How You Process Item Structure Changes to Work Definitions

While Oracle Manufacturing maintains the manufacturing process, that's the work definition, for a product; an item structure, which is maintained in the Product Information Management work area, defines the product bills of materials.

It's recommended that a business keeps these two structures aligned.

Based on the successful completion of the Process Item Structure Changes to Work Definitions scheduled process, the manufacturing engineer gets notified through a worklist notification of any item structure changes implemented in Product Information Management that require a manual user action. To reflect these changes in work definition, the enterprises typically implement one of the following:

Edit an existing work definition version to reflect these item structure changes. The exact version to update mostly depends on the time from which these changes become effective.
Create a new effective work definition version to implement the item structure changes. A few such scenarios would involve adding new operations for a change order implemented in Product Information Management OR for component changes that introduce a meaningful change to the production process.

The Notification Detail page provides a summary and detailed view of the item structure changes. If the component changes in the item structure were initiated due to implementation of an Engineering Change Order in Product Information Management, an attribute with the label Change Order is displayed on the page which shows the change order number and the change order line number. You can click the Impacted work definitions link to navigate to the Manage Work Definitions page, the search results of which show the pre-queried work definitions that were impacted by these changes. For item structure changes that aren't completed through an Engineering Change Order, the notification consolidates all the component changes for a given item that have occurred at the time, the Process Item Structure Changes to Work Definitions scheduled process was executed.

A worklist notification is generated when all the following conditions are met:

At least one change to the item structure components that require a manual user action.
Product Information Management publishes the business events generated for item structure component changes.
The Process Item Structure Changes to work definitions delivered by Manufacturing picks up the business events published by Product Information Management and the scheduled process completes successfully.
There's at least one work definition in manufacturing referencing the item structure for which the component changes were completed in Product Information Management.

Note: If you're a manufacturing engineer but prefer not to receive the notifications, your user account must exclude the function Receive Item Structure Change Notification for Work Definitions (WIS_RECEIVE_ITEM_STRUCTURE_CHANGE_NOTIFICATIONS_PRIV) privilege. The recommended action is for your security administrator to create a configured job role without this privilege and assign it to users with such a need.

Item Structure Component Replacements Automation

You can perform a component replacement in an item structure using the Replace action in Product Hub or Product Development. This marks the original component as disabled, and the replacement component as added. In Manufacturing, using the Process Item Structure Changes to Work Definitions scheduled process, you can automate the component replacement to the corresponding manufacturing work definitions. The replacement component is automatically assigned to the same operation as the original component in the existing versions of the impacted work definitions without sending a notification. Through the automation, the replacement component attributes in the item structure including basis type, quantity, inverse quantity, UOM, supply type, and yield in addition to substitute components are inherited to the corresponding work definition operation item. In the work definition, the automation also copies the operation item attributes for supply subinventory, supply locator, and ad hoc from the original component and increments the material sequence for the replacement component.

In the following cases, a workflow notification is sent for your review and action instead of automating the component replacement in work definitions:

The original component isn't assigned to any work definition operation.
The original component has been assigned to more than one work definition operation.
The replacement component has been assigned as an ad hoc item to the same operation as the original component.
The manufacturing plant is enabled for ERES (Electronic Records and Electronic Signatures). As per the ERES functionality, you must create a new work definition version, manually assign the replacement component, and submit the new work definition version for approval.

The following table summarizes the item structure component changes that are automated and those that aren't automated, and hence require a manual user action.

Item Structure Changes	Standard Item	ATO Model (applicable for only discrete manufacturing)
Quantity/Inverse Quantity	Automated if the whole quantity is assigned to one operation. Not automated if the quantity is assigned to multiple operations. Not automated if ERES is enabled.	Automated. The whole quantity must be assigned to one operation.
UOM	Automated if it wasn’t overridden in the work definition. Not automated if overridden.	Automated
Yield	Automated if it wasn’t overridden in the work definition. Not automated if overridden.	Automated
Basis	Automated	Automated
Optional	Not Applicable	Automated
Planning Percent	Not Applicable	Automated
Supply Type	Not Automated	Not Automated
Add a Component	Automated if the suggested operation sequence is provided in the item structure. Not automated if ERES is enabled.	Not Automated
Replace a Component	Automated. Not automated if ERES is enabled.	Automated Not automated if ERES is enabled.
Disable or End Date a Component	No user action is required. You don't need to delete the operation item.	No user action is required. You don't need to delete the operation item.
Substitutes	Automated	Automated
Suggested Operation Sequence	Not Automated	Not applicable