Characterstic classification for Variant configuration

[Former Member]

Hello VC gurus,

Wanted to clarify a question VC modelling and if you could please help.

If I have certain specific characterstic within a class say Column and Row and I want this to repeat multiple times for the user to configure during ordering , is it possible that I define a new class and use the same characterstics and add it material master? I tried this in a Material master but when I configure the product during order the characterstic repeats only once and not twice as expected. Is that a limitation in VC.

e.g Class 1 - ZMH_WE with characterstics ZM_COLUMN and ZM_ROW

     I then added class 2 as ZMH_WE2 with the same charcterstics ZM_COLUMN and ZM_ROW to the material master but when i configure the product in the order ZM_COLUMN and ZM ROW repeats only once for configuration. Is this a limitation? Would that mean if I have 400 Unique Column and Row i must define 400 new column and row characterstics for each class?

Regards

Mahesh

[Ritz]

Mahesh Kunjappan,

I didnt understand your requirement , why you want same characterstic 400 times to be appear?

do you want to say , you want to specify 400 column and 200 rows for your product?

if so then you need to assign this as a vlue to these characterstic.

about repeatation of characterstic , try to add same characterstic in same class in CL02

ex . ZMH_WE

on characterstics tab

10  ZM_COLUMN

20  ZM_ROW

30 ZM_COLUMN 

40  ZM_ROW

50_COLUMN 

60  ZM_ROW

I hope it will appear mulitple times but as soon as you assign value to one of characterstic

say ZM_COLUMN  same value will appear in all other places, so i really didnt understand why you want to do it.

check and reply.

Thanks

Ritesh

[Former Member]

Hello Ritesh,

Sorry for the delyaed response. Let me give you the overview of the scenario. Lets says I have a 10 X 10 square plate, i.e, 10 rows and 10 columns.each row has 10 cavity and so a total of 200 cavities on this plate. Also There are 1000 different chemical SKU's which can be sold separately. Customers can also choose from these 100 chemical SKU's and fill each of these 200 cavities. So technically I can have 200 unique chemical SKU's in each of the 200 cavities of the plate. Once customer has ordered or configured this plate with 200 chemical solution I need to send this information to my 3rd Party as XML format. In my XML each cavity is represented for e.g as "Column 1 Row 1"  i.e, cavity 1 has certain properties like Density, volumem, unit, based on the chemical selected.

Now what I did was defined a class and created Column , row, density, Volume and Unit as my characterstics with open text for values because these configuration are received from web based system where this product is configured. Trouble is I cant repeat my charactertsics under the same class. So I defined 2nd class and re used the same characterstics but when i configure the order I dont see the 2nd class charactertics. So I ended up defining Column , row, density, Volume as 4 new characterstics with a different code again and assigned them to my 2nd class. the trouble with this is now I hav to define 200 class and define 4 characertiscs uniquely 200 times so that I can make this work. So a total of 200 X 4 = 800 Characterstics.

Do you think is there is a better way to do this?

Regards

Mahesh

[Ritz]

Mahesh Kunjappan,

I still think you are complcating it.

you can have one characterstic "row" formate numeric

second "column" formate numeric

Then as row and colument decides the total cavatiy, you have characterstic cavity, format numeric and assign a procedure which will calculate quantity for this filed as

$SELF.CAVITY = $SELF.ROW*$SELF.COLIMN

Now based upon value calcuated you have multiple value characterstic chemicals which will have list of chemicals selected by users.

If this quantity should match with quantity of cavity then you may need to write up anothe rdependency to restrict it.

Check and reply.

Hope it will help you.

