Introduction
Imagine you're working on a complex engineering project. You have an Engineering Bill of Material (EBOM), but you need to transform it into a Manufacturing BOM (MBOM) to define the precise steps for production. Or perhaps you need to create a Purchase BOM for ordering parts. SAP Integrated Product Development Visualization provides tools to restructure your product data efficiently, adapting it to various use cases. This lesson guides you through creating a new structure from scratch within SAP Integrated Product Development, enabling you to tailor your product representation to specific needs.
Using the Associate application in SAP Integrated Product Development Visualization, you can restructure a product into a new hierarchy that better represents parts or processes for different purposes. To begin, select the "... " button associated with the visualization you wish to restructure. From the menu, select Associate.
The application guides you through a wizard, collecting the necessary information to create the new structure:
- New or Existing: You can either select an existing structure or create a "New Structure." Typically, you'll choose New Structure to start from a blank canvas.
- New Structure Details: A Usage ID is essential for defining the structure. Common Usage IDs include "As-Built" or "As-Maintained," reflecting the intended use of the structure. After selecting a Usage ID, you might need to provide additional values specific to that ID type.
- Create New Structure: You can leverage existing structures from other visualization associations or import data from a connected data source. However, the simplest methods for creating a new structure are:
- Create Manually: This allows you to build the structure node by node.
- Generate from Source Structure: This option duplicates the existing structure, providing a starting point for modifications.
When the base structure is created and the visualization is loaded, you can begin building the association structure. Right-clicking on a node in the Association Structure panel reveals the following key menu options:
- Collapse: Merges all child structures below the selected node into a single node, simplifying complex hierarchies.
- Insert Child: Creates a new child node directly beneath the selected node, adding detail to the structure.
- Insert Sibling Before: Inserts a new node at the same level as the selected node, placing it immediately before.
- Insert Sibling After: Inserts a new node at the same level as the selected node, placing it immediately after.
- Delete: Removes the selected node from the structure.
These tools empower you to build a new structure that accurately reflects your desired product representation, whether it's for manufacturing, purchasing, or other downstream processes. The next section goes into these tools in-depth, so you can better understand how to use them.