You can maintain alternative product structures for the different possible solutions for a product. The Accesses tab page of component variants contains information on which alternative explosion is valid under what conditions.

To ensure that the product is exploded correctly for a concept in engineering processes, you maintain information for a concept access here, too. You assign a specific Alternative to a concept. This information is used during the simulation, and when transferring data to the component variant, for example.
Any Plant specified is not relevant to the engineering process. It is only read in downstream operational processes – when determining the production version, for example.

You have maintained a product structure with alternative decompositions (alternatives) in the iPPE Workbench. The alternatives contain component variants that have a concept group with at least one concept.

Start the iPPE workbench in change mode. Load the product structure in the navigation area.

1. In the navigation area, expand the product structure until you see the component variant that has concepts.
2. If you double-click on the component variant the data is loaded.
3. In the detail area, choose the Accesses tab page.

4. Specify the alternative you want to use for the concept, to explode the product structure.

5. Save the data.

In the early engineering phase, you can also maintain alternative product structures for the different concepts. During the simulation, and when transferring data from a concept to a component variant, the relevant alternative product structure is determined.