PLM Revisions and ERP

[ocorten-2]

(not sure if this is a can of worms i'm opening now, but here it goes)

We are currently having a discussion with our ERP team about how to deal with new PLM revisions in SAP ERP.

In the future we want to link Windchill PDMLink to our SAP ERP system, but they have setup the SAP system where the revision is more like an attribute to the article number instead of a separate object.

Two of our sister companies already use this SAP system, so we have a very hard time convincing them to treat revisions differently.
Our sister companies have a much more strict revising process: if you want to make sure the next revision ends up in the new version of the machine you need to assign a new article nr.

We use the rule: if it's downwards compatible you can revise. But new machines often *must* have the new revision, because the downwards compatibility does not imply an upwards compatibility as well. With the current setup of SAP we are never sure which revision ends up in which machine.

We'd rather not go down the path of our sister companies where the next version of a machine consists of almost all new article numbers.

How are others dealing with this?

Is each PLM revisions linked to a separate ERP articlenr?
e.g. PLM article 123 rev. A is linked to ERP articlenr 123A PLM article 123 rev. B is linked to ERP articlenr 123BPLM article 123 rev. A is linked to ERP articlenr 456PLM article 123 rev. B is linked to ERP articlenr 789
Or are you using the Engineering module in SAP to maintain revisions in SAP as well?
e.g. PLM article 123 rev. A is linked to ERP articlenr 123 with revision A PLM article 123 rev. B is linked to ERP articlenr 123 with revision B
Any other options?

Kind regards,

Olaf Corten




Olaf Corten
CAD/PLM Manager
Besi Netherlands B.V.
Ratio 6, Duiven
Phone: +31 26 3196215
Mobile: +31 644548554
www.besi.com




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[GregoryPERASSO]

ERP (SAP and others...) are in most of cases are set up "without revision"

cause as you says, same part (ie sams number) is interchangeable. and can be mix in the same box in the stock.

Here we are touching the tricky part of the BOM management (I should more use the term of "Configuration Management")

for me , the way to deal with it , is to use Change Management, in conjonction with effectivities management (date and lot ...) . across the PLM and ERP system .... to keep in track the different BOM views ("engineering", "manufacturing", and may be "as built" and "as maintained ")

regards

Gregory

[sschneider]

The SAP meaning of "Revision level" is certainly different than the PLM (in this case, Windchill) meaning.

At the part level, SAP has no true "Revision Level".. This is primarily due to the manner in which Engineering Change Management (ECM) is applied to materials. Note that this function (ECM) is either date or parameter driven... No concept of a "revision\iteration\date" as in Windchill.. That doesn't mean you cannot manage the revision.... You need to change how you think of it though...

In the SAP world, the Document Information Record (DIR) has a "Version"... This version can be changed with ECM. So one method of managing revisions without changing material numbers is to link the output document from Windchill (in our case, a PDF) to a DIR. In turn, this DIR is assigned (linked) to each relevant material. When the part in Widchill is revised, we will change the DIR to point to the new revision level output document as of a specific date (effectiviy of the new revision) and potentially "uprev" the version of the DIR. At that date,production orders referencing the material will pull the correct revision document, pointing to the correct revision in WIndchill.

Not a pretty solution, but it's where we are heading... We are not there yet, so any additional input would be greatly appreciated..