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Agile Product Lifecycle Management Product Governance and Compliance User Guide Release 9.3.3 E39296-01 |
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# 7 Specifications Overview

Specifications track the different legislations, customer specifications, or internal specifications with which an assembly or part must comply. The Specifications object is used to create representations of specification documents, regulations, published compliance criteria. You will very likely hold the actual (electronic) document as an attachment to a specification object.

An example of a regulation issued by a government body is the European RoHS directive. Environmental specifications are substance-based, and contain a list of banned substances or substances of concern and their threshold values.

In Agile, specifications are used to validate declarations and assess the compliance of parts by evaluating whether a given restricted substance in the composition of a part surpasses its specified threshold value.

## 7.1 Contents of Specifications

Objects created from the Specifications class may consist of:

- Specification-level attributes, for example, Threshold value (PPM) for each of the substances of concern, and Disallow Intentionally Adding flag (on specification Substances table)

- Exemptions

- Attachments carrying or clarifying the specification

- A list of substances of concern (or, simply, Substances list)

- Indication whether a supplier is required to report on a substance or not.

A specification either represents a customer-created specification or legislation adopted by a government.

## 7.2 Internal vs. External Specifications

As part of the REACH initiative, Agile PLM now provides an external rollup engine, as well as the internal rollup engine, as described in Defining Approach to Compliance Management Specifications are now marked Internal or External upon creation, and this distinction determines which engine is used for rollup.

Specifications must be marked External for REACH rollup.

A user can run Calculate Compliance on both specification types by clicking the Calculate Compliance button or routing the declaration to "Submit to Manager".

The Internal/External attribute is shown as a read-through attribute on the Specification table on objects that can link to specifications - Declarations, Items, Manufacturer Parts, and Part Groups.

Note: All specifications upgrading to 9.3.3 are automatically set to Internal. So if a user wanted to include a legacy specification, the user would need to create a new external specification and then use the Add/Replace Spec feature to point all of the declarations and parts to the new external specification. See Adding Specifications and Replacing Specifications for more information on these processes.

Refer to Appendices C and D for more information on logic used to perform internal and external rollups.

## 7.3 Tabs and Attributes in Specifications

Many attributes in PG&C appear in several or all of the PG&C business objects, as well as items and manufacturer parts. Because any given attribute may be defined only once in this manual but may not be defined in this chapter, simply search the PDF for the attribute you want to see.

### 7.3.1 General Info Tab

The General Info tab provides general information about this object. Name, Description, Jurisdiction, Lifecycle Phase, Specification Type, and Rollup Engine are entered when the specification is created. You can edit some of this information by clicking the Edit button in the General Info tab.

- Validation Type - drop-down field, choose Part Level or Homogeneous Material Level. This field is required, but the field is populated with the default Part Level in the <create> wizard. Note that once the specification is created, its Validation Type cannot be changed.

  - Part Level - enforces simple BOS, e.g., weight of part to validate PPM; compliance with this type of specification has to be validated at the part level; or,

  - Homogeneous Material Level - enforces BOS that is more complex; compliance with this type of specification has to be validated at the homogeneous material level

When a specification is added to a part or declaration, this field is useful in tracking whether the part (or all the parts contained in the declaration) should be compliant at the part level or at the homogeneous material level.

Also, when importing compositions or substances into items or manufacturer parts, the part's Composition Type and the specification's Validation Type must match.

For more information about this attribute, see Validation Type in Conjunction with Composition Type and Importing Compositions into Items and Manufacturer Parts.

- Exemptions - a multi-list field derived from the Exemptions list (set up by the administrator). When you create a specification, you populate the Exemptions attribute by selecting relevant exemptions that should be present in the drop-down list.

When a specification is associated with a declaration, exemptions named in the spec "read through" to the declaration's Exemptions fields. Exemptions in declarations are discussed in Affected Parts Tabs.

Also see more information about exemptions (and the Exempt compliance state) in Compliance States.

Note: The system currently allows you to remove exemptions from a specification if the exemption has been assigned to a declaration, part, manufacturer part, or part group.

