Replacement Type 

Definition

The replacement type specifies which objects are used in a product or location substitution and also the cardinality between them. For example, it specifies whether a single product is replaced with another single product or a single product is replaced with a group of products.

You can define your own replacement types in addition to the standard replacement types.

Use

You can define various alternatives to a simple product-to-product substitution by defining certain replacement types. For example, using replacement types you can define:

·        One-to-one substitution between product and assembly

·        One-to-many substitution between products

Structure

The replacement type is defined by member type, relationship type, and cardinality.

Member type

The member type specifies the objects contained in the product substitution or location substitution.

A one-to-one substitution between product and assembly contains the preceding member type Product and the succeeding member type Assembly.

In addition to the standard member types, you can define your own member types based on the following five basic member types:

·        Assembly

This basic member type is available for supersession chains only.

·        Group

This basic member type is available for restricted interchangeability between FFF classes, PSP, LDP, and LPSP only.

·        Product

This basic member type is available for supersession chains, FFF classes, and restricted interchangeability between FFF classes only.

·        Location

This basic member type is available for location substitution chains only.

·        Location product

This basic member type is available for location product substitution chains only.

In Customizing for Product and Location Interchangeability, you define the member types by choosing Application Settings → Maintain Member Types.

Before you can use the newly defined member type in an interchangeability group, you must assign it to the required replacement type.

Based on the characteristic of the basic member type Product, you can create a member type Remanufactured Product. You can use this member type to differentiate a reworked or rebuilt product that can also be a member of a product substitution from a newly manufactured product.

Relationship type

The relationship type specifies whether a replacement type is relevant for Sequential replacements (supersession chain, restricted interchangeability between FFF classes, location substitution chain, location product substitution chain) or Sets (FFF class, PSP, location list, LDP, LPSP).

If the relationship type is a Set, the succeeding member type and the succeeding cardinality are not relevant for the replacement type.

Cardinality

The cardinality specifies whether a chain contains a single member (product or location), many members (product combination) or no member as predecessor member and successor member.

In Customizing for Product and Location Interchangeability, you define replacement types by choosing Application Settings → Maintain Replacement Types.

Before you can use the newly defined replacement type in an interchangeability group, you must assign it to the required interchangeability group type.

In Customizing for Product and Location Interchangeability, you assign the replacement types to interchangeability group types by choosing Application Settings → Maintain Interchangeability Types and Assign Replacement Types.

The applications that use the interchangeability service only support certain replacement types based on cardinality and basic member types.