Configurator and Bill of material setup

[systems]

We are manfacturer and exporters.At presentwe are in the process of implemetation stage and we are now faced with this particular issue relating to Bill of materials .

Case Study

For e.g I have an item -ABC (item no) -Fruit & Nut Chocolate (Item description)

Standard BOM for this item would be as follows

1 Fruit- x qty
2 Nuts-x qty
3 Sugar-xqty
4 Chocolate-x qty
5 Cocoa butter- x qty
6 Emulsifying agents- x qty
7 Stabilising agents-x qty
8 Aluminium foil(Packaging item)-x qty
9 Blue Packaging Wrapper/ Outer Cover(Packaging item)-x qty
10 Product Label- x qty
11 Shipping Carton - x qty
12 Shipping Label - x qty

In the above items highlighted in green (Sno.1 - S.no-7) are raw materials and item highlighted in blue (S.no-8- S.no-12) are Packaging items.

In most of our cases the packaging specifications(items Sno.8- Sno.-12) are given by customer and they differ from one customer to another. i.e instead of having the standard Blue wrapper (Sno.9)

Customer (A)- wants Greenstripped wrapper
Customer (B)- wants yellow polka dot Wrapper
Customer (C)- wants Red psycadelic tri-color combination wrapper.

All customers could request a special product label, shipping carton or shipping label also.

Notes

In all the above cases only my packaging requirement is changing and my raw materials are the same. In this case I do not generate a new item number for each specification.
I generate a new item number only when any of my raw material content(s) is changed i.e in case of cocoa butter i want to use milk.

We have tried to use the Configurator to take care of this problem, but it appears that everytime we would add a new customer, whose packaging requirements are a little different, I would have to modify the configurator, which I don't think is a task we can entrust to an ordinary user. Modifing the configurator also envolves modifying assembling inclusion rules and adding new values for the new requirements and it is by no means a simple operation.

On an average our company would add about 10-15 new specific customer products in the system every day.

This would be a typical requirement for any OEM equipments manufacturer. He would make products and label and packgae them according to specific requirements of the customer. So we feel that you would have a solution for this.

Requirement:

We would like to know how would the setup take care of situations like this.

I would not like to create a new items code every time I sell the same product with a different packaging specification to a new customer.

Is it possibile for us to store the specific packaging requirement for every customer which I could associate to a product for that customer.


Issue No. 2 - Configurator setting

Case Study

Suppose we manufactured Pizza
We offered 2 basic broad category of Pizza - Vegetarian & Non Vegetarian
Options available under both kind are - Thin crust, Pan crust
Options available under both kind for size are - small, large, regular
Other Options are different combinations of toppings names as - Supreme, Classic, Veggie Lover
Optional extra toppings - 10 different toppings

Now lets say the option of topping combination of "Supreme" was not available under thin crust and veggie lover was not available as a small size pizza. And also under the toppings we have all toppings - both vegetarian & non vegetarian.
Supreme is non - vegetarian & Classic & Veggie Lovers are vegetarian pizza.

Now if we were to use the configurator for this and as per our consulting team any time I made the following selection, this is what I would have to do-

If I wanted a vegetarian pizza, thin crust, small size, veggie lovers with 2 extra toppings which I left the user to make a selection on. We also assume that the user does not know the above validations and does not also know that peporni is non-vegetarian.

The user could select

Vegetarian
Thin crust
Small
Veggie lover
Peperoni
Green Pepper

This is an incorrect combination because Veggie lovers is not available in small size & Peperoni would make the pizza non-vegetarian.

On saving this configutaion,the software would then validate and throw an error that the selection is incorrect. There is no way the user can know where he made the mistake in his selection. As per our consulting team, the user will have to try a different combination everytime to find out the correct combination or he would be supposed to know what he needs to select in the configurator. Theorectically it would mean that the probability of the user coming up with the correct configutaion would be 360:1 (2x2x3x3x10 = 360). This would be quite absurd.

Requirements

How can we setup up validations during the entry screen so that user does not make wrong selection.

If the user had chosen the first selection as vegetarian, then he should not be able to select -
Combination of Topping - Supreme
Non-vegetarian extra toppings - e.g. peporoni

If the user had chosen the small size, then he should not be able to select -
combination of topping - Veggie lovers
Non-vegetarian extra toppings - e.g. peporoni

Pls advise how would the configutaor setup have to be done for this.

"

 

[peterban]

Hi "Systems",
although you have created a very large post - you have ommited some key information.
Can you add the system information and indeed whether you are using standard configurator or advanced - there is a very large difference between the two !

Out of curiosity why hasnt your consulting team addressed these issues?

Warm regards

Peter

 

[systems]

Hi Peter

1. We are using standard configurator. I would like to know what kind of system information you require.We have JDE ERP8.0,Release B7334, Service Pack 22.

2.No, our consulting team did not address this issue, reason why am directly addressing it.

Kindly let me know if you require more info.

thanx

 

[dherd]

Systems -

For issue number 1:

The Base Configurator can handle these requirements:

- Generate a new item number only when the raw material content changes.

- Store specific packaging requirements and have them added to the item automatically based on the customer's address book number.

You can't get around having to enter new customer requirements into the configurator (one time only). This isn't that different from needing to enter information when you are setting up a new manufactured part. Although you can't avoid having to enter the information, there are several ways to set up the information, and with your example one particular method would make inputting new information, and maintaining existing information, be a very easy task.

For issue number 2:

This is probably the number one weakness of the Base Configurator - it does not validate the configuration until all of the options have been chosen. There are a couple of ways that can be used to deal with this. The best method will depend mostly upon your particular data (the number of potential choices and the number of potential non-valid configurations).

There are a number of ways to set up the configurator. I like to talk with my clients to find out what their requirements are, ask the necessary questions, and then present them with the options for addressing their needs. I also, of course, point out the pros and cons of each of the options. In this way, the client understands what the costs and benefits will be and they have the information required to make an informed decision.

There are some major "gotchas" in the configurator, and I've always recommended (even when I was a client myself) that someone who is experienced with the configurator be used during an implementation to avoid problems later. I am currently available, so please let me know if I can be of assistance to you.

Best regards,

Don Herd
Configurator (Base & Advanced) Specialist
\mail{[email protected],[email protected]}

 

[peterban]

Hi Systems/Don,

I concur with Don, but would like to add that you should not discount modifications as a way forward. There is an aweful lot you can add to the configurator if you open up the possibility of mods.
In this respect and to add weight to what Don said, there are some great (!) gotyas in Base Configurator.

Depending on where your based, you could do far worse than getting Don involved.

Warm regards

Peter

 

[systems]

Hi Don,

Thanks for your valuable suggestion.

Regarding Issue no.1:

I would like you to guide on the solution provided regarding "Store specific packaging requirements and have them added to the item automatically based on the customers address".

Could you please help in how we can setup information regarding the same in configurator.(mentioned in 1st para)

I would be extremely grateful if you could do the needful.

Regards