Engineering attributes and engineering attribute search

Article
06/03/2022

To ensure that all product master data can be registered in the system, you should use engineering attributes to specify all non-standard characteristics. You can then use engineering attribute search to easily find products, based on those registered characteristics.

Create engineering attributes and attribute types

Typically, engineering products have many characteristics and properties that you must capture. Although you can register some of the properties by using the standard product fields, you can also create new engineering properties as required. You can define your own engineering attributes and make them part of the product definition.

Each engineering attribute must belong to an attribute type. This requirement exists because each engineering attribute must have a data type that defines the types of values that it can hold. An engineering attribute type can be a standard type (such as free text, integer, or decimal) or a custom type (such as text that has a specific set of values to select from). You can reuse each attribute type with any number of engineering attributes.

Set up engineering attribute types

To view, create, or edit an engineering attribute type, follow these steps.

Go to Engineering change management > Setup > Attributes > Attribute types.
Select an existing attribute type in the list pane, or select New on the Action Pane to create a new attribute type.
Set the following fields:
- Attribute type name – Enter a name for the attribute type.
- Type – Select a standard data type (Currency, DateTime, Decimal, Integer, Text, Boolean, or Reference).
- Fixed list – This option is available only if you set the Type field to Text. Set it to Yes to define specific values for attributes of this type. In this case, a drop-down list will be created. You use the Value FastTab to establish the values that are available for this attribute type. Set this option to No to allow users to enter any value. In this case, an input field will be created.
- Value range – This option is available only if you set the Type field to Integer, Decimal, or Currency. Set it to Yes to establish minimum and maximum values that will be accepted for attributes of this type. You use the Range FastTab to establish the minimum and maximum values, and (for currency) the currency that applies for the limits that you entered. Set this option to No to accept any value.
- Unit of measure – This field is available only if you set the Type field to Integer or Decimal. Select the unit of measure that applies for this attribute type. If no unit is required, leave this field blank.

Set up engineering attributes

To view, create, or edit an engineering attribute, follow these steps.

Go to Engineering change management > Setup > Attributes > Engineering attributes.
Select an existing attribute in the list pane, or select New on the Action Pane to create a new attribute.
Set the following fields:
- Name – Enter a unique name for the attribute. Both the Name and Friendly name are shown throughout the system, though you can decide to hide any of the columns. The Name must be unique while Friendly name doesn't need to be.
- Attribute type – Select an attribute type that you defined in the previous section.
- Friendly name – Enter a common name for the attribute (except on the Engineering attributes page). Unlike the Name, this value doesn't need to be unique, which means that there could be two or more different attribute with the same friendly name.
- Description – Enter a description of the attribute.
- Help text – Enter Help text that tells other users what the attribute is for.
- Default value – Enter a default value for the attribute. The options that are presented depend on the attribute type that you selected.
- Currency – If the attribute type that you selected is a currency, select the currency that the attribute will accept and show values in.
If the attribute type that you selected is an integer or a decimal, the Range FastTab is shown. On this FastTab, set the following fields as required:
- Tolerance action – Select how the system should respond if a user enters a value outside the specified range. If you select Warning, a warning is shown, but the user can save the value. If you select Not allowed, a warning is shown, and the value can't be saved until the user corrects it.
- Minimum – Enter the minimum recommended or accepted value.
- Maximum – Enter the maximum recommended or accepted value.

Engineering attribute inheritance

For product structures, such as bills of materials (BOMs) or formulas, selected attributes can be passed from the children items up to the parent items. You can think of this process as "reverse inheritance."

Turn engineering attribute inheritance on or off

This feature requires that both the Engineering Change Management and Improved attribute inheritance for Engineering Change Management features be turned on for your system. For details about how to turn these features on or off, see Engineering change management overview.

Attribute inheritance example

For a food product such as a carrot cake, the system must record each allergen that the product contains. The carrot cake can be modeled in the system as an engineering product that has a formula. This formula contains the carrot cake's ingredients, such as flour, milk, carrots, and nuts. In this example, the company provides two models for carrot cake: one that contains lactose and one that doesn't.

The cake that contains lactose has the following attributes at the ingredient level:

Ingredient "flour": attribute "gluten" = yes
Ingredient "milk": attribute " lactose" = yes
Ingredient "nuts": attribute "nuts" = yes

The cake that doesn't contain lactose uses lactose-free milk and has the following attributes at the ingredient level:

Ingredient "flour": attribute "gluten" = yes
Ingredient "milk": attribute "lactose" = no
Ingredient "nuts": attribute "nuts" = yes

Because these products are mostly similar, it might be convenient to pass these attributes from the children (the two variations) to the parent product (the basic carrot cake). To implement this "reverse inheritance," you can use the Attribute inheritance functionality. This functionality is defined for each engineering version.

Connect engineering attributes to an engineering product category

Some engineering attributes apply to all products, whereas others are specific to individual products or product categories. For example, electrical attributes aren't required for mechanical products. Therefore, you can set up engineering product categories. An engineering product category establishes the collection of engineering attributes that must be part of the definition for products that belong to that category. You can also specify which engineering attributes are mandatory and whether there is a default value.

For more information about how to work with engineering product categories, including information about how to connect attributes to categories, see Engineering versions and engineering product categories.

Set attribute values for engineering attributes

The engineering attributes that are connected to an engineering product category are presented when you create a new engineering product that is based on that category. At that time, you can set values for the attributes. Later, those values can be changed on the Engineering version page or as part of engineering change management in an engineering change order. For more information, see Manage changes to engineering products.

Create an engineering product

To create an engineering product, open the Released products page. Then, on the Action Pane, on Product tab, in the New group, select Engineering product.

You must specify the engineering category that the product belongs to. The category will set all the default values and characteristics for the product. It will also set the attributes that are applicable to the product. After the category is selected, values will be set for the attributes. You can then modify those values.

Search for products by using engineering attribute values

You can use engineering attribute search to find products by searching for their engineering attributes values. Therefore, you can easily find engineering products, based on their characteristics. You can search in the products that belong to an engineering product category, or you can search across all engineering products.

The search is available on product master data pages and from transactional items in the system, such as sales orders. For a transactional item, you can use the Engineering attribute search page to search for a product. You can then use the Add as new line button to add the product to the sales order lines. Products in the search results can also be added directly to the order.