Sourcing Items

To simplify the sourcing process, the Product Engineering (PE) application uses a data model based on the Part as the central item. A Part can be made in-house or purchased. In the latter case, the Part can have an AML (Approved Manufacturers List) to maintain one or more Manufacturer Parts associated with it. Each Manufacturer Part can be produced by only one Manufacturer and be sold by many Vendors. A Vendor may sell the same Part from more than one Manufacturer and can include all their available Parts with their Manufacturer information.

Each Manufacturer Part has the Manufacturer property to denote who makes the Part. You can assign only one Manufacturer to a Manufacturer Part. If there are several Manufacturers making similar, equivalent, or identical Parts, you must create the corresponding number of Manufacturer Parts.

The recommended workflow for Sourcing is the following sequence of steps:

1. Create Manufacturers.
2. Create Manufacturer Parts.
3. Create Vendors.
4. Approve Manufacturers, Manufacturer Parts, and Vendors.
5. Add Manufacturer Parts to the AML of the corresponding Part.

A Manufacturer produces Manufacturer Parts. To create a Manufacturer:

1. Go to Contents →Sourcing →Manufacturers.
2. Click Create New Manufacturer. The view of a new Manufacturer appears. Enter the necessary information.



• Name – (Required) The name of the Manufacturer. The name of the Manufacturer must be unique.
• Main Phone – The number used to call the Manufacturer.
• ContactName – The name of the contact person for the Manufacturer.
• Responsible – The Identity responsible for the Manufacturer. This role is often identified as the Owner of the Manufacturer item and may be different from the user creating the Manufacturer in the system.
3. Once you have entered the necessary information, click Done to save your changes.

Manufacturer Parts contain a Manufacturer property to specify the Manufacturer that makes the Part. Only one Manufacturer can be assigned to a Manufacturer Part. If there are several Manufacturers making similar, equivalent, or identical Parts, a Manufacturer Part must be created for each of them.

To create a new Manufacturer Part:

1. Go to Contents → Sourcing → Manufacturer Parts.
2. Click Create New Manufacturer Part. The view of a new Manufacturer Part appears. Enter the necessary information.



• Part Number – (Required) The Manufacturer Part’s part number.
• Responsible – The Identity responsible for the Manufacturer Part. This role is often identified as the Owner of the Manufacturer Part item and may be different from the user creating the Manufacturer in the system.
• Name – The name of the Manufacturer Part.
• Unit – The unit of measure for the Manufacturer Part.
• Unit Price – The price per Manufacturer Part unit.
• Description – Remarks about the Manufacturer Part.
• Manufacturer – The Manufacturer of the Manufacturer Part.

If it is necessary to add a file, in the Files tab, select New File



to select a file for upload, or drag and drop the desired file into the Files area.

3. Once you have entered the necessary information, click Done to save your changes.

A Vendor sells Manufacturer Parts. You can assign multiple Vendors to a Manufacturer Part.

To create a new Vendor:

1. Go to Contents →Sourcing →Vendors.
2. Click Create New Vendor. The view of a new Vendor appears.



• Name – (Required) The name of the Vendor. The vendor name must be unique.
• Main Phone – The phone number for the Vendor.
• Main Fax – The fax number for the Vendor.
• ContactName– The name of the contact person for the Vendor.
• Address– The vendor’s street address.
• City – The Vendor’s city.
• State – The Vendor’s US State / Canadian Province.
• Country – The Vendor’s country.
• Zip Code – The Vendor’s postal code.
• Web Site – The Vendor’s website address.
• Description – Remarks about the Vendor.
3. Assign Manufacturer Parts to the Vendor as described in section 7.3.1. Assigning Manufacturer Parts to a Vendor.
4. If it is necessary, create new Manufacturer Parts and assign them to the Vendor as described in section 7.3.2. Creating Manufacturer Parts from a Vendor.
5. Once you have entered the necessary information, click Done to save your changes.

To add an existing Manufacturer Part to a Vendor:

1. Open the Vendor Item.
2. Click Edit.
3. Go to the Parts tab.

Click Add Manufacturer Parts



. The Search dialog appears.

4. Search for and select a Manufacturer Part that the Vendor supplies.
5. Click Save or Done to save your changes.

To create a new Manufacturer Part and add it to a Vendor:

1. Open the Vendor Item.
2. Click Edit.
3. Go to the Parts tab.

Click New Manufacturer Part



. A blank row appears in the Manufacturer Parts grid.



