Transcript Available for QAD SE* and EE

QAD Configurator
Rea Buchanan QAD
September 28, 2010
Agenda
Landscape & Challenges
Overview of QAD Configurator Solution
Recent Releases
Closing Thoughts
Questions
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The Landscape for Product Manufacturers
Customers want: fast delivery, low price, high
quality, and ……
Choices to meet their specific needs
Competitive advantage can be gained by offering
products tailored to the specific customer need
If you elect not to offer the choices, your
competition will !
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Some Products are Just Complex !
Pumps, Motors, Valves, Cylinders, Regulators
Switches, Electrical and Electronic Components
Windows, Doors, Cabinets
Automobiles, Boats, Off-Highway Equipment,
Machine Tools, Fabrication Equipment
Appliances, Computers
Locomotives, Air Planes, Mass Transit Cars
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As proliferation and complexity increase:
Engineering effort and cost increases
Quoting effort increases; response decreases
Order entry effort and potential for error increases
Pricing becomes more complex
Preparation time prior to manufacturing increases
Procurement and Manufacturing cycles increase
Component material shortages increase
Expediting costs increase
Compatibility knowledge is centered in a few key
people
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QAD Configurator
 Provides the tools to easily configure complex products
during quotation and order entry without the need for
technical knowledge of the product
 Supports the configuration process for engineering and
manufacturing in the back office and for sales in the front
office
 Improve the quality of the configuration process to avoid
costly mistakes and time delays
 Captures sales and product knowledge
in a central repository
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Components
Sales Configuration
Definition of questions, responses,
and their inter-dependencies that
represent valid product variations
Questionnaire
Guides user interactively through sales configuration
questions recording customer specific product needs
Product Configuration
Translates Questionnaire selections using rules that
create configured items, product structures and
routings
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Available for QAD SE* and EE
Integration
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Sales Quotations
Sales Orders
Items & Item-Site
Product Structures
Routings
Costing
Pricing
TrM – Trade Mgt
* eB2.1 SP4 and forward
Full Integration with .NET UI
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Sales Configuration - Key Concepts
 Master Groups – used to organize content of the various configuration
models
 Configurable Item – “generic” item that is used to signify that a
configuration process will occur
 Variables, options, and features are the means by which you define
your products that can be configured.
– Variables are characteristics of products that can have a range of different
values. (e.g.. Color)
– Variable Options are possible values for variables. (e.g. red, green, blue,
yellow)
– Features are variables that have been linked to a configured item.
– Feature Options are possible values for features.
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Configured Item Definition
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Questionnaire
Tabs
Rule
Features & Options
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Variable & Options
Options
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Configurator – Key Concepts
Rules
 Provides inclusions, exclusions and
interdependency between features and options
 The way simple or complex conditional or
assignment logic is structured within the Sales or
Product Configuration sections
 Used for calculation logic
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Rules – Key Concepts
 General Rules: Used for more than one Configurable Item
 Rule-Groups: Contain rules covering the same topic
 Item Rules: Rules specific to a Configurable Item and
cannot be used elsewhere
 Item Rule Groups: Used to link general rule groups to a
specific Configurable Item
 General Rule Tables: A matrix table of multiple variables,
conditions (up to 20 columns) and result variables
 Item Rule Tables: Item specific rules tables
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Rule Group and Rules
Rule Group
Rules
Rule
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Sales Configuration – Key Concepts
Pricing
calculated during configuration Questionnaire
price can be:
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leverage standard QAD price table functionality
roll-up of component prices
roll-up of prices associated with options
feature pricing attributes
affected by existing price & discount tables
manually adjusted with net prices
calculated based upon rules
Product Configuration - Key Concepts
 Configurable Item – “generic” item that is used to signify
that a configuration process will occur. Features, option
and rules are associated with a configurable item
 Variant Item – a new or previously configured item that
now exists as an item as a result of configuration
 Configurable Item BOM and Routing – contains all
possible components and operations for a Configurable
Item
 Variant Item BOM and Routing – created as a result of
the configuration process and contains only those
components and operations required for the variant
configuration
 Product Structure Rules: Select components and
quantities
 Routing Rules: Select operations and times
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Product Configuration – Key Concepts
