| Oracle® Application Integration Architecture Agile Product Lifecycle Management Integration Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite: Design to Release Implementation Guide Release 11.2 Part Number E36185-03 |
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PDF · Mobi · ePub |
| Oracle® Application Integration Architecture Agile Product Lifecycle Management Integration Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite: Design to Release Implementation Guide Release 11.2 Part Number E36185-03 |
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|
PDF · Mobi · ePub |
This chapter provides an overview of the Agile Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) integration for Oracle E-Business Suite and discusses:
Architecture of Agile PLM integration
Solution assumptions and constraints
Agile PLM to Oracle E-Business Suite process flows
Oracle E-Business Suite to Agile PLM process flows
Components of Agile PLM pre-built integration
The integration between Agile PLM and Oracle E-Business Suite is designed to enable the product development process and address the primary use cases around the synchronization of product content information between Agile Product Collaboration and Oracle Manufacturing. This allows for rapid implementation of Oracle's next-generation integrated enterprise PLM processes helping the customers reduce costs and any risks associated with typical third-party and custom integrations.
The business benefits of this pre-built integration are:
Reduced time to market for new products
Extensibility through Oracle Product Information Management (PIM) enablement
Faster time to volume
Improved product quality
Minimum supply chain disruption from new product introductions
Predictable and sustainable product and process innovation
Lower total cost of ownership of enterprise PLM platform
Reduced implementation risks
Reduced waste and total material cost by leveraging PIM as the central part repository
The Agile PLM pre-built integration for Oracle E-Business Suite includes the following functionalities:
Manufacturing release of new product definition and product launch
Change management of previously launched products
Bidirectional synchronization of engineering change status and material attribute information from Oracle Manufacturing to Agile PLM
Monitoring and control of the change processing and validation queues
These are the solution assumptions for this pre-built integration:
Agile PLM Content Server (ACS) is used for events to trigger the payload from Agile PLM to the integration layer.
This design assumes that the following statements are true:
Pre-defined blank templates for the custom fields are made available.
Transformation logic for classification elements is pre-coded in the delivered Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSL); however, you may need to modify it per your Agile PLM implementation requirements.
It is assumed as part of the design of this integration that Agile PLM is the system of record for product design information. This means that the following information cannot be changed directly in Oracle E-Business Suite - any changes to these pieces of information must be driven through Change Orders from Agile PLM:
Item Bill of Materials (BOM): Component Sequence Number, Component Number, Quantity, Reference Designators
Item Approved Manufacturer List (AML): Manufacturer Name, Manufacturer Part Number, Preferred Status
Item Revision
The following changes may be made in the Oracle E-Business Suite without impacting the integration:
Changes to other BOM attributes such as operation sequence number, sub inventory, and so on
Changes to the ECO Line effectivity dates
Any other attributes not covered in this list
This design leverages the Application Integration Architecture (AIA) error handling framework.
This integration assumes a single language setting (for example, Agile PLM and Oracle E-Business Suite in Spanish language.
These are the solution constraints:
In some cases, configuration-driven Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) may not reflect the changes immediately. Hence, a restart of the server is required because the main XSL sheet is cached after a successful compilation.
ACS limits the events to be triggered from workflow only for the Change Status action, which is used for this integration.
Error handling capabilities of this integration are constrained by the capabilities of the AIA framework.
Figure 1-1 illustrates the Agile PLM to Oracle E-Business Suite integration architecture:
This process consists of the following flows:
In this architecture, for all the flows from Agile PLM into Oracle E-Business except for new parts requests and item synchronization, the messages originate in Agile PLM from the Agile Content Service (ACS) in an aXML format.
These messages go into a queue and then call the AgileReqABCSImpl.
The messages are transformed and then these go to the EbizProvABCSImpl, which calls an Oracle E-Business Suite service.
This Oracle E-Business Suite service creates the transactions in Oracle E-Business Suite.
