Product Data Management

Use up to 50 characters in part length for a part number. System settings optionally designate the maximum length of the part ID used.

Reference designators provide the ability to store multiple reference designators on BOMs. Also offers explosion reports by component and by reference designator from quotes, jobs, and the engineering workbench.

Link product-specific documentation (e.g., electronic drawing and machine instructions) for easy access and document control using document management.

Besides material costs, additional costs for manufactured parts (e.g., labor, burden, and subcontracting) are stored and monitored within the BOM structure.

The cost replaces function rolls up costs from the BOM and updates the finished goods inventory file.

A summarized material option, in addition to the standard indented BOM requirement report, is available to provide total requirements for each material.

Easily view the critical path for the product.

Stock assemblies in inventory or maintain phantom assembly structures, giving you the flexibility to process complex jobs without having to first establish a complete BOM.

Detailed routings facilitate the planning, scheduling, and costing of products more efficiently. Everything needed to produce a product is managed in one central location.

Managing changes to routings is simplified. Changes are automatically communicated to the plant floor execution system and operators have online visibility of the latest routing production notes as well as standards and resource requirements.

Manage product BOM and routings in one central location. The part-specific method of manufacturing is controlled through engineering and offers drill-down functionality to lower level subcomponents along with material and routing components required for each.

Easily understand, navigate and revise even the most complex, multi-level routing in the tree structure of the engineering workbench. Free up engineers to focus on constructing the most cost-effective build. Quickly build new routings and easily modify existing routings using the Epicor drag-and-drop engineering tools.

Streamline engineering by modifying existing methods for same-as-except quotations and production runs. Enable engineers to begin with an existing method of manufacture from the methods master, a quote or job, then modify it for the project at hand with the Epicor “get details“ functionality.

Define and maintain multiple routings or material substitutions under a single part number. In a multi-plant environment, alternate routings at the plant level facilitate choosing where to build the part using plant appropriate methods.

Manage and measure jobs using traditional time-based production standards including:

• Pieces per hour
• Pieces per minute
• Operations per hour
• Operations per minute
• Hours per piece
• Minutes per piece
• Fixed hours

Plan by volume and quantity using dimensional planning that is not time constrained.

Add flexibility to your planning with daily production rates that are quantity-based rather than time-based.

Allow the system to automatically pick or schedule the resource to be used or call out the specific resource at the time of planning. Routings can indicate general resource groups needed.

With APS you can specify a capability of a resource and allow the scheduling engine to determine the specific resource based on availability of the capability or skill level.

Enter new routings quickly and easily using default operations and operation standards for resources.

Built to manage the needs of precision manufacturers, the production standard field has 10 characters behind the decimal point.

Perform cost analysis of production separately from setup. This enables tight cost control of these key functions.

Assign resource-specific or variable burden based on the optimization of the schedule and available resources.

Include outside services in routing steps for accurate planning of costs and lead-time. Communicate with purchasing, shipping and receiving, as well as production management for full visibility of subcontracting operations.

Communicate the latest routing changes to the shop floor efficiently with the electronic work queue.

Epicor drag-and-drop attachments support the ability to manage and view attachments against any record or application process. With respect to BOMs, additional functionality exists to allow attachments linked to end products, components, operations, and materials to automatically flow to production planning and eventually the production floor, ensuring strong control of product and process documentation at each product revision and production run. Documents attached at the process level would typically contain information associated to process execution, workflow, or business practices for the process itself. Attachments at the record level would typically provide information, drawings, documentation, or context specific to that record. All attachments can be secured using standard role-based security.

Document management and attachments capability also offers the use of a Microsoft SharePoint document repository.

This provides document versioning, check-out and check-in support, and facilitates integration to other document management systems.

Achieve control and consistency in your engineering change and revision process. Engineering Change and Revision Control is designed to enable engineering change management, multiple revision control of products, engineering workflow management, and offers detailed cost analysis of products during the engineering process.

