering in a basic storage part of a storage unit (i) a plurality of states corresponding to parts constituting said article, said states being classified into basic elements, respectively, (ii) at least one value of standard work cost and required time and indexes associated with performing work on a part having said basic elements in a standard state, and (iii) corresponding identification symbols of said basic elements, (b) inputting into the input unit and registering in a supplementary element storage part of said storage unit (i) a plurality of factors other than said basic elements which exert influence to the work cost and the required time for each of said basic elements and the indexes thereof, said factors being classified into supplementary elements, respectively, (ii) values of standard work costs and standard required times associated with the work to be performed on said parts in each of said states and indexes thereof, respectively, and (iii) corresponding identification symbols of said supplementary elements, respectively, (c) selecting as standard elements from the registered basic elements, those basic elements which represent predetermined states to serve as standards, while supplementary standards representing predetermined states serving as standards, are inputted for said registered supplementary elements, respectively, both of said standard elements and said supplementary standards being registered in a standard storage part of said storage unit, (d) determining basic elimination scores indicating degrees of difficulty of the works to be performed for said basic elements, respectively, based on at least one of the work costs, the required times and the indexes thereof for said basic elements, respectively, with reference to at least one of the work costs, the required times and the indexes thereof for said standard elements, and subsequently registering the basic elimination scores in said basic element storage part, and (e) determining supplementary coefficients representing degrees of difficulty of the works for the states of said supplementary elements based on at least one of the work costs, the required times and the indexes thereof for the states of said supplementary elements with reference to at least one of the work costs, the required times and the indexes thereof for supplementary standards of said supplementary elements, respectively, and subsequently registering the supplementary coefficients in said supplementary element storage part, said data processing to evaluate easiness of work to be performed on the article under evaluation includes the steps of: (f) inputting through said input unit, the identification symbols representing the basic elements and the supplementary elements for each of the parts constituting said article under evaluation, real values of the work costs, real values of the required times or real values of indexes thereof for an existing article and existing parts bearing similarities to said article and said parts and identification symbols representing basic elements and supplementary elements of said existing parts, (g) reading basic elimination scores and supplementary coefficients from said basic element storage part and said supplementary element storage part on the basis of the inputted identification symbols representing the basic elements and the supplementary elements of each of said parts, and determining part elimination scores based on said basic elimination scores and said supplementary coefficients as read out, in accordance with a first index function which produces an increasing value when at least one of the work cost, the required time and the indexes thereof for each of said parts, increases as compared with at least one of work cost, required time and index thereof for a part standard corresponding to said part, said part standard having said standard elements, and all of the supplementary elements other than the supplementary element representing size being the supplementary standards and each having a size of a predetermined ratio, (h) arithmetically determining a part-based work easiness evaluation score indicating the degree of difficulty of work for each of the parts, by decreasing or increasing the part elimination score from a predetermined standard value, (i) determining an article elimination score based on said part-based work easiness evaluation scores, in accordance with a second index function which produces an increasing value when at least one of the work cost, the required time and the indexes thereof for said article under evaluation, as determined by summing at least ones of the work costs, the required times and the indexes thereof, increases as compared with at least one of the work cost, the required time and the indexes thereof for an article standard, said article standard being a standard of the article under evaluation which is assumed to be constituted by a combination of said part standards, (j) generating an article-based work easiness evaluation score indicating the degree of difficulty of the work for the article under evaluation, by decreasing or increasing the value of the article elimination score from a predetermined standard value, (k) reading said basic elimination scores and said supplementary coefficients from said basic element storage part and said supplementary element storage part based on the inputted identification symbols representing the basic elements and the supplementary elements of each of said existing parts, and determining part elimination scores for said existing parts based on said basic elimination scores and said supplementary coefficients read out in accordance with said first index function, determining (i) a part-based work easiness evaluation score for each of said existing parts depending on increase or decrease of said part elimination score, from said predetermined standard value, and (ii) an article-based work easiness evaluation score of said existing article based on said part-based work easiness evaluation scores, in accordance with said second index function, (l) comparing the part-based work easiness evaluation scores of the parts of the article under evaluation with the part-based work easiness evaluation scores of said existing parts on the basis of the real values of the work costs, the real values of the required times or real values of the indexes thereof for the existing parts, to determine estimated values of the work costs, the required times or the indexes thereof for the parts under evaluation, (m) comparing the article-based work easiness evaluation score of the article under evaluation with the article-based work easiness evaluation score of said existing article, on the basis of the real values of the work costs, the real values of the required times or real values of the indexes thereof for the existing article, to determine estimated values of the work costs, the required times or the indexes thereof for the article under evaluation, and (n) outputting the estimated values of said article-based work easiness evaluation score, said part-based work easiness evaluation scores and the work costs as well as the required times or indexes thereof for said article under evaluation and parts.