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Agile Product Lifecycle Management Product Collaboration User Guide Release 9.3.3 E39292-01 |
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# B Appendix B

Configuring Product Collaboration in Agile Administrator

This chapter provides information about Product Collaboration administration settings.

## B.1 Reference Designator Preferences

Agile PLM 9.3 includes two system preferences related to reference designators. One preference defines the way reference designators are displayed in the BOM table. The second preference helps to determine the format of individual reference designators, including the format in which they are stored in the Agile PLM database.

Caution Changing the Reference Designator Range Indicator preference after the initial implementation of Agile PLM may affect user data. See "Reference Designator Range Indicator" below for more information.

Read this entire section about "Reference Designator Preferences" before you make any updates or changes to these preference settings.

- Reference Designators Allow Range Expand Collapse

Allows reference designators to be displayed in the BOM table as a range instead of a sequence. For example, the reference designator range R1 through R5 can be displayed as either:

- Expand setting:

R1, R2, R3, R4, R5

- Collapse setting:

R1-R5

- Reference Designator Range Indicator

The symbol that appears between lower and upper range values in reference designator statements. The default character is hyphen ( - ). If the reference designator number format that you want to use includes the hyphen character as part of the format, then you can use this setting to select a different character to use as the range indicator. For important information about this preference, see "Reference Designator Range Indicator" before you make any updates or changes.

### B.1.1 Reference Designators Allow Range Expand Collapse

This setting is now editable in this release. By default, the Reference Designators Allow Range Expand Collapse preference is set to Collapse, which means it collapses ranges of reference designators, for example, RefDes01-03. A setting of Expand forces the sequence to list each individual reference designator, separated by commas, for example, RefDes01,02,03.

#### B.1.1.1 Edit Mode - How editing reference designators is affected by the Expand/Collapse setting

When a BOM row is in edit mode, the reference designators are always displayed in expanded mode, regardless of the RDAREC preference setting. This allows the user to select and delete individual reference designators.

Regardless of the RDAREC preference setting, the user can always type a reference designator range in edit mode. If the user enters R1-R99, when he saves his edits, the reference designators are displayed according to the RDAREC preference setting. If the Expand setting is selected, each individual reference designator is displayed on the BOM table.

Note: Whether they are originally entered as individual numbers or as ranges, Agile PLM stores reference designators as individual reference designator numbers. The RDAREC preference setting determines only the manner in which they are displayed on the BOM table (expanded or collapsed).

### B.1.2 Reference Designator Range Indicator

This preference determines which character is used to indicate a range of reference designators. The default reference designator range indicator is the hyphen character:

-

When the Reference Designators Allow Range Expand Collapse (RDAREC) preference is set to Collapse, this character is used to indicate the "missing" reference designators in the sequence. For example, the range R1-R5 indicates that the range consists of the reference designators beginning with R1 and ending with R5. Although R2, R3, and R4 are not displayed, the range indicator character implies that they are included in the range.

#### B.1.2.1 Why Select a Non-default Reference Designator Range Indicator?

If you need to use a reference designator format that includes the hyphen character as part of the reference designator number (for example, a segmented reference designator such as R3-AB46), then you can use this system preference to select a different character to use as the Reference Designator Range Indicator. If you select the colon character ( : ) as the reference designator range indicator, and the RDAREC is set to Collapse, then the range of reference designators beginning with R3-AB44 and ending with R3-AB48 is displayed as:

R3-AB44:R3-AB48

If the RDAREC is set to Expand, then the same range of reference designators beginning with R3-AB44 and ending with R3-AB48 is displayed as:

R3-AB44, R3-AB45, R3-AB46, R3-AB47, R3-AB48

Caution: Changing the reference designator range indicator character may affect user data. Updates or changes after the initial Agile PLM implementation should be made with extreme caution. Selecting a range indicator character that was previously used to segment reference designators may cause data mismatch problems.

For example, if you select the colon character as the range indicator character and use the hyphen character to segment reference designators, and then you subsequently select the hyphen character as the range indicator character, then a range indicator value R3-AB47 no longer has the same meaning, as the hyphen now indicates a range rather than part of the reference designator value.

### B.1.3 Reference Designators with Leading Zeros

The following rules apply to the manner in which reference designators with leading zeros may be entered on the BOM table:

- The user may enter leading zero reference designators regardless of the Expand/Collapse setting.

