Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for identifying a part name within a data record. A maintenance expression is initially identified within a data record and a candidate part name string is then identified by identifying a head noun within a window that is positioned within the data record based upon the expression. In addition to identifying the head noun, a modifier may also be identified adjacent to or near any occurrence of the head noun in the course of identifying the candidate part name string. The candidate part name string may then be separately matched to respective ones of a plurality of standard names with each of a plurality of string matching techniques. The resulting potential matches are then analyzed to determine a best match.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided to efficiently generate a fulsome query in order to increase the recall and/or precision provided by the search. A method may construct a query by receiving the one or more initial search terms and then defining a concept for each search term. In order to define a concept, the method may determine if a concept associated with a respective search term has been previously defined. In an instance in which a concept associated with a respective search term has been previously defined, the method at least initially utilizes the previously defined concept. However, in an instance in which a concept associated with a respective search term has not been previously defined, the method constructs the concept based on terms related to the respective search term. The method may then combine the concepts defined for the one or more search terms to generate the query.