CREALIS® PDM Product Management

Knowledge management for configuration purposes — structuring complex product knowledge and making it usable for sales

CREALIS® PDM Product Management

Knowledge management for configuration purposes — structuring complex product knowledge and making it usable for sales

CREALIS® PDM is a com­pre­hen­si­ve tool for model­ling com­plex pro­ducts. It is used for the struc­tu­red, rule- and inter­face-based repre­sen­ta­ti­on and uti­li­sa­ti­on of the available know­ledge about the pro­duct and enables effec­ti­ve navi­ga­ti­on through the pro­duct data. CREALIS® PDM includes powerful admi­nis­tra­ti­on func­tions that allow data to be updated by seve­ral experts working in par­al­lel.

Easy handling

The pro­duct data manage­ment (PDM) inter­face is extre­me­ly intui­ti­ve. Using CREALIS® PDM does not requi­re pro­gramming skills. All con­tent and depen­den­ci­es of the pro­ducts to be con­fi­gu­red are mana­ged in CREALIS® PDM. Intui­ti­ve search masks sup­port the struc­tu­red view of the data. The pro­duct data is repre­sen­ted on a modu­lar basis as parts, packa­ges and con­fi­gura­ble models and enri­ched with tech­ni­cal and com­mer­cial pro­per­ties. Depen­den­ci­es as well as cons­traints and exclu­si­ons are defi­ned in If-Then rules, cons­traints (vali­di­ty tables), pro­ce­du­ral and slot rules.

The user inter­face of the CREALIS® con­fi­gu­ra­tors is gene­ra­ted from the data mana­ged in CREALIS® PDM. The pro­duct con­fi­gu­ra­tor and the PDM are based on the cur­rent HTML stan­dards and sup­port the modern web brow­sers used on all com­mon ope­ra­ting sys­tems and stan­dard devices, inclu­ding tablets and smart­phones.

Crealis PDM Schema

Extensive modelling tools

Model­ling pro­vi­des all the neces­sa­ry tools for describ­ing com­plex depen­den­ci­es within pro­ducts. Model­ling allows con­fi­gu­ra­tors for tar­get sizes, opti­ons, (para­me­ter­i­sed) bills of mate­ri­als and modu­les to be repre­sen­ted. The con­cepts can also be com­bi­ned as requi­red. User gui­des during con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on, up to and inclu­ding gui­ded sel­ling, are repre­sen­ted with model­ling resour­ces. Pro­cess sequen­ces, appr­oval pro­ces­ses or aut­ho­ri­sa­ti­on steps can be imple­men­ted by lin­king con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on sce­na­ri­os and role assign­ments in com­bi­na­ti­on with model­ling resour­ces.

Efficient modelling

A spe­ci­fic over­wri­ting con­cept pre­vents red­un­dant data and rules from being crea­ted. Fea­tures and their values are defi­ned glo­bal­ly, regard­less of their use, and can be used in dif­fe­rent models. This pat­tern also appli­es to con­di­ti­ons, con­clu­si­ons and cons­traints, as well as the gene­ra­ted rules. Modellers have spe­cial edi­tors at their dis­po­sal for updating rules.

Importing product information

The use of a wide varie­ty of dif­fe­rent data imports makes model­ling easier. Each pro­ject defi­nes the prio­ri­ty of the data. This rela­tes to more than just the mas­ter data such as parts, artic­les and assem­blies, It also means the­re is an ori­gi­nal source for each mas­ter data struc­tu­re requi­red for a con­fi­gu­ra­tor. (PIM and CMS sup­p­ly mar­ke­ting texts, images and docu­ments. CAD sup­pli­es 3D data. ERP sup­pli­es mas­ter data, pro­per­ties and pri­ces.) For each of the­se struc­tures the­re are defi­ned import struc­tures and pro­cess defi­ni­ti­ons that descri­be how the data is to be hand­led. The model­ling con­cepts allow a com­ple­te­ly auto­ma­tic update pro­cess for the data from the source sys­tems to the con­fi­gu­ra­tor for the pur­po­se of com­ple­te pro­cess inte­gra­ti­on. The refe­rence to a model fea­ture, e.g. an artic­le list, includes all artic­les as pos­si­ble values. If the list is updated from the data of a hig­her-level ERP sys­tem, the list will also be available in the con­fi­gu­ra­tor. When a cor­re­spon­ding attri­bu­te model is used, the depen­den­ci­es update them­sel­ves auto­ma­ti­cal­ly.

Consistent multilingualism in all model and data structures

Short texts, long texts and infor­ma­ti­on texts are available for con­fi­gu­ra­tor ques­ti­ons and ans­wers (fea­tures and values) within the models that can be trans­la­ted for any lan­guage (Uni­code-com­pa­ti­ble). They can be con­ve­ni­ent­ly impor­ted using Excel. Docu­ments and docu­ment tem­pla­tes can be adapt­ed to the spe­ci­fic mar­ket accor­ding to their cha­rac­te­ristics. Trans­lata­ble short texts, long texts and infor­ma­ti­on texts are also available for parts, assem­blies and models.

Control of validity periods and market-specific characteristics

The avai­la­bi­li­ty of parts, assem­blies and models in the con­fi­gu­ra­tor can be con­trol­led in detail using vali­di­ty peri­ods (com­mence­ment and expi­ra­ti­on dates) and mar­ket rest­ric­tions. Both pie­ces of infor­ma­ti­on can be com­bi­ned so that, for exam­p­le, the peri­od of avai­la­bi­li­ty in one or more mar­kets can be limi­t­ed. Pri­ces for parts and assem­blies can also have tem­po­ral and mar­ket vali­di­ty. The appearance of a con­fi­gura­ble pro­duct in the pro­duct cata­lo­gue can also be con­trol­led in detail using vali­di­ty peri­ods and mar­ket rest­ric­tions. This enables cer­tain pro­ducts only to be dis­play­ed in sel­ec­ted mar­kets. The text-based and visu­al cha­rac­te­ristics of pro­duct cata­lo­gue ent­ries can also be adapt­ed to a spe­ci­fic brand.

The model struc­tu­re and thus the descrip­ti­on of the vari­ance of a pro­duct can also be con­trol­led in detail in terms of time and mar­ket. For exam­p­le, cer­tain inqui­ries (fea­tures) are only dis­play­ed in cer­tain mar­kets or rules can be rest­ric­ted to cer­tain mar­kets or cer­tain peri­ods of time.

Data main­ten­an­ce rights can be adapt­ed to the spe­ci­fic mar­ket. It is pos­si­ble to sepa­ra­te mas­ter users and mar­ket users.