Over the years a lot of strategies emerged to enhance efficiency throughout the product lifecycle of complex products: knowledge management, platform and module strategies as well as integrated requirements management are only a few of the existing product lifecycle management (PLM) strategies. An integrated product model is seen as the backbone of PLM management strategies. Most product structuring approaches propose to develop a functional structure first, considering the given requirements. From this a product structure is derived, which is finally filled with developed parts and assemblies (bill of material, BOM). In early product development phases there has to be a common understanding among the involved departments and domains about the future product appearance. Products based on platform or modular strategies have a high proportion of reused parts and assemblies. Besides, new parts have to be identified, prioritized and developed according to their priority. For this process a reliable, interdisciplinary product structure is essential. Hence, an early bill of material is used to integrate engineering tasks in early development phases and to shorten identification as well as prioritization efforts. This paper proposes an approach to derive an early bill of material from requirement specifications semi automatically.
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