Active Sensing, Inc.
		Acseni® Configuration & Data Management System

Product Structure Management

Acseni offers complete document structure (that is, "document tree") management, including history traceability. For configuration management processes where there is a one-to-one relationship between a document and the part that it describes, product structures (bills of materials) can be modeled, controlled, and exported.

An item variation that requires other documents for its complete description is a parent variation. The structure associated with the parent variation is an ordered list of child item variations. Acseni provides full product structure management capabilities, including controlled structure changes through the engineering change notice.

Each document on a structure is defined at a specific variation, and can itself be a structure. All documents on a structure have find-item numbers, which are permanently assigned at the time of the structure’s formal release. Part documents on structures have attributes of quantity, units of measure, and may have reference designators or other notes.

Structures have two modes: creation and change. The single difference is that a new structure does not yet have find-item numbers firmly established. An existing structure has an established line item order that you do not want to change. When users select between the Create form and Change form, they are really selecting which find-item tools to use.

Create a new structure

If a variation has never been issued with an associated structure, then no find-item numbers have been formally established. Since many times an assembly drawing will be made before the structure is built, the assembly drawing’s balloon numbers offer an easy way to assign the structure’s find-item numbers. That is, make the structure’s find-item numbers match the assembly drawing’s balloon numbers.

If an assembly drawing has not been made, the find-item order may be determined by assembly order, or by grouping documents by item number, part category, or DocType.

The Create Structure form has tools that let you sort the item list to establish the find-item numbers that you need. You create a structure by simply assigning item variation records to a list. There are, however, a few points to keep in mind:

• You must select the parent variation before you can assign any child records to it.
• The parent variation, and all child variations, must exist. If you are assigning a new item to a structure, then you must create the item variation before you can assign it to a structure.

Change an existing structure

The revision of an existing structure usually requires that the find-item numbers previously assigned do not change. Since you may be using drawings that already refer to find-items using balloon numbers, you probably do not want to change these numbers if only the item variation is changing.

Changing an existing structure requires a slightly different set of tools for managing existing find-item numbers, and for including or hiding historical records.

You change an existing structure by assigning variation records to a list. Here are some considerations in changing a structure:

• You must select the parent variation before you can assign any child records to it.
• The parent variation, and all child variations, must exist. If you are assigning a new item to a structure, then you must create the item variation before you can assign it to a structure.
• Existing structure find-item numbers are usually used as a basis for change, and should never be arbitrarily changed. The tools for sorting a new structure are not available—because they should not be used—on a released structure.
• A single find-item number may appear on multiple lines, but each line must be uniquely valid for a specified time period. That is, if you replace the record at find-item 27 with another item, then the first item must be off the structure on or before the date that the second item is on the structure.

You only work with one structure level at a time. That is, a structure list shows only a parent’s immediate child records, and does not include any of the child records’ children.

Users can create a wide variety of structure reports, including multi-level costed BOMs, as well export data for MRP in several common PC file formats.

Technical Support for current users

ACSENI has been replaced by PDXpert Product Lifecycle Management software

Copyright © 1996-2006 by Active Sensing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information here is believed to be accurate at time of first publication. However, all product features, capabilities and prices are subject to change without notice. Acseni is a registered trademark of Active Sensing, Inc.