Patent ID: 7353072

Claim:
A method of generating a manufacturing process for producing at least one assembly, said method comprising the steps of: designing at least one assembly to be produced comprising at least two components to be engaged to one another such that the area where the components are to be engaged thereby defines at least one contact area; generating a representation of the assembly; assigning a first identifier to a first component of the assembly or, when a group of more than one identical first components is utilized in the assembly, assigning identical first identifiers to each first component of the group thereby identifying each first component as identical; assigning a second identifier to a second component of the assembly or, when a group of more than one identical second components is utilized in the assembly, assigning identical second identifiers to each second component thereby identifying each second component as identical; assigning a manufacturing methodology to at least one contact area; generating manufacturing instructions for the manufacturing process based at least in part on the first identifier, second identifier, and the contact area; and outputting the generated manufacturing instructions for the manufacturing process.