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Agile Product Lifecycle Management Product Cost Management Supplier Guide Release 9.3.3 E39299-01 |
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# 1 Introduction

Traditional methods for managing and analyzing total product costs throughout the product lifecycle are complex, time consuming, and often ineffective. Agile Product Cost Management (PCM) supports, enhances, and simplifies these processes, allowing organizations to effectively manage and manipulate sourcing content, collaborate with suppliers to establish new sourcing content, and analyze the data to drive the best sourcing decision across each product's lifecycle.

## 1.1 Overview

The Supplier Interface of Agile PCM helps you manage your RFQ Responses. Depending on your assigned roles, you can submit responses to the sourcing manager, view attachments, participate in threaded discussions, view the history of your RFQ Responses, import or export RFQ Responses, discover previously submitted pricing information, and run reports.

## 1.2 What is Product Cost Management?

Agile Product Cost Management (PCM) is an Internet-based solution suite that includes Product Sourcing and Contract Management capabilities.

Product Sourcing manages the preparation and dissemination of Requests for Quotes to suppliers and allows analysis of supplier responses. It provides you, the supplier, with a secure, easy-to-use interface from which you can receive RFQs, enter your responses, and submit them to your customer.

Contract Management provides the visibility of Contract and Pricing attributes throughout the organization and provides workflow approval processes for the release of new contracts, or changes to previously released pricing. It also provides visibility to you, the supplier, and allows you to participate in workflow processes, as well as proactively initiate a change to contract pricing.

## 1.3 Introducing Agile Objects

In Oracle Agile PLM, you work with objects. Examples of objects are parts, documents, RFQs, RFQ Responses, and change orders.

The objects you can view and the actions you can perform are determined by the roles and privileges you are granted to access those objects. Privileges can vary from field to field. If you have questions about your roles and privileges, contact the Supplier Manager user in your organization or contact the Agile administrator.

When you open an object, it appears with a number of tabs. Different types of objects have different tabs. Each tab contains fields that provide information about that object. For example, a part's Title Block tab includes Number, Part Category, and Description fields, and a change's Cover Page tab includes Originator, Status, and Reason For Change fields.

Some tabs have fields and tables where you enter data; some fields and tables are filled in automatically. Some objects and commonly found tabs are mentioned in the discussions later in this chapter.

For more information, see the Getting Started with Agile PLM User Guide.

## 1.4 Sourcing Process

Supplier users do the following:

- Receive email notifications about a Request for Quote (RFQ) from a buyer

- Accept buyer's terms & conditions before reviewing an RFQ (if Terms and Conditions have been enabled and set as required)

- View data, which may include BOMs, AMLs, and attachments, in an RFQ

- Provide prices directly into the web application or export data, complete responses and import back into Agile PCM

- Propose alternate parts

- Analyze historical quoting information

- Submit the RFQ back to the buyer

- Configure quote routing so that appropriate supplier users receive RFQ Responses

- Receive proactive reminders and alerts from the buyer organization to prevent missed opportunities

- Update your own user profile and set preferences, e.g. preferred currency, preferred time zone, etc.

- Update your line card offerings

- Create your own supplier users

- Assign alternate users

- View Costed Bill of Materials

Note Some of the actions listed above may be restricted by a user's privileges. If you need additional privileges, talk to the Supplier Manager or the Agile administrator.

## 1.5 Login Security and Passwords

Depending on how the Agile administrator has configured your password settings, you may have two separate passwords for login and approval, or you may have one password for both login and approval.

For system security, the Agile administrator may configure the Agile system so that you are not allowed to log in after a specified number of password failures (entering the wrong password). The lockout applies to both your login password and your approval password.

Depending on system settings, one of the following occurs:

- The login lockout lasts until a specified time has passed (for example, one minute).

After the specified time has passed, a small Login dialog box appears, telling you that there have been too many login failures. Click OK and continue.

- The login lockout lasts until your Agile administrator unlocks your account by changing your password. If you are locked out, Web Client hangs for the time period specified by the Agile administrator (for example, one minute) each time you attempt to log in.

## 1.6 Discovery and Read Privileges

Together, the Discovery privilege, the Read privilege, and the Enforce Field Level Read privilege determine which Agile objects you can find and open, and which object fields you can view.

When you search for objects, you may see a message indicating that a number of rows are not displayed in the search results table due to insufficient privilege. This indicates that you do not have the appropriate privileges to find or discover those objects. You may see that some fields in the search results table contain the notation "No Privilege." This indicates that you do not have the appropriate privileges to view the information in that field.

When you open an object, you may see the notation "No Privilege" in one or more fields. This indicates that you do not have the appropriate privileges to view the information in that field.

If you have questions about your assigned privileges, contact the Supplier Manager user at your supplier organization or contact the Agile administrator.

The Discovery privilege lets you discover the existence of an object in the Agile database. If you do not have Discovery privilege for an object, you cannot view the object, and you cannot find, or discover, the object in the Agile database. This includes viewing users in the address book; there may be some users that you cannot view due to lack of privileges.

