-The proper definition and structure of item classifications, item attributes, and variants are for companies challengeing. Especially if such structures should be processed in ERP system. So handling of static and dynamic characteristics in ERP processes and master data like static or dynamic Bill of Materials (BOM) and static or dynamic workplans will be considered. In this paper an approach is shown which was implemented in a ERP system.
INTRODUCTION
Characteristic values of items are a very important source of information in manufacturing companies, especially in variant production, and deliver a complete definition including properties, characteristics and attributes of an item. Variant means that the characteristics of the item can take different values per variant. The characteristics with their different values exist initially according to the master data of the Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) and Computer Aided Design (CAD) / Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) programs up to the business processes [1, 2, 3].
Due to a hierarchical definition of attribute lists, such characteristics and properties can be registered in a userfriendly manner and faulty insertions can be avoided.
The number of characteristics queried and the values/attributes that are available, depend on previous definitions. Additionally, conditions and rules should be determined for the characteristics, that means, that these conditions must be fulfilled, so that the certain characteristic can be addressed. It should also be possible to link a characteristic / characteristic value to a specific schema and to define a specific rule. This means that characteristics can be calculated automatically under a defined condition or can always have a constant value. Thus, the influence of the user is limited to the necessary minimum – incorrect combinations of characteristics are not possible.
Employees Often must deal with these characteristics in day-to-day business without knowing who benefits from this knowledge and how far it can be transferred into valuable knowledge or rules. The task is to analyze, identify and classify the influences and possibilities of the objectives that want to be achieved.
Questions listed below should help to formalize this knowledge:
Are there rules that always result due to certain combinations of characteristics?
Are there standardized multilingual terms? What kind of products do we manufacture, and which ones do we want to manufacture, promote or not offer at all?
A.
The characteristics and their characteristic values must be defined clearly. What characteristics are neutrally existent and what characteristic values describe the state/character of these characteristics? These are attributes.
With a design-approach, handling of variants including properties, characteristics and attributes combined with ERPlogic will be presented. Moreover, the following concept shows additional integration to an item-configurator including all dependent ERP-processes and ERP-logic.
When a business process, a product, an item, or a checklist is analyzed, dependencies, inclusion and exclusion rules, values and logics must be described.
These analyzed items and the logic behind them must be designed in a repeatable way. Dependencies between characteristics and characteristic values must be handled in the same way. Beside to a configurator, the characteristics can be used in many domains within the ERP system. These domains are described in the following chapters.
3.
A.
Within the analysis phase as main approach the 4000/1 [4] was chosen.
DIN
In this hierarchy, the following conditions must be considered to remain the whole system functional.
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Instead of designing a single-step list of all product part families, this method facilitates the design of item-structures hierarchically. This works with generic groups. Afterwards these groups are categorized into subgroups and so on. This creates a tree structure of the item- families. E.g.: Top level → machine elements, 2nd level: mounting elements → 3rd level: screws, etc.
To include any characteristics or characteristic values in the product item family names and subfamilies will not work proper and leads to the risk, that the whole system will not be functional anymore. These characteristics must be abstracted from the labels and maintained as separate related tables. For example, the 4th plane with hexagonal screw, lens screw, cylinder head screw would be wrong. These are characteristic values of the characteristic 'screw designation' (see Annex, Fig. 6 and 7).
The following questions should be used to define itemfamilies:
Question form
Result What? What? How? Where?
What kind of characteristics are describing the families? → Product Part families What does the part family consist of? → BOM How is such a part/product structured? → Work Schedule Where are these parts used?
Allowed? Yes No No
No
If these questions are not considered of the classification, bills of materials (BOM) and work plans cannot be generated automatically an in a generic way by the ERP system.
An item family is allowed once in the entire classification to keep the system stable.
Partial enormization
Use/Benefits
A product has several characteristics with many characteristic values. These characteristics and manifestations later exclude or include certain characteristics or their manifestations. In order to be able to map these logics, the characteristics and their characteristic values must be presented logically based with decision tables within the ERP system. This creates a network with many nodes and dependencies.
The characteristic contents can also be calculated by formulas according to certain conditions, that apply to the selection and can then be passed into other characteristic values.
Characteristic-Types, which are also suitable for a configurator, should have the following attributes: Static features: Numeric, alphanumeric, date Dynamic features: Freely definable fields with logic
In the case of numerical and alphanumeric characteristics, nothing special can be noted. In contrast, the date characteristic offers enormous flexibility in the ERP packages. The characteristics of the type Date can be used, as shown in this example: the release system of the drawings/ BOMs in the change system can be managed very elegantly.
The characteristics, whose content can receive a free select- statement are dynamic features that can obtain information from the database at run time.
The process of terminating a BOM listed item can generates a demand to a specific datetime. If no stock is available, an alternative item will automatically be terminated.
An order operation could be determined and automatically resolved using a select statement with/without capacity. • • • •
An extension of the possibility is also given by the commands such as insert, update or delete or with functions or procedures.
The variant BOMs are mapped according to the same logic with the characteristics and their conditions. The conditions Technical order processing DMS Workflow management
Modules can be registered using the decision tables with the possibility of the associated formula. This is where the if/then logic prevails.
In order to maintain the variant master BOMs more easily, the possibility of pseudo-assemblies should not be forgotten. These are used to structure BOMs. In addition, the maintenance effort of the variant master BOMs is reduced. In the terminated form of the order BOMs, these pseudoassemblies disappear, and their components are automatically dragged up a BOM level. Another advantage of these logical pseudo-assemblies is given in the variant work plans.
The calculation possibilities in the variant master BOMs are extensive. An important function is to handle “semifinished” items. For m/m2 semi-finished items, the number, length, or width of the BOM lines can be calculated based on the characteristics from the configurator. Functionality also allows the field contents to be determined and filled in based on the characteristics.
Such work plans are maintained in the same way as the variant master BOMs. This is where cost centers and suppliers are eligible for the subcontracting operations. Characteristics such as order quantity, customer, length, width, color, etc. are relevant for the ERP system to decide in a generic way if pseudo-assemblies will be produced inhouse or subcontracted to a supplier.
In principle, standardized text must be assigned to the items and item families in a generic way. The standardized text should contain placeholders. These text can so be generated dynamically by the characteristic values in business processes like customer proposals or customer orders.
So standardized text can be automatically dissolved via decision tables according to the same principles as mentioned before.
4. RESULTS
Following characteristics are available within in the ERP package across all relevant business processes and master data.:
Product standardization/ configurator CAD/PLM Interface
Feature exchange Business Intelligence (BI)
Evaluations Recognition of the manifestations via artificial intelligence (AI).
Automatic suggestions for error/problem solving. Search access via any characteristic expression in the network of the characteristics taking into account the next possible characteristic combinations.
Interface-Connection to CAD models and feature exchange between the two systems.
[1] J. Verville, R. Palanisamy, C. Bernadas, A. Halingten, ERP Acquisition Planning: A Critical Dimension for Making the Right Choice, Long Range Planning 40, 45-63, 2007. [2] V. Arnold, H. Dettmering, T. Engel, A. Karcher, Product Lifecycle Management beherrschen, Ein Anwenderhandbuch für den Mittelstand, Springer, 2., neu bearbeitete Auflage, Berlin Heidelberg, 2011. [3] J. Ross, Evaluation of Shipbuilding CAD/CAM/CIM Systems - Phase II (Requirements For Future Systems), The national shipbuilding research program, NSRP 4-94-1, Maryland, USA, 1997 [4] DIN 4000-1 Feature strips [5] Sivas. ERP SIK Software Integrated Configuration Module