Introduction

This 'Work Package Definition' exchange enables the support requirement for a product, expressed as a list of required activities to be undertaken as a discrete package of work at a declared location between a set of dates, to be passed between a requestor (such as a product Support Manager) and a support service provider. The exchange allows the requestor to include a detailed set of work item specifications for each activity, including definition of the resources known to be required to complete the activity. Alternatively, the requestor need only supply a task specification reference if the service provider already has access to a complete product support library.

Each work item in the work package must be associated with an element in the product ( Product) structure, either as a potential part (Product_as_planned), a fitted part (Product_as_realized) or a part to be removed. A Part is, in itself, a Product and may, therefore, exist within a managed life cycle of its own. As such, it may possess a unique serial identity and support history, independent of the history of the design slot it currently occupies in the parent product breakdown structure. In this case it is necessary to maintain a link between the evolving support history of the serialised part and the support history recorded for the slot in the design of the higher level product as exchange parts cycle in and out.

For the parent product, the task may :

• define the work to be carried out on an existing part

• call for the replacement of a part by another, similar, part

• call for the replacement of a part by a different type of part

• add or remove a part from the product breakdown structure