Method and system for product restructuring

摘要

A system and method for restructuring a product assembly utilizes a knowledge base of past product designs to identify to an expert, which components within the assembly are candidates for replacement with other components. By reducing the varieties of components in assemblies, the cost of manufacturing decreases. Data base management techniques are used to store and maintain data about the makeup of various assembly models and the criteria used to select the components for each assembly. Restructure candidates are identified by manipulating selection tables in such a way as to locate those criteria that have little effect on the choice of a given component. An expert then evaluates the possibility of replacing those components that are currently being used in those small number of cases where the aforementiond selection criteria with little decision making weight actually do determine selection of that particular component.