A PCM Use Cases

There are four main use cases for PCM functionality. They are as follows:

• New Product Introduction (NPI) or New Product Development (NPD)

• Reprice Management

• Electronics Manufacturing Services

• Commodity Management

A.1 New Product Introduction

The New Product Introduction/Development (NPI/NPD) process consists of all the work an organization puts into preparing a new product for the market. This process includes the development, prototyping, and manufacturing of the product. Normally there are four phases in this process: physical design, prototype manufacture, pre-production, and volume ramp. You can use PCM during the NPI process to gather pricing information for the new product.

In the NPI use case, the general procedure is as follows:

• Design product in Product Collaboration (PC).

• Determine parts and add them to PC.

• Create sourcing project.

• Add BOM to sourcing project.

• Send sourcing project to suppliers through RFQ.

• Get prices at part level.

• Negotiate prices.

• Publish prices to PC.

A.2 Reprice Management

Reprice management is a common PCM use case that enables you to refresh prices, as needed. Prices change for many reasons, including:

• environmental variables

• market

• demand

• sales

• time

• quantity

During price refreshes, PCM helps maintain BOM accuracy across a multitier network of manufacturing partners and suppliers. It allows for efficient renegotiation and resetting of prices.

In the Reprice Management use case, the general procedure is as follows:

1. Create sourcing project.

2. Add BOM to sourcing project.

3. Do price lookup for existing published prices for BOM items.

4. Send sourcing project to suppliers through RFQ.

   
   

   Note: Usually, the RFQ is sent to the suppliers that were used previously, however, sometimes the RFQ is sent to additional suppliers for new quotes. This is often the case when there is a top-level mandate for price reduction.

   
   

5. Get prices at part level.

6. Negotiate prices.

7. Publish prices to PC.

A.3 Design for Cost and Supply

Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) is a term used for companies that design, test, manufacture, distribute, and provide return/repair services for electronic components and assemblies for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). PCM allows an EMS company to start with PCM and work with design partners to design and build a BOM.

In the EMS use case, the general procedure is as follows:

1. Start with top-level idea or design with some minimal part requirements.

   
   

   Note: For example, you may know that you want to use a specific part, but have not determined the rest of the BOM items.

   
   

2. Collaborate with design partner to design a product and build its BOM.

3. Create sourcing project.

4. Add BOM to sourcing project.

5. Send sourcing project to suppliers through RFQ.

   
   

   Note: Partners are often provided the Content BOM view in the RFQ, which allows them to see the complete, expanded BOM view

   
   

6. Get prices at part level.

7. Negotiate prices.

8. Publish prices to PC.

Note: You may choose not to publish the prices to PC and instead keep the prices in the sourcing project. This is often done with manufacturer BOMs.

A.4 Commodity Management

A commodity is a good, such as a resistor or diode, for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. The manufacturer of commodity goods is not considered to be very important, since the commodity is similar regardless of who produces it. Commodity management is the process of developing a systematic approach to the entire usage cycle for a group of items. PCM enables you to consolidate commodity sourcing and reduce commodity prices.

In this use case, the general procedure is as follows:

1. Commodity manager is informed of a commodity that is needed.

2. He/she checks where the part is used in other BOMs and then uses a sales tool to see future demand forecasts.

3. Based on the forecasts, the commodity manager creates a sourcing project for the target amount of the commodity.

4. Add commodity part group to sourcing project.

5. Send sourcing project to suppliers through RFQ.

6. Get prices at part level.

7. Negotiate prices.

8. Publish prices to PC.