Creating a Concept Group 

Use

You can integrate different implementation options for a component variant in development processes by using concepts in a concept group.

See Concept Group

Each component variant references exactly one concept group.
Once a reference to a concept group has been saved for a component variant, you cannot create another concept group for the component variant. As of this stage in the processing, you can only remove or restore the reference to this concept group.

Prerequisites

You have maintained the product structure in the iPPE Workbench. Choose the following path: Logistics ® Central Functions ® Engineering ® Product and Process Engineering ® Product Designer.

The product structure contains a structure node that has at least one component variant.

You can maintain the concept group regardless of the processing status of the component variant. Remember that the data in the component variant is overwritten when you copy the concept data.

Procedure

Start the product designer in change mode. Load the product structure in the navigation area.

...

In the navigation area, expand the product structure until you see the component variant  for which you want to maintain concepts.

If you double-click on the component variant  the data is loaded.

In the detail area, choose the Basic Data 1 tab page.

Scroll down until you see the Concept Reference dataset.

The remainder of the procedure depends on whether you want to create a new concept group or restore a removed reference to a concept group.

·        If you want to create a new concept group, enter the (language-independent) key for the concept group and a descriptive text (in the logon language).

Choose  (Create) and confirm the system information.

·        If you want to restore a removed reference to a concept group, choose  (Restore Reference). 

The system determines the key and description of the concept group.
The  (Remove Reference) indicator is now active, so that you can remove the reference to the concept group if required.

The rest of the procedure is dependent on the task in hand:

If you want to enter further detail data, choose  (Detail View).

See Entering Detail Data for a Concept Group

If you want to save the concept group and the assignment to the component variant, choose  (Save).

Result

You have created a concept group for a component variant. You can now create concepts for the different implementation options, in order to describe the implementation options.