Generic bill of functions, materials, and operations for SAP2configuration

Linda L. Zhang, Elise Vareilles, Michel Aldanondo
2013 International Journal of Production Research  
Most available studies on configuration focus on either sales configuration specifying functional features or production configuration addressing product components. It has been well recognised that automating most of the activities associated with specification, engineering, and process planning of customised products and their interactions is one key in achieving product customisation. Thus, treating sales configuration and product configuration separately may not contribute to product
more » ... sation from a systematic view although they may lead to the improvement of individual stages. Recognising this limitation of existing studies, in this paper, we propose integrated SAles, Product and Production (SAP 2 ) configuration, which helps achieve product customisation from a holistic view. Its rationale lies in automating consistently sales, product and production configuration activities in one system. In view of the importance of configuration models, we focus on the model underpinning SAP 2 configuration called generic bill of functions, materials and operations (GBoFMO) and discuss it in detail. As the core of SAP 2 configuration, GBoFMO can provide companies with an insight into organising the large volumes of data and knowledge in the life cycle of product family development. We also report a case study of light passenger aircrafts to illustrate the GBoFMO.
doi:10.1080/00207543.2011.652745 fatcat:3qtupbpz4nggpfcff5lmo4wkte