- Rollup Engine - a list field with choices of Internal or External. This field is required, but the field is populated with the choice selected in the Create wizard. Note that once the specification is created, Rollup Engine cannot be changed

### 7.3.2 Substances Tab

You can edit, remove, or add substances and substance groups to the Substances tab of a specification; you cannot do the same with materials or subparts. When the specification is being used, the Substances table cannot be changed.

You cannot add both a substance group and its base substance to the specification's Substances tab.

Note: When the specification is being used (in a part or part group or in a declaration), the Substances tab in the specification cannot be edited (including add / remove). If the spec is removed from part Specifications table or from declaration Specifications table, the Substances tab on the specification reverts to being editable.

- Reporting - Mandatory or Optional: if set to Mandatory, where this specification is on a declaration, that is a message to the supplier that they must report compliance information for that substance. If it is set to Optional, the supplier does not need to provide data for that substance, and the system will not check that substance for compliance. The rollup logic considers only "mandatory" substances, and the compliance states of only "mandatory" substances are rolled up to the part.

Even though a supplier is expected to provide information for substances marked Mandatory, currently the system does not "enforce" this setting (via, for example, a flag or notification).

Note: The Reporting flag on Specifications > Substances table applies to the Compliance Rollup feature, and does not apply to the Substances and Weights Rollup feature (that uses the Microsoft Excel-based Client).

- Threshold Mass PPM - When adding a substance group, the Threshold PPM value is given at the substance group level. The "threshold mass PPM" describes the maximum quantity in parts-per-million of a substance allowed in order to be within compliance.

The Substances table of a specification identifies which substances are restricted and their threshold mass PPM.

During compliance rollups (discussed in Rolling Up Compliance Data), the system marks a substance as Compliant if the Declared or Calculated PPM is less than or equal to the Threshold Mass PPM.

- Disallow Intentional Adding is discussed in Intentional and Non-intentional Substances and Related Attributes.

## 7.4 Creating Specifications

There are two required attributes that you must specify when you create a specification. The first is Name. The name must be unique. The name is case-insensitive, which means "ROHS" is treated the same as "Rohs".

The second required attribute is Rollup Engine. Your selection determines whether the specification is included in internal rollup (Internal) or excluded (External).

An optional attribute is General Info > Lifecycle Phase. When you create a specification, the default lifecycle phase is Active. To make the specification obsolete, change the value of its lifecycle phase attribute to Inactive.

To create a specification:

1. Click the Create New dropdown button to activate the menu.

2. Click the Specifications link.

3. In the Create New Specifications dialog, click the dropdown arrow next to the Type: field.

   The administrator may have created additional subclasses of specification. Select and click the Specification list item.

4. Enter the desired information in the Name: field.

5. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Rollup Engine: field.

   Select either the Internal or External list item.

6. Click Save. The new specification object appears with the General Info tab selected.

7. After the specification is created, it can be modified at any time. This task continues with steps to add appropriate objects.

   Open the specification, click Edit: to add information and populate enabled fields under the various tabs.

   - In the Description field, enter a description of the specification.

   - In the Jurisdictions field, use the Launch the Palette button to select appropriate locations where this specification is valid.

   - In the Exemptions field, use the Launch the Palette button to select appropriate exemptions.

     Note: As mentioned above, when a specification is associated with a declaration, exemptions named in the spec "read through" to the declaration's Exemptions fields. It is a best practice to be familiar with the use of exemptions in specifications and how they work in declarations. Exemptions in declarations are discussed in Affected Parts Tabs.

   - In the Validation Type field, use the drop-down list to select Part Level or Homogeneous Material Level.

   - In the Lifecycle Phase field, use the drop-down list to select Active.

8. Click Save.

9. To add substances to the specification, click the Substances tab, then click the Add button.

   - Click the Search to add icon to add existing substances in the Substances Search dialog.

   - Or click the Create to add icon to create a new substance object that will be added to the specification.

   - Or use "Type-ahead" to add existing substances automatically.

   - Or, if what you want is visible in the Navigation pane, by Copy & Paste or by Drag & Drop capability.

     Click to select substances that you want to add, and hit Enter; or you can double-click a substance to add it. You may run additional searches after this, too.

10. If you want to add attachments, click the Attachments tab. Now choose from the Add menu Files, URLs, or By Search, and navigate to the desired file or URL to add attachments.

