Variant Management is Getting Harder
As products become systems of systems and the amount of embedded software and electronics increases, managing product variability becomes increasingly difficult. Manufacturers are managing platforms, product lines, features, and options ineffectively, and this is resulting in increased errors, delays in meeting customer requests, and extensive rework.
Best Practice: Manage Product Variance in One Place
To harness the power of reuse, increase productivity, and reduce errors and delays. Furthermore, manufacturers can define their product architecture. Manufacturers need to define their product architecture and manage variability in one structure, such as a BOM, rather than having unique structures for each variant.
Variant Management with Aras
Aras enables you to capture variability in one structure with the product data.
With this approach, manufacturers can:
- Define and manage platforms, product lines, product models, and variable items with features, options, and rules
- Manage configurable structures that capture variable and static content such as parts or technical documentation
- Configure a structure based on features and options to meet customer needs
Key Features
- Define and manage variability including features, options, marketing & engineering rules
- Build a configurable BOM and define product variability where it applies
- Configure structures for a given set of features and options
- Subject BOMs to configuration and change management processes
Benefits
- View breadth of product portfolio and technical details all in one place
- Tie variability and product data closely across disciplines and throughout the lifecycle
- Meet customer needs with features and options with greater efficiency
- Adhere to configuration management, change management processes
- Maximize part re-use by leveraging the power of commonality across product lines
- Streamline product design processes
Availability
Variant Management is available in Aras Innovator version 11SP12 via expanded Configurator Services. A Sample Application of Variant Management can be found on the Aras Labs page on GitHub.
Related Capabilities