Patent ID: 7471990

Claim:
A design/manufacture support system comprising: a self company/correspondent parts number correspondence storing unit for storing a correspondence between parts numbers of a self company part and a correspondent part; a self company parts bill storage unit for storing a structure of parts of a self company product; a correspondent parts bill storage unit for storing a structure of parts to be purchased from a correspondent; a representative part creation unit for creating, from the correspondence between parts numbers of a self company part and a correspondent part, a representative part node of self company parts corresponding to a plurality of correspondent parts candidates; a parts bill creation unit for creating a parts bill of a product from: the representative part node created by said representative part creation unit, a self company parts bill stored in said self company parts bill storage unit, and a correspondent parts bill stored in said correspondent parts bill storage unit; an input unit for inputting data to said self company/correspondent parts number correspondence storing unit, self company parts bill storage unit and correspondent parts bill storage unit; and an output unit for displaying the parts bill of the product created by said parts bill creation unit in a tree form diagram, the parts bill showing hierarchy relations between the parts including the representative part node in tree form and showing the relations between the representative part node and all correspondent parts candidates in tree form.