Managing Variant Specifications in a Product Family

A Product Family manager can insert variants of a product model that represent a specific configuration of the product called a variant specification. These variant specifications are added as children of product models in the Product Family structure. When creating a variant specification from a Product Family structure, a limited definition of the object can be created in which only meta data (such as name, number, and description) is specified. Later, an option filter can be defined that, when applied to the inherited configurable product structure, represents a variant configuration of the product model.

Icon	Variant Specification Classification	Description
	Variant Specification	Stand-alone variant that is created using the configure process or programmatically from a spreadsheet. For more information, see Creating Variant Structures Using the Configure Process and Loading Variant Specifications from a Spreadsheet.
	Variant Specification	Stand-alone variant (originally created using the configure process or programmatically) that is inserted into a product family as a child of a product model. This variant exists outside of a product family structure. A variant specification that was created using the Configure action on a configurable part is an example of a stand-alone variant specification. For more information, see Variant Specification Information Page.
	Managed Variant Specification	Variant that is created in a product family as a child of a product model by first defining only the object’s metadata (name, number, folder location, and description). After it is created, an option filter can be defined using the Edit Option Filter window. Module variants selections can be manually defined by using the Modules tab.
	Organized Variant Specification	Variant specification that is individually defined and managed, but is organized within a product family structure. This is created when you add a stand-alone variant specification to a product model.

Because a managed variant specification can be partially defined with only meta data, it can be added to a product family structure as a placeholder for planning purposes. At a later time, as the designs for component parts of the configurable product are created, the variant specification can further define the appropriate choice selections within its option filter definition.