Terminology Used in Mass mBOMs
The following terms are specific to the mass mBOM feature.
Term
Definition
Generic eBOM
A generic eBOM is a structure that includes the entire bill of material for all of the variants of a particular product. A generic eBOM includes all the elements of all the variants. In other words, the system extracts the variants from a generic eBOM.
For more information, see the following topics:
Generic mBOM
A generic mBOM is created from a generic eBOM using standard MPMLink structure transformation actions. For example, New Downstream Branch. When you use the Generate Mass Downstream BOMs action, the system uses the generic mBOM as a template to generate variant mass mBOMs. That is, the system refers the generic mBOM structure to generate variant mass mBOMs.
Refer the following tutorials for more details:
Variant eBOM or E-variant
A variant eBOM or an E-variant is one of the variants extracted or generated from the generic eBOM by using variant specifications.
A variant eBOM is the bill of materials for a particular variant specification. It is extracted using certain rules present in the variant specification.
When you use the Generate Mass Downstream BOMs action, the system uses the variant eBOM as a reference to generate variant mass mBOMs.
Variant mBOM or M-variant
A variant mBOM or an M-variant is a subset of a generic mBOM. It is extracted or generated from generic mBOM.
A variant mBOM or an M-variant is a subset of a generic mBOM. It is generated from generic mBOM. The system transforms the generic mBOM (for the variant eBOMs) to create variant mBOMs.
Similar BOM
A similar BOM is a node or part that holds all the generic BOMs of similar generic assemblies and their variants.
Use Case:
Consider that 3 related generic BOMs are present. All the 3 generic BOMs are engines assemblies constituting a combination of parts. All the engines belong to a different models of a car. Also, different variants are present for all engines. In such a case, the system allows you to structure all the engines under a single similar BOM node. Now, when you access the similar BOM, you can access everything, instead of opening them individually.
Non-transformable part
While transforming generic eBOM to generic mBOM, you might add parts only in generic mBOM. These parts are not present in the generic eBOM. Such parts are known as non-transformable parts. For more information, see the following topics:
Term
Definition
Basic Expression
Basic expressions are the option choices that you can assign to parts and part usage links to specify the conditions when a component should be included in the product structure.
Choice
A value assigned to an option. For example, an option Country can have USA, Mexico, and Germany as choices. Windchill distinguishes between sales and design choices, which can be defined for sales and design options.
Configurable Module
A Windchill part that may have one or more children parts, which represent variations in the design and configuration of a component or a functional unit. Windchill uses configurable modules to build in variability into a product structure.
Configurable Product Structure
A product structure that includes configurable modules to support the ability to create multiple product variants from the same product structure.
Deliverable
Same as variant.
Option Filter
A set of criteria, defined by the user, to filter the product structure based on choices assigned to parts and the usage of parts in a structure.
Option
A capability or a feature of a product, which can be designed with variations. For example, an option Voltage may have choices of 100, 110 and 220 and option Color may have choices Red, Green and Blue for the product.
In Windchill, an option is created in an option pool and can be reused by option sets. An option can be characterized as a design option or sales option. For example, one sales choice for a navigation system may allow you to select from several design choices such as antenna, GPS, touch screen, or map software.
Parameter
An attribute defined locally within the context of a configurable module to support advanced selection logic. A parameter can be an integer, real, Boolean, string, or other type of variable. A parameter can have constraints for its values based on other parameters, case tables, and input expressions. The value of a selected option choice can be mapped to a parameter value and used during the part configuration process.
For more information about parameters, see the following topics:
Product Family
A set of related products that offer a range of capabilities and share a substantial percentage of the same parts. In Windchill, a product family is defined by an option set and the associated configurable product structure.
Variant
A part or part structure representing a specific configuration of the configurable product structure. The inputs used to create this variant are stored in the variant specification. A variant is a type of deliverable created during a part configuration process.
For more information, see the following topics:
Variant Specification
A record of user inputs, including option choices and parameter values, when applicable, that are provided during a configuration process and are used to generate a variant part structure. A variant specification is a type of deliverable created during a configuration process.
Non-transformable part
During transformation of generic eBOM to generic mBOM, you might add parts only in generic mBOM. These parts are not present in the generic eBOM. They are only present in generic mBOM. Such parts are known as non-transformable parts. For more information, see the following topics:
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