Bill-of-material configuration generation

Abstract

A novel system which combines elements of database management, object-oriented technology and artificial intelligence is described. This system addresses certain bill-of-material (BOM) configuration generation problems and should not be confused with the more typical BOM recursive traversal problems. The BOM configuration system automatically extracts design rules from existing BOM designs. The system then, in turn, applies the rules to generate new BOM designs. It is shown that there are special requirements of the applications that make BOM configuration a difficult process.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>