Patent ID: 7603262

Claim:
A method of modeling a production process, comprising: creating a model of a production process for a product design for a product using an integrated product and process engineering system, wherein the production process is modeled as a hierarchy of nodes, wherein the production process initially refers to a product design model that identifies product components generically by product type but is revised over time to integrate product component selections for each product, and wherein the production process nodes are data objects supported by an integrated product and process engineering software framework, said creating the production process model comprising: creating a set of nodes for the production process model under user control; assigning relationships between the set of nodes; adding to the production process model an additional set of nodes based on the prior set of nodes and the relationships between the prior set of nodes; and repeating said assigning and said adding steps until the model is finished; when the product design model is revised to identify a new product component selection, reading a data object associated with a selected product component to determine if it is characterized by a time dependent process parameter (TDPP); if so, instantiating a TDPP for the selected product component using a global TDPP class that interfaces with the integrated product and process engineering software framework; registering the TDPP with the integrated product and process engineering system as an object external to the integrated product and process engineering software framework; storing the TDPP and a validity constraint of the TDPP with the product design; creating an engineering change number reflecting that an update occurred for the product design model; and storing the product design model as a new version along with the associated engineering change number; wherein the new version is valid so long as all TDPPs in the product design model remain valid.