Design support system

A design support method for supporting design of a manufacturing line for an electronic device where the manufacturing line is constituted by combination of a plurality of element types of manufacturing cells, said method comprising:

• (a) indicating to an operator in a selectable manner said element types stored in an element type database storing information about said element types beforehand;
• (b) selecting arbitrary element types to be used for constituting said manufacturing line from among said element types indicated;
• (c) determining said element types or specifications of said element types based on said element types selected;
• (d) preparing information about said manufacturing line by acquiring information about said element types stored in said element type database based on said element types selected;
• and
• (e) outputting the prepared information about said manufacturing line,
• wherein preparation of the information about said manufacturing line is based on said element types or said specifications of said element types determined,
• said element type database stores determination information in association with said element types, and the determining of said element types or specifications of said element types is based on said determination information, and
• said determination information is at least one of a conditional expression which determines another element type, or a specification of another element type, both complying with the selected element type, which would otherwise be caused when a first element type has been selected, and an incidental expression having information to be used for preventing reflection of information about a specific constituent element or element type in response to the selected element type, which would otherwise be caused when a second element type has been selected.

A computer-readable recording medium which stores a design support program for supporting design of a manufacturing line for an electronic device where the manufacturing line is constituted by combination of a plurality of element types of manufacturing cells, said program instructing a computer to perform operations comprising:

• (a) indicating to an operator in a selectable manner said element types stored in an element type database storing information about said element types beforehand;
• (b) selecting arbitrary element types to be used for constituting said manufacturing line from among said element types indicated;
• (c) determining said element types or specifications of said element types based on said element types selected;
• (d) preparing information about said manufacturing line by acquiring information about said element types stored in said element type database based on said element types selected and
• (e) outputting the prepared information about said manufacturing line,
• wherein preparation of the information about said manufacturing line is based on said element types or said specifications of said element types determined,
• said element type database stores determination information in association with said element types, and determining of said element types or specifications of said element types is based on said determination information, and
• said determination information is at least one of a conditional expression which determines another element type, or a specification of another element type, both complying with the selected element type, which would otherwise be caused when a first element type has been selected, and an incidental expression having information to be used for preventing reflection of information about a specific constituent element or element type in response to the selected element type, which would otherwise be caused when a second element type has been selected.