Background: Configured Product Maintenance
Use the Configured Product Maintenance (MBM) program to enter, change, and copy a bill of material for a configured product or enter a family for forecasting. See Road Map for work flow.
This topics has these subtopics:
Configured Products
Bills of material that you enter with this program define the possible components of these types of items:
Configured products are finished goods items with components that are selected during order entry.
Prompts are non-material descriptions that are displayed to offer choices in the structure of a configured product.
Pseudos are typically a logical grouping of related items representing a configured product or subassembly in a configured product. The components of a pseudo are typically small parts (such as nails, screws, staples or packing material ) grouped together.
Bills of material can have a maximum depth of 20 levels.
BOM Component Maintenance
Your branch has the option to maintain the configured products components based on the configuration of the bill of materials. You can select components from an indented bill of materials listing with the added ability to change previously selected options. Accessory items can be displayed, even if they are not currently selected. To activate this option, select the System Options Maintenance (XM) Order Processing Options Allow changes of previous CP selections? options for your branch.
A component can exist in more than one place on the extended configured product BOM and allow maintenance. For the same component to be maintainable in more than one place, it must have different part designators associated with it. Pseudo items may not be configured multiple times.
Defining Components
Before you create a bill of material, you must enter the parent item and all of its components into the Enterprise Item Maintenance (IM) and Branch Item Maintenance (IMB) programs, regardless of whether they are physical items or prompts.
Configured Product Maintenance follows two important rules:
The parent item must always have an order code of 0.
The bypass code has an effect on the parent-to-component relationship because it determines which columns display for order entry options.
From the bypass code assigned to each item, Configured Product Maintenance discerns whether the bill will be a configured product, prompt, or pseudo item, and then displays prompts that lead to classification of bill components into the proper type:
Standard component |
Always built into the parent. These can be finished goods or sub-assemblies (bypass code 0) and pseudo items (bypass code 1). |
Accessory |
Can be added to the configured product, depending on the customer's needs. During order entry the system prompts whether each accessory is to be included. Configured products (bypass code 2) are always assigned as accessories and cannot be changed. Finished goods and sub-assemblies (bypass code 0) and pseudos (bypass code 1) can be accessories as well as standard components. |
Optional choice |
Options made available at order entry. If at least one of the alternative options must be ordered, the option is required. If an option need not be ordered, it is optional. In some cases, the customer can select one or more options from a displayed list. These components are assigned to prompts (bypass code 3). |
Items must be qualified as components to the particular parent to which they are linked. The program prevents the addition of components that are restricted by logic or definition. This table summarizes these rules. Y means allowed and N means not allowed.
Components |
Parents |
|||
Pseudo |
Configured
product |
Prompt |
Family |
|
Standard (bypass = 0) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Pseudo |
N |
Y |
Y |
N |
Configured product |
N |
N |
Y |
Y |
Prompt |
N |
Y |
Y |
N |
Family |
N |
N |
N |
N |
Popularity
Popularity is the frequency with which a component is ordered as compared to alternative components on the bill. Popularity is expressed as a decimal value of 1.00 (for example, .25 represents 25%). The sum of the popularity values for all components of a bill of material does not have to equal 100% (1.00).
Operations
In addition to maintaining a bill of material, you can also add a standard routing operation. The program also maintains operations for the production of the configured product.
Unique Routings
If the operations used to build a configured product are different than the standard operations, you need to select the Unique CP RRL? field in the Enterprise Item Maintenance (IM) program. Then every time you enter a sales order for a configured product, the system increments the RRL by one and uses the configured product operations. Each configured product is unique, and requires its own routing revision level. You can delete previously used RRLs because the same number cannot be re-used.
You need to create routings that tie the operations to the options. The operation sequence number sets the order in which the operations will be performed.
When an item is ordered through Sales Order Maintenance (OE) and a manufacturing order is released, the system creates a routing and you can maintain it with the Routing Maintenance (RTM) program for that configured product.
Standard Routings
If the operations used to build a configured product are standard, you can use existing routings previously set up with the Standard Operations Maintenance (ROM) or Routing Maintenance (RTM) programs. In this case, do not select the Unique CP RRL? field in the Enterprise Item Maintenance (IM) program.
Family Forecasting Bills of Material
Family forecasting bills of material do not define the components of any item. Instead, they provide a means of grouping sets of like items for purposes of forecasting through the system. Family forecasting is a convenience and convention for forecasting the independent demand of finished goods, configured products, and MRP dependent items (order code 2, bypass code 0).
Typically, a family contains only material items for sale. For instance, a family might be defined along seasonal lines as winter goods or holiday items. A family could also be a grouping of one item type, like coats, with the components being wool, leather, and rain coats.
Setting up a Family Forecast
Create an item in the Inventory Master Maintenance (IM) program to define a family.
Decide what items to include in the family. These items might be a grouping of seasonal items or items with manufacturing similarities.
Enter the bill for the family item in the Configured Product Maintenance (MBM) program, specifying the forecast factor/popularity percentages.
Examples—Forecast Factors/Popularity
Your parent item is coats and you forecast that you will sell twice a many wool coats as leather and rain coats, the forecast factors could be:
Family: Coats |
|
|
|---|---|---|
Component |
Forecast Factor/Popularity |
If family forecast is 100 |
coat wool |
.50000 |
50 |
coat leather |
.25000 |
25 |
coat rain |
.25000 |
25 |
coat mink |
.00000 |
0 |
In this example, the forecast factors add up to 1.00000; however, this number can be more or less than 1.00000. A popularity of zero associates the item with the family but indicates that no sales of the item are projected.
For another example, suppose the parent item in a family bill is winter goods which includes jacket, pants, gloves, and hats. It is expected that for every jacket sold, 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of gloves, and 2 hats will be sold.
Family: Winter goods |
|
|
|---|---|---|
Component |
Forecast Factor/Popularity |
If family forecast is 100 |
jacket |
1.00000 |
100 |
pants |
1.00000 |
100 |
gloves |
1.00000 |
100 |
hats |
2.00000 |
200 |
The forecast factor for the jacket would be 1; pants 1; gloves 1; and hats 2. These factors reflect the proportional amount of the forecast for winter goods attributed to each item in this class.
Enter the forecast quantity for the family in the Forecast Maintenance (MSF) program. The program distributes the forecast across the components of the family bill per the forecast factor percentages and calculates the quantities required for the planned time period.
The Finished Goods Planning (MFP) program uses the calculated forecasts to plan the family item.
Audit Trail
To activate an audit trail, select one of the files listed below in the Audit Trail Maintenance (XAT) program. The system records all transactions. You can then run the Audit Trails (ATR) program and select that file to print a report of these transactions.
M1A: Configured Bill of Material
RTGA Configured Bill Routing Detail