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Abstract: in order to meet the new requirements for the product configuration management of engine connecting rod manufacturing enterprises due to the rapid development of China's automobile industry, taking a leading connecting rod manufacturing enterprise in China as the research object, the present situation and existing problems of product configuration management are analyzed, and the key technologies such as product structure tree management, BOM management, version management and global product information model are discussed, and the product configuration flow chart is designed. The concrete realization method of product configuration management is put forward.

The engine connecting rod is an important part connecting the piston pin and the crankshaft. It transforms the reciprocating linear motion of the piston into the rotating motion of the crankshaft, thus driving the wheel forward. In recent years, with the rapid development of China's automobile industry, the upgrading of engine products is getting faster and faster, which puts forward new requirements for the product configuration management of engine connecting rod manufacturing enterprises. Product data management (PDM) is a technology that manages all product-related information and all product-related processes. With the extensive and in-depth application and continuous development of computer technology in various engineering fields of the manufacturing industry, the implementation of PDM has not only become the need of information management for manufacturing enterprises, but also the strategic need for enterprises to win the future market competition.

Product configuration Management (PCM) is an important function of PDM system. Product configuration management appears with the serialization and customization of products, which enables all departments of an enterprise to share a unified product configuration in the whole life cycle of the product, and corresponding to the product definition of different stages. generate the corresponding product view, such as design view, assembly view, process view and so on. This paper will take a domestic leading enterprise of engine connecting rod production as the research object, and analyze and study its product structure tree management, BOM management, version management, global product information model and other technologies, in order to improve the practicability of PDM system and provide support for solving the problems existing in the information management of product design and development in engine connecting rod enterprises.

1 present situation and existing problems of engine connecting rod configuration management

1.1 status of configuration Management of connecting Rod products

Through the investigation of a leading manufacturer of engine connecting rod in China, the author finds that the BOM of connecting rod products in this enterprise is mainly managed by CAD format, and the management of BOM is difficult and workload. because of the complexity of automobile products, product model management, configuration management, version management and so on are more complex. Through manual configuration of product configuration management, the accuracy and real-time of configuration can not be guaranteed, and the data of product configuration has not been effectively reused.

1.2 problems in configuration management of connecting rod products

According to the present situation of engine connecting rod products, it can be found that there are still some main problems in product structure and configuration management as the core of PDM.

A. the main task of the research and development of connecting rod products is to design the connecting rod assembly for micro-car and car engine, and to work out the production process of the connecting rod assembly, and there are many kinds of products, which requires all kinds of personnel in enterprises to spend a lot of time consulting materials.

B. Different departments such as design, production and procurement have different forms of BOM, which will lead to rework and waste when the bill of materials supplied by design, manufacturing and procurement is inconsistent.

C. Due to the sudden demand of the market and customers, performance improvement, design errors, cost reduction and other reasons, parts often need to be changed, which will lead to inaccurate product structure and configuration information, which will directly affect procurement, manufacturing, assembly and other departments, resulting in unnecessary losses, so it is necessary to establish the principles of version management and effectiveness of product materials to solve the above problems.

D. the intensification of market competition will prompt enterprises to respond quickly to the needs of customers, and product structure and configuration management will play a major role here, such as providing rapid product configuration so that they can quickly configure new products according to changes in the market. or customize personalized products for different users, and to achieve this function requires the establishment of a rule base or decision table associated with the product structure. How to effectively and comprehensively establish and define the constraints between product structure and decision-making information is a problem that needs to be solved in product structure and configuration management.

2 key technologies of product structure and configuration management of engine connecting rod based on PDM

When considering the realization of enterprise-oriented product structure and configuration management concept, there are many technical factors involved. The following key technologies are discussed.

2.1 Product structure Tree Management

Product configuration management is to maintain and manage product objects and their relationships through product structure tree, so product structure tree is the basis of product configuration management. The product parts structure tree is composed of product assembly system diagram, product parts list (including general parts, standard parts, self-made parts, raw materials) and so on. The product structure tree is described in a tree form, and the nodes in the tree represent the master. This tree structure reflects the hierarchical relationship between products and parts. With the structure tree, managers can spread out in layers, take different branches, and intuitively find the data they want, regardless of their physical location.

2.2BOM management

Bill of Materials (BOM) is the report format of product structure. The BOM of each "single-tier structure" only needs to be established once, and it can be shared on all the products that borrow this single-tier structure, and the user can select the corresponding parameters to generate the final BOM table. The input of the "single-tier structure" BOM adopts the following data structure (see Table 1, Table 2), which is directly stored in the database.

Table 1 stores the basic description information of the part, Table 2 stores the detailed BOM information of the specific drawing paper of the node, and the Mcode part coding and the drawing paper number must adopt the same coding rules, that is, the number of a part and the number of the drawing paper must be the same, so that the relationship between the parts can be reflected.

In this way, for the document structure tree, when users need the BOM information of any point in the tree, they can directly summarize the BOM information of the node and all the following children and grandchildren in the expanded page of the node.