Give engineers an area to manage all engineering tasks related to the modification, review and approval of assemblies, including: full revision updating and control, check-out procedures, security, engineering change orders, BOM maintenance, what-if BOM maintenance, what-if cost rollups, adding parts, placing parts on hold, and product routing maintenance. The engineering workbench also enables engineers to drill into all related information (e.g., jobs, inventories, sales orders, and quotes).

Enforce the approval of a method before it can be pulled into a job or quote.

Store and manage every revision of a product individually along with effectivity dates, historical change, and audit logs.

Manage revision by effectivity date.

Look for previously used parts by creating a quick wild card search of all parts in the system.

Employ complete revision tracking of fields that you specify, including an audit trail of date, user ID, and description of the change.

Dynamically and visually compare product methods for product plans that change before the product is complete. Easily compare methods of manufacturing for any part to a quote or job for the part and visually see the changes highlighted in color.

Automatically assign and route the work needed to process changes as well as the process for engineering new products. Tasks are tightly embedded into the system ensuring that transactions can only be updated if the task is at the right status.

By displaying every product or assembly in which a specified component is used, you are able to identify those parts that would be affected by a design change or material substitution being considered.

Efficiently update all BOM structures when engineering changes occur.

Use express check-out, designed for quick-change environments, for quick check-in and check-out of parts.

Epicor Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) serves as a central knowledge repository for process and product history, and promotes integration and data exchange among all enterprise users who interact with a product. Epicor PLM manages all documentation associated with a product throughout its entire product lifecycle, and includes full integration with more than 12 computer aided design (CAD) systems. Epicor PLM is particularly useful for companies that:

• Design what they manufacture
• Want standardized methodologies around workflow
• Use CAD systems
• Use drawings to produce a quote or an order

Epicor PLM provides an electronic vault where documents can be securely stored and where access and versioning can be tightly controlled. The type of sophisticated document management that PLM offers is critical for those organizations that need excellent audit tracking and control of all documents across the enterprise. PLM also provides advanced document search and retrieval functionality. Increase your productivity by more efficiently managing the product life cycle—from design to end-of-life.

Epicor PLM contains a secure vault, a product knowledge repository that holds documents in a password protected electronic data vault accessible only via the PLM system.

Provide a tight level of security. Control who can view or access documents. Protect your specifications, CAD models, drawings, e-mail messages and NC programs from loss or unwarranted access.

Prevent users from altering documents that are currently checked out by other users.

Search and retrieve by multi-level classification, key fields, or graphically navigate through a document hierarchy.

Preview drawings or documents, enabling your engineers to quickly view a large drawing without downloading it to their CAD system.

Maintain relationships of documents to parts, projects, customers, and more. View the relationships between parts and documents (as well as document contents) via a structured tree view, so engineers can quickly see the impact and use of all documents.

Export or Import Documents: Documents can be retrieved from Epicor PLM’s protected electronic vault for external processing. At any time later, they can be checked in again. While checked out, drawings are labeled as ’locked’, avoiding any modification conflicts.

Document Linking: Link product-specific documentation, for example, electronic drawings and machine
instructions for easy access and document control using document management.

Workflow Management: Epicor PLM provides configuration functions that describe the rules for workflow state transitions.

Use document changelogs for access to historical details of changes.

Integrate your PLM processes into each CAD program’s native menu system. Your product data, versions, revisions, and BOMs are directly transferred into the drawing title block, which is automatically updated whenever a modification occurs.

Epicor PLM supports Microsoft Outlook and IBM® Lotus Notes® e-mail packages, allowing you to store e-mail messages and file attachments in the secure vault and manage the distribution and access to those messages and files. This is critically important for managing customer relationships and adhering to legal and regulatory mandates.

Epicor PLM records documents at their place of origin and works fully integrated in Microsoft Word, Excel and other Office applications. Text documents or spreadsheets that have been drafted using these applications are directly stored in the database.

