Patent ID: 7454391

Claim:
A system for obtaining solution suggestions for a problem related to at least one of mechanical hardware design, manufacturing, or maintenance comprising: a computing device formulating a problem statement of the problem on a computer graphical user interface (GUI), wherein the problem is related to at least one of mechanical hardware design, mechanical hardware manufacturing, or mechanical hardware maintenance and generating a computer displayable graphical representation of a first plurality of graphical polygons representing a cause-and-effect chain on a cause-and-effect axis based on said problem statement, said problem statement being displayed on said GUI for user interactive access, said computing device including a computer-based wizard providing a resource formulation for the problem statement, wherein said computer-based wizard provides a computer displayable graphical representation of a second plurality of graphical polygons representing at least one of an additional axis or a template, said at least one of an additional axis or template comprising at least one of a hierarchy axis or an operation axis, said hierarchy axis describing resources of at least one of a super-system or a subsystem, said additional axis or template being used to generate an alternative problem statement, said alternative problem statement also being displayed on said GUI for user interactive access, wherein said computer-based wizard finds said resources of at least one of the super-system or the subsystem, said resources including at least one of an object, an element, a substance or an energy, wherein said resources are used to prevent a cause in said cause-and-effect chain, wherein said computer-based wizard finds said resources in at least one of a previous operation or a next operation, said resources including at least one of a component, process, substance or energy, wherein said resources are used to prevent a cause in said cause-and-effect chain, said computing device generating a computer formulated query based on said cause-and-effect chain and said alternative problem statement to obtain said solution suggestions.