Assembly-Specific Manufacturer Part Ranking

We are currently running Windchill 12.0.2.25 and are planning a migration to Windchill+ 13.1.3, so we are looking for an approach that will work well in both environments.

We have a requirement to rank Manufacturer Parts (MPNs) associated with OEM parts as follows:

• Rank 1 = Approved for Primary Build BOM
• Rank 2 = Approved for Secondary Build BOM
• Blank = No restriction; can be used in either build

The challenge is that the ranking is assembly-specific, not a property of the Manufacturer Part itself.

For example:

Assembly-A

• MPN-A = Rank 1
• MPN-B = Rank 2

Assembly-B

• MPN-A = Rank 2
• MPN-B = Rank 1

Because of this:

• The rank cannot reside on the Manufacturer Part, since the same MPN may have different rankings depending on the assembly where it is used.
• I don't believe it belongs on the OEM-to-Manufacturer Part (AML) relationship either, since that relationship is global and would not vary by assembly context.
• Alternate/Substitute Parts do not appear to fit this use case because the requirement is tied to OEM Part selection, not Manufacturer part substitution.

In our case, the rank needs to be a property of the Manufacturer Part's usage within a specific assembly context.

In addition to storing the rank, we would like the solution to support the following:

• Easy maintenance of the rank value (ideally a drop-down list with values 1, 2, or blank)
• Display of a Rank column within structure tables/information pages
• Ability to edit the rank value without excessive navigation
• Filtering structure tables based on rank
• A Primary Build view that excludes Rank 2 items
• A Secondary Build view that excludes Rank 1 items
• BOM exports/reports that honor the rank filter
  • Example: a Primary Build BOM export should exclude all Rank 2 items
  • A Secondary Build BOM export should exclude Rank 1 items, as appropriate

Has anyone implemented something similar?

Specifically:

1. Where did you store the ranking information?
2. Are you using BOM usage links, AML relationships, MPMLink structures, custom attributes, or another approach?
3. How are users maintaining the rank values?
4. Were you able to display and filter the rank directly in structure tables?
5. How are you generating rank-specific BOM exports and reports?

We're trying to understand what Windchill object should own a manufacturer-part ranking when that ranking depends on the parent assembly context and must drive structure display, filtering, and BOM reporting.

Any best practices, lessons learned, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!