Introduction
Please NOTE that the nomenclature has been changed on introduction of the 3DExperience platform (R2014x). The structure is now called "Manufactured Item Structure"!
What is the "Manufactured Product" ("Manufactured Item Structure")?
The "Manufactured Product" describes on a high level, how a given Product (the "Engineering Product") is supposed to be build. The Manufactured Product contains for example objects that describe the main Manufacturing Assemblies. The objects in the Manufactured Product structure are internally named "Process Functions" (to illustrate, that the structure describes how the parts are basically provided, transformed, processed and assembled).
Relative to the industry nomenclature, this structure represents a Manufacturing Bill of Materials. Now it depends on the approach the customer is taking, whether in this structure you already describe plant-specific assemblies or not. This is not mandatory. If you do it, then you have what is classically referred to as an MBOM. However, this structure can also be a plant-invariant Manufacturing Planning BOM and you introduce plant-specific deviations and routing only in the production system structure where you define your operations.
In the most simple example, the Manufactured Product contains a set of assembly stages (the "Create Assembly" functions) to which the individual parts that are contained in the product structure are assigned. The functions which link the parts to the Create Assembly functions are called "Provide" functions.
What is the "Product-Process-Scope"?
The notion of "Scope" is not so obvious for the beginner. Plus, what is actually meant here is the "Engineering Product to Manufactured Product"-Scope.
The idea of a scope is to define which (sub-)structure of the Manufactured Product is describing which (sub-)structure of the Engineering Product. For small product structures there is obviously no need to do this composition, so you will probably have only one scope that is connecting the root objects of both the Engineering and the Manufactured Product. Even for larger and more complex product structures, the definition of scopes on lower levels is not mandatory, but it helps to make sure that you cannot make wrong assignments. The assignment is controlled by the scope. You can only assign those parts which are (grand-) children of the product object that is scoped by its corresponding object.
Example: For a car, you may want to express that all parts of the engine are scoped by the function that is describing the assembly of the engine. We hereby assume that the engine parts are all aggregated under a common node in the product structure. By creating such a scope, you prevent the planner from erroneously assigning other parts (e.g. from the cockpit) to the engine.
Example
For illustration purposes, we use a very simple object here. The software version used for this example is V6R2013x.
Creating a Manufactured Product for a given Engineering Product Structure
The easiest way is to start from the Engineering Product. Just "Open" the product structure. Then select from the start menu. "Manufacturing Planning/Process Definition" workbench.
After that, the so-called "Live Process Editor" is opened.
The software creates on the fly 1) a PPRContext, and 2) the root object of the Manufactured Product. This root object represents the final stage. In the tree you also see the Engineering Product root object (not expanded). Don't be surprised to not see any 3D yet.
Creating the scope between Engineering Product and Manufactured Product
The mandatory thing is to create the scope (in our example we create one and only one scope on root level).Move the mouse over the tile or the tree item representing the root object of the Manufactured Product and use the right mouse button (RMB) to select the command "Create Process-Product Scope".
The command expects a selection, so you have to select the Engineering Product in the tree. When you do the selection, the scope is created and the product is shown on the tile in a certain "transparency" mode. This is to illustrate that the manufactured product structure is not yet defined (just the scope is present now).
Create Assembly Functions (Stages)
Now the next step is to define the (main) assembly stages, transformation functions, etc.. It certainly depends on your business case and industry how detailed you would like to do that, and which constraints you would like to impose for the detailing of the production systems and operations later (e.g. the local routing in your assembly line).Use RMB and execute the command "Insert Predecessor/
Assigning parts to the Manufactured Product
There are several ways to work. It depends on your personal preferences and the complexity of the structures, which is the preferred method. You may also consider to use an automatic function based on rules to derive the initial Manufactured Product structure. In this chapter we only describe the manual assignment.
In our example case, the following user interaction do all create a "Provide" function and a so-called "Implement Link" link from the Provide to the part.
Option 1: Drag & Drop
You simply use drag and drop to assign a part. Drop either on the tile representing the Create Assembly Function, or drop directly on the tree item.
Option 2: Assignments Manager
In the toolbar "Process Definition Commands", you select the command "Launch Assignments Manager Panel".
The panel is non-modal. Its current content depends on your selection.
By using the green arrow, you assign the selected part(s) to the currently selected item in the Manufactured Product structure. I
Option 3: Use "Smart Zoom"
(Please refer to this blog post containing a video that shows the function.) Another, very convenient way is to utilize what we call "Smart Zoom". This function is launched by pushing the "F6" key. Before you push the key, select the object to which you want to assign. After pushing the key, the viewing mode is switched. In the Smart Zoom viewing mode, you can zoom, pan & rotate the 3D Representation of the part, while the Manufactured Product Structure (the tiles) remain stable in the background.
Then you have to activate the East Quadrant of the PLM Compass.
After that, the individual 3D Representations are colorized according to the PLM Compass legend. You can distinguish already assigned from unassigned parts.
Move the mouse over an unassigned part and use the right mouse button contextual menu function "Assign Part to Current Process".