ResponseEBS sends the replies to the AgileReqABCSImpl.
The queue is then updated and the response is sent to Agile PLM through the Agile Web Service eXtensions (WSX).
The new part request and item synchronization are the only process integration flows that use Process Extension (PX) to extract Agile PLM's data and send it to the Application Business Connector Service (ABCS).
For all the flows from Oracle E-Business to Agile PLM, the messages originate in Oracle E-Business Suite and invoked by EbizReqABCSImpl.
The messages are transformed and then these go to AgileProvABCSImpl through a Web service and create the transactions in Agile PLM.
This integration supports the following Agile PLM to Oracle E-Business Suite processed integration flows:
Process integration for new part request
Process integration for item synchronization
Process integration for change order validation
Process integration for change order release
While the Agile PLM may be a system to record product design and part information, new part numbers may originate in a system outside Agile PLM. The New Part Number (NPR) process lets users obtain part numbers from Master Data Management (MDM) systems such as Oracle Product Information Management (PIM) data Hub.
An engineer creating a new part in Agile PLM should be able to synchronize the part number to it with Oracle E-Business Suite/ PIM. This action is triggered on the action menu for the item. If the item does not exist on the Oracle E-Business Suite/PIM, it will be created or else updated. When a part already exists in both Agile PLM and Oracle E-Business Suite/PIM, and it is not released, then changes in its attributes in Agile PLM need to be updated in Oracle E-Business Suite/PIM.
During a product design phase, new products or parts are introduced and existing parts go through design changes. When the authoring of a part's attributes and design information is complete and is ready for publishing to the manufacturing system, it is released by means of change orders.
Before a change order is routed for approval in Agile PLM, you can check whether it will be implemented successfully in Oracle E-Business by validating the change order before it is released. Any potential errors will be caught early. The validation simulates the change order or Engineering Change Order (ECO) processing at any stage prior to the Release state (preferably, the Submit state).
The change order release comprises of new Part/Product Release (PREL) and Product Design Modification (PDM) flows from Agile PLM triggered by a standard ECO or a manufacturing change order (MCO) or a service change order (SCO) release event in Agile PLM. While Agile PLM is the system of record for item description, design, specs, and other information, Oracle E-Business Suite has many more attributes and placeholders for information than the Agile PLM system. Hence, the change order release must be updated in the Oracle E-Business Suite. A corresponding ECO is created in Oracle E-Business Manufacturing, in the appropriate Oracle E-Business Inventory Organizations, in near realtime. ECO in Oracle E-Business Suite can be implemented manually or through a low-touch, standard Oracle E-Business Suite ECO Auto-Implement process.
The release of a change order in Agile PLM acts as a trigger for the synchronization of product design information with Oracle E-Business Suite. Because Agile PLM is a system of records for product design data, the synchronization process involves transfer of the released revision of the product design from Agile PLM to the manufacturing system.
Figure 1-2 illustrates the process integration for change order release:
The integration also addresses these key concepts of Design for Supply Chain with an optional bi-directional synchronization (from Oracle E-Business Suite/PIM to Agile PLM) of supply chain data, such as item Lead Times, Costs and On-hand Quantities (calculated by Organization), or any other E-Business or PIM Item Master attributes.
The Oracle E-Business Suite to Agile PLM process flows supported by this integration includes:
Process integration for item attribute update
Process integration for item balance update
Process integration for change order update
As a necessary part of the manufacturing update process, the ability to update a change order line in Agile PLM with updates on the cost and other item attributes from the Oracle E-Business Suite/PIM system is a key component of the bidirectional synchronization capability of the integration.
This process is done through a batch operation.
The item balance information in the Oracle E-Business Suite/PIM system is stored in three attributes: Reserved Quantity, Available Quantity, and On-hand Quantity. An item in Oracle E-Business Suite/PIM can exist in more than one organization. Any change in any of the three types of quantities can take place in just one, or in a few, or in all organizations. These changes are updated in Agile PLM.
