MODEL FOR MANAGING VARIATIONS IN A PRODUCT STRUCTURE FOR A PRODUCT

摘要

A product management system (100) comprises a model (3400) and a data manager (116). The model (3400) includes design data (3402) for a product structure (3404) for a product (102). The model (3400) comprises a primary hierarchical organization (3408) of master objects (3421), a number of secondary hierarchical organizations (3410) of version objects (3424), and a change context organization (3433) for each of the master objects (3435). A secondary hierarchical organization (3418) includes element version objects and occurrence version objects. The change context organization (3433) includes a group of variant objects (3430) and a group of branch instance objects (3432). A branch instance object (3506, 3514) in the group of branch instance objects (3432) tracks a sequence of version objects (3424) for a corresponding design branch (3444). The data manager (116) manages changes to the design data (3402) for the product structure (3404) within each design branch (3444) independently of other design branches using the model (3400), enabling manufacturing of the product (102) with increased efficiency using the model (3400).