The Configuration Output Processor processes
the answers given to questions in the questionnaire
and converts the information into the form
necessary for defining a variant configuration
– Creates variant BOM by selecting components and
calculating per quantities based upon rules
– Create multi-level configured BOMS
– Creates variant routing by selecting routing operations
and calculating times based upon rules
– Creates variant item numbers (single or multi-level) with
format based upon user defined criteria
– Performs standard cost roll-up on new variant
configuration
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Release Versions & History
4.4 – April 2008 - Deliver .NET Questionnaire
– 4.4.1 – July 2008 – maintenance release
– 4.4.2 – April 2009 - maintenance release
5.0.1 – April 2009 – Deliver Full .NET Product
– 5.0.2 – July 2009 – functional and maintenance
5.1 – September 2009
5.2 – March 2010
– 5.2.1 – September 2010 – functional and maintenance
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Configurator 5.1 Enhancements
 Customer Driven Enhancements
 Re-build Configuration Data
 User Defined Warning Messages – Sales Rules
 Variant Item-Site Data
 Sales and Product Configuration Rules
– Custom Functions
– System Variables
 Existing Configurations Browse
 UI Enhancements
– New Browses and Browse Collections (3)
– New Process Maps
– Configurator Metrics (3)
 Non-editable Configured Item Descriptions
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Re-Build Configuration Data
Business Driver
Companies that
repeatedly sell the
same configuration
for a longer period
of time, but have
changes in options,
pricing, BOM, or
routing can now
rebuild existing
variant items or
ranges of variant
items.
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Site-specific Variant Items
Business Driver
Many manufactures assemble configured products in a
specific site only. Configurator can now create variant
item and variant item-site records to support this
scenario
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Existing Configurations Browse
Business Drivers
 Supports retrieving configurations by their options and
header data outside of the Questionnaire.
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Browse Collection – View Configurations
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Operation Metrics – Rule Completeness
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Configurator 5.2 Enhancements
Minor technical and functional
enhancement release
All Enhancements are Customer driven
– Forecast Consumption for Configurable Items
using a new rule type
– Trade Management Support - V2.7.6
– View Configuration Details Browse Collection
– Oracle Database Support
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Trade Management (TrM) Support
Business Driver
In order to provide full interoperability with the QAD
Enterprise Application suite, QAD Configurator needs to
support item creation when TrM is implemented.
Realization
 QAD Enterprise Applications Item API has been
enhanced to support TrM, triggering the bulk update that
links the new item to the TrM promotion definitions and
price lists.
 QAD Configurator has been enhanced to leverage the
enhanced API for the creation of Variant Items.
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Forecast Consumption
Business Driver
 It is necessary to build forecasts for the Configurable Item
and it’s components in order to effectively drive MRP
 At the time of Variant creation and the generation of a
confirmed Sales Order, the forecast of the Configurable
Item needs to be consumed with the actual configuration.
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Forecast Consumption – Realization
 One or more
Planning Items
can be linked to a
Configurable Item
 The actual
Planning Item is
selected by a rule
 Configurator links
the newly created
Variant Item to
the selected
Planning Item
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View Configuration Details Browse Collection
Business Driver
Previously, a QAD Enterprise Applications user which was
not also licensed for QAD Configurator, was not able to
review the actual configuration of a variant item.
Realization
 Creation of a new
Browse Collection
View Configurations
 Allow access for all
licensed QAD Enterprise
Applications users
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Configurator 5.2.1 Enhancements
Active User Check
Enhanced Variant Product Structure Rule
Comment Handling in Model Import/Export
Trade Management Support - V2.8.2
SO/SQ Lines Rules Execution
Price List Creation
Variable/Features without Default Values
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QAD GLOBAL SERVICES
Consulting
Learning
Support
QAD Global Services provides the people,
experience, commitment and tools to maximize your
QAD investment.
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Configurator Advisory Group
Goals:
– Defining industry-specific requirements
– Prioritizing enhancements
– Driving future direction of QAD Configurator strategy
11 Customers participated in Advisory Group:
– Actaris Germany, ADC Australia, Avery Dennison, Ball Corporation,
Cascade Microtech, Encoder Products, Enodis, Kobusch-Sengewald
Germany, Medtronic Physio Control, RW Beckett,Yamaha Motors
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Key Differentiators
QAD core product
Sound and solid set of functionality
Built-in integration with QAD Enterprise
Applications
Results proven in customer implementations
Active development of functional enhancements
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Thank you
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Rea Buchanan QAD
September 28, 2010