| # Configurator (introduction) This topic describes in short the working of Product Configuration (PCF) in LN. Why a product configurator is useful The competitive power of a company is determined more and more by the speed of a company to meet customer requirements. Today’s business must be capable to deliver a customer specific product within the delivery time of a standard product. In a traditional production control system, the product structure generally consists of: Item data, such as delivery time and cost price. Data relating to the structure of items, such as bills of material. Data about operations, such as routings. Product data defined like this may be adequate for companies producing only one or just a few products. However, if a large number of variants of the finished product is produced, assembling or manufacturing of a product is usually only started when the customer's order has been received. In such cases, the traditional information system may run into problems with respect to quantity, complexity, and manageability of the product data. Also the timely availability of the information can be problematic. Almost every company that assembles to-order deals with product variants. In that case, you cannot define the product structures for all versions of all finished products in advance. The answer to this problem is configuration management. Configuration management must be translated into a well thought-out, modular, product design with proper validation and decision support functions provided by the information system to enhance the level of logistic control. LN offers such an application, Product Configuration (PCF). The following sections provide an overview of how to set up Product Configuration (PCF), and subsequently, how to work with it. To set up product configuration Before setting up product configuration in LN, you must define items of the Generic type in the Item Base Data module, the so-called generic items. A generic item can have various features linked to it. The product features are the basis for a procedure to define the product specifications. For every feature you can define various options, which reflect the choices you can make with regard to a specific feature. For example, for a feature COLOR, you could define the options red, yellow, and blue. By using constraints, certain selections can be excluded or made mandatory. A combination of options chosen for a generic item, reflects a product variant. You can view, define and maintain configuration data for a generic item in one single session: Generic Item - Structure (tipcf3100m100). Multi-language support enables you to define the characteristic features of a product in several languages. For each feature you can define one or more options in several languages. You can state whether options can be freely selected or are bound to a specific domain. You can define purchase and selling prices for each generic item. On the basis of the selling prices stated for the generic item, LN calculates the selling prices of the product variants. Purchase prices come in when generic items are purchased, for instance as part of a generic subassembly or finished product. Refer to How to define a product model To use the product configurator in LN When product configuration is set up, you can configure a product for a customer by selecting an option for every feature of the product. The translation of customer requirements results into a product variant. The process can be controlled by a set of decision rules, the constraints. The constraints indicate which components and operations can or cannot be used in a specific version. The product configurator can be triggered from several places in LN, as indicated in the table below. Dependent on where a product variant is configured, the product variant receives a reference type, which can be viewed in the Product Variants (tipcf5501m000) session.
Configurator triggered where? | Session where configurator is triggered | Reference type
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In Product Configuration (PCF), Manufacturing | Product Variants (tipcf5501m000) | Standard Variant
In Project Control (PCS), Manufacturing | Generate (Project) Structure for Product Variant (tipcs2220m000) | Project or Budget, dependent on whether the product variant applies to a project or budget.
On a sales quotation line, Sales | Sales Quotations (tdsls1500m000) | Sales Quotation
On a sales order line, Sales | Sales Orders (tdsls4100m000) | Sales Order
In Project Technical Calculation (PTC), Project | Element Budget (Material Lines) (tpptc1510m000) Element Budget (Material Lines) (tpptc1510m000) | TP Project
In Requirements Planning, Project | Planned PRP Warehouse Order (tppss6115m000) | TP Project
For more information, refer to How to use a product model in a sales quotation How to use a product model in a sales order To generate a (project) structure After product variants are created, a product structure must be created on the basis of the product variant. A generic product structure is generated in the following sessions, dependent on where the product variant is configured: Generate (Budget) Structure for Sales Quotations (tdsls1201m100) Generate (Project) Structure for Sales Orders (tdsls4244m000) Generate (Project) Structure for Product Variant (tipcs2220m000) The structure generally consists of data about: Product features. Product options. Product constraints. Generic item data. Generic bill of material. Generic routing. If the order policy of the generic item on which the product variant is based is To Order, a PCS project must created to generate the project structure. If the if the order policy of the generic item is Anonymous, a project is not required. Related topics PCF procedures |