Especially in the automotive sector there is a multiplicity of different variants of a part type. Normally there is not only one variant documented in the system requirements respectively the product specification of such part types.
To understand the implementation of the variant concept in the MSR DTDs, first some definitions have to be made:
Variant Characteristic
Characteristics that lead to a new variant e.g. engine, product line, country, etc. Characteristics are defined in
<
variant-char
>
. The characteristics have to be subdivided in three classes. These are:
characteristics which lead to a new subject number(<variant-char
[
type="new-part-number"
]
>). For this only the existence of such a characteristic is enough to establish a new subject number for this variant!
characteristics which don't lead to a new subject number (<variant-char
[
type="no-new-part-number"
]
>).
characteristics which lead to a new subject number according to shaping.
Variant Definition:
Definition of several variants with their variant characteristics for a part type.
Variant:
A variant of a part type is defined through the values of it's variant characteristics.
Variant Coding:
Allocation of all variant definitions to their corresponding subject- and drawing- numbers and the respective development versions.