Patent ID: 7542883
Filing Date: 2009-06-02
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. An evaluation apparatus which evaluates environmental load and cost when a group of products is reused in a plurality of markets that differ from each other in value lifetime of the group, the value lifetime of the group in each market being an upper limit of a product age at which the group can be used in each market, the apparatus comprising: a generating unit configured to generate an attribute data item of the group including an initial value of the product age of the group, and to generate an attribute data item of a component included in each product of the group, the attribute data item of the component including an initial value of a remaining useful lifetime of the component, and to store the attribute data item of the group and the attribute data item of the component in a memory; a simulation executing unit configured (a) to select in turn, from the plurality of markets, one market into which the group is introduced, according to an order determined based on a reusable product age corresponding to each market of the markets, the reusable product age of each market designating the product age of the group at which the group can be introduced into the respective market and being determined by the value lifetime of the respective market and a period of use of the group in respective market, (b) to calculate, for each of calculation step times, the environmental load and the cost of a circulated life cycle in which the group is introduced into the one market selected, (c) to update the product age of the group in the memory, by adding a period of use of the group in the one market selected, (d) to update the remaining useful lifetime of the component in the memory, by subtracting the period of use of the group in the one market selected, and (e) to repeat (a) to (d) until a threshold value obtained by adding a period of use of the group in one of the markets whose value lifetime is the longest among the markets to the product age of the group in the memory is larger than the value lifetime of the one of the markets; and a display to display the environmental load and the cost calculated for each calculation step time.