(See Reference Designators Allow Range Expand Collapse on page 100.)

- The number of the numeric characters between reference designator segments in a range need not match. For example, the user may enter R0001-R100.

- When the number of numeric characters does not match, the first segment's number of numeric characters is used to store the reference designator values in the database. For example, R0001-R100 is stored as R0001, R0002, .. R0100.

### B.1.4 Multi-segmented Reference Designators

The following rules apply to the format of multi-segmented reference designators, that is, when the reference designator has a suffix.

- Reference designators may be separated into a maximum of three parts:

  - Prefix - May be any character that is not designated as the Range Indicator or a delimiter.

  - Number - Must be numeric (include only characters 0 through 9)

  - Suffix - May be any character that is not designated as the range indicator or a delimiter AND does not start with "0" (zero).

- Only the last number string is considered as the Number.

For example, in reference designator value A10B30D

- Prefix = A10B

- Number = 30

- Suffix = D

## B.2 Revising Item Descriptions

Agile PLM 9.3 provides several ways to manage and control the modification of the Description field of Item objects.

Important: Regarding revision-controlled Description field modification: The item Description field cannot be modified through an MCO because an MCO does not create a new item revision. The MCO uses the Description field information from the ECO revision or Introductory revision on which it is based.

Three basic behaviors:

- Item object modification

The end user edits the Description field of the item object. This method is controlled by Modify privilege masks for item objects applied to the item Description field.

Note: Item descriptions are associated with a specific item revision. Although the actual modifications are made on the item object itself (a change order is not required), the resulting descriptions are revision-specific.

- Revision controlled - all Item objects

The end user must modify the item Description field on the Affected Items table of a change order, in the same manner that an item's Revision and Lifecycle attributes are revision controlled and, thus, are modified on the Affected Items table of a change order.

This method is controlled by Modify privilege masks for the change order object applied to the Item Description field of the Affected Items table. Also, the Item Description field must be enabled on the Affected Items table.

- Revision controlled - selected Item subclasses

This method is a mixture of the previous two methods: some selected item subclasses require revision-controlled modification of the Description field, while other item subclasses do not require it.

This method is controlled by using a combination of the previous methods:

Ÿ Modify privilege masks for the item subclass applied to the item Description field (for the subclasses that do not require revision-controlled description modification, but the users may edit the description on the item object itself).

The Item Description field must be enabled on the Affected Items table.

Ÿ Modify privilege masks for the change order object applied to the Item Description field of the Affected Items table (for the subclasses that do require revision-controlled modification).

In addition, the Modify privilege masks for the change order object must use the wildcard $AFFECTEDITEMTYPE to determine which subclasses require revision-controlled modifications to the specific item subclass Description field.

### B.2.1 Setting up the Change Order Object

The Affected Items tab of change order objects (for example, ECOs) includes the following two attributes, which must be enabled or disabled appropriately for each Item Description modification method:

- Old Item Description

This Affected Items attribute is populated with existing Item Description field value when the item is added to the change order. This attribute is not editable on the Affected Items tab. By default, this attribute is not enabled.

For any item revision method that requires change order revision-controlled modification, you must enable this attribute.

- Item Description

This is the default Affected Items table item description attribute. With the appropriate modify privilege masks for change order objects, this attribute is editable on the Affected Items table.

In effect, this is the New Item Description and you may rename it if you wish.

When both these change order Affected Items table attributes are enabled, the Old Item Description field automatically displays the item description of the most recently released item (upon which the change order is based). The (New) Item Description field is available for the user to enter the desired item description for the pending revision of the item. This scenario requires the appropriate change order Modify privilege masks, with the appropriate Applied To properties for the (New) Item Description field.

### B.2.2 Setting up the Appropriate Modify Privilege Masks for each Method

The following tables illustrate how you should modify the Agile-supplied default privilege masks for each method. Use this table as a guideline for setting up the desired method in your Agile PLM system. If you are not using the Agile-supplied default roles and privilege masks, examine the Example privilege masks and compare them to the actions outlined in the tables.

#### B.2.2.1 Item Object Description Field Modification

Goal: Modify the Item Description on the Item Object only.

