| # Reviewing Product Variants A product variant in the Assembly Control l module is a unique configuration of a generic or standard item. The unique configuration results from the configuration process information such as feature options, company, and assembly line. Start Manufacturing > Assembly Planning > Product Variants (tiapl3500m000). Use this session to display or maintain the configuration, reference, price, and status information of the product variants that were created from sales orders, and product variants that were entered manually. A product variant stores the data of a configured item, or of multiple configured items that belong to the same product structure. The data that is stored is, for example, the roll-off line for the assembly order, the requested and planned offline date, and so on. The product variant represents all the configured items that make up a configured product structure. Any reference made to a configured item is made by way of the product variant. Because product variants contain data from production and sales, the product variant is updated as far as the progress of the production process permits, if this data is changed. You can change the data in the current session, which is the Product Variants (tiapl3500m000) session, only if your current company is defined as the master company, and you work in Test Mode, which is defined in the Assembly Planning Parameters (tiapl0500m000) session. Calculating assembly part requirements Start Manufacturing > Assembly Planning > Calculate Assembly Part Requirements (tiapl2221m000). Use this session to calculate the assembly part requirements for product variants whose assembly parts are not yet allocated. If the product variants and product variant structures are generated, the assembly part requirements can be calculated and assembly orders can be created. Assembly part requirements are calculated based on the product variant structures and the flattened assembly parts. The assembly part requirements are calculated for product variants whose planned offline date falls within the demand time fence. The demand time fence is defined in the details of the Assembly Planning Parameters (tiapl0500m000) session. The calculation is based on segment schedules that indicate on which date the assembly parts are required for each segment, based on the offline date of the assembly order. Segment schedules are displayed in the Segment Schedules (tiapl4500m000) session. When the assembly part requirements are calculated, they are transferred to Enterprise Planning. The assembly part requirements are calculated for product variants that meet the following criteria: The requested offline date falls within the demand time fence, which is defined in the Assembly Planning Parameters (tiapl0100s000) session. The Assembly Parts Allocated check box is cleared. The To Be Deleted check box is cleared. The Assembly Status is Open, Planned, or Frozen. Note If you enter a Date outside the demand time fence, a warning message is displayed. Product variants that fall within the demand time fence can fall within the allocation time fence. In that case, the assembly parts are likely to be already allocated by Assembly Control, that is, by the Build Assembly Part Allocation (tiasc7240m000) session. If the parts are not allocated, or if not all the parts are allocated, the assembly lines for which the parts are not allocated are taken into account by the current session. Refer to the Product Variant - Assembly Lines (tiapl3520m000) session for the allocation status by assembly line. Assembly parts for which the Floor Stock check box is selected in the Flattened Assembly Parts and Operations (tiapl2520m000) session are not taken into account by the current session. The current session calculates the assembly part requirements based on segment schedules, which is a rough calculation useful for high volumes. The segment schedules appear in the Segment Schedules (tiapl4500m000) session. As opposed to the assembly part allocation that is carried out in Assembly Control, the current session calculates the requirements for all companies and assembly lines in the selection simultaneously. To ensure that the assembly part requirements are calculated according to the latest data, the current session first performs the following steps: Updates segment schedules. The segment schedules are updated if changes are detected that affect the schedule, or if you selected the Update Segment Schedules check box. Updates allocation status. The allocation status is read from Assembly Control and copied to Assembly Planning. The allocation status appears in Assembly Planning in the Product Variant - Assembly Lines (tiapl3520m000) session and the details of the Product Variants (tiapl3500m000) session. Generates product variant structures of the product variants that meet the selection criteria described previously. After the product variant structure is created, the Product Variant Structure generated check box is selected in the details of the Product Variants (tiapl3500m000) session. Note that the product variant structure is generated only if the External Product Variant Structure check box is cleared in the Assembly Planning Parameters (tiapl0100s000) sesssion. After these preparation steps, the assembly parts requirements are calculated for the selected product variants, and the requirements are transferred to Assembly Planning for all the related companies. The requirements are transferred using files that store the requirements by company by date. The directory to which these files are written is set in the Assembly Parts Requirements Directory field in the details of the Assembly Planning Parameters (tiapl0100s000) session. After the assembly part requirements are calculated and transferred, a completion report is created. If errors occurred, the Show Messages button is enabled. Click this button to display the error messages. |