Patent ID: 7487117

Claim:
A support system for sales of products, comprising: a terminal system including an input system that receives input information on a product provided from a customer and a display for displaying product information on the product to the customer, the input information on the product from the customer including a purchase order of the product; and an information management system connected to said terminal system and product facilities that can provide various products including the ordered product, to communicate therewith, the information management system receiving the purchase order of the product from the terminal system, selecting a product facility that can provide the ordered product, and transmitting to the selected product facility instructions for providing the selected product, the information management system comprising a design management system that manages design data on products, the design management system comprising: a standard product memory; a patterned special product memory that stores shapes of a plurality of patterned special products and parameters defining dimensions of the shapes; a system that determines whether the ordered product is a standard product or a patterned special product on the basis of data for the ordered product entered from the input system of the terminal system and searches a database for price estimates for the patterned special product and retrieves an estimate, based on whether the product is determined to be a patterned special product, by searching for quotations related to similar products; a display system that displays on the display of the terminal system a shape and parameters of a patterned special product on a patterned special product menu that corresponds to the ordered product when it is determined the ordered product is a patterned special product; and a receiver that receives dimension data for each of the parameters entered from the input system of the terminal system and for outputting the design data for the patterned special product, wherein the standard product has fixed shape and size parameters; and wherein the product facility is connected to at least one product facility, comprising at least one of a standard product facility and a patterned special product facility, wherein the ordered product is a tool or a part of a metal processing machine, wherein the introduction of products includes image representation of electric catalogue and the information terminal presents the customer with potential product malfunctions and instructions on how to avoid the potential product malfunctions, when the customer selects products associated with product malfunctions, and wherein a form of the patterned special product is fixed and a size of the patterned special type product may be varied by the customer.