- Minimizes Effore in Creating New Assortments
- Ensures Valid Kit Creations
- Provides Easy Navigation To and From Order Entry
This module was designed for a wide range of manufacturing and distribution environments that require the ability to quickly and easily convert customer specifications into complex product configurations. For those environments where it is not feasible to pre-define each possible product configuration, the CM module provides advanced software applications that allow you to be more responsive and flexible to your customer’s customized requirements.
- Fast and easy configuration of new products.
- Rules based design built around standard models and model options.
- Products can be configured from a virtually unlimited number of models and model options.
- Component material is assigned to model options.
- Planning bills can be linked to model options to optimize use of common material and standardized production processes.
- Maintenance of model option add-on’s can be performed on-line without requiring customized programming.
- Automatic configuration of a new item number when configuring a new product.
- New item numbers are made up of the base model plus each selected option code.
- Validates the presence of existing product configurations.
- Seamless integration into Order Entry allows newly configured items to be immediately attached to either sales quotes or customer orders.
- Significant reduction of the sales cycle through rapid on-line, real-time response to customer requests.
- Improves the efficiency of your sales department by streamlining the proposal process.
- Provides for price quotation based on the newly configured item.
- Eliminates the need to consult off-line with product engineers.
- Designed to allow even non-technical sales personnel to quickly determine whether the requested configuration is buildable.
- Seamless integration into the Cost Accounting module provides extremely accurate cost estimation based upon real-time customer selections.
- Reduces overall product costs by eliminating errors that result when complex customer requirements are manually configured and quoted.
- Product-focused configurator eliminates expensive, open-ended implementations.
As an accessory to the Order Entry and Engineering Control modules, the CM module will automatically generate meaningful item numbers, combining the model number of the base item with the option numbers of the components.
Centralized Control
The DMACS Configuration Management module provides management with centralized control over product configuration. By means of a rules-based design, you can configure customized products from a virtually unlimited number of models and options. The configuration process begins with the selection of a standard product model that can then be customized via the selection of any number of available options.
Product Configuration
The base item and all desired components available to configure a new model are first entered into the Order Entry and Engineering Control modules, as appropriate. Planning Bills of Material can be used to optimize the use of common materials. Utilities to delete components collectively, or to mass substitute component options are provided for ease of use.
Product configuration begins with the selection of a base model, followed by the specification of each add-on option. When specifying the range of options which can be added to the base model, you also determine the position of each option code, which is appended to the base model number. If one of the usual components is excluded in a model, a dash will occupy each of the positions reserved in the new item number for the associated option. In this manner, a whole range of meaningful item numbers can be generated, depending on the option codes selected.
Seemlessly Integrated
The CM module is seamlessly integrated with the Order Entry module so that customer service can define and/or validate new product configurations during the sales order entry process. This allows sales representatives to easily create accurate, complex product configurations in immediate response to on-line customer requests.
Use of the CM configurator eliminates the bottlenecks generally associated with the manual configuration of complex customer requirements, which generally occur in an off-line mode. Instead, customers can be provided with quick and accurate configurations in an on-line, real-time manner. The simplicity of the configuration process allows even less-experienced sales personnel to easily and accurately configure new products based on even the most complex customer requirements. New product configurations are available for immediate inclusion into sales quotes and live customer orders.
Once a new product has been configured, existing inquiries provide sales personnel with anticipated lead-times so that customers can be provided with realistic delivery schedules. Since model and option add-on’s are captured on each newly configured item, this information can be used by marketing management should they wish to evaluate the demand for certain model types or model options.