Multi-Level/Multi-Plant Configuration

Multi-level/Multi-plant configuration allows you to configure lower-level (child) items of parent items in various manufacturing facilities.  When placing a customer order for a configured end-item through order maintenance, additional option select screens can be displayed to define lower-level child items.  The final price of the end-item can be based upon it's own features and options as well as those of the lower-level items.  The manufacturing process in a multi-level environment is scheduled from the end-item backwards through all lower-level items.  During scheduling, any transfer lead times of differing manufacturing facilities for parent/child relationships are taken into consideration.  If lower-level items are purchased, dock-to-stock leadtimes are also considered.

A total of twenty manufacturing orders or requisitions can be generated from one sales order line item, consisting of one manufacturing order or requisition for the parent (level 0) and up to nineteen individual manufacturing orders and requisitions for lower-level components.  There are numerous possibilities for initiating lower level component configuration.  For a part with a flat bill-of-material, all lower-level components would be direct children of the parent part (all components at level 1).  In a deeper bill-of material, a configured child that is manufactured may have configured children of its own, while a purchased configured child cannot.  For example, parent part A can be the parent of child parts B and C.  Part B, a manufactured part, is the parent of parts D and E, and Part C, a purchased part, does not have child parts associated with it (see the figure below):

Bill-of-Material for Part A.

All parts in this bill-of-material are configured.

In this example, there are five configured parts all stemming from the customer ordered end-item part A.  Note that configured items exist on levels 0, 1, and 2.  If the maximum number (20) of configured items from a single sales order line were utilized with only one configured item per level, a nineteen level bill-of material would be required.

The configuration of a lower-level component is initiated by a Configured Component Rule in the parent part's order entry bill-of-rules.  The Configured Component Rule is used to specify which lower-level item to configure.  For manufactured child components, the rule also specifies the plant in which the lower-level component is made.  This rule is only valid for sales order entry rules.  For further information about the Configured Component Rule, see Configured Component Rule in the Overview section of this manual.

When a Configured Component Rule is processed, execution control passes from the parent's bill-of-rules to the lower-level item's bill-of-rules.  This modular approach allows a configured component to be treated as an independent entity in which a single configured component could be initiated from any number of parent parts without affecting the component's bill-of-rules.  In addition, this means that a component part could be ordered from customer order maintenance conversations as an end-item, such as a service part, without affecting the bill-of-rules execution (processing is the same whether the part is an end-item or a component).

Conversely, Configured Component rules can be dependent on information from the parent part or from other configured parts within the conversation.  This type of information is passed between the various parts through the use of a global variable.  A global variable is similar to a secondary variable in that it is a temporary, working storage field.  However, unlike secondary variables, a global variable is not restricted to the bill-of-rules in which it is defined.  A global variable is a means for storing information which can be utilized by all bill-of-rules within a multi-level configuration conversation.  For more information, see Global Variables in the Overview section of this manual.

There are two modes in which the lower-level component bill-of-rules are executed, one for online order entry and pricing configuration and one for off-line manufacturing configuration.  In online mode, rules are executed as explained in Rule Definition-Rule Releasing in the Overview section of this manual, with a very important exception.  Once a Configured Component Rule is executed, control is passed to the configured component part's bill-of-rules.  Execution of rules for the lower-level part continues until either all order entry and pricing rules have been completed, or another Configured Component Rule is executed for another lower-level part.  When all rules are processed for the lower-level component, control is passed back to the parent part's bill of rules, and processing continues with the rule immediately following the Configured Component Rule.  If the lower-level item also has configured lower-level items, then the execution of a Configured Component Rule passes control to the new component part's bill-of-rules until it's rules have completed, or another Configured Component Rule is executed.  This recursive process continues for each Configured Component Rule that is executed.

Because of the order in which parts are configured online, restrictions exist regarding the use of global variables.  A part can only share information through global variables with parts executed earlier.  For example, parts A, B, and D (see Bill-of-Material for Part A) can all share information through global variables (parts A, B, and E can also share information through global variables).  In addition, part E can use information from part D because part D's bill-of-rules is executed prior to processing of part E.  However, part D cannot use part E's information, because part E's bill-of rules will not be executed until after part D is completed. Similarly, part C can take advantage of global variable information from parts A, B, D, and E; however, parts B, D, and E cannot use part C's information.

The execution of off-line manufacturing rules occurs one part at a time, from start to finish, for each configured item.  The execution starts with the parent part's bill-of-rules and moves down the bill of material, then moves left to right.  In the example shown in Bill-of-Material for Part A, bill-of-rule execution would begin with part A, move down through parts B and D, right to part E, then right to part C.  Any global variables used to share information would have to take this execution order into consideration.  For example, part A cannot use another part's information; however, parts B, D, E and C can all use part A's information.  Similarly, parts D and E can use information from parts A and B, but not from part C.

If a lower-level component is purchased (such as part C), when control is passed to that part's bill-of-rules, processing continues with a Purchase Part Rule, which generates a purchase requisition for the part instead of a manufacturing order.  Other rules for the part are then executed until all rules have completed.  All capabilities described for a global variable can apply to the purchased configured part.  For more information, see Purchase Part Rule key concepts in this manual.