    Note: Best practices dictate that a copy of the legislation that covers the substances (in a format such as an Adobe PDF) should be added to the Attachments tab.

## 7.5 Specification Management

PG&C has been enhanced to support specification management.

Evolving regulations require that some specifications need to be changed. You can now replace an old specification with a new specification on declarations, items, manufacture parts and part groups using Add and Replace on the Actions menu of a specification. Wizards have been created to guide you through the add and replace processes.

You can run add/replace of specifications on:

- The Where Used tab of an existing specification (first page of wizard).

- A selected list of objects (second page of wizard); available for the add process only.

Declarations and items receiving the new specification are tagged for rollup.

The Where Used option is used for Manufacturer Parts and Part Groups. So for select items (Latest Released Rev & Pending Rev) on add or replace of specifications 'Manufacturer Parts' and 'Part Groups' is automatically applied.

Administrators use the Specification Management Task found in Admin > Server Settings > Task Configuration to enable the add and replace functions.

Discovery, Read, Modify, and Specification Management (Add and Replace menu options) privileges apply when performing add and replace actions on objects. If you think your privileges do not include these, see your Agile Administrator.

### 7.5.1 Adding Specifications

For the specification being replaced, use the where-used option to identify which objects containing the specification will be searched.

The adding specification feature allows you to 'bulk add' the specification to multiple objects. You have two choices:

- Add a task to add the current specification to all objects found during a where-used search.

- Add a task to add the current specification to a set of objects specified on the second page of the dialog.

To add a specification:

1. Click the Add command in the Actions menu.

2. In the Add Specification dialog, for the Specification field, select a specification to which you are adding the current specification. You can use auto-complete, type-ahead, or the Search button for this field.

3. In the Where-used Search Options field, check Declarations (Pending) and/or Items (Latest Released Rev & Pending Rev) to include those objects in the search.

4. Click Next. The second page of the dialog is displayed. You can use this page to select more objects in addition to objects in where used.

5. Click Add. A search dialog is displayed.

6. Use the dropdown menu to select an object to include in the search. Dropdown options are:

   - Latest Released Rev

   - Released Rev

   - Pending Rev

   - Declarations

   - Manufacturer Parts

   - Part Groups

7. Type a valid entry in the search field, and then click the Search button.

8. Select objects from the returned search results.

   Note: You can use this search page to select multiple objects by repeating steps 6 through 8.

9. Click the Esc link to close the search dialog.

10. Click Add to Queue. The add task for the specification is now added to the server task queue, and the dialog closes.

The following message displays on the specification where the Add action was initiated: 'A task has been submitted successfully. A log file will be attached to this specification after the task completes.'

After the task has been completed, a copy of the log is added to the Attachments tab of the specification. The log indicates how many records were processed.

### 7.5.2 Replacing Specifications

For the specification being replaced, use the where-used option to identify which objects containing the specification will be searched. Note that for replace of specifications, only the specification is removed; no compositions against the specification are removed.

To replace a specification:

1. Click the Replace command in the Actions menu.

2. In the Replace Specification dialog, for the Source field, select a specification to be replaced by the current specification. You can use auto-complete, type-ahead, or the Search button for this field. The Target field displays the current specification and cannot be changed.

3. In the Where-used Search Options field, check Declarations (Pending) and/or Items (Latest Released Rev & Pending Rev) to include those objects in the search.

4. Click Add to Queue. The replace task for the specification is now added to the server task queue, and the dialog closes.

The following message displays on the specification where the Replace action was initiated: 'A task has been submitted successfully. A log file will be attached to this specification after the task completes.'

After the task has been completed, a copy of the log is added to the Attachments tab of the specification. The log indicates how many records were processed.

Caution: If you remove a specification from an item, the substance data is removed, unless it is an "All Spec" composition.

## 7.6 "All Spec" Use Case

There is a special situation regarding declarations with no associated specifications, called the "All Spec" (All Specification) use case. Basically, if you intend to collect raw data (mass or PPM) at a substance level, create a declaration with no specification attached. The supplier must provide information on all materials and substances. You then use the information to calculate compliance in relation to any specification. The same is true when directly importing compositions into items or manufacturer parts.

