With reference to the construction industry our definitions are as follows:

System = Construction systems are the ways in which materials are combined to construct the elements of a building. We often refer to UNICLASS where these have the “Ss_” code identifier.

Type = the types of products in the building, the most important type data being their reference, name, and contact information for the manufacturer.

Component = Each instance of the “type objects” are what we call the “Components”, most important data being the reference or serial-number.

More detailed descriptions and to gain an understanding of the attributes associated with the above refer to COBie: Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBie) which is a non-proprietary data format for the publication of a subset of building information models (BIM) focused on delivering asset data as distinct from geometric information.