Additional Windchill Capabilities > Windchill Supplier Management > Windchill Supplier Management Overview > Windchill Supplier Management Introduction
  
Windchill Supplier Management Introduction
Windchill Supplier Management is intended for use with Windchill PDMLink.
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Windchill Supplier Management can also work on a server with Windchill PDMLink and Windchill ProjectLink installed. However, Windchill Supplier Management is not supported on a standalone Windchill ProjectLink server. In addition, Windchill Supplier Management does not support the creation of parts within a Windchill Program context.
Windchill Supplier Management enables companies to integrate and manage supply chain data within Windchill. In addition to helping companies track their supplier parts, Windchill Supplier Management improves the part selection process by making manufacturer and vendor data available early in the design phase.
The primary users of Windchill Supplier Management are Component, Procurement, and Design Engineers.
There are two sides to Windchill Supplier Management :
Setting up and maintaining manufacturer and vendor data within Windchill PDMLink
The Sourcing Administrator of your organization is responsible for creating supplier organizations in Windchill PDMLink, populating the database with manufacturer and vendor parts, and creating and updating Approved Manufacturer Part Lists (AMLs) and Approved Vendor Part Lists (AVLs). Generally, Component and Procurement Engineers act as Sourcing Administrators.
Using AML and AVL information during the product development
After AMLs and AVLs are created for OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts, engineers can use this information when selecting parts to use in a design. For example, a Design Engineer can use the Classification search to look for OEM parts that have approved manufacturer or vendor parts. Engineers can also view the sourcing status of parts in the part structure browser. Component Engineers can use the sourcing status of parts to create an optimal Manufacturing BOM based on the OEM BOM.
The initial configuration of Windchill Supplier Management is performed by the Site Administrator. It involves creating organizations, configuring permissions, adding administrators, as well as configuring subtypes and attributes for the manufacturer and vendor object types.
Objects specific to supplier management (such as suppliers, supplier contexts, rules, etc.) are set up and maintained by a Sourcing Administrator. Your administrator can also load manufacturer or vendor parts in the system in a bulk process.
Once the supplier data is integrated with Windchill, engineers can add manufacturer and vendor parts to the AMLs/AVLs, change the sourcing status of supplier parts, search for manufacturer and vendor parts, or obtain various reports on the relationships between OEM parts and associated supplier parts.
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Windchill Program contexts are not supported for use with Windchill Supplier Management.