Default Item Privilege Mask | Default Change Privilege Mask | Change Order Affected Items table, "Item Description" attributes
--- | --- | ---
Name | Applied To property | Name | Applied To Property
Modify Preliminary Items (applies to Introductory or Pending revisions) | ADD: Items.Title Block.Description | All default privilege masks with object type Changes | REMOVE: Changes.Affected Items.Item Description | HIDE (disable): Old Item Description Enable and RENAME: New Item Description to: Item Description
Modify Released Items | ADD: Items.Title Block.Description | All default privilege masks with object type Changes | REMOVE: Changes.Affected Items.Item Description | HIDE (disable): Old Item Description Enable and RENAME: New Item Description to: Item Description

#### B.2.2.2 Revision Controlled, All Items

Goal: Modify the Item Type (subclass) description on Change Order only.

Note: For each Item Type (subclass) to be modified by Change Order only, a modify privilege mask for change orders (with criteria for $AFFECTEDITEMTYPE) is required.

Default Item Privilege Mask | Default Change Privilege Mask | Change Order Affected Items table, "Item Description" attributes
--- | --- | ---
Name | Applied To property | Name | Applied To Property
Modify Preliminary Items (specific Item Type) (applies to Introductory or Pending revisions) | REMOVE: Items.Title Block.Description | All default privilege masks with object type Changes | ADD: Changes.Affected Items.Item Description where Change.Affected Item. Item Type = (specific Item Type) Use criteria: Change. $AFFECTEDITEMTYPE = (specific Item Type) | SHOW (enable): Old Item Description and New Item Description
Modify Released Items (specific Item Type) | REMOVE: Items.Title Block.Description | All default privilege masks with object type Changes | ADD: Changes.Affected Items.Item Description where Change.Affected Item. Item Type = (specific Item Type) Use criteria: Change. $AFFECTEDITEMTYPE = (specific Item Type) | SHOW (enable): Old Item Description and New Item Description

Goal: Modify the Item description on Item object or on Change Order.

Note: For each Item Type (subclass) to be modified on the item subclass, a modify privilege mask (with criteria for Title Block.Part Type) is required.

Default Item Privilege Mask | Default Change Privilege Mask | Change Order Affected Items table, "Item Description" attributes
--- | --- | ---
Name | Applied To property | Name | Applied To Property
Modify Preliminary Items (specific Item Type) (applies to Introductory or Pending revisions) | ADD: Items.Title Block.Description | All default privilege masks with object type Changes | REMOVE: Changes.Affected Items.Item Description | HIDE (disable): Old Item Description Enable and RENAME: New Item Description to: Item Description
Modify Released Items (specific Item Type) | ADD: Items.Title Block.Description | All default privilege masks with object type Changes | REMOVE: Changes.Affected Items.Item Description | HIDE (disable): Old Item Description Enable and RENAME: New Item Description to: Item Description

#### B.2.2.3 Revision Controlled, All Items

Goal: Modify the Item description on Change Order only.

Default Item Privilege Mask | Default Change Privilege Mask | Change Order Affected Items table, "Item Description" attributes
--- | --- | ---
Name | Applied To property | Name | Applied To Property
Modify Preliminary Items (applies to Introductory or Pending revisions) | REMOVE: Items.Title Block.Description | All default privilege masks with object type Changes | ADD: Changes.Affected Items.Item Description | SHOW (enable): Old Item Description and New Item Description
Modify Released Items | REMOVE: Items.Title Block.Description | All default privilege masks with object type Changes | ADD: Changes.Affected Items.Item Description | SHOW (enable): Old Item Description and New Item Description

Goal: Modify the Item description on Item object or on Change Order.

Default Item Privilege Mask | Default Change Privilege Mask | Change Order Affected Items table, "Item Description" attributes
--- | --- | ---
Name | Applied To property | Name | Applied To Property
Modify Preliminary Items (applies to Introductory or Pending revisions) | ADD: Items.Title Block.Description | All default privilege masks with object type Changes | ADD: Changes.Affected Items.Item Description | SHOW (enable): Old Item Description and New Item Description
Modify Released Items | ADD: Items.Title Block.Description | All default privilege masks with object type Changes | ADD: Changes.Affected Items.Item Description | SHOW (enable): Old Item Description and New Item Description

## B.3 Notes on Configuring Product Collaboration Object Tabs

- Only the editable attributes on the BOM tab and the Manufacturers tab can be redlined. For more information, see Agile PLM Administrator Guide, "Classes" chapter, section about Read-Through Fields.

