When you create a variant specification in the context of a Product Family, it is categorized as a managed variant specification. A managed variant specification is defined by meta data and option filter. For example, it has a name, number, and is saved to a folder location. When creating a managed variant specification, only meta data is defined. You can use the Edit Option Filter action to filter options for a managed variant specification. This allows you to create a fully defined variant specification by making selections based on assigned expression evaluations. For more information, see Filtering Options for a Managed Variant Specification. You can filter its structure so that the object represents a specific BOM configuration that specifies the parts that are selected from the configurable module.

There are two methods for defining a managed variant specification’s configuration.

When you configure a managed variant specification based on manual selection, you ignore selection rules from the option set. This manual selection method is useful when you want to create an experimental design and explore an alternative structure independent of existing choice selection rules. For more information, see Configuring a Managed Variant Specification Using Manual Selection.

When you configure a managed variant specification by filtering choices based on assigned expressions, the choices you make are checked against rules from the option set to determine what other parts are available for inclusion in the BOM configuration. For more information, see Filtering Options for a Managed Variant Specification.

You can use a mix of assigned expression evaluation or manual selection throughout the configurable module. For example, suppose that you want module variants in the configurable module to be selected through assigned expression evaluation. Then, for a specific module variant you use manual selection to choose a specific part that matches your requirements for the variant specification.