Process for structuring and managing the configuration of industrial products, and particularly aircraft

• US 20040148045A1
• Filed: 11/14/2003
• Published: 07/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Airbus SAS (Airbus SE)
• Original Assignee: Airbus SAS (Airbus SE)
• Inventors: Arnaud, Francoise, Scotto DʼAppolonia, Antoine
• Application Number:
  US10/712,009
• Publication Number:
  US 20040148045A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/97
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

This invention relates to a process for structuring and managing the configuration of an industrial product using processing means comprising at least one processor, a memory, data input means and a display screen, in which:

a set of technical objects is described, each technical object either representing a product function (EPAC), or describing an implementation method (TDU) for such a product function, in order to achieve a configuration of this product;

a database is updated to specify the definition of each technical object and its inter-relations with other objects in the configuration, by an expression of rules and constraints;

this database is used interactively and dynamically through a selection of options.

Claims

1. A method to structure and manage a configuration of an industrial product, taking account of options selected by a customer, comprising:

describing a set of technical objects, each technical object either representing a product function or describing an implementation method for making a product configuration for the product function, the set of technical objects representing manufacturing options of the industrial product;

updating a database for clarifying a definition of each technical object and its inter-relations with other of the technical objects in the product configuration by an expression of rules and constraints; and

interactively and dynamically using said database during definition of the product, through the selection of the options by the customer.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein each technical object represents either a function of an aircraft or describes an implementation method of the aircraft function to create an aircraft configuration.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method operations use:

a knowledge management module;

a contract management module;

an administration module; and

a mass management module;

all working on the database.

4. A method according to claim 3,

wherein the knowledge management module is configured to manage technical objects each representing an aircraft function,

wherein the contract management module is configured to manage fleet configurations of aircraft;

wherein the administration module is configured to manage user profiles, and

wherein the mass management module is configured to manage mass of a customized configuration from data supplied from the contract management module.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the industrial product is considered as a set of functions in a functional approach.

6. A method according to claim 3, wherein the contract management module works in a connected or disconnected mode.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein a technical object oriented configuration is used in which the options and corresponding implementation methods are selected directly in a list sorted by at least one of ATA chapter, job category, and sales policy, the selection being made either individually or globally using a global procedure that joins a possible application and a weight to a set of options in a same functional domain.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein a functional oriented configuration is used that supplies a functional approach to directly select technical objects, specifying required properties of a functional characteristic.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the contract manager is configured to start a configuration checking process at any time.