Patent ID: 6128626
Filing Date: 2000-10-03
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of organizing a user accessible database for minimizing the amount of duplicate information stored in tables contained therein and used for generating bill of materials documents for manufacturing a number of board assembly products, the method comprising the steps of:(a) including as a first table, a product directory index table structure for storing a number of index value entries coded in a predetermined manner that represent all of board assembly products being currently manufactured, each index value entry containing a first type of key values to be used as a filtering mechanism in extracting data entries from other tables contained in the database containing information related to a particular board assembly product and for designating points within the database tables where entries were added or deleted;(b) including as the other tables in the database, data table structures for storing data entries containing different assembly board product related information required in generating the bill of materials documents used in manufacturing the board assembly products, each entry containing a second type of key values for defining data selection criteria conditions to be used in extracting entries utilized by a particular board assembly product;(c) including a first data retrieval component in the database, the first component for accessing the product index table structure to present the user with all of the entries associated with a particular board product and for generating the first type of key values in response to a user product selection from the entries presented; and,(d) including a second data retrieval component in the database, the second component for accessing data entries contained in the number of other tables of the database, the second component being operative in response the first type of key values to search each of the entries in the other tables for extracting as a function of criteria conditions defined by the second type of key values contained in each table data entry, only those data entries identified as being required for the generation of a bill of materials document for the selected board assembly product.