This process is done through a batch operation.
Figure 1-3 illustrates the item balance and item attributes information to Agile PLM process integration flow:
The change order update from Oracle E-Business Suite to Agile PLM process flow is a means to communicate change in status of the change order in Oracle E-Business Suite/PIM (also part of the manufacturing update business flow). It constitutes a key requirement for keeping users in Agile PLM informed about the life cycle of a change order. This involves communicating the change order status in Oracle E-Business Suite/PIM to a configurable field on the change order in Agile PLM or changing the status of the change order in Agile PLM.
This process is done through a batch operation.
This integration has the following components:
Agile PLM Content Service (ACS)
Software Development Kit (SDK)
Agile Process eXtensions (PX)
Web Service Extensions (WSX)
Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA) Foundation Pack
Oracle E-Business Suite
Oracle Generic Configurator User Interface
ACS is an event-driven XML-based publishing service that makes the product record available to a wide variety of business applications and users, both internally and across the global manufacturing network. In addition to allowing employees and supply chain partners to publish the product record on demand, ACS can be configured to publish the item master, Bills of Material (BOM), and Approved Manufacturer List (AML) changes automatically during any phase of the product life cycle to multiple destinations, ensuring that everyone is working with current information.
The output generated by an ACS module is an aXML file or a Product Data Exchange (PDX) package.
SDK contains a collection of tools, application programming interfaces (APIs), sample applications, and documentation. You use it to build custom applications that access Agile Application Server functionality. By using the Agile SDK, you can create programs that perform tasks automatically against Agile PLM.
Agile SDK enables the following operations:
Integrate Agile PLM with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne or other custom applications.
Develop applications to process product data.
Perform batch operations against the Agile Application Server.
Agile SDK has the following modules:
Agile API: A Java API with interfaces that expose Agile PLM business objects. Use Agile API to create additional Agile PLM clients. You can also use it as part of an extension developed using web service extensions (WSX) or process extensions (PX).
PX: A framework that allows Agile PLM customers to extend the functionality of Agile PLM clients by adding external reports, user-driven and workflow-driven customized actions, customized tools, and customized automatic number sources. PX helps in binding the data in Agile PLM with other applications.
The new part request and the item synchronization are the only process integrations that use PX to extract Agile PLM's data and send it to ABCS.
WSX: A framework that allows Agile PLM customers to extend the functionality of the Agile PLM server and expose customer-specific solutions using a web service.
WSX is a Web service engine enabling communication between Agile PLM and disparate systems both internal and external, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. WSX can be used to provide content to exchanges, reports, and custom applications and import product content data from ERP and other supply chain applications. WSX can simplify the process for aggregating raw product content and making critical product content available in realtime to other core systems.
For more information about Agile PLM components, see "Agile Product Lifecycle Management Administrator Guide" and "SDK Developer Guide."
Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA) Foundation Pack enables customers to simplify cross-application business process integrations using a standards-based, pre-built integration solution. Designed to promote rapid deployment, re-usability, and configurability of business processes, AIA Foundation Pack saves significant time, effort and cost, compared to building integrations from the ground up and helps you realize the value of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) at an accelerated pace.
Pre-built integrations are specific to business processes and applications. Built using AIA Foundation Pack, these specific business process integrations provides an open, standards-based approach for organizations to integrate end-to-end business processes across a broad range of custom, Oracle or third-party applications.
For more information about the AIA Foundation Pack development methodology, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Developer's Guide for Oracle Application Integration Architecture Foundation Pack 11g Release 1.
The following application services of Oracle E-Business participate in this integration:
Oracle Integration Repository
Business Event System
Concurrent Programs/Manager
An integral part of Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Integration Repository is a compilation of information about numerous interface endpoints exposed by Oracle applications. It provides a complete catalog of Oracle E-Business Suite's business interfaces and a comprehensive view of the interface mechanisms available. It can be used to easily discover and deploy the appropriate business interface from the catalog for integration with any system, application, or business partner.
