How do you manage upstream / downstream part version in your system?

[KlausHellweger]

A new downstream branch/part always starts with the first symbol in the versioning scheme (in our case A), regardless of the version of the upstream part. The equivalent link points to the exact upstream version, but this link is not well visible. Also, it is quite confusing for our users to have a separate version for the mPart. Additionally, we publish the mPart information to the MRP system which requires the exact ePart version. Therefore, we manually synchronize the downstream version with the upstream part version. This means that if the upstream part version is D, we also revise the downstream version to version D and so on. However, this is quite time-consuming and error-prone, especially with large assemblies. Windchill does not offer any functionality to keep the version synchromized.

How do you handle this? If you have a separate version, how do you ensure that the upstream part version is clearly visible in the manufacturing department ?

Thank you very much!

[VVII]

Hard to give direct solution without knowing more of your architecture, but I can give my opinion.

Firstly; I think the idea of mBOM and different view is that it can live its own life and different persons often handle eBOM and mBOMS. With mBOM you can example bring together designs from different cad systems - Related CREO (mech), Eplan (electrical) and mBOM can also contain additional information that EBOM doesn't have (like software version)

I think you should find another solution to handle the versions, either by automation or by better indicating the upstream version.

Sometimes the mBOM can also undergo changes and then surpass the current version of the eBOM, in your situation requiring engineering to make unnecessary revisions to match the mBOM. The manual work you are doing sounds horrendous.

Maybe you could add custom attribute to mBOM to tell example from what version of eBOM it is born. Make the equivalent link more visible. Recent example topic: https://community.ptc.com/t5/Windchill/View-Equivalent-parts-outside-MAPSB/m-p/950110 

How do you handle this? If you have a separate version, how do you ensure that the upstream part version is clearly visible in the manufacturing department ?

1. Make mBOM only when there is differences to eBOM (minimizes your work - try to design eBOM to match mBOM)
2. Clear communication between departments 
3. Sending mBOM to the ERP (it contains all eBOM items)
4. If mBOM is created from eBOM with different part number - by additional information it needs to know from where it is born and example the related drawing and cad document. 

[anursingh]

Hi @KlausHellweger,

I wanted to follow up with you on your post to see if your question has been answered. 
If so, please mark the appropriate reply as the Accepted Solution. 
Of course, if you have more to share on your issue, please let the Community know so that we can continue to help you. 

Thanks,
Anurag
 

[KlausHellweger · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that 1.) the mBOM version is justified and 2.) it makes more sense to make the ePart version more visible in a different way instead of synchronizing the versions.

Thank you for the valuable advice

Klaus