Variant Management BOM in Teamcenter

Variant Management BOM in Teamcenter

Now first to know what is variant, variant is nothing but Variety or assortment is defined as a number or collection of different things of a particular class of the same general kind. Variant is an instance of a class that exhibits usually slight differences from the common type or norm.

  

The above fig shows variant in automobile industry with different option to choose on one single vehicle. Currently the demand of customer is more with different options required in vehicle. To manage such variant Teamcenter provide option to configure BoM with different variant.

Teamcenter support two methods of variant configuration.

1.      Classic variant
2.     Modular variant

Classic variant: if you have limited scope for reuse of generic assemblies. Means if we have not restructure BoM in regularity then we use classic variant.

Modular variant: Enforce modularity to facilitate reuse of lower level assemblies. To do this, you create modules at the top-level item, with variant conditions at all lower levels.

To use modular variants, you require a modular product structure and parts that are engineered for modularity. This may require a change to your design and business practices.

You do not create both classic variants and modular variants in the same product structure, as this may cause in unpredictable results.

Elements of classic variant

1. Option: A parameter of variability. Options have a string type and a name
2.  Variant (BOM): A specific BOM that is configured by applying a variant rule
3.  Variant condition: A condition that an engineering user sets on an occurrence to specify the  option values that configure the occurrence
4.   Variant rule: A collection of option values typically set by a marketing user, to determine the  variant of the BOM to configure
5.   Variant rule check: A condition that specifies any option values or combinations of values that  are not allowed. A variant rule check is attached to an item revision. Also called an error  check.
6.  Constraint: An expression that sets an option value according to the values of other options that  is derived defaults.

    Create small product structure of car assembly in Teamcenter.

    Click on show/ hide data panel and open variant in data panel.

1.    Click on Create variant option ---> Select guide me through step by --->Next ---> Public ---> Next ---> Name of option ---> Next ---> Select option type ---> One word or phrase from a fixed list ---> Next ---> Enter option values ---> Next ---> Select default value as unset ---> Finish.

    Create above steps for Engine type as Diesel and petrol type

    Create above steps for Body system as Ac system and non-ac system

    Create above steps for tyre type as tubeless and with tube

    Next is to select top line of BoM and select Present a child option from this module.

   Select engine type and click on apply, then select body type click on apply, and select tyre type       

   click on apply, check it on variant panel.

   Then after that hide variant panel, and go to set variant condition to each parts as follows.

   Create above step as whole parts in BoM

Click view ---> show ---> unconfigured variants

Click on set variant configuration on tool bar. Click on ok.

     Its means if you select car type as indigo then all indigo then BoM select only indigo parts. 

Teamcenter BOM management basics

Teamcenter BOM management basics

        Bill of Material (BOM) is a heart of everything in product development in automotive, aerospace industry. Manufacturers are using BOM to define list of raw materials, parts and sub-assemblies with corresponding quantity. There are different aspects of bill of materials such as EBOM (Engineering Bill of Material), MBOM (Manufacturing Bill of Material), SBOM (Service Bill of Material) and so on.

   1)      EBOM:- The EBOM is organized with regards to how the product is functionally designed, including logical assemblies, product knowledge(including historical) and dependencies which make sense during design phase.

   2)      MBOM:- The MBOM contains all the parts and assemblies required to build a complete and shippable product, reflecting the way a product will be manufactured, refocusing on parts as they exist in the physical world.  It is based on EBOM but have additional information that was not required during design such as packing material, assembly process information, tooling, work instructions, paint information, supplier information. 

    3)      SBOM: - It is single (typical for complete product with all option) BOM with combine EBOM and MBOM. It contains all assemblies which need to be identified in the field for maintenance or service purposes.

          Teamcenter uses a concept of precise/imprecise bill of materials (BoMs) structures. BOM is viewed and configured with Teamcenter module called PSE (product structure editor) or also called as structure manager in Teamcenter 8 onwards.

            There is fundamental difference between the two approaches and one should understand their purpose and how to utilize them effectively. Precise and imprecise structure differs by the type of parent-child relationship (relative occurrence) what is occurrence will be discussed in my next blog.

            Precise BoMs: - precise BoM are fixed/frozen or static structured of specific item revision. Precise BoMs have all functionality of imprecise BoMs, and some revision rules can also be applied for sub-component filtering. Precise assemblies are useful in situation where a user wants to control the configuration carefully, for example, when parent assemblies are released and consequently can no longer be modified, any change can have significant impact on the revisions of related assemblies.

             Imprecise BoMs:- It is dynamic structure of items. An imprecise assembly has links (occurrences) to item of its components. Imprecise structures do not hold product development history and are no use for manufacturing. An imprecise product structure is automatically reconfigured when any user releases a part, creates a new part, or performs any other action that affects the view. Therefore the user need not make a copy of the product structure and manually update it each time. It is used in industries where there is no concept of item revisions. Use imprecise assemblies if a user wants to provide many views of the same structure data.