7 Importing Data into a Sourcing Project

This chapter includes the following:

Overview
About Sourcing Projects
Starting the Import Wizard from a Sourcing Project
Types of Data You Can Import into a Project
Publishing AMLs from a Project to the Item Master
Mapping and Importing Quantity Breaks and Target Costs
How Projects Handle Revisions

7.1 Overview

Information provided in this chapter describes Sourcing Projects and provides procedures to start Sourcing Projects, types of data you can import, publishing and mapping project-related data, and handling project revisions.

7.2 About Sourcing Projects

A project holds data you gather during product sourcing activities. Buyers can use projects to gather information to prepare RFQs, assign suppliers, track and analyze responses, and negotiate final pricing. Buyers can also perform cleanup of AMLs in a project and publish them to the Item Master, where they are available for all future projects.

You can create a project using one of the following price scenarios:

Quantity Breaks - prices are based on multiple quantity breaks to determine the best suppliers and components for a product.
Effectivity Periods - prices are based on multiple effectivity periods, with one or more quantities per period, to manage the ongoing cost of products throughout a product's lifecycle. This price scenario provides forward-looking visibility into product costs to help you uncover opportunities to reduce costs and meet targets.

7.3 Starting the Import Wizard from a Sourcing Project

Project objects, such as items, BOMs, and AMLs, are different from Item Master objects. They have different sets of fields, and therefore different field mappings, than Item Master objects. When you import items into a project, they are not imported automatically into the Item Master.

Note:

After you import BOMs into a project, you may need to recalculate quantities for BOM components. For more information, see Calculating Rollup Quantities.

To import items and BOMs into an existing Sourcing Project:

Open a Sourcing Project.
Click the Items tab.
Select More > Import. The Import Wizard appears. Follow the Wizard steps.

Note:

If items you are importing have both BOMs and AMLs, you can import them at the same time.

To import Items and AMLs into an existing Sourcing Project:

Open a Sourcing Project.
Click the AML tab.
Select More > Import. The Import Wizard appears. Follow the Wizard steps.

For a list of the Import Wizard steps, see Import Wizard Steps on page 6.

7.3.1 Importing Level Templates and Parent-Child Templates into Sourcing Projects

You can import a Level Template or a Parent-Child Template into a Sourcing Project as follows:

Create a Sourcing Project using the Wizard and then import the desired template
Search for an existing Sourcing Project and then import the Level Template or Parent-Child Templates into the Sourcing Project

To import a Level or Parent-Child Template into a Sourcing Project:

Open a Sourcing Project.
Click the Items tab.
Select More > Import.

The Import Wizard dialog appears.

Note:
Level Templates or Parent-Child Templates are Delimited Text Files.
Use the Browse button to locate and select the file that you want to import.
In Delimited Text File Configuration Options click the drop-down arrow in the Template Type field to display templates and select template type.

Figure 7-1 Displaying template types and making the selection

7.3.2 Calculating Rollup Quantities

After you import data into a sourcing project, you need to calculate the quantities for BOM components. At the top of the Items and AML tabs of a project, it shows the date and time when quantities were last calculated. When the calculated date and time is red, you need to click the icon shown in Figure 7-2 to recalculate the quantities.

Figure 7-2 Recalculate icon

Within a sourcing project, you specify quantities for top-level assemblies, not for BOM components. For BOM components, you specify quantities per assembly (QPA).

For each price scenario in your project, component level quantities are based on the assembly quantities and the QPA. When you calculate quantities, the project aggregates the quantities across assemblies for common items. If partner splits have been specified, the project also applies the splits to the calculated quantities.

7.4 Types of Data You Can Import into a Project

You can import the following object types into a project:

Project items
Project bills of material
Project approved manufacturers lists
Project item attachments

An assembly item is any item that has a BOM. Any project items that have a BOM can also have an AML. You can import a BOM and an AML into the same project item.

7.5 Publishing AMLs from a Project to the Item Master

Although you can import product content from the Item Master into a project, you cannot copy items and bills of material from a project into the Item Master. Approved manufacturers lists (AMLs), however, are different. You can validate AMLs in a project against the Item Master. You can also perform cleanup on AMLs in a project. After you finish cleaning up an AML, you can publish the AML changes back to the Item Master.

7.6 Mapping and Importing Quantity Breaks and Target Costs

Depending on the price scenario specified for a particular project, you can import multiple quantity breaks per item, or multiple effectivity periods per item with one or more quantities per period. This means that you can import quantity breaks or quantities per price period for each top-level assembly. You can also import the target cost per quantity break or target cost per price period, depending on the price scenario you select.

If the project's price scenario is based on quantity breaks, you can select up to six quantity breaks. The Edit Mapping File window lets you map Cover Page > QuantityBreak fields for the number of quantity breaks in your project.

If the project's price scenario is based on multiple effectivity periods, the Edit Mapping File window lets you map the quantity breaks and the target costs for each specified period.

7.7 How Projects Handle Revisions

Projects do not hold multiple revisions of items. Consequently, you can import preliminary, pending, and released revisions of an item into a project. If you reimport an item, it replaces the previous item in the project. This means that you can import preliminary items as well as prior, current, or pending revisions to replace released or unreleased revisions in a project.

Important:

When you reimport an item into a project, all data for the original item (such as BOMs and AMLs) are removed before the new data is imported. Therefore, you should always export complete BOMs and AMLs before updating the data and then reimport the data. Also, make sure you map the Title Block > Rev field when you import items. Otherwise, items will be imported as an Introductory revision.