Patent US1613463A successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
EP0483039A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Method and system for version control of engineering changes
Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
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Filing: 1991-10-10
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2011-10-10
Abstract
Abstract A system and method for storage and retrieval of both time-oriented versions and view-oriented versions of engineering change information in which the engineering change information progresses through a set of status conditions and access to the data by different user groups is conditioned upon the status of the information. Version control software logic enables users to create versioned objects by logical key grouping of data elements. The version control logic acts upon the logical keys and special versioned attributes of these objects for the proper specification and selection of object instances during creation, update or retrieval processing. Insert and extract sequence numbers are automatically generated for both historical preservation of previous engineering change information and efficient retrieval of the currently effective designs. Instance level security facilitates the merger of different versions of the engineering change data having different engineering change status levels so that similar types of data can be contained within a single data base table.
Inventors
- 👤 Sujan K. Mukherjee
- 👤 James Lawrence Ryan
- 👤 James Richard Wason
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-06 13:40
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06Q; G06Q10/00; G06Q10/08; G06Q10/087; G05; G05B; G05B19/00; G05B19/02; G05B19/418; G05B19/41845; G05B2219/00; G05B2219/30; G05B2219/32; G05B2219/32398; Y; Y02; Y02P; Y02P90/00; Y02P90/02; Y10; Y10S; Y10S707/00; Y10S707/99931; Y10S707/99933; Y10S707/99951; Y10S707/99952; Y10S707/99953
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 20
Claim 1
Independent Claim
138 words
A method for the control of versioned data objects affected by engineering changes in a computer-based information processing system in which a master item file resides on a non-volatile storage device, said method comprising: creating an engineering change notice that identifies at least one item in the master item file that is affected by an engineering change; creating an affected item record for said at least one item and storing the affected item record in an affected item file on the non-volatile storage device; determining each versioned data object that is affected by the engineering change and storing said each versioned data object along with a plurality of version control attributes in a version-related data file on said non-volatile storage device; and processing said a version-related data file in response to a search query by an authorized user.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
41 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the affected item record includes an engineering change identifier, an item identifier, an affected item status, a view identifier, a design sequence number, a product identifier, a security level, and at least one effectivity attribute.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
25 words
The method of claim 1 wherein said plurality of version control attributes include a logical key, an insert sequence number, and an extract sequence number.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
30 words
The method of claim 3 in which said versioned data object is item-related and stored in said version-related data file with the item identifier being used as the logical key.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
51 words
The method of claim 3 in which said versioned data object is bill of material related and has both an item identifier and a component identifier, and is stored in said version-related data file with a combination of the item identifier and the component identifier being used as the logical key.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
54 words
The method of claim 2 in which said at least one item affected is given an initial affected item status of pre-release, said at least one item affected subsequently being promoted to a status of released, accepted, effective and closed as the said at least one item affected progresses through design, manufacturing and production.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
35 words
The method of claim 2 wherein said security level controls access to each of said versioned data objects and has a direct correspondence to said affected item status of each of said versioned data objects.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 2 wherein the view identifier in said affected item record is used to identify and retrieve all unextracted versioned data objects representing the same view.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
53 words
The method of claim 2 including the step of automatically generating the design sequence number when said engineering change notice is created wherein the design sequence number represents a unique attribute of said at least one item affected and has-a direct correlation to both the engineering change identifier and the affected item status.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
52 words
The method of claim 9 further including the step of automatically generating an insert sequence number for each versioned data object affected by said engineering change and stored in said version-related data file, said insert sequence number being set to the corresponding design sequence number resulting from creating the engineering change notice.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
43 words
The method of claim 10 further including the step of identifying each versioned data object that is superseded by entering the design sequence number of the corresponding versioned data object that replaces each said superseded versioned data object as the extract sequence number.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
88 words
The method of claim 1 wherein said processing step includes: presenting an interface screen to said authorized user containing user-selectable search query options; selecting a search query option and identifying a set of input parameters for said search query to collectively define a search strategy; searching said versioned data file for each versioned data object satisfying said search strategy; and retrieving said each versioned data object satisfying said search strategy and providing said retrieved versioned data object to said authorized user as the result of said search query.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
67 words
The method of claim 12 wherein the set of input parameters for said search query include the item identifier and an engineering change identifier, said engineering change identifier being entered as a pair of values to identify and to provide said authorized user with a composite view of the versioned data objects that are effective between the range of engineering changes represented by said pair of values.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
59 words
The method of claim 12 wherein the set of input parameters for said search query include the item identifier and a specified date said specified date being entered as a pair of values to identify and to provide said authorized user with a composite view of the versioned data objects that are effective between said range of specified dates.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method of claim 8 wherein said affected item record further includes a "based on view" attribute and a "based on sequence number" attribute.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
58 words
The method of claim 15 wherein multiple view versions of said versioned data objects are created in which a first view version is based on a second view version which, in turn, can be based on a third view version, the "based on view" and "based on sequence number" attributes being used to associate said multiple view versions.
Claim 17
Independent Claim
147 words
A system for the control of versioned data objects affected by engineering changes in a computer-based information processing system having a processor, non-volatile data storage device containing a data base in which a master item file, an engineering change notices file, and an engineering change affected item file are stored, and at least one device for input and output, said system comprising: a first plurality of data files containing versioned data objects that are item related; a second plurality of data files containing versioned data objects that are bill of material related; and version control logic means operating on said processor that is cooperative with said first and second plurality of data files and responsive to a search strategy provided by an authorized user using said device for input for retrieving versioned data objects from said first and second plurality of data files satisfying said search strategy.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
56 words
The system of claim 17 wherein said version control logic means provides data access authorization to versioned data objects contained in said engineering change affected item file, and in said first and second plurality of data files in response to requests from said authorized user based on the engineering change item status of said data records.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
76 words
The system of claim 17 wherein said first plurality of data files includes an item engineering data file containing item related versioned data objects having fields for an item identifier, an insert sequence number, and an extract sequence number, said item identifier being used as a logical key, and said insert and extract sequence numbers being used by said version control logic means to selectively retrieve said item related versioned data objects satisfying said search strategy.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
87 words
The system of claim 17 wherein said second plurality of data files includes a bill of material component file containing bill of material related versioned data objects having fields for an item identifier, a component item identifier, an insert sequence number, and an extract sequence number, said item identifier and component item identifier forming a logical key, and said insert and extract sequence numbers being used by said version control logic means to selectively retrieve said bill of material related versioned data objects satisfying said search strategy.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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