Appeal No. 2007-1110 Page 4
Application No. 09/832,603
Claim construction
1. Claim 1 describes a method of doing business in which the cost of a
component is established by employing five steps.
2. The first step involves using a computerized process that includes databases
from which aspects of the cost of a component can be determined. The lowest cost
potential of the design, manufacturing practices, supply chain management
techniques, labor rates, uptime, and yields are used to make that determination.
3. The second step yields an ought to be cost for the component involving
using the computerized process to determine a lowest cost potential for each aspect
of the cost of the component and then totaling the lowest cost potentials for each
aspect of the cost of the component.
4. The third step involves using the computerized process to generate a report
that includes details of each aspect of the cost, yielding the ought to be cost.
5. The fourth step involves providing the reports to prospective suppliers of the
component.
6. The fifth step involves conducting discussions with prospective suppliers of
the component in an effort to gain concurrence on the fact basis of what the cost of
the component, ought to be.
7. The sixth step involves conducting fact based discussions with prospective
suppliers of the component with whom concurrence on the cost has been reached
in an effort to reach an agreement on a price for the component based on the ought
to be cost of the component.
8. The claim does not define “lowest cost potential.” The Specification does
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