Product Configuration (PCF)

• Item data, such as delivery time and standard cost.
• Data that relates to the structure of items, such as bills of material.
• Data about operations, such as routings.

This system may be adequate for companies that produce a limited number of products. However, if a large number of variants of the finished products are produced, they are usually only assembled or manufactured when the customer's order has been received. In such cases, the traditional information system may encounter problems with the quantity, complexity, and manageability of the product data, and the need for timely availability of the information.

Almost any company that assembles to order deals with product variants, which makes it impossible to define the product structure for all the versions of all finished products in advance. The answer to this problem is configuration management. This can be translated into a well conceived, modular, product design with proper validation and design support functions provided by the information system to enhance the level of logistical control.

In the Product Configuration (PCF) module, a product model is created that defines all the features of the product model. You can define the desired product variant if you select the options of the features. The translation of your requirements into the product structure of the variant is controlled by a set of decision rules and constraints. These constraints indicate the components and operations that are or are not used in a specific version.

Performance aspects

The settings in this session could affect system performance and database growth. For more information, refer to PCF without PCS.