Business Event System is an application service that uses the Oracle Advanced Queuing (AQ) infrastructure to communicate business events between systems. It consists of the Event Manager, which enables you to register subscriptions to significant events and event activities, which enable you to model business events within workflow processes. When a local event occurs, the subscribing code is run in the same transaction as the code that raised the event. Subscription processing can include running custom code on the event information, sending event information to a workflow process, and sending event information to other queues or systems.
Concurrent processing is an Oracle applications feature that allows non-interactive and potentially long-running functions, which may involve a large number of data-intensive computations to be run efficiently alongside interactive operations. It uses operating system facilities to facilitate background scheduling of data or resource-intensive jobs through a set of programs and forms. To ensure that resource-intensive concurrent processing operations do not interfere with interactive operations, a specialized server, the Concurrent Processing server, runs them.
Oracle Configurator (CZ) is a best-of-breed solution encompassing the design and implementation cycle for configuration models and the end-user, runtime configuration sessions.
Configuration models (model structure, rules, and UI) are created and maintained through the Oracle Configurator Developer. Oracle Configurator Developer gives product specialists (not programmers) the range and flexibility to model all products, services, and portfolios from simple to complex. Oracle Configurator Developer was designed to reinforce a rapid application implementation process and contains integrated functions for quickly deploying complete configuration solutions, which include:
Utilizing product data from ERP or other enterprise systems.
Modeling configurations and product, service, and system relationships.
Applying business rules to product data.
Specifying customized user-interface layouts.
Testing and debugging Oracle Configurator applications.
The Generic Configurator User Interface can be accessed by Agile PLM Variant Management to configure a model option BOM. Generic Configurator user interfaces (UIs) are not created in Oracle Configurator Developer. These UIs display only BOM Model items and enforce only implicit BOM rules. In other words, any Model structure nodes, rules, or UI elements that are defined in Configurator Developer are not available in a Generic Configurator UI. This is because Generic Configurator UIs access Model Option BOM data directly from the Oracle Bills of Material database tables, not from the CZ schema.
Note:
Although Oracle Generic Configurator User Interface can be used with both Agile PLM 9.3 and 9.2.2.x versions, the Configurator User Interface is available only in 9.3. In addition, process integrations described in this guide support the Agile PLM 9.3 Variant Management sub-items Model and Option Class, as well as their attributes Minimum, Maximum, Optional, and Mutually Exclusive with the Generic Configurator User Interface.
The following Enterprise Business Messages (EBMs) have been designed for Agile PLM 9.3 Variant Management to work with the Oracle Generic Configurator User Interface:
GetConfiguratorURLEBM
GetConfiguratorURLResponseEBM
SyncBillOfMaterialsConfigurationListEBM
These EBMs are required to accomplish the UI integration to Oracle E-Business Suite Configurator with AIA. Details such as the configured BOM, connection details, or response information for Agile PLM 9.3 Variant Management have to be transferred through AIA.
Variant Management Configurator integration uses the BillOfMaterialsConfiguration Enterprise Business Object (EBO). It carries only the configuration of the BOMs, which was configured in Oracle E-Business Suite Configurator.
For Agile PLM 9.3 Variant Management, the following flows are used:
GetConfiguratorURL: Uses GetConfiguratorURLEBM and GetConfiguratorURLResponseEBM
GetConfiguratorURLEBM: Carries the return URL, the model ID, and the organization code combination
GetConfiguratorURLResponseEBM: Carries the Configurator URL and the Init XML message
SyncBillOfMaterialsConfigurationList: Uses SyncBillOfMaterialsConfigurationListEBM
SyncBillOfMaterialsConfigurationListEBM: Carries the instance BOM information configuration using Oracle E-Business Suite Configurator
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