2.3 version Management

The emergence and management of version has always been an important function in PDM system. Version management mainly includes document version management, parts structure schedule version management, and product parts design file version management. In connecting rod design, enterprises have higher and higher requirements for version management because multiple versions are produced by changing parts. Version management ensures that manufacturing uses correct documents, ensures traceability of all processes, and promotes IS09000 systems to maintain consistency of data from different media.

Each phase of the version management life cycle forms a process version that can be summarized as a working version and a release version. The working version refers to the version of the design object that has not been approved at the design stage, and its general form is 1.1 ~ 1.2,. The working version is generally not directly displayed on the real blueprint, its greatest role is that the designer in the design process, after several changes to the scheme, and finally decided to adopt the last plan, you can find the last drawing paper to continue the design. The release version refers to the file version after approval. If the working version is submitted for approval and approved when the working version is 1.2, the release version is 1.0. After each change is passed, a new version 2.0, focus 3.0, 4.0, will be formed. As shown in figure l.

Figure l version configuration diagram

2.4 Global Product Information Model

When constructing the basic information resources of components, we should focus on studying and establishing the model of global product information, including all the components and their relationships in the defined views. Global product information model is not only an important prerequisite for the successful implementation of PDM system, but also the basis of building complex virtual product model. With the virtual product model, we can effectively manage different kinds of information and the dynamic relationship between them in the whole life cycle of the product.

2.5 Application of object-oriented technology and standardization of information model

The application of object-oriented technology enhances the openness of the system: the standardization of PDM system information model brings convenience for information exchange between different systems, such as STEP standard. It is still quite difficult to develop a general product model of the whole enterprise based on STEP standard, and the content covered by STEP standard is still quite different from that covered by PDM, so it can not be used as a standard to establish a global enterprise information model.

2.6 strengthening of process management and configuration management functions

In order to meet the needs of complex process changes in the product design and manufacturing process, manufacturers compete to develop independent workflow management modules, and the function is becoming stronger and stronger to meet the needs of process management necessary for engineering change and parallel design. With configuration management as the core, data management, workflow management and change control are integrated to form a more powerful PDM system.

3 product configuration management

The so-called configuration, according to the basic definition of configuration management in ISO1007, refers to "the representation of the functional and physical characteristics of the product described in the technical document or reflected in the actual use of the product". This is the definition of product configuration from the point of view of product characteristics. The configuration process can also be seen as a process of selecting a set of components and maintaining their relationships to form a design solution to address customer requirements.

Product configuration can be understood as a product that makes the attributes of the product and its parts gradually meet the needs of users according to some certain configuration rules according to the predefined set of components and the mutual constraint relationship between components. Through the solution of the two matching problems, the final combination of customer needs of the product. Product configuration rules are the criteria for selecting components in product structure configuration. Product configuration rules are generally divided into three types: variable configuration, effectiveness configuration and release status configuration.

According to the requirements of customized products, the function of product configuration is to select and match the function, performance, structural configuration and parts of the general model of the product family, as well as the corresponding changes in the function, structure and size of local parts to quickly design customized products to meet customer needs. On the basis of the establishment of product structure model and parts library, an engine connecting rod product configuration model based on product structure model is proposed, as shown in figure 2.

Figure 2 Product configuration model

A configuration rule base is established in the product configuration system, and a series of configuration rules are stored, so that different configuration rules and conditions can be selected according to customer needs to realize product configuration. With the support of the part library, based on the general product structure model, the parts can be selected according to different configuration conditions and customer needs, and the product structure that meets the specific needs can be configured.

There are two ways to realize configuration: (1) decompose the engine connecting rod product into a system or mechanism that can achieve a specific function, and then based on user requirements, select different configuration rules; (2) you can search in a series of configuration rules stored in the configuration rule base, search the parts library, and select the needed parts. If successful, the component is saved and a new BOM is generated, otherwise the component needs to be redesigned. The specific configuration process is shown in figure 3.

Fig. 3 flow chart of engine connecting rod product configuration

The key to the realization of connecting rod product configuration is the establishment of parts library and configuration rule base, which needs to transform customer requirements into configuration rules, and configuration rules need to be constantly improved in the specific configuration process. This product configuration method is also suitable for data management and configuration management of other mechanical products.

4 concluding remarks

According to the needs of the development of engine connecting rod products at present, this paper discusses several key technologies of product structure and configuration management, and thinks that based on the resources of products and parts, we should fully consider the information needs of various departments, effectively manage product data and their interrelationship, and provide consistent information for different forms of BOM. Implement version management and validity principles for product configuration to ensure the correctness of product configuration version and the accuracy of configuration information.

On this basis, the product data management architecture with product structure and configuration as the core is reconstructed, and the related algorithms such as constraints and configuration rules between product structures are studied, and the rule base or decision table associated with product structure is established. achieve personalized product variant configuration to meet and quickly respond to the special needs of customers. Through the above technical ideas, the establishment of the engine connecting rod product configuration management system can effectively solve the problems mentioned above, realize the cooperation among enterprises, accelerate the process of product development, and improve the market competitiveness of enterprises. played a good role. This article is from Qingsoft Yingtai Yuyun software. for more details, please click www.plmpdm.cn, or search for Qingrou Yingtai on Baidu.

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