Overview
Applications: eQuestionnaire (eQ)
Focus Area: Supplier Collaboration
Multiple %Breakdowns are now supported in eQ. Multiple %Breakdowns can be imported from a specification. In addition, suppliers can also create breakdowns in eQ. This is supported for ingredient, product and trade questionnaires.
What is a %Breakdown?
The % Breakdown represents the component composition of a material specification. % Breakdowns are stored on Ingredient and Product specifications. They are also available on Trade specifications typed as co-pack. For more information on the fields available, refer to the Agile Product Lifecycle Management for Process Global Specification Management User Guide.
Why Would Multiple Breakdowns be Needed?
Multiple breakdowns are allowed on a specification. There are many reasons why multiple breakdowns may be needed, a few are listed below.
1. Different suppliers may submit varying breakdowns for the same material. They may include acceptable differences in components or amounts.
2. You may also want to provide a more generic breakdown, combining key components into general groupings. You can then hide the supplier submitted breakdowns from users that aren’t allowed to see the true composition. For more information on controlling visibility of breakdowns inside GSM refer to the GSM User Guide.
3. The same supplier may be submit different breakdowns for each regulatory agency (USDA, CFIA, etc)
So let’s say you have the following data for a Cajun Seasoning specification:
1. Supplier A Breakdown (USDA) – Associated to Facility: International Flavors
Salt, Peppers, Onion Salt, Cayenne Pepper, Garlic Powder
2. Supplier A Breakdown (CFIA) – Associated to Facility: International Flavors
Salt, Black Pepper, Red Pepper, Onion Salt, Cayenne Pepper, Garlic Powder
3. Supplier B Breakdown – Associated to Facility: US Seasonings
Salt, Pepper, Onion Powder, Cayenne Pepper, Garlic Salt
4. R&D Available Breakdown – Tagged as Do Not Publish to Supplier
Salt, Pepper, Special Seasonings
Figure 1. GSM Breakdown Listing
Controlling Supplier Visibility to Breakdowns
1. Related Sourcing Approvals
Each breakdown on the specification can be associated with a sourcing approval. This facility/company pairing will control the visibility to the breakdown in Supplier Portal and supplier initiated questionnaires. In the example above, Supplier B would not be able to see Supplier A’s breakdowns.
Figure 2. GSM %Breakdown Popup Window
2. Tags
For breakdowns that no supplier should see (either through Supplier Portal or eQ), it can be tagged with the “Do Not Publish to Supplier” tag. In the example above, no suppliers would ever see the R&D available breakdown.
Figure 3. GSM %Breakdown Popup Window
3. Manual Interaction
When manually creating a questionnaire, you have the option to select which breakdowns you want to include in your supplier’s questionnaire.
Creating a Questionnaire with Multiple Breakdowns–Create the eQ using the standard methods as described in the Agile Product Lifecycle Management for Process eQuestionnaire User Guide. To allow the supplier to create breakdowns make sure the “Supplier Created Breakdown” option is checked, as shown in the figure below. This can be marked as required or optional. When marked as required the supplier is required to fill out at least one breakdown.
Figure 4.Supplier Created Breakdown option
When this option is selected, a blank % Breakdown will be presented to the supplier. The supplier will also be able to create new %Breakdowns using the Create New Breakdown button, as shown in the figure below.
Figure 5.Create New Breakdown button
If you import a specification the %breakdowns on that specification will be listed for selection in eQ, as shown in the figure below. Notice how the R&D breakdown is not included. Since they are pre-selected for your convenience, you would then select the breakdowns you don’t want to include.
Figure 6.Imported % breakdowns
The % Breakdowns selected will appear in the questionnaire as shown below. Components from the example were removed to allow for screen space.
Figure 7.Selected breakdowns appear in the questionnaire
Note: There are new fields in the supplier breakdown view. Component—Name of the component. Previously this was the Component Description field. This field is configurable to allow for free text OR force the supplier to select a component catalog term. Description—Description of the component. Critical—Indicates whether the component is considered critical. Total—A total row has been added to help suppliers reach 100%. The ability to delete components is now also available to suppliers.
Supplier Initiated Questionnaires
When a supplier initiates a questionnaire only the breakdowns available to them will be available in the questionnaire that is created. If your eQ template has Supplier Created Breakdown option checked then the supplier will also be able to create additional breakdowns. While suppliers can delete the breakdowns they create in the questionnaire process, they will not be allowed to delete the specification created breakdowns.
Pushing Breakdowns Back into GSM
Once the supplier submits the questionnaire, you can push the breakdowns into GSM. Multiple breakdowns can be pushed into GSM. You are able to edit the formulation classification and tag fields before saving the specification, shown below.
Figure 8.Editing pushed breakdowns
The figure below shows what the breakdown listing will look like if you were to push both supplier edited breakdowns into GSM. Notice that both breakdowns pushed into GSM follow a specific naming convention: Formulation – (Questionnaire #) – Name of Breakdown submitted by the supplier. From here you can edit the supplier submitted breakdowns – renaming them, deleting the previous breakdowns, etc.
Figure 9. Supplier edited breakdowns pushed into GSM
