Subcontracting Plants
The Subcontract to Plants action allows you to subcontract parts and sub-assemblies to other plants. To use the action, make sure that a plant is assigned to parts and sub-assemblies. The plant should be assigned from the correct context. This action is available in the upstream and downstream views of BOM Transformer.
For example, door assembly of a car is planned to be manufactured in Plant 1, so Plant 1 is assigned to the door assembly in the BOM Transformer. Plant 1 can manufacture the door assembly but is not equipped to manufacture window frames and glass panels on the doors. Use the Subcontract to Plants action to assign manufacturing jobs of window frame to Plant 2 and glass panels to say, Plant 3 and Plant 4.
Subcontract information is displayed in the Subcontract To Plant and Subcontract From Plant columns in BOM Transformer. The Subcontract To Plant column displays the name of the plant to which the part is subcontracted. The Subcontract From Plant column displays the name of the plant from which the part is subcontracted. Add these columns manually in upstream and downstream to view the status on the latest plant subcontract.
Before initiating the Subcontract to Plants action, set appropriate plant values in Views with Specific Plant Data preference. Optionally, set appropriate values in List of Plant-Specific Views preference. For more information, see Preferences in MPMLink.
In the BOM Transformer, you can subcontract a part or a sub-assembly to the following entities:
1. A view which is sibling to the view of the plant associated to the selected part
2. A view which is downstream to the view of the plant associated to the selected part
To subcontract a plant, perform the following steps:
1. Select a part or a sub-assembly, which has plant assigned to it.
2. Click Editing > Subcontract Plant. The Subcontract to Plants dialog box opens.
3. From the Subcontract to list, select the plants to which you want to subcontract the subassembly or part.
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You can only subcontract to the peer views or the child views of the plant that is assigned to the selected part.
4. In the Location field, click Autoselect Folder if you want the subcontracted structure to be created in the product folder where the selected part is already present. Otherwise, click Select Folder and enter a path to an alternate folder.
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The default value that you see in the Select Folder text box is the value that is set in the Context and Location preferences present in the Downstream Creation section. When no value is provided in the Context and Location preferences, the systems considers the location of the part on which you have invoked the Subcontract Plant action, as the default value in the Select Folder text box.
5. Click OK to complete the subcontracting process.
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If you subcontract to a peer view, the system sets the context for a part for which you are subcontracting. The system sets the context for the plant too.
If you subcontract to a downstream plant, the system sets the context for only the plant.
When you subcontract to a downstream plant, the system reuses the part on which the Subcontract Plant action is invoked. Because of this, there is no change in the location of the part and the new plant that is assigned to the part will be created in the same location as that of the part.
For more information, see the following topics:
The subcontract information is displayed in the Subcontract To Plant and Subcontract From Plant columns in BOM Transformer. You can also access subcontract information using the Equivalence Network attribute. For more information, see Equivalence Network.
Paste as Subcontract Plant
Use the Paste as Subcontract to Plants action to copy a part to be subcontracted from the upstream view to the corresponding part or a different part in the downstream view. Additionally, you can copy a part to be subcontracted from upstream view to a different part within the downstream view.
This action is similar to the Subcontract to Plants action. The only difference is, you cannot change the view in the Subcontract to Plants dialog box.
Perform the following steps:
1. Right-click a part or sub-assembly to be subcontracted and select Copy.
2. In the downstream view, select the part under which you want to paste this part.
3. Click Clipboard > Paste as Subcontract to Plants. The Paste as Subcontract to Plants dialog box opens.
4. From the Subcontract to list, select the plants to which you want to subcontract the subassembly or part.
5. Click OK to complete the subcontracting process.
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