Overview of Engineering Prototype Environment (Oracle Engineering Help)


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Overview of Engineering Prototype Environment

Oracle Engineering enables you to move toward concurrent engineering by integrating engineering prototype data with manufacturing data. Each department that accesses engineering item information can perform the same functions on prototypes as all departments do for manufactured assemblies. With engineering item information, you can separate released product designs, controlled distribution products, and alternate manufacturing methods for existing products from your manufacturing data.

Engineering enables you to create engineering items, bills of material and routings the same way you define manufacturing item information. Each item defined in Engineering is assigned to engineering. You can define engineering items and assign item attribute details as you do for manufacturing items. You can perform any function with an engineering item that you do for a manufacturing item, including:

revision control

track inventory

value inventory transactions

rollup costs

update frozen standard costs

plan in MPS and MRP

sell on customer orders

purchase on purchase orders

build in WIP and issue to a WIP job

Item Catalog for Group Technology

When you design new products, search for existing items that meet your requirements before you define a new engineering item. Doing so can help prevent duplicate items. When you define an engineering or manufacturing item, you can classify the item by any number of characteristics.

For example, you can catalog manufacturing items and engineering items by three descriptive elements--form, fit, and function. Before you create a new engineering item, search the item catalog for all items that match any combination of these elements, such as "heated plastic" and "fastener". You can further restrict your search with other item details, including organization, item type, item category, and item status. If an item that meets your search criteria does not exist, you can create a new engineering item and assign the values of "heated plastic" to form and "fastener" to function. See: Overview of Item Catalogs.

Engineering Item Status

You can define item statuses for each phase of your product life cycle. Engineering enables you to control engineering item attribute information by item status, so you can manage the introduction of new products. For example, you may define an item status "Design Released" and assign this status to all engineering product designs released from Design Engineering to your organization. You can control a "Design Released" item so that it cannot be built, purchased, or sold. As your product design matures, you can assign an item status of "Alpha" to your item so you can build or purchase it, but not include it on customer orders. After the product design and process stabilize, you may assign a "Beta" item status to your item so you can build, purchase, and sell the item in small quantities. See: Defining Item Status Codes.

Engineering Item Costing

You can specify item costs, roll up costs, and update frozen standard costs for engineering items. When you assign item costs, you can specify cost elements, sub-elements, activities, basis and rates, the same way you assign costs for manufacturing items. Oracle Cost Management lets you roll up and update manufacturing and engineering item costs by item, category, or across all items. After you assign, roll up, and update item costs, you can review cost information for all cost types available to engineering. You can restrict access to item cost details in Engineering by cost type. See: Viewing Item Cost Information.

Engineering Item Purchasing

For each engineering item you define, you can enable the item for use in Oracle Purchasing. To include engineering items on your purchase orders and requisitions, you can assign default buyer, supplier, price tolerance, and account information the same way you assign purchasing details to manufacturing items. You can receive, return, or adjust engineering items the same way you receive manufacturing items on purchase orders. For costed engineering items, you can track purchase price and compute purchase price variance the same way you cost other purchased items. With item status control, Engineering also enables you to control purchasing functions at any point in an engineering item's life cycle.

Engineering Item Planning

Engineering enables you to plan engineering items in Oracle Master Scheduling/MRP the same way you plan manufacturing items. When you define an engineering item, you can assign a MPS/MRP planning method, planning time fence, shrinkage rate, and other planning details. In Master Scheduling/MRP, you can forecast engineering items and manufacturing items, load forecast details, and consume forecasts with existing sales orders. Master Scheduling/MRP computes material requirements for engineering and manufacturing items using the master schedule, engineering or manufacturing bills of material, scheduled receipts, and inventory information. You can also control planning functions for engineering items by item status to track an engineering item's life cycle. See: Overview of Forecasting and Two-Level Master Scheduling.

Discrete Jobs for Engineering Items

When you define an engineering item, you can enable the item for use in Oracle Work in Process. To build an engineering assembly or prototype a new process, you define a discrete job using an engineering bill of material or routing. You can issue engineering and manufacturing items to jobs, as well as collect resource, material, and overhead costs based on an engineering routing. You can place finished engineering assemblies into inventory the same way you place manufacturing assemblies into inventory. To track an engineering item's life cycle, you can update item status and control when to build an engineering item or prototype a new process in Work in Process.

Item Types and Bill of Material Types

Each item can be identified as an engineering item and enabled for use in Engineering using two item master attributes, Engineering Item and BOM Item Type. The BOM Allowed item attribute must also be set to Yes.

The Engineering Item attribute indicates whether the item exists in engineering. If not, it is a manufacturing item. This attribute is not updatable when defining the engineering item. When an item is transferred to manufacturing, the Engineering Item attribute is disabled.

You can enable any item for use in Engineering when you assign one of the following four values for the BOM Item Type item attribute: standard, model, option class, or planning.

You can define an engineering item and an engineering bill of material for a manufacturing item enabled in Oracle Bills of Material, but you cannot define manufacturing bills of material for engineering items.