Structuring of Temporary Systems

• US 20070102516A1
• Filed: 12/18/2006
• Published: 05/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Muehl, Gordon, Irle, Klaus, Heusermann, Knut, Kienle, Walter
• Granted Patent: US 7,566,005 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/385
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A method for structuring a temporary system includes receiving information obtained by interrogating a tag on an article and establishing a relationship between the article and one or more other articles in the temporary system based at least in part upon the information obtained by interrogating the tag. The information obtained by interrogating the tag regards the article.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving information describing a first tangible article from a tag associated with the first tangible article;

determining a first characteristic and a second characteristic of the first tangible article based on the information received from the tag;

accessing a machine-readable description of a system of tangible articles, the system description comprising

a collection of descriptions that each represent a tangible article in the system, and

a collection of relationship descriptions that each describe a relationship between at least two tangible articles in the system;

identifying a first relationship description between a second tangible article and a third tangible article in the system of tangible articles, wherein the second and the third tangible article are represented by second and third descriptions in the collection of descriptions and the second description describes that the second tangible article shares the first characteristic of the first tangible article;

establishing a second relationship description to describe a second relationship between the first tangible article and the third tangible article;

identifying a third relationship description between a fourth tangible article and a fifth tangible article in the system of tangible articles, wherein the fourth and the fifth tangible article are represented by fourth and fifth descriptions in the collection of descriptions and the fourth description describes that the fourth tangible article shares the second characteristic of the first tangible article; and

establishing a fourth relationship description to describes a fourth relationship between the first tangible article and the fifth tangible article.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the second description in the collection of descriptions based on the first characteristic of the first tangible article.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first characteristic comprises retrieving the first characteristic information from a separate database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first characteristic and the second characteristic are determined from the information received from the tag.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first characteristic and the second characteristic comprise functional characteristics of the first tangible article.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first characteristic comprises a functional characteristic of the first tangible article; and

the second characteristic comprises a structural characteristic of the first tangible article.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a new first description representing the first tangible article.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising adding the first description to the collection of descriptions in the system description.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the descriptions that represent tangible articles comprise data objects that represent tangible articles.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the information describing the first tangible article comprises information describing at least one of a make or a model of the first tangible article.

11. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in one or more information carriers, for structuring a system, the computer program product being operable to cause one or more data processing apparatuses to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving information describing a first characteristic and a second characteristic of a first tangible article from a tag associated with the first tangible article;

accessing a machine-readable description of a system of tangible articles, the system description comprising

a collection of descriptions that each represent a tangible article in the system, and

a collection of relationship descriptions that each describe a relationship between at least two tangible articles in the system;

creating a new first description to represent the first tangible article;

identifying a second description in the collection of descriptions, wherein the second description represents a second tangible article in the system;

establishing a first relationship description that describes a first relationship involving the first tangible article based on the second tangible article sharing the first characteristic;

identifying a third description in the collection of descriptions, wherein the third description represents a third tangible article in the system;

establishing a second relationship description that describes a second relationship involving the first tangible article based on the third tangible article sharing the second characteristic.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise establishing that the first tangible article is new to the system of tangible articles based on the information received from the tag.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise populating the first description with information received from the tag.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the first characteristic and the second characteristic are described in a description of a category of the first tangible article

15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the first relationship description describes an operational compatibility of the first tangible article and the second tangible article.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the first relationship description describes an operational interchangeability of the first tangible article and the second tangible article.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the second relationship description describes a common functional deployment of the first tangible article and a fifth tangible article.

18. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise deploying the article and other articles in the system can be established without retrieving information regarding the first tangible article from a separate database.

19. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the descriptions that represent tangible articles comprise data objects that represent tangible articles.

20. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the information describing the first characteristic and the second characteristic comprises information describing at least one of a make or a model of the first tangible article.