Introduction

ISO 10303 is an International Standard for the computer-interpretable representation of product information and for the exchange of product data. The objective is to provide a neutral mechanism capable of describing products throughout their life cycle. This mechanism is suitable not only for neutral file exchange, but also as a basis for implementing and sharing product databases, and as a basis for retention and archiving.

Major subdivisions of this document are:

• product_structure_schema;
• product_concept_schema;
• configuration_management_schema.

The product_structure_schema:

• defines a product in terms of its composition as a set of constituents or consumed products. These products are defined and related at a specific life cycle stage or discipline view. A product may be assembled from the constituents or produced by consuming other products, or both;
• defines mechanisms for expressing the composition relationship.

The product_concept_schema identifies the product concept as a set of specifications for a product derived from analysis of customer needs for the product. It represents the idea of a product based on customer needs and not as it might be designed or built.

The configuration_management_schema identifies those products participating in the configuration of another product that is under the direct control of an organization.

Industrial automation is concerned with the management of information including the following:

• product structure;
• product configuration;
• product change.

Product structure is focused on the aspect of product design that defines a product in terms of a nested decomposition of its constituents. The product structure schema of this part of ISO 10303 and the product definition schema of ISO 10303-41 together define the representation of the information that manages the details of product structure. Examples of the use of the information represented are the generation of billof-material reports or the representation of variational bill-of-material structures with conditional part usages.

Product configuration is concerned with the description of the composition of specific products. The planning includes specification of the actual constituents of a product that are to be included in a planned or actual unit. The configuration management schema and the product structure schema represent the information that manages the configuration of a product. The concept of effectivity is used to manage the configuration of a product.

Change management is involved with the changes over time in a product as new versions of a product are developed. This part of ISO 10303 is concerned with changes that affect the organization of constituents into interrelated structures. The configuration management schema represents information on the structural form of the definition of a product as the product changes and is enhanced during the product life cycle. Representation of information on other aspects of change management is defined in the product definition schema and the action schema of ISO 10303-41.

In this International Standard the same English language words may be used to refer to an object in the real world or concept, and as the name of an EXPRESS data type that represents this object or concept. The following typographical convention is used to distinguish between these. If a word or phrase occurs in the same typeface as narrative text, the referent is the object or concept. If the word or phrase occurs in a bold typeface, the referent is the EXPRESS data type.

The name of an EXPRESS data type may be used to refer to the data type itself, or to an instance of the data type. The distinction between these uses is normally clear from the context. If there is a likelihood of ambiguity, either the phrase "entity data type" or "instance(s) of" is included in the text.

The relationships of the schemas in this document to other schemas that define the integrated resources of ISO 10303 are illustrated in Figure 1 using the EXPRESS-G notation. EXPRESS-G is defined in ISO 10303-11.

The following schemas shown in Figure 1 are not found in this document, but are found as specified:

• application_context_schema is found in ISO 10303-41;
• effectivity_schema is found in ISO 10303-41;
• product_definition_schema is found in ISO 10303-41.

The schemas illustrated in Figure 1 are components of the integrated resources.

• Figure 1 — Relationship of schemas within the integrated resources

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