Thanks

Ritesh

[Former Member]

Hello Ritesh,

The Charactertics should look something like this so that when I transfer this to vendor as XML he can read what goes into Row 1 Column 1 ( Cavity 1) , What density, What Volume, Name of the chemical. These values are configured on the web and we should be able to accept anything which web sends. So row and column doesnt decide the cavity. We need to send this as Row position and column position and thats the only way Vendor understands. So do you think the solution you recommended will work for my scenario.And I am not sure if I understood when you said "If this quantity should match with quantity of cavity then you may need to write up anothe rdependency to restrict it". Which quantity are you referring to? Lets says Rw1 Column1 gives me 1 as value and then Chemical as ORA1 with its properties like denisty value, Volume value. I only have one value here which Cavity value.

My primary concern was how do I define Row, Column , Chem Name, Density and Volume as characterstics( 5 characertsic) once under a class or under multiple class and allow interface to repeat this for a line item 200 times in sets of 5 . I hope I am not confusing you further.

Row - 1

Column 1

Chem Name : PRA1

Density - High

Volume - 200 X 20ul

Row - 1

Column 2

Chem Name : PRA2

Density - High

Volume - 200 X 20ul

Row - 1

Column 3

Chem Name : PRA4

Density - High

Volume - 200 X 20ul ....

This will go all the way upto Row 10 Column 10

[Ritz]

Mahesh Kunjappan,

I am tyring to understand who capturing of this specific value will help you sending this information to vendor? I am unable to understand if this values are not being used selecting items from BOM or operations from routing , why you need VC to capture this specification?

Appriciate if you can brief on end to end process how you receive orders from UI and how procurement for business trigger after capturing this in VC.

To answer based upon your latest reply.

"If this quantity should match with quantity of cavity then you may need to write up anothe rdependency to restrict it".

if plate size is not fix , user can select 10 row 5 column , result cavity = 50 , if number or rows and columentg are changing every time , the quantity for cavity will be change based upon values selected earlier, so you can create a procedure for this calculation.

$SELF.CAVITY = $SELF.ROW*$SELF.COLIMN

once you have number available , you need to make available same number of fields available in field for capturing name of checmical.

up to here is looks easy , complication start when you want to tie specific row & column number with checmical,

in configuration screen ,for multipal value characterstic we have only one description available, so you can need to do this conversion while sending this data to 3 rd part by writing logic in conversion program which fetch data from VC and fill up 3rd party PO.

Hope this explanation help you in some way .

Thanks

Ritesh

[Former Member]

Hello Ritesh,

The scenario is 3rd Party Order process but the order taking tool is a web based service where this configuration will be done using a visual configurator tool where customer will highlight the cell ( Imagine a Chess game board) and then click on the chemical name from the right side window pane. This will mark the selected cell with the chemical name. Simiarly customer can choose to fill in all the chessboard cells and select only one of them.

To answer your question, Plate size is fixed with no of cells. how many cells/cavity to fill is upto the customer. Once we receive the order in ECC we move this PR and then to PO and PO issues the NEU output to Vendor in the XML format which show which all cells customer has selected and what is chemical you need to fill this with along with properties like, density etc. Lets say customer clicked the cell in chessboard where KING is located and that would be Row 8 Column 5. He then selects chemical King and property as Black. Similarly he chose Position Row 8 Column 4 and selects chemical Queen and property Black and submits the orders.When ECC receives this we need to capture this as Characterstics as follows. This is just an example we may have all the Row and column position selected in chessboard by the customer which would those 4 set of charctertsic need to repeat 64 time. in short 64 X 4 times. So my prime area of concern was is there a way I can define Row, Column Chemical & property once and in CL03 just repeat it 64 times in sets of 4, which system doesnt allow. So what I did , i added these 4 charactersitcs to another class and added it to the Material Master . but in the order you will see Row, Column Chemical and Property appearing only once. I tried adding sub class but its still the same issue.

I am not sure how Row X Column logic is going to fit for my case because the plate size remains the same but how many cells to fill will be decided by the customer.

Characterstics	value
Row	8
Column	5
Checmical	KING
Property	BLACK
Row	8
Column	4
Chemical	Queen
Property	BLACK