Importance

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Abstract

This invention is related to electronic product description transfer between a trading partner that designs a product and a trading partner that manufactures the product and more particularly to the organization and use of a catalog of component information used in the generation of process documents and programs to adapt an assembly process to assemble the product as specified in the electronic product description. In the present invention, a consolidated component catalog provides the information for a component used in the assembly of a product in two sections: an assembly process independent section and an assembly process dependent section. The assembly process independent information is used to correct and validate the product description information. The assembly process dependent information is used to generate the programs and documents to adapt an assembly process to assemble the product described in the product description. A component is identified using a part number from a part number system in the product description and the consolidated component catalog. Another product description using the same component may identify the component with a second part number from a second part number system. The consolidated component catalog relates the first part number and second part number to the component so that redundant component information is not created.

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First Claim