Object-Oriented Methodology for Materials-Management Systems

Abstract

Materials-management systems should be integrated with computer systems that are used for design and scheduling. In addition, many materials management systems would benefit from integration efforts that would facilitate rule-based reasoning. These enhancements are facilitated by the use of an object-oriented methodology (OOM) data structure for the materials-management system. This paper discusses an OOM data model as it would apply to piping commodity materials. The paper also discusses the attributes incorporated into an OOM materials-management tutorial that was evaluated by industry professionals. Tutorial attributes include automatic commodity code generation, automatic takeoff execution, intelligent purchase order generation, and components of design and schedule integration. As part of their evaluation industry reviewers noted that OOM not only facilitates the development of more versatile systems, but also results in a computer code that is far easier to generate and less expensive to maintain.