1. A method of configuring a product, said method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a first software tool capable of creating an electronic object-oriented product model representative of a product line, wherein: (i) said product model includes an electronic profile model representative of a product within the product line; (ii) said profile model includes an electronic part model representative of a part within the product; (iii) said part model includes an electronic part quality model, representative of an attribute of the part, and; (b) providing a second software tool capable of making the information stored in said product model available to one or more software applications.