- In the BOM Bulk Change wizard to replace or remove an item from an assembly, when the user identifies an item to bulk replace or remove, a table of assemblies where that item is used is displayed in the wizard. That table is derived from the item's Where Used tab. That is, any attributes that are visible on the item object Where Used tab will also appear in the BOM Bulk Change wizard.

For example, if you want the assembly revision to appear in the table in the BOM Bulk Change wizard, then you must enable (make visible) the Revision attribute on the Where Used tab of item objects. For more information, see Agile PLM Administrator Guide, "Classes" chapter, section about Configuring Tabs.

## B.4 Notes on Configuring Agile PL Settings that Affect Product Collaboration

- The Multiple Items Per Manuf Part SmartRule is applied when the user creates an item with the Save As feature. That is, if the original item has a manufacturer part and the user displays that item and chooses Save As, the SmartRule is applied to the new item. If the SmartRule is set to Disallow, the user is presented with an error message and will not be allowed to create the new item. If the SmartRule is set to Warning or Allow, no error message is displayed and the new item is created.

## B.5 Configuring Sites - Distributed Manufacturing

Note: For information about implementing and configuring Agile PLM multi-site manufacturing, see Agile PLM Administrator Guide. For information about using Agile PLM multi-site manufacturing, see Sites and Distributed Manufacturing on page 29.

When the Agile administrator enables the Agile PLM Sites license, the Agile Site object is available and Agile PLM multi-site manufacturing functions become available. Agile PLM multi-site manufacturing capabilities are used to assist a company that builds its products in multiple locations (distributed manufacturing). Before taking this step, you must determine and plan how Agile PLM multi-site manufacturing will be integrated with your ERP system.

WARNING: Agile PLM multi-site manufacturing functionality is built differently than ERP sites. Agile PLM Site objects and ERP sites are similar, but they are not identical. You should work with an Oracle Consulting - Agile PLM practice representative to plan your Agile PLM to ERP integration before you enable the Agile PLM Sites license. The type of information that you want to track in Agile PLM and how you choose record that information in Agile PLM may depend on how product information is stored in your ERP system.

Agile PLM multi-site manufacturing helps a company that builds its products in multiple locations to do so by enabling parts and documents in those locations that are specific to the manufacturing process. In Agile PLM, revisions are global item attributes. If a part is used in two manufacturing sites, then it must share the revision level, although the effectivity dates and disposition settings can be different.

The Agile PLM multi-site manufacturing features allow you to annotate product data with three types of site relationships:

- Item object-to-Site relationship

An item can be associated with one or more sites by adding the site object to the sites table on the item Sites tab. Item-site relationships are similar, but not identical to ERP item-site relationships. You can see if an Agile part is enabled in any sites by viewing its Sites tab.

- Parts that are not released in any site have only global item effectivity dates and dispositions.

- Parts released in sites are can have both site-specific item effectivity dates and dispositions and global item effectivity dates and dispositions.

- BOM row-to-Site relationship

BOM row-site relationships are unique to Agile PLM. A child part can relate to its parent with no site relationship or through one or more specific sites. Each BOM row has either no site relationship or one site relationship. Use multiple rows, one for each site, to represent more than one site relationship for the same child part.

- A child part that reports to its parent without a specific BOM row-site relationship is considered a common part, that is, a part common to all manufacturing sites.

- A child part that reports to its parent with a BOM row-site relationship is a site-specific part, that is, a part that is specific to the related manufacturing site.

- AML table row-to-Site relationship

On the Manufacturers tab of a part, you can specify site-specific AMLs (Approved Manufacturer List). Rows on the part manufacturer table can be common (specify no site) or a site-specific (associated with a site listed on the Sites tab of the part). BOM row-site relationships and AML row-site relationships are independent of one another.

- A manufacturer part without a specific AML row-to-site relationship is a common manufacturer part and can be used at any manufacturing site.

- A manufacturer part with an AML row-to-site relationship is a site-specific manufacturer part, which allows the manufacturer part to be used at the specified manufacturing site.

Other important Agile PLM sites and ERP sites differences to keep in mind:

- In many ERP systems, a part can appear in different sites and have independent revisions. Agile PLM considers all revision to be a global attribute of the part, therefore, site-based revisions are not supported in Agile PLM. To accommodate this need, simply prefix or suffix the part number with a unique string, for example SJC-P1000 and NYC-P100. These are unique parts which have global revision, but because these parts are not used in other sites their revisions appear to be site-specific.

