Product configurator

As in the "Quotation data – costs database interface" (PTA-ID 1162), project, the specialist department uses MS Excel worksheets to record costs data for power plant components. Depending on the type of machine, there are up to 10 different versions of these worksheets; some of these have the same component structure and others have a different structure. Versioning makes it possible to change the structures over a period of time. A large part of the project involved transferring the existing Excel structures to the database (i.e. creating a standard product structure on the basis of the existing data sheets). One problem here was a lack of clarity in the product structures, because the Excel worksheets had never been versioned.