Patent ID: 7412295

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of defining and using marker points within a modeled manufacturing process routing that comprises multiple sequenced operations, the method comprising: receiving user input that defines one or more marker points within the modeled manufacturing process routing and between sequential ones of the operations, the one or more marker points each defining a user-defined point within a manufacturing process and including one of multiple defined types that each define a different use to be made by the marker point, wherein one of the multiple defined types is a planning type; and detecting if any marker points of the planning type have been defined in the manufacturing process routing while operating a computing process that uses the modeled manufacturing process routing and that is configured to detect and use marker points of the planning type, and if at least one marker point having the specified one of the defined types is detected, executing a predefined computing function that uses the detected marker points as boundary points for defined groups of multiple sequenced operations, wherein the predefined computing function of the computing process aggregates the multiple sequenced operations included in a defined group into a single operation to be used in a rough-cut manufacturing planning process.