- The item-site relationship and the BOM row-site relationship are independent of one another in that you can add a part to a BOM as a site-specific BOM row without first adding the site to the part. Unlike typical ERP systems, Agile PLM does not require that a part must first be released in a site before it can be added to a site-specific BOM row.

- When adding a row to a BOM where the parent has Sites that are not on the child, Agile PLM prompts the user to add the Sites to the child. This occurs only on the initial add of the BOM row - either in authoring mode (direct editing of a part) or in redlining mode (modifying a part through change redline). The user can choose only to Copy the sites onto the child in order to add the row to the BOM. Choosing Close will not add the BOM row. If additional Sites are subsequently added to the parent, then the newly added Sties are not automatically copied to the child. If Sites are removed from the child, then no check is made on whether there is inconsistency between Sites on the parent and the child.

- The SmartRule Child Released First is enforced by the Release Audit when a part is released. When a parent part is released, this rule checks the BOM components for Site association and whether the BOM components are also released. The Release Audit verifies whether or not the item has been released by a Change or Manufacturer Change after a Site was added. In order to correctly pass this SmartRule, the Item must be released after adding a Site.

## B.6 What are Change Controlled Attributes?

Important terms and concepts:

- Change-Controlled Attributes

This term is used to describe attributes which can be Change Controlled (Redlined on a change order or manufacturer change order) and which are configured in Agile Administrator to be Change-Controlled.

- Rebasing

Rebasing is the process of rationalizing values when there are multiple pending changes to an item. For example, if two ECOs are redlining the same BOM, then Agile PLM must update, or rebase, the second ECO when the first ECO is released.

- Pending Change

When discussing Agile PLM, pending change refers to a change which has not reached the first released status of its workflow.

- Change

When discussing Change Controlled attributes, a change means either a change order (ECO) or a manufacturer change order (MCO).

Using the Agile PLM Change Controlled Attributes feature allows you to control how item attributes are modified. In the Agile Administrator Data Settings node, setting an item attribute Change controlled property to Yes means that the attribute can only be modified by using a either a change (ECO) or a manufacturer change order (MCO) and redline editing the attribute on the change object Affected Items tab, Title Block redline tab.

Note: The Title Block redline tab is available only in Web Client.

The Title Block redline attribute modifications are controlled by the change approval process. The proposed new attribute values are not in use until the change is released. If the change is cancelled, then the proposed new values are discarded and are not used.

Change-Controlled attributes are not displayed in the item object by revision. When the user selects a different revision in the Rev dropdown list, revision controlled attributes (for example, Description) appear in the item display as appropriate for each revision. A Changed-Controlled attribute displays the latest value for that attribute, regardless of which Rev is selected.

To view and compare historical values of item attributes, Agile PLM 9.3 provides the Item Attribute History report. This report allows you to view attribute changes that took place at each revision. Both revision controlled attributes and Change-Controlled attributes can be included in the report. See also Item Attribute History Report on page 223.

Change-Controlled attributes include Title Block, Page 2 and Page 3 attributes. For each attribute you wish to be under Change Control, set the Change controlled attribute property to Yes. When items are added to a change order (ECO) or manufacturer change order (MCO), the Affected Items tab of the change includes a Title Block redline tab in Web Client.

### B.6.1 Configuring Change Controlled Attributes

To configure an item attribute to be Change Controlled:

1. Login to Java Client Agile Administrator and navigate to the object tab you wish to configure.

2. On the Attributes tab, double-click the attribute you want.

3. Set Change controlled to Yes and then click Save.

Attributes that can be defined as Change Controlled are:

- Title Block attributes that are not revision-controlled. Revision-controlled attributes display N/A in the Change controlled column of the Attributes table.

- Page Two attributes, with the exception of the Create User attribute.

- Page Three attributes.

## B.7 Display Type for Lists in Web Client

The Display Type list property setting for Lists and Multilists determines the list edit format in Web Client. In Java Client Administrator the Agile administrator chooses whether the object list attribute is displayed as a List format or Search format in Web Client. If the selection is List mode then the entries display in a dropdown list. If the selection is Search mode then the entries display in a search palette.

Note: For list attributes that contain more than 250 entries, Web Client automatically displays the entries in Search mode.

For detailed information about customizing and configuring lists, see Agile PLM Administrator Guide.