Overcoming Configuration Process Complexity of Highly Customizable Components

The benefits of product configuration systems are twofold. On the one hand side, they support the creation and management of configuration knowledge. On the other hand side, configurators are tools that enable a company to use its expertise for best possible fulfillment of the customers. A basic requirement for using a product configuration system is the existence of a complete product model. In the area of material customization of standard components, this condition can often not be fulfilled. For this reason, it is impossible to use conventional configuration systems to support the information elicitation process. This paper presents a novel idea for product configuration that can be applied to overcome complexity in the area of material customization. In the centre of interest is a flexible configuration model that supports the generation of free definable descriptions and configuration dialogues, which can be used to identify individual components instead of using unique item numbers. The paper will also consider the fact that in many situations there is also an additional demand for standard parts, needed for the final assembling of an individual component. In order to support the procurement processes of such parts, it is necessary to transfer the contents of the configuration model directly into a bill of materials. Therefore this paper presents the basic requirements as well as an appropriate algorithm to accomplish the transformation process.