Once you have the privilege to discover an object, your Read and Enforce Field Level Read privileges for that object determine whether you can open and view it, and which individual fields you can view. You may be able to read an object, but you may not have Read privilege for every field of that object. So it is possible for you to open an object and, at the same time, be unable to view specific fields of that object.

## 1.7 Viewing, and Working with, Attachments

On the Attachments tab of an object, you can attach files and URLs to the current object by referencing those files and URLs in a file folder object. On this tab, you can view, copy (Get), print, check out and check in attached files if you have the appropriate privileges. Individual attached files are stored in File Folder objects and can be attached to multiple objects.

Note: If you have the appropriate privileges for an object type (for example, RFQ Response objects), all attachment tasks (including check in, check out, and add) can be performed from the Attachments tab of that object.

For detailed information about file folders and attachment files, see Getting Started with Agile PLM.

To view a file using AutoVue for Agile viewer, click its File Name link. If the file is viewable in AutoVue for Agile, it opens in the viewer. If the file is not viewable in AutoVue for Agile, it opens in the native application (for example, Microsoft Excel) if it is installed on your computer. If the attachment is a URL, a browser window opens and displays the contents of the URL.

If you have the appropriate privileges, the Get, Print, Checkout, Checkin, and Cancel Checkout buttons are displayed in the attachment table rows.

The Add button above the table allows you to add attachments by several methods. Add > Files attaches one or more files and creates a file folder object containing those files. Add > URLs attaches URLs and creates a file folder object for each URL. Add > By Search allows you to search existing file folders for the files or URLs you want to attach. For more details about adding attachments, see Getting Started with Agile PLM.

## 1.8 Searching for Objects

When you want to find objects in Agile PLM (for example, RFQ Responses or Manufacturer Parts), you perform a search. Agile provides several types of searches:

- Quick searches find objects of all types (or only one object type, if one is specified) that match the text you specify.

- Advanced Object Searches find all the objects with fields that match the conditions of the search. For example, you could search for parts where the Description field contains "Computer."

- Custom searches extend the Advanced Object search to include multiple conditions.

- Where-used searches find the assemblies in which the BOM contains the items that match the search criteria.

- Relationship searches find objects related to the objects that meet the search criteria. For example, you can search for the problem reports that appear on the Relationships tab of changes that meet search criteria.

For complete information about searching for Agile objects, see Getting Started with Agile PLM.

## 1.9 Personalizing PCM Object Tabs

On some tabs of PCM objects, you can select which fields to view (and how to view them) to obtain better performance and to meet your specific needs. When you open these tabs for the first time after logging in, the default view appears automatically. After that, you can reconfigure the tab display by clicking the Personalize button, which brings up the Table Personalization palette.

Note: Although the Personalize button is available for other PCM objects, this section focuses on RFQ Responses since it is the object that suppliers most frequently use.

From the Table Personalization palette, you may be able to:

- Sort table results by up to three attributes

For example, on the Discussions tab, you can sort discussions by the Create Date field in ascending or descending order. You can further sort the results by discussion Subject in ascending or descending order. Sorting is not available on some tabs, including the Responses tab.

- Filter the information based on specified criteria

For example, on the Responses tab, you may want to view only the response line items that need to be requoted. To accomplish this, you can set your filter criteria to be "Response Line Status Equal To Requote". For details on how to filter table rows, see "Filtering Objects."

- Format/select the fields (columns) that appear on the tab and set the order of the fields

For example, on the Attachments tab, if the Modified Date field is not visible, you can make it visible, as well as change the location of the column to make it easier to find. For example, you could make the Modified Date the third column in the Attachments table by changing the order in which it appears.

You can also lock a particular column to ensure that it is always visible as you use the horizontal scroll bar. For example, you can lock the Number column so that it is always visible as you scroll to view other data to the right of the column.

You can configure the display of the following RFQ Response tabs:

- Responses

- Discussions

- Relationships

- Attachments

- History

The following table shows the personalization features that are available for each RFQ Response tab.

Tab Name | Sort | Filter | Format | Properties
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Responses | X | X | X | This cell is blank
Changes | This cell is blank | This cell is blank | This cell is blank | This cell is blank
Discussions | x | X | X | X
Relationships | X | X | X | X
Attachments | X | X | X | X
History | X | X | X | This cell is blank

Note: On the Sort, Filter, and Format tabs of the Table Personalization palette, you can choose to save your preferences as a new view using the Save button. View properties are displayed on the Properties tab.

### 1.9.1 Configuring the display of a tab

To configure the display of a tab

1. Open an RFQ Response and select one of the configurable tabs, e.g. Discussions tab. Click Personalize.

   - To sort fields: On the Sort tab, you can select up to three fields by which the table rows should be sorted. For each field, choose whether the sort should be done in ascending or descending order.

   - To filter data: See "Filtering Objects."