Note that the All Spec use case is less important with the introduction of Fully Disclosed compositions, but there is still room for All Spec to be useful, as the following case describes.

Let's start with the "normal" use case: when there is a specification in the declaration, the information that the supplier provides is attached to that specification and cannot be used to assess compliance against other specifications using the data that the supplier provided.

For example, a supplier receives a declaration with Part 101 and the RoHS specification. The supplier responds to this declaration at the part level using the Declared Compliance field in the declaration's <parts/PG> tables. Regardless what the supplier declares (compliant or non-compliant), that information is associated to the RoHS specification, and we cannot use this information to assess compliance against other specifications.

On the other hand, if the supplier provides either the Mass or PPM values at the substance level, the system calculates the compliance and determines whether Part 101 is compliant for RoHS or not.

The difference between these two cases is that, in the second case, even though the supplier provided the raw data (Mass, PPM) at the substance level, since the declaration had a specification (RoHS), all the information from the supplier is associated with the RoHS spec. If the user adds a different specification to Part A, let's say the WEEE specification, the system is not able to re-use the Mass or PPM information to calculate compliance against WEEE because all that information is associated with RoHS specification, unless the composition is Fully Disclosed, in which case it can be reused to calculate the compliance from any specification with matching Validation Type.

Therefore, if the buyer intends to collect raw data (Mass or PPM) information at the substance level, they should attach no specification to the declaration. The supplier then provides information on all materials and substances in Part 101 with either Mass or PPM information. The buyer can use this information to calculate compliance against any specification. This is what is referred to as the All Spec case.

The set of "system rules" listed below refers to the All Spec composition, and is therefore presented here. These rules are repeated in context in Part-Level Validation.

## 7.7 Rules for Selecting Compositions for Rollup on Part/Part Group (Internal Specifications)

Below are the internal rules that the system follows to find a composition that can be used or re-used (where possible) in the rollup of a part/part group. This can also be thought of as "qualifying compositions" for use (rule 1) or re-use (rules 2, 3, 4).

Note: The name of each rule below is not used by the system logic, they are for user understanding. These are "internal rules" that operate within the system logic, but they are not "seen" in the user interface. The system makes its selection "per supplier."

When a rollup is done on an item, manufacturer part, or part group, for a given specification, the following sequence is followed for each supplier that provides an active composition:

1. Matching composition - The system first looks for matching spec composition, that is, a composition that has the same spec as the given specification.

   If a matching composition is not found:

2. Fully Disclosed composition (also called "FMD composition " for Full Material Disclosure) - The system next looks for a Fully Disclosed composition - if multiple FMD compositions are found, it uses the latest active composition per supplier, regardless of the spec on the composition.

   If a Fully Disclosed composition is not found:

3. "Super Spec" composition - The system looks for a composition that is on a specification containing every substance on the given specification (that is, the spec involved in the present rollup). The found specification can be called a "superset spec" (or "super-spec" for short) because it can contain more substances than the given spec; the requirement is that the found spec must contain all the substances on the given specification.

   If a superset specification composition is not found:

4. "All Spec" composition - The system looks for "All Spec" compositions (that is, without any specification attached) whose Composition Type matches the specification's Validation Level for that part or part group.

   For more information, see Validation Type in Conjunction with Composition Type and General Info Tab > Validation Type.

## 7.8 Rules for Selecting Compositions for Rollup on Part/Part Group (External Specifications)

Below are the internal rules that the system follows to find a composition that can be used or re-used (where possible) in the rollup of a part/part group for external specifications. This can also be thought of as "qualifying compositions" for use (rule 1) or re-use (rule 2).

Note: The name of each rule below is not used by the system logic, they are for user understanding. These are "internal rules" that operate within the system logic, but they are not "seen" in the user interface.

When a rollup is done on an item, manufacturer part, or part group, for a given specification, the following sequence is followed for each active composition:

1. Matching composition - The system first looks for matching spec composition, that is, a composition that has the same spec as the given specification.

   If a matching composition is not found:

2. Fully Disclosed composition (also called "FMD composition " for Full Material Disclosure) - The system next looks for a Fully Disclosed composition - if multiple FMD compositions are found, it uses the latest active composition per supplier, regardless of the spec on the composition.