Collaborative product lifecycle management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016019273-A1
Application number	US-201514738667-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 12, 2015
Priority date	Jun 12, 2014
Publication date	Jan 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An apparatus, method, and program product are disclosed for collaborative product lifecycle management. One apparatus includes a data processing module that receives product lifecycle management (“PLM”) data from multiple client applications in a collaborative environment. The PLM data may be in a client specific format. The apparatus includes a subscription module that receives one or more subscription requests from each client application. Moreover, the apparatus includes a conversion module that converts the PLM data from the client specific format to a generic format. The apparatus includes a storage module that stores the generic format of the PLM data. The conversion module may convert subscription data from the generic format to the client specific format. The subscription data may correspond to the PLM data stored in the generic format. The subscription module may provide the subscription data to the multiple client applications based on the one or more subscription requests.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus comprising:
a data processing module that receives product lifecycle management (“PLM”) data from a plurality of client applications in a collaborative environment, wherein the PLM data is in a client specific format; a subscription module that receives one or more subscription requests from each client application of the plurality of client applications; a conversion module that converts the PLM data from the client specific format to a generic format; and a storage module that stores the generic format of the PLM data, wherein the conversion module converts subscription data from the generic format to the client specific format, the subscription data corresponds to the PLM data stored in the generic format, and the subscription module provides the subscription data to the plurality of client applications based on the one or more subscription requests, and wherein at least a portion of the data processing module, the subscription module, the conversion module, and the storage module comprise one or more of hardware and executable code, the executable code being stored on one or more computer readable storage media.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the conversion module comprises a mapping module that includes conversion algorithms to convert the PLM data from the client specific format to the generic format.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the storage module comprises a database.

4 . The apparatus of claim 3 , comprising an estimation module that calculates an estimate using data from a plurality of related fields in the database.

5 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the estimation module uses flagged items from the plurality of related fields to calculate the estimate.

6 . The apparatus of claim 5 , comprising a selection module that selects items to mark as the flagged items.

7 . A method comprising:
receiving product lifecycle management (“PLM”) data from a plurality of client applications in a collaborative environment, wherein the PLM data is in a client specific format; receiving one or more subscription requests from each client application of the plurality of client applications; converting the PLM data from the client specific format to a generic format; storing the generic format of the PLM data; converting subscription data from the generic format to the client specific format, wherein the subscription data corresponds to the PLM data stored in the generic format; and providing the subscription data to the plurality of client applications based on the one or more subscription requests.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the PLM data comprises one or more of engineering data, computer-aided design (“CAD”) data, and supply-chain management data.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein converting the PLM data from the client specific format to the generic format comprises using conversion algorithms.

10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein storing the generic format of the PLM data comprises storing the generic format of the PLM data in a database.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the database operates with referential integrity.

12 . The method of claim 10 , comprising calculating an estimate using data from a plurality of related fields in the database.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein calculating the estimate using the data from the plurality of related fields in the database comprises using flagged items from the plurality of related fields to calculate the estimate.

14 . The method of claim 13 , comprising manually selecting items to mark as the flagged items.

15 . The method of claim 13 , comprising selecting items to mark as the flagged items using a predetermined algorithm.

16 . The method of claim 7 , wherein converting subscription data from the generic format to the client specific format comprises using conversion algorithms.

17 . The method of claim 7 , wherein providing the subscription data to the plurality of client applications based on the one or more subscription requests comprises providing immediate updates to the plurality of client applications before the PLM data is stored.

18 . A computer program product for product lifecycle management (“PLM”) collaboration, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to:
receive PLM data from a plurality of client applications in a collaborative environment, wherein the PLM data is in a client specific format;
receive one or more subscription requests from each client application of the plurality of client applications;
convert the PLM data from the client specific format to a generic format;
store the generic format of the PLM data;
convert subscription data from the generic format to the client specific format, wherein the subscription data corresponds to the PLM data stored in the generic format; and
provide the subscription data to the plurality of client applications based on the one or more subscription requests.

19 . The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the PLM data comprises one or more of engineering data, computer-aided design (“CAD”) data, and supply-chain management data.

20 . The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the program instructions executable by the processor further cause the processor to use conversion algorithms to convert the PLM data from the client specific format to the generic format.

Assignees

• Univ Brigham Young

Inventors

• Bowman Kelly Eric
• Coburn Joshua
• Hepworth Ammon
• Jensen Charles Gregory
• Johnson Jordan

Classifications

• H04L67/125

  involving control of end-device applications over a network · CPC title

• H04L67/1095

  Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes · CPC title

• G06F16/258 Primary

  Data format conversion from or to a database · CPC title

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title