Patent ID: 8499195

Claim:
A failure cause estimation device comprising: a first database that stores causes of past failure cases, questions, and replies thereto for each of the past failure cases; a second database that stores combinations of the questions and the replies, the combinations being used to classify a cause of a failure case; and a processor coupled to the first data base and the second data base, wherein the processor executes a process comprising: presenting the combinations of the questions and the replies thereto stored in the second database, as branch conditions; accepting an input of a new branch condition including a combination of a question and a reply, the combination being not presented as the branch conditions; storing the new branch condition in the second database; estimating, with reference to the first database, at least one cause satisfying the new branch condition and at least one branch condition selected from the presented branch conditions; and presenting the estimated at least one cause as at least one cause candidate.