   - To format fields: On the Format tab, select the fields that you want to view on the tab from the Hidden Fields list. Click the right arrow button to move fields into the Displayed Fields list. Use the up/down arrows to change the order of appearance of the columns.

   - To lock columns: To lock a field in the Displayed Fields list, select it and click the lock icon.

   Note: If the field you select is not the first column in the table, all columns to the left of the selected column will also be locked as you use the horizontal scroll bar.

2. Click Apply to apply the new display.

   Note: Once you click Apply, only the current view is affected. Once you go away from the current page, the applied view will be lost unless you use click Save to save the view. When you make a change to the base view or a pre-defined view, you must click Save and then Save As to save the view as a new view. If you later make changes to a view that was not pre-defined, you only have to click Save and the changes are saved to the existing view.

   Note: The attributes available for the RFQ Response tabs vary based on how your Agile PLM system has been configured.

### 1.9.2 Filtering Objects

The filter tool allows you to filter the rows of a table that is on an object tab, such as the table on the Responses tab of an RFQ Response object.

The Personalize button appears on most tabs and allows you to sort and format table content, as well as filter table content. Use the filter tab on the Table Personalization palette to display only the table rows you are interested in.

To filter data on a tab:

1. Open the RFQ Response and click on the desired tab.

2. Click Personalize. The Table Personalization palette appears.

3. Click the Filter tab.

4. Click the Field dropdown list to select a field by which to filter.

5. Click the Operator dropdown list to select a relational operator for the filter. The list of relational operators depends on the type of attribute selected.

6. Select a value for the filter criteria.

   - For text attributes, type a value.

   - For list attributes, click the list icon to select a single or multiple values from available values list.

7. To add additional filters, click the plus icon.

   Note: Multi-column filtering is not available on all tabs.

8. Click Apply.

   Note: If you want to save this filter for future use, click Save.

   For complete information about the table personalization features, see Getting Started with Agile PLM.

## 1.10 Numeric Search and Entry Using Special Characters

When data is entered in a numeric field (either in search criteria or on Page Two or Page Three (custom tabs or sections defined by the Agile administrator), if the number is followed by a special character, the number is multiplied by the appropriate scaling factor and entered in the database.

For example, if you enter 25k in a numeric field, the Agile system stores 25000 in the database. Also, if you enter 25k in search criteria, the Agile system searches for 25000.

For a list of all the special characters and what they represent, see Getting Started with Agile PLM.

## 1.11 What's New in PCM

The following are new features listed by the release in which they were introduced.

### 1.11.1 New Features in PCM 9.3.2

New features that affect suppliers in the Agile PCM Release 9.3.2 include the following:

- The addition of the Acknowledger reviewer role in the workflows of PCOs.

- The addition of a Functional Team(s) attribute to Prices, PCOs, and Part Groups.

For more details on these workflow changes, See Getting Started with Agile PLM.

### 1.11.2 New Features in PCM 9.3.1

New features that affect suppliers in the Agile PCM Release 9.3.1 include the following:

- Multi-column filtering is available on the RFQ Response-Responses tab.

- All dates related to prices are now in DateOnly format in GMT. Project periods, RFQ due dates, price line effective from/to dates, valid from, and valid until dates are now all in DateOnly format.

- A new configurable attribute is available on the RFQ Response Entry form to allow you to explicitly set a start date for prices that have quantity breaks. The new attribute, Valid From, has a default of the current date.

### 1.11.3 New Features in PCM 9.3

There are several new UI enhancements in Agile PLM that help make your PCM experience more efficient and beneficial. An overview of PCM-specific enhancements is provided in the following sections.

#### 1.11.3.1 UI Enhancements

There are several new enhancements and changes to the UI in PCM. The following are some of the general changes:

- When filling in list and multi-list fields, you can type ahead values if you already know the value you want to enter. If you don't know what value to enter or if whatever value you entered is displayed in red font, you can search for the value by clicking the search button.

- When filling in date fields, you can either type in the date manually or click on the calendar button to select a date.

- The Prices and PCO objects support full view personalization.

- The RFQ Response and Supplier objects support limited view personalization.

Note: For more information about view personalization in PCM, see "Personalizing PCM Object Tabs."

#### 1.11.3.2 UI Enhancements in RFQ Responses

The following are enhancements that affect the RFQ Response object:

- Some action buttons, and their menu options, have been rearranged and/or renamed on the Responses tab.

- Filtering is supported in the Responses tab through view personalization. Multi-column filtering is not supported.

- When using Advanced Table Edit mode, inline table editing is supported for editable fields.

- The wizard flow diagram in the left pane is no longer displayed. Instead, when using Basic edit mode, the diagram is replaced with a text version of the flow steps. The flow is not displayed while in other response edit modes.

#### 1.11.3.3 UI Enhancements in Prices and Price Change Orders

The following are enhancements that affect the PCO object:

- On the Workflow tab, the Summary table and the Signoff History table have been combined into one table. Now, the two sections on this tab are the Summary section and the Workflow section, which contains the table.