ALT: a dynamic, flexible approach to configurations, maturity, and access control for manufacturing systems

The ALT system, which was developed to provide a highly dynamic configuration management system for use with object-oriented database technology, is discussed. In ALT, most aspects of design management are invisible to the design engineers. By utilizing basic data dependencies in common object-oriented data structures, ALT manages a set of simple rules which assure data integrity. It extends the concept of maturity in designs (e.g., level of sign-off) to a more expressive, dynamic paradigm. The overall management environment may be highly customized to meet the needs of any organization through the definition of policy