Object documentationProduct Assembly

 

A hierarchy of assembly groups, assembly headers, and assembly items, which allows you to set up and maintain an assembly without having to maintain material masters in an early phase of the development process.

 

You use this object to display, create, change, and delete assembly groups, assembly headers, and assembly items. The main features of a product assembly are:

  • The product assembly is a product structure on which you can build CAD integration, and you use it to represent nonconfigurable product structures.

  • Product assemblies allow you to use product structures and their functions even when you do not need configuration, or when you create both configurable and nonconfigurable structures. The advantage of separating configurable product structures from nonconfigurable product structures is that the master data from product assemblies can be reused for different products.

  • With product assemblies, you can manage the structures of a product at an early stage of the product lifecycle. This is because product assemblies are similar to material BOMs with the difference that they allow you to set up and maintain assemblies without having to maintain material masters at an early stage. The product assemblies change throughout the product lifecycle and in the final stages, you can assign the material masters to the assembly headers and assembly items.

  • Each assembly is represented by an assembly header.

  • You use product assemblies to represent single-level BOM structures. Such a structure is an assembly with a list of subassemblies. You can build multilevel structures but you can only build these one level at a time.

  • A product assembly can be reused in multiple product assemblies as a subassembly. For example, the product assembly Quick Release can be a subassembly for both product assembly Wheel and product assembly Seat.

  • You can use simulation for assembly headers and assembly groups.

  • You can group similar assemblies together in one product assembly. This is called a variant assembly.

Structure

The product assembly has a fixed hierarchical structure that contains the subordinate parts required to build a material. A product assembly represents nonconfigurable product structures and consists of the following hierarchical representation:

  • Assembly group

    Contains one or more similar assemblies. Similar assemblies of an assembly group are called variant assemblies. Each assembly is represented by an assembly header.

  • Assembly header

    Represents the nonconfigurable material in an assembly.

  • Assembly item

    Represents the components of a nonconfigurable material in a product assembly. You always assign an assembly item to an assembly header.

Integration

The Web user interface (Web UI) of SAP Product Lifecycle Management (SAP PLM) integrates product assemblies with the following objects:

Integration with objects in SAP PLM:

  • Material master

  • Change number

  • Document

  • Classification

  • Authorization

Integration with product structures:

If a product item variant has a reference to an assembly header, the assembly items are displayed below the product item variant in the hierarchical table. If any one of the assembly items is further attached to an assembly header that has a subassembly, the multilevel assembly items are also displayed in the hierarchical table.