Method for data normalization

Abstract

One variation of a method for normalizing manufacturing data includes: identifying a type of the digital component description document, including a set of part descriptor entries describing a set of physical parts, based on categories of physical parts described in part descriptor entries within the digital component description document; accessing a set of part descriptor rules corresponding to the type of the digital component description document; detecting deviation of a part descriptor entry, in the set of part descriptor entries, from a part descriptor rule in the set of part descriptor rules; at the user portal, serving a prompt to manually correct the part descriptor entry; and, in response to alignment between the digital component description document and the set of part descriptor rules, importing the set of part descriptor entries into the component library.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A method for normalizing manufacturing data comprising:
 at a user portal, uploading a digital component description document comprising a set of part descriptor entries describing a set of physical parts;   identifying a type of the digital component description document based on categories of physical parts described in part descriptor entries within the digital component description document;   identifying a particular computer-aided design program that output the digital component description document based on the type of the digital component description document and a set of field headers extracted from the digital component description document;   based on the particular computer-aided design program, aligning the set of field headers extracted from the digital component description document to global field headers defined in a component library;   accessing a set of part descriptor rules corresponding to the type of the digital component description document; and   in response to alignment between the digital component description document and the set of part descriptor rules, importing the set of part descriptor entries into the component library.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 detecting deviation of a first part descriptor entry, in the set of part descriptor entries, from a first part descriptor rule in the set of part descriptor rules;   at the user portal, serving a prompt to manually correct the first part descriptor entry; and   in response to detecting a subset of like part descriptor entries in the set of part descriptor entries, consolidating the subset of like part descriptor entries into a single part descriptor entry.   
     
     
         3 . A method for normalizing manufacturing data comprising:
 at a user portal, uploading a digital component description document comprising a set of part descriptor entries describing a set of physical parts;   identifying a type of the digital component description document based on categories of physical parts described in part descriptor entries within the digital component description document;   identifying a particular computer-aided design program that output the digital component description document based on the type of the digital component description document and a set of field headers detected in the digital component description document;   based on a preloaded field header naming scheme associated with the particular computer-aided design program, aligning the set of field headers detected in the digital component description document to global field headers defined in a component library;   for a first part descriptor entry in the digital component description document, querying a first electronic catalog for a first commodity component descriptor containing field values analogous to a subset of values in the first part descriptor entry; and   in response to alignment between part descriptor entries in the digital component description document and matched commodity component descriptors accessed from the first electronic catalog, importing the set of part descriptor entries into the component library.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising, for the first part descriptor entry in the digital component description document:
 in response to a difference between a particular field value in the first commodity component descriptor and a particular value in a corresponding field in the first part descriptor entry, replacing the particular value in the first part descriptor entry within the particular field value from the first community component descriptor; and   serving a prompt to confirm the particular field value in the first part descriptor entry via the user portal.