Purpose:

To enable Configured Engineering Definition modifications without Revising the Released Model Version

Introduction

In non-configured product structures, modifications of these structures are typically made after revising the frozen or released revision of the root product.

In configured product structures, such modifications are possible only when you revise the frozen or released Model Version that the root product is connected to.

This process is essential for preserving history, enabling traceability, and maintaining configuration validity over time.

While necessary, this requirement for configured structures can introduce operational challenges:

• Engineers must depend on product managers to revise the Model Version, which can slow down agile engineering cycles.
• Product managers, responsible for the product evolution and Model Version management, need to create new Model versions solely for engineering support rather than for product evolution, leading to administrative overhead and unwanted Model Versions.

ENOVIA Solution

ENOVIA is introducing a new working method to give domain managers in areas like engineering and manufacturing more flexibility. This approach allows different teams to work at their own speed, without being dependent on updates from other domains.

The new method "decouples" the Engineering Revision of a product from its Model Version within configured structures. This separation allows the engineering team to modify a product's structure independently, without needing to revise/request to revise the officially frozen/released Model Version.

The main points of this approach:

• In case of engineering modifications, no need to revise the frozen/released Model Version
• You revise the Root Product Revision, and work under this revision through ‘Evolution Effectivity”
• Admin setting is required
• a new tab is available during the Engineering Item creation ("Revision")

This process of enabling the decoupling, is an additional process to the standard configuration management process that implements model version, variants and effectivities.

Pre-requisite (Admin Setting)

The following setting should be activated (by the admin):

• Navigate to:  Collaborative Spaces configuration Center > Configured Structure
• Enable the option: "Enable the Enable Effectivity Based option.

What will this setting enable:

This will make the Revision tab visible for users creating a new Engineering Item.

Users can then set the “Revision Mode” to be “Effectivity Based” when creating the root product.

This setting is available from the Revision tab in the Engineering Item creation panel: 

With/out Decoupling 

Without Decoupling (the classical (explicit) approach):

In this approach, where the admin setting is not required, the Model Version needs to be revised for engineering modifications.

Example:

The Model Version (MV_A, released) needs to be revised in order to perform the changes (*) mentioned in the table below:

With Decoupling (the new approach)

In this approach, where the admin setting is required, the Model Version does not need to be revised for engineering modifications.

Instead, the Root Product revision (*) will be revised for that purpose.

The root product must be defined with "Revision Mode = Effectivity Based".

(*) a new revision is created using the “Effectivity based” mode. Let’s call it ”_A” as in the example below to distinguish it from the standard Engineering Item revision (A)

Example:

The Model Version (MV_A, released) stays released and not revised in order to perform the changes mentioned in the table below. Instead, the released Root Revision (_A) will be revised for that purpose (_B):

In this approach, child items have Evolution Effectivities in the context of the root revision (_A, _B).

Decoupling - How

Here is a summary of the main steps for the full process that combines both the explicit and the new approach:

Product Managers (Portfolio management):

Product Engineers (Engineering management):

The following video illustrates these concepts in more details.

(Note: in this video, we called the new revision (_A) is called “X-Revision”)