Visualizing Historical Product Structure Evolution
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional methods for representing product structures fail to provide a historical context of changes, as they only offer snapshots based on selected effectivity parameter values, lacking the ability to traceably capture and visualize the evolution of product structures over time.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that concatenates and graphically represents all change states associated with each item in a product structure, relative to effective parameters, allowing for the visualization of the historical product structure on an electronic display, enabling users to select and compare different effectivity parameter values and highlight changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If traditional snapshot methods are used to represent product structures, then the representation is simple and easy to generate, but historical context and evolution of changes are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a temporal dimension to the product structure representation by displaying change states along a timeline. Instead of showing only a static snapshot at a single point in time, the system presents multiple change states (e.g., change states 1010, 1020, 1030) arranged chronologically, allowing users to visualize the evolution of the product structure over time while maintaining a manageable display through selective presentation of relevant changes.
2Loss of information
If all change states are displayed to preserve complete history, then historical context is maintained, but the complexity of viewing and processing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complete change history into discrete, manageable change state units (e.g., change state 1010, 1020, 1030). Each change state represents a specific point in time with associated product structure data. This segmentation allows the system to preserve complete historical information while presenting it in a structured, easily navigable format where users can view individual change states or select specific time periods for comparison.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements dynamic viewing capabilities that allow users to interactively navigate through change states based on selected effectivity parameter values (e.g., date effectivity, version effectivity). Users can dynamically adjust the viewing window to focus on relevant time periods or compare specific change states, making the viewing process adaptive to user needs rather than presenting all data statically.
3Ease of operation
If snapshots are taken at selected effectivity parameter values, then the view is simplified, but traceability of changes over time is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms that maintain the connection between selected effectivity parameter values and the corresponding change states. When users select specific parameter values (e.g., a date or version), the system provides feedback by displaying the appropriate change states and allowing navigation to related historical or future states. This feedback loop ensures traceability is maintained even when viewing simplified snapshots, as users can always navigate to see the full change history or compare different time points.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method to graphically represent historical product structures. When a computer extracts all change states for a data set corresponding to a first product structure having a plurality of items. The change states associated with each item are concatenated. The concatenated change states relative to each item and to the parametric constraint effective for the data set are displayed on an electronic display. In this way it is possible to visualize the historical product structure.