Product lifecycle-oriented BOM similarity metric method

To meet the requirements of grouping product families for advanced manufacturing paradigm such as mass customization, product lifecycle-oriented BOM similarity metric (PL BSM) method was presented based on similarity system theory through comprehensively analyzing similar properties of BOM in lifecycle. Firstly an all weighting formula was proposed, whose factors consisted of constituent element, similar unit, similar property and their weights. Then an algorithm based on ordered tree breadth-first search and an extensible calculation framework were presented. The formula, algorithm and framework consisted of the complete PL BSM method. At last, an application instance is shown to confirm that PL BSM can get reliable result by global optimization calculation, and improve the efficiency and quality of grouping product families.