Control Characteristics

Control characteristics created within Windchill MPMLink and associated to a part (or to a manufacturing object such as a process plan or an operation) may be published to a distribution target. A certain attribute on the distribution target determines whether or not control characteristics associated to a part (or to a process plan) would be published. For example, with the attribute Publish Control Characteristics when Publishing a Part set to Yes, control characteristics associated to a part would be rendered and sent with the ESI response. Likewise, control characteristics associated to a process plan (or to an operation) would be published when the attribute Publish Control Characteristics when Publishing a Process Plan has a value of Yes. Both these attributes have a value of No by default.

Note the following:

• Control characteristics may be created and associated to a part or to a manufacturing object using the Manufacturing Product Structure Explorer.

• A control characteristic that is associated to an operation will be published upon publishing the holding process plan, provided the distribution target attribute Publish Control Characteristics when Publishing a Process Plan has a value of Yes; this happens even if the control characteristic is associated to a part as well and the attribute Publish Control Characteristics when Publishing a Part has a value of No.

Several other attributes may get passed as well, depending on the type of the model item. For more information see the Windchill Enterprise Systems Integration Implementation Guide - SAP or the Windchill Enterprise Systems Integration Implementation Guide - Oracle Applications.

If a model item’s EPM document is not associated to the owner of the holding control characteristic, an attempt to publish the control characteristic results in a failure.

The EAI software components map a control characteristic to an SAP Master Inspection Characteristic (or MIC), and use both the control characteristic and model item attributes for creating the latter in SAP. The attribute Distribution Targets (in the elements Destination and TargetID that appear in the ESI response) identify the distribution target(s) that the EAI software components would communicate with, for creating or changing a Master Inspection Characteristic in SAP.

Windchill ESI publishes a control characteristic to the same distribution targets as those associated to the holding part or process plan.

Windchill Control Characteristic Attribute	SAP (QS21) Master Inspection Characteristic Attribute	Additional Information
CC Number	MIC Number
CC Name	MIC Name	Transformed to Name – Plant Because Name must be unique for each plant.
CC Description	Short text
Severity	Not mapped
Version	Not mapped
Distribution Target /Plant	Plant
Model Item Reference	Qualitative or Quantitative selection	Based on the Model Item Type/subtype and other attributes, Windchill MPMLink decides if the control characteristic is Qualitative or Quantitative.
Model Item Reference / Target Value	Target Value indicator and Target Value
Model Item Reference / Upper Target Value	Upper Specification Limit indicator and Upper Limit
Model Item Reference / Lower Target Value	Lower Specification indicator and Lower Limit
Model Item Reference / No Of Decimal places	Decimal places	Windchill MPMLink API calculates this programmatically based on certain attributes.
Model Item Reference / Unit of Measurement	Msmt Unit

There are some attributes that SAP requires to create or change master inspection characteristics that are not provided by Windchill MPMLink. In these instances, Windchill ESI defaults the values in the EAI software components prior to passing the data to SAP. The following table lists the SAP Master Inspection Characteristic attributes that are defaulted in Windchill ESI, and their default values

SAP Master Inspection Characteristic Attribute	SAP Default Value
Version	000001
Status	Release,
Complete Indicator	Complete Copy Model
Search Field	ESI
Control Indicator	X

Windchill Attribute	SAP (QS61: Material Specification)
Part Number	Material Number
CC Number	MIC Number
Distribution target / Plant	Plant

In SAP the association is created as a reference association. This means all modifications are reflected from the actual master data at the MIC.

Windchill Attribute	SAP (CA02: Inspection Characteristics)	Additional Information
CC Number	MIC Number, MIC Description and other quantitative values from Model Item referenced attributes like Target Value, Upper Limit, Lower Limit are mapped with this link as well.	Unlike QA61, Operation to MIC associations cannot be created as reference association.
Operation Label	Operation Label of the Operation
Distribution Target /Plant	Plant

Windchill ESI passes the following information pertaining to associations from Windchill PDMLink to the EAI software components when publishing control characteristics associated to a part, to a process plan or to an operation respectively:

Each of the above carries information on the objects that are related. For example, the PartQualityLink element in the ESI response holds the name and number of the part and the associated control characteristic. The OperationQualityLink element carries some additional information, in that it carries the following attributes as well;