4. Enter the appropriate values for each cell of the new row.
5. Click Save or Done to save your changes.

To replace a Manufacturer Part in a Vendor:

1. Open the Vendor Item.
2. Click Edit.
3. Go to the Parts tab.
4. Right-click the Manufacturer Partto be replaced and then click Replace. The Search dialogappears.
5. Search for and select a replacement Manufacturer Part. The selectedManufacturer Part replaces the old one.
6. Click Save or Done to save your changes.

To remove a Manufacturer Part from a Vendor:

1. Open the Vendor Item.
2. Click Edit.
3. Go to the Parts tab.

Click the Manufacturer Part to be deleted and then click Delete Vendor Part



.

4. Click Save or Done to save your changes.

The PE application has Sourcing Life Cycles for Manufacturer, Part AML, and Vendor. Each Sourcing Life Cycle is based on the same Life Cycle Map and can be configured by an Administrator as needed.

When created, each Sourcing Item starts in the Preliminary state. To indicate their approval status, Items can be promoted to the Approved state. From the Approved state, the Item can further be promoted to the Preferred state. To deactivate an approved item that is no longer used, the item can be promoted to the Inactive state.

You can promote a Sourcing Item either from its view or from its context menu in the Search Grid. For details, refer to section 4.3 Manual Promotion and Revise.

The Approved Vendors Report provided in Aras Innovator displays a list of all approved Vendors.

You can access the Approved Vendors Report by either:

Going to Contents → Sourcing → Vendors: Right-click on a Vendor → Reports →Approved Vendors Report.

Opening the Vendor: On the Vendor toolbar, click Reports

→ Approved Vendors Report.

To print the Approved Vendors Report, use the Print button

available in the top left corner of the Report. The print button uses standard browser print function. Depending on the browser and your specific configuration, various print choices, such as printing to a printer or saving to PDF, are available.

The Approved Manufacturer List (AML) is a list of Manufacturer Parts associated with a given Part.

To assign a Manufacturer Part to a Part:

1. Open the Part.
2. Click Edit.
3. Go to the AML tab.

Click Add Manufacturer Parts



on the AML accordion toolbar. The Search dialog appears.

4. Search for and select the necessary Manufacturer Parts to add to the AML.
5. Click Save or Done to save your changes.

To create a new Manufacturer Part and add it to a Part:

1. Open the Part.
2. Click Edit.
3. Go to the AML tab.

Click New Manufacturer Part



. A blank row appears in the AML grid.



4. Enter the appropriate values for each cell of the new row.
5. Click Save or Done to save your changes.

Use the following procedure to replace a Manufacturer Part in a Part:

1. Open the Part.
2. Click Edit.
3. Go to the AML tab.
4. Right-click the Manufacturer Part to be replaced and then click Replace. The Search dialogappears.
5. Search for and select a replacement Manufacturer Part. The selectedManufacturer Part replaces the Manufacturer Part.
6. Click Save or Done to save your changes.

Use the following procedure to remove a Manufacturer Part from a Part:

1. Open the Part.
2. Click Edit.
3. Go to the AML tab.

Click the Manufacturer Part to be removed and then click Delete Approved Manufacturer



.

4. Click Save or Done to save your changes.

For a given Part, you can promote its Manufacturer Parts to one of the Approved, Preferred, or Inactive states from the Part’s AML. For details on AML life cycle states, refer to section 7.4 Life Cycle of Sourcing Items.

To promote a Manufacturer Part from an AML:

1. Open the Part associated with the Manufacturer Part.
2. Go to the AML tab.

Right-click on the Manufacturer Part → AML → Promote.



3. In the promotion dialog, select the desired state to promote the Item to by either:
1. Double-clicking the state to which the item should be promoted.
2. Clicking the state to promote to and then clicking Promote to Selected State.

Aras Innovator offers the Where Used feature to determine where an Item is used by other Items. Refer to section 11.1 Finding Where an Item is Used for further information. All examples in that section are applicable to Manufacturers, Manufacturer Parts, and Vendors.

To compare Items side-by-side, Aras Innovator offers the Structure Browser. Refer to section 11.2 Comparing Items for further information. All examples in that section are applicable to Manufacturers, Manufacturer Parts, and Vendors.