Release product structures
To ensure that engineering-relevant product data can easily be reused in different legal entities, you can release complete product structures in addition to releasing products together with their engineering versions. Therefore, you can release multilevel bill of materials (BOM) structures together with the parent in a single release action. In this case, the BOM and the lower-level products are also released.
Engineering products are created and maintained by their engineering company in such way that they meet quality requirements as they're designed. Each operational company that manufactures a product needs the same product and underlying BOM. Depending on the production facility, the route might be created locally. In this case, you won't release a route together with the product. For legal entities that will sell the products but won't manufacture them, the BOM might not be required.
To make the process more efficient, all engineering-relevant data can be released to other operational companies at the same time. This data includes the product structure. During the release process, you can choose which part of the product data should be released.
For more information about engineering companies and operational companies, see Engineering companies and data ownership rules.
You can release both standard products and engineering products together with the release product structure. During this process, the whole product structure will be released, even the BOM and route from the company that the products are being released in.
For an example of how to release a product, see Release an engineering product to a local company
Released data for a product when the release product structure is used
The following data is included in the release of engineering products:
- Product data – A new released product is created.
- Engineering version data – The engineering version and its data are created or updated. If you release the same engineering version again to an operational company, the engineering data will be overwritten.
- Engineering attributes – The engineering attributes and their values are created or updated.
- Engineering bill of materials – The engineering BOM and its lines can be created or updated. For more information about data ownership, see Product owners.
- Engineering routes – The engineering routes and their operations can be created or updated. For more information about data ownership, see Product owners.
- Engineering documents – The engineering documents that are connected to the engineering version are created or updated.
When you turn on engineering change management on your system, the release product structure is available. In addition, standard products will include their BOMs and routes when they're released.
Product acceptance
Product acceptance is a key parameter that influences the release process. You can set this parameter for each company by going to Engineering change management > Setup > Engineering change management parameters. Learn more in Engineering change management parameters.
Automatic product acceptance
Each release of engineering products starts when somebody from the engineering company selects a product to release. When the Product acceptance parameter is set to Automatic, the user at the engineering company decides which product data should be automatically released to the operational companies. The product will then automatically be released to the companies that are selected in the release wizard.
Manual product acceptance
Each release of engineering products starts when somebody from the engineering company selects a product to release. When the Product acceptance parameter is set to Manual, the user at the engineering company decides which product data should be released to the operational companies. A user from each operational company then reviews the product data and decides whether to accept the release. The user at the operational company can set the following options when the data is received:
- If the products (updates) aren't relevant for the operational company, the user can choose not to accept the release.
- The user can change the item template for new products.
- The user can choose whether the product should be released together with their BOMs and/or routes, and whether they should be released as approved and active.
- The user can change the effective-from dates of the products.
For an example of how to accept a product, see Review and accept the product before you release it in the local company.
Note
For standard products, you can release from any legal entity to any other legal entity. For engineering products, the only legal entity that you can release from is the engineering company.
Release policies
Not all operational companies need the same product data. In general, operational companies that manufacture engineering products require a BOM, whereas operational companies that only sell engineering products don't require a BOM. You can use release policies to establish the parameters that are used for the release of products.
For more information about engineering product categories, see Engineering versions and engineering product categories.
During the release process, you can influence the settings.
Create and manage product release policies
To work with product release policies, go to Engineering change management > Setup > product release policies. Then follow one of these steps.
- To create a new policy, select New on the Action Pane, and then set the fields as described in the following subsections.
- To edit an existing policy, select it in the list pane, select Edit on the Action Pane, and then set the fields as described in the following subsections.
- To delete an existing policy, select it in the list pane, select Edit on the Action Pane, and then, on the General FastTab, make sure that the Active option is set to No. Then select Delete on the Action Pane.
