Assembly line selection— Configuration Dependent parameter
You can use a subset of the supply lines for the assembly of the main item or end item. Effectively, it is possible to exclude the supplying lines that are not used, from the assembly line network structure. It is possible to route the assembly of a configured end item through a subset of the assembly lines that are part of a bigger generic assembly line structure. The routing is based on the product structure of the configured main item or the end item.
In a scenario wherein a configured end item can use one of the two possible subassemblies supplied by different supply lines, an appropriate route or a supply line is selected based on the product structure of the configured main item or end item.
Example
A | Item A which can contain either item A1 or item A2, produced on M1 |
A1 | Item A1 manufactured by line S1 |
A2 | Item A2 manufactured by line S2 |
E1 | Engineering module number one |
E2 | Engineering module number two |
E3 | Engineering module number three |
M1 | Main line number one |
S4 | Supply line for main line M1 |
S1 | Supply line that supplies optional item A1 to the main line M1 |
S3 | Supply line for S1 |
X | Item X is a spare part, also manufactured by line S1 |
E4 | Engineering module number four pertaining to item X |
100 | Company number 100 |
S2 | Supply line that supplies optional item A2 to the main line M1 and M2 |
M2 | Main line number two |
200 | Company number 200 |
B | Item B which contains A2, produced on M2 |
In this example, based on the generic product structure, when you configure item A, either item A1 or item A2 can become part of the product structure for item A. It is not possible to include both, item A1 and item A2, within a product variant for item A. This implies that either supply line S1 (with all its sub-level supply lines) or supply line S2 (with all its sub-level supply lines) can become part of the assembly order data for the configured item A.
For the assembly of item B or item X, no supply line selection is required as their generic product structure indicates a fixed assembly line model. Therefore, independent of the configuration of item B or item X, all assembly lines of the assembly structure are included and utilized for production of item B or item X.
- Item B is not part of the generic product structure of item A. Similarly, item A is not part of the generic product structure of item B.
- Item X does not belong to either the generic product structure of item A or item B. Similarly, item A or item B does not belong to the generic product structure of item X.
Assembly line modeling
The appropriate supply line is selected by the system, based on the product structure of the configured end item. In the example, the configured end item A can contain either item A1 or item A2 which implies that either supply line S1 or S2 can be selected.
The following are the settings of the Configuration Dependent parameter with respect to the item A supply lines in the example:
Assembly line | Configuration Dependent setting |
---|---|
M1 | No (roll-off line for configurable item A ) |
M2 | No (roll-off line for configurable item B) |
S1 | Yes (for item A, S1 is optional line) (for item X its a roll-off line - cannot be excluded) |
S2 | Yes (for item A, S2 is optional line)(for item B its a fixed line - cannot be excluded) |
S3 | No (dependent on S1. If S1 is included or excluded, S3 is automatically included or excluded respectively) |
S4 | No (fixed line for configurable item A) |
Product structure and supply line
As part of product structure definition, the exclusion of assembly line is not only based on the Configuration Dependent parameter but also on the following factors:
- A relationship must be defined between the item assembled on the supply line and the supply line.
- The item assembled on the supply line must be defined in the generic product structure for the assembled end item.
For the generic product structure of configurable item A in our example, the following relationships must be defined:
Configurable item | Assembly line |
---|---|
Item A | M1 |
Item A1 | S1 |
Item A2 | S2 |
In the example, although the supply line selection does not apply to configurable item B and X, the following relations must be defined in order to correctly determine assembly order data for these items:
Configurable item | Assembly line |
---|---|
Item B | M2 |
Item X | S1 |