Chapter 3: Parts

The term “Part” is usually used to describe something that can be built or ordered and physically embodied in a manufactured product. In 4G:PLM, every part is identified by a unique “Part Number”. Parts can be divided into subclasses, e.g. there may be resistors and capacitors as parts, and they may be described using different attributes that your administrator has configured.

To create a New Part, select “Part” from New Objects menu. A dialog opens asking you specifically to create a New Part or to create a New Assembly.

3.1 Creating a new Part
To create a new Part in 4G:PLM, choose either of the two ways:

1)         Click on New Object and select Parts

 

2)         Choose the Part Type from the dropdown list

 

3)         A new page will pop-up. Fill in the details and Save the page. Enter all the available information and Save the form.

 

4)         Once you Save the form, a new Part is created. You can access it directly from the Recent Parts section on the left Navigation bar. You can also search for the Parts using the search functionality of 4G:PLM.

 

5)         You can also create a new Part by clicking on the Create a Part icon from the top and follow the same steps as above.

 

3.2 Parts Tabs

3.2.1 Parts Details tab contains all the Parts meta-data information like Description, Part Type, Owner, Creation Date. In addition to these information, there are other user configured fields that can be modified from this tab.




3.2.2 Where Used tab shows all the Parts that is using the current Part in their Bill of Material (BOM). This tab is a quick way to find all the Parts and their BOM that are using this Part in the BOM hierarchies.




3.2.3 BOM or Bill of Materials (BoM) tab lists all parts or components that are required to build a product. It is shown in a hierarchical format, with the topmost level showing the end product, and the bottom level displaying individual components and materials.




3.2.4 AML or Approved Manufacturer List is a relationships between Parts in the organization to the manufacturer parts. This tab shows the details about the Manufactured Parts like Manufacturer Name, Mfg Part Number, Mfg Part LifeCycle etc




3.2.5 Changes tab shows the history of all the Changes for the Part. It also shows the Rev for each changes along with LifeCycle Phase. This tab gives the summary of Changes for the Parts along with the Change Originator. Just click on the individual Change to go the Change Detail page.



3.2.6 Attachments tab shows all attachments linked to the Part. These could be documents, designs or images. The attachment tabs maintains the version control for each file attached to it.

3.2.7 Log this tab captures all the actions for the Part like Date created, originator, LifeCycle change etc. This tab gives a quick reference for all the events performed on the Part.

 

3.3 BOM
Bill Of Materials (BOM) is the list of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, sub-components, parts and quantities of each needed to manufacture an end products.

3.3.1 Adding new Part to the BOM
In 4G:PLM, it is very easy to create or modify BOM for any Part. It can be done using Drag and Drop:

a. To modify BOM using Drag and Drop, highlight the Parts from the left navigation panel, drag and drop in the BOM section of the Part.



b. The parts will be automatically added to the BOM of the Part



3.3.2 Deleting Part from the BOM
Highlight the part that you wish to remove. Right click on it and select the option Remove. This will remove the Part from the BOM



3.3.3 Editing the BOM
To edit the attributes of any BOM row like updating the Qty, use the “Mode” drop-down to select “Edit” mode.



3.3.4 Revision Rules
Revision Rules controls what revision appears in the BOM if there are several revisions of the BOM item in the system:
Latest: The latest revision is shown, even if it is not released. This view may be interesting especially for engineering.
Latest Released: The latest revision that is released (or the unreleased revision, if none has been released). This view may be interesting especially for manufacturing.
As-Saved: The revision that was current (released) when the BOM was last saved. This is useful in conjunction with a PDM integration that supports this feature, and helps to reconstruct past BOM configurations.

3.3.5 Copying BOM to Spreadsheet
4G:PLM provides very robust functionality of directly copying entire BOM from it and paste directly into the spreadsheet. This functionality is unique to 4G:PLM and it makes very easy to export BOM from 4G:PLM.



 

3.4 Part Revisions
When an item is created, it is in a preliminary state. No change order is necessary to do this, and the item's revision gets a temporary value of „0“, i.e. it is an introductory revision. At this point, it is freely editable and attachments can be added, removed or modified. The preliminary part is only relevant for engineering at this point (Step 1 in the illustration below – part number 4711). As it has not been released with a change order, it is considered a “pending “revision.
In the figure below, an engineer creates an ECO and releases part 4711 to target, Production and target revision “A“. It is considered a “released revision”. Now, it should no longer be able to be edited. For further notes on what file attachment operations are possible and when, please see the separate section on incorporation. If another engineer creates another ECO with target phase “Production“ and target revision “B“, then we see the result in step 2: revision A remains the released revision, but revision B has a preliminary because the ECO has not yet been released.



In step 3, the engineer releases the ECO from step 2. This causes revision B assume the phase “Production“. Revision A retains the Production phase, but is now superseded. If an engineer creates a change order for a revision C, then that revision C will be preliminary. Note that the grey revision is retained in the database for historical information, but is no longer of interest to manufacturing. The green revision in production is the revision that manufacturing will actually build, whereas the preliminary yellow revision is of interest only to engineering while they are doing their design work. The green revision is sometimes called the „production revision“, „current revision“ or „latest released revision“, and is the one that should be shown in bills of material where the part is used.

Step 4 merely illustrates that this process can be repeated arbitrarily many times, and that the number of superseded revisions increases each time. Finally, step 5 illustrates how a part may be phased out of use in manufacturing by issuing an MCO. For the MCO, Manufacturing Change Order, there is no change in revision, but the latest revision changes its phase.

3.5 Manufacturers and Suppliers
Manufacturers” represent companies that actually create parts. “Suppliers” represent a company that you can order something from. In some cases, the manufacturer may also be the supplier. In this case, you typically would just create a manufacturer in 4G:PLM. If you order something from a supplier that is distinct from the manufacturer, then you would typically create a supplier object in 4G:PLM.

For example, if a person purchases a car from a local dealer, and not directly from manufacturer. Then the local dealer is the supplier and the company that manufactures the car is the manufacture.

To create a new manufacturer or supplier, go to the “New Objects” menu and select either “Manufacturer” or “Supplier”. The creation process for both is similar. You will be able to set various attributes:





The lifecycle phase will be defined by your administrator. These attributes help you track manufacturers or suppliers that are approved for doing business with (or avoiding).

3.6 Manufacturing Parts
Manufacturer Parts” are parts that are manufactured by another company and that you can order and use in your own manufacturing process. Most typically, these are used to model commodity parts, such as fasteners or capacitors. Sometimes, they are also used to model assemblies that have been outsourced for manufacturing, but more typically a part object is used in that case.
To help understand the relationships among parts, BOMs, manufacturer parts and manufacturers, consider the following graphic:



The Manufacturer Part looks like this in 4G:PLM (note that this object also has a lifecycle phase defined by the administrator):
To create a new Manufacturing Part, click on New Objects and select Manufacturer Part. You will be prompted to select the Manufacturer Name, Manufacturing Part Type and Mfg Part Number.






The “Suppliers” tab lets you add suppliers for a manufacturer part



A good example of this would be if you needed a resistor array that was manufactured by Texas Instruments. You would model Texas Instruments as a Manufacturer, and the resistor array itself as a Manufacturer Part. If you actually bought it from Arrow Electronics, you would model Arrow Electronics as a Supplier, and add it to the “Suppliers” tab of the manufacturer part.