Header
Set the following fields on the header of a product release policy.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Enter a name for the policy. |
| Description | Enter a description of the policy. |
General FastTab
Set the following fields on the General FastTab of a product release policy.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Product type | Select whether the policy applies to products of the Item or Service type. You can't change this setting after you save the record. |
| Production type | This field appears only when you've enabled formula change management in your system. Select the type of production that this release policy applies to:
|
| Apply templates | Select one of the following options to specify whether and how product release templates should be applied when the policy is used:
|
| Active | Use this option to help maintain your release policies. Set it to Yes for all release policies that you use. Set it to No to mark a release policy as inactive when it isn't used. You can't inactivate a release policy that is assigned to an engineering product category, and you can delete only inactive release policies. |
All products FastTab
On the All products FastTab, add a row for each operational company that you want to use this policy to release to. Use the buttons on the All products FastTab to add and remove rows as you require. For each row that you add, set the following fields.
Note
The settings on the All products FastTab apply to both engineering products and standard products.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Company accounts ID | Select the company that the row applies to. The parameters on the row will apply when products are released to this company. |
| Template released product | Add a template for the product. |
| Copy BOM approval | Select this check box to copy the BOM approval status to the receiving company. |
| Copy BOM activation | Select this check box to copy the BOM activation status to the receiving company. |
| Copy route approval | Select this check box to copy the route approval status to the receiving company. |
| Copy route activation | Select this check box to copy the route activation status to the receiving company. |
Option parameters for engineering products FastTab
Every time that you add a row on the All products FastTab, a row that has a matching Company accounts ID value is also created on the Option parameters for engineering products FastTab. Then, if you remove a row from the All products FastTab, the row that has a matching Company accounts ID value is also removed from the Option parameters for engineering products FastTab.
For each row that is shown on the Option parameters for engineering products FastTab, set the following fields.
Note
The settings on the Option parameters for engineering products FastTab apply only to engineering products.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Template BOM | When a product that has a BOM is released, the lines of the specified template BOM will be added. This field is useful for adding local components, such as packaging or instructions in the local language. |
| Template route | When a product that has a route is released, the lines of the specified template will be added. |
| Copy effectivity | Select whether effectivity dates should be copied from the engineering company to the operational company when you release products. |
| Automatically add to release proposal | Select this check box for products that should automatically be released on the engineering change order. In this way, products that belong to engineering product categories that use this release policy can automatically be released to operational companies where this option is set up. (Learn more in Manage changes to engineering products.) |
Review each product when you release it
When engineering products that have BOMs or routes are released, the parameters will be set to default values, as indicated in the release policy. As a user, you can influence this behavior on the releasing side when you use the release product structure.
To release engineering products, on the Released products page, select the products to release, and then select Release product structure to open the release wizard. The Select engineering products to release page shows the products. Select a single product, and then select Release details to review the release details for the product.
On the Release details page, you can change the value of the Receive BOM, Copy BOM approval, Copy BOM activation, Receive BOM, Copy route approval and Copy route activation fields. In the push-pull scenario, you can change the value of the same fields on the receiving side, provided that the BOM and route are released.
Product owners and product releases
Because product owners know which legal entities need their products, a product can be released only by the members of that product's product owner group. Other users can't release products that they don't own.
This behavior applies only when a product is directly selected for release. Products that are part of another product's structure via a BOM can be released by non-owner users when they release the parent product, provided that they own the parent product.
For example, product X is assigned to the Design cabinets product owner group. Product X is also part of the BOM of product Y, which is assigned to the Design speakers product owner group. If a user from the Design speakers product owner group releases product Y and its BOM, product X will be released together with product Y.
Learn more in Product owners.
Release multiple BOMs/formulas
In older versions of Supply Chain Management, when you release a product, only the first active BOM or formula (as of the date of release) will be released. If there are no active BOMs or formulas, the engineering version won't be released.
Starting in Supply Chain Management version 10.0.34, it's now possible to release multiple BOMs or formulas. To enable this new functionality, use the Feature management workspace to enable the Release multiple BOMs/formulas for Engineering Change Management feature.
When the Release multiple BOMs/formulas for Engineering Change Management feature is enabled, all BOMs or formulas that are active for a product will be released when you release the product. This functionality can be relevant, for example, if you have multiple active formulas that apply for various from quantities. You'll be able to view the different BOMs or formulas and their respective routes on the BOM designer when releasing on the Release product structure page and when reviewing the release on Open product releases page.
A product template is required for release
The release policy for the company where a product is to be released must have a product template assigned. This is because some fields in the local company (such as item model group) are required to create a BOM, and many of them are company specific. These field values are copied to the released product from the release template and can be updated as needed.