Take Conterol of Structures from Product Families to Product Individuals
VariProd is a production configurator for mass-customised products.
The combination of VariPDM and VariProd is a flexible and easy-to-use tool for the manipulation of products in product development and in quotation and delivery processes.
A mass-customised product has a large number of variants in production at the same time, which places new demands on the product data management (PDM/PLM).
The variants of a mass-customised product are defined in VariPDM and VariProd by means of parameters. A product has a number of parameters, each of which has a set of allowed values. A product can also have constraints, which describe dependencies between the allowed values of different parameters.
In addition to traditional manufactured products, VariProd can be used for configuring services, documents and work items.
Product Family Structures
An engineer working with VariPDM creates a product family structure for a configurable product as an integral part of the product development process. A product family structure contains selection rules, which refer to the parameters of the product and allow the VariProd production configurator to generate the manufacturing structure and the documentation for a particular variant of the configurable product. Selection rules are an intuitive addition to an ordinary product structure and can, for example, use a convenient tabular presentation.
Integration with ERP
After VariProd has generated an order-specific manufacturing structure from a product family structure, the generated structure is transferred to an ERP system as an ordinary fixed structure. The ERP system does not have to know anything about configurable products.
Other Structures
In addition to a manufacturing structure, a product family structure can generate other structures, such as a spare parts structure. For example, suppose a configurable product has a number of alternatives for a particular part. The corresponding product family structure uses parameters and selection conditions to select the correct component to the manufacturing structure. If the selected component should also be included in the spare parts, the spare parts structure can in effect say that the structure includes whatever component has been selected for the part without repeating the actual selection condition.
Product Individuals
VariProd also manages product individuals and supports component traceability, which are important functions for maintenance and after-sales in many companies. Product individuals can, for example, be associated with serial numbers, test reports and the name of the component manufacturer if a component can be bought from a number of alternative manufacturers.
Strengths of the VariPDM / VariProd Combination
- Mass-customisation is a guiding principle in the design of the system.
- The systems helps engineers to examine the validity of product family structures.
- A Web-based VariSales sales configurator can be generated automatically from a product family structure.
- A product family structure is based on simple selection rules. If a product has multiple structures, the selection conditions do not have to be repeated in different structures.
- The system speeds up product development processes.
- The system automates order processes.
- Engineers can create and test the product family structure of a configurable product as part of the product development process. There is no need for separate “configurator experts”.
- All structures of a product (such as a manufacturing structure and a spare parts structure) are based on a common product model.
