Management of product's diversity: industrial validation of AP214 reference model
by Christophe Viel
International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology (IJCAT), Vol. 18, No. 1/2/3/4, 2003

Abstract: ISO 10303 is an International Standard for the computer-interpretable representation and exchange of product data. The objective is to provide a neutral mechanism capable of describing product data throughout the life cycle of a product, independent from any particular system. The nature of this description makes it suitable not only for neutral file exchange, but also as a basis for implementing and sharing product databases and archiving. Specified by the world leading automotive manufacturers, ISO 10303 Application Protocol 214 (AP214) proposes the first internationally agreed data model adapted to automotive mechanical design and more generally to the management of products with large diversity. One of the problems that car manufacturers are facing is to be able to describe all the products that can be manufactured. Because there are more than ten million conceivable cars, an explicit description of each bill of materials would mean the storage of a huge amount of paper while the traditional solutions of configuration management are not adapted to large diversity, AP214 provides specific mechanism to handle this diversity. In order to evaluate the usability of ISO 10303-AP214 GOSET has been asked by PSA Peugeot Citroen and Valeo to develop an implementation of the ISO 10303-214 data model, and to demonstrate that it is adapted to the management of implicit bill of materials. This paper describes the general principles that have been followed to implement the reference model of AP 214 in a relational database system. Then, it presents an extract of the sample data that has been taken from PSA Peugeot Citroen to dynamically validate the data model using this implementation GoStep214.

Online publication date: Mon, 21-Jul-2003

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