As a manufacturer or distributor, you consistently monitor product cost and analyze profitability as a way to pass on cost savings to customers while staying competitive. Epicor offers the flexibility and accuracy needed to analyze product cost on a customer-by-customer, part-by-part, and job-by-job basis.

Maintain elements of product cost in separate buckets, including material, labor, burden, subcontracting, and material burden cost. Costing methods include:

•  Average cost
• Last cost
• Standard cost
• Lot cost
• FIFO cost

Manage part costs in a single location. Specialized tools pull in the most recent costs and automatically perform cost rollups. Designed with full audit capabilities, the workbench offers variance analysis prior to posting new cost tables along with the effective dates of the costing changes. The costing workbench offers easy manipulation of resource, resource group, and operation cost.

Group multiple parts together for fast and easy periodic cost updates.

Manage multiple cost entries per part with effectivity date per cost set. Optionally generate what-if cost scenarios and review change analysis prior to posting.

Set up a unique cost set for each plant allowing part cost per plant to be closely defined.

Pull in initial cost from previous cost sets and make changes for easier cost adjustments. Cost sets can be generated from alternate BOMs or routings for what-if scenarios.

Generate a new cost for a product with an automated cost rollup based on the existing routing for the product and current cost values for material, labor, burden, subcontracting, and material burden. For complex parts with many assemblies, you can specify whether to roll up subcomponents.

Costs Stored: Besides material costs, additional costs for manufactured parts (for example, labor, burden, and subcontracting) are stored and monitored within the BOM structure.

Optionally use alternate routing in performing cost rollup. This is especially useful when generating what-if cost analysis.

Print what-if changes prior to posting. Review proposed change detail including variance percentage.

Product Configuration enables on-the-fly configuration of highly customizable and dimensional products via a straightforward question and answer evaluation. Product Configuration can be accessed from quote entry, order entry, and job entry. It is Web-enabled and is also available to disconnected users employing Epicor Mobile Connect.

Formally approve all configurations before they can be put into circulation. When a configuration revision has been formally approved, it can be pulled into a quote, order, or job. An audit trail logs user ID and approval date.

Tie a configuration to a BOM structure containing multiple options. Each option can also have rules attached. Rules are executed during entry of a configuration to correctly configure the BOM and routing.

Optionally create unique configurations and rules for each revision of a BOM. Configuration responses are stored with other product information for historical auditing and accuracy.

Allows you to use the component level price lists as the product is configured.

Allows users to copy configurator rules from one module to other (copy/paste).

Build custom screens in which product features and other inputs can be entered during quote and order entry. Form controls (e.g., fill-ins, combo boxes, and toggle boxes) are used to prompt users for data.

Building conditional options is easy with dynamic lists.

Allow the use of the same generic part with multiple rules on multiple assemblies.

Provides the ability to hold and use global configurator variables.

Provides the capability to import/export configurations.

Calculate pricing as a product is configured. Either features/options or rules-based pricing can be applied.

Define the features and options of a product at design time, then customize during quote and order entry.

Build your own unique rules with an easy-to-use expression builder. Process rules during quote and order entry to create an accurate BOM from the features and options selected.

Capability to add comments to document formulas used when creating the rules.

Allows for a configuration at all levels of a part, but only for the subassemblies that are stored. Subassemblies have ’keep when’ rules.

Configured parts can optionally be included within MRP to help manage mass-produced custom product lines.

Optionally interface to Microsoft Excel to map values to tables instead of building complex rules within the configurator.

Test rules and inputs during design mode to eliminate surprises during processing. Full reporting is available as an audit trail.

Build a smart part string during entry of a configuration to allow easy identification of the options selected.

Optionally create actual part numbers in the inventory master file using the configured smart part number. Creating the part automatically eliminates manual entry when a new part is configured and ordered.

Deploying rules-based configurations with configured components can be tricky. Epicor offers a solution for managing the complexities of these configurations with real business benefits.

Manages multi-company configured parts, with the ability to configure and sell an assembly in one company, and produce it in another.