This about description offers a brief overview of the purpose and use of the Configure to Order (CTO) functionality within Customer Order and Sales Quotation.
Configured parts are generally handled as any normal parts. However, on the sales quotation line and the customer order line, you have to add a configuration if the configuration has not been created before.
The following terms are central to the way IFS Cloud handles configurations:
When the required date is changed, editing the configuration characteristics depends on if another part configuration revision is effective or not. If the new required date is within the original part configuration revision, no change is done and the original part configuration revision is used when editing the configuration. If the required date falls within another revision it is possible to either continue with the original revision or use the new effective revision. If the new revision is used when editing, all identical characteristic options of the original revision is used and all other characteristics/options are excluded. All new mandatory characteristics must be defined. If the original revision is used when editing, the original configuration will be displayed.
Generally, when creating a configuration in Customer Order and Sales Quotation, you have two choices; you can either create a new configuration or copy an existing one. Of course, if you create a configuration that already exists (i.e., with exactly the same choices of characteristics, options, etc.) the "old" configuration will automatically be re-used. When creating a configuration you indicate the valid characteristics and options. The configuration can then be viewed in several pages. Modifying the configuration on a customer order line is possible even after the customer order is released, and even on a customer order with pegged supply orders (Note that the changes in configuration will also be reflected in the pegged supply orders)
It is possible to enter a configuration for a sales quotation line, just as for a customer order line. When a won sales quotation is converted to a customer order line, the configuration is copied along with the sales quotation. It is not possible to create or handle configurations on a customer agreement.
You can set the price on characteristics and options. The fields in configuration page display the original sales price, summary of characteristic and option prices and the total price. The fields are read-only. For more details, refer to About Configured Pricing.
It is possible to explode a configured product to an interim order for the sales quotation line or customer order line. An interim order can be used for inspection and estimated cost roll-up. It is also possible to modify an interim order (do minor engineering work) and, for instance, roll up the cost again to obtain the correct cost for the quote. For more details, refer to About Interim Demand Structures.
Once an order message (ORDER/ORDCHG) containing a configured part is received, a new customer order line will be created with the same configuration. If the sites use the same database, the same configuration ID will be used as well. If, on the other hand, the sites use different databases, a new configuration ID with the same characteristics will be used.
When you send configuration characteristics, the same characteristics and characteristic values must exist for both sites. This is no problem when the sites use the same database but could result in errors when they use different databases.
The order message contains a flag that indicates whether the price and description should be updated with the values from the message. If the flag has not been set, the price and description will be retrieved from the system.
For each characteristic you can decide whether it should be printed on the following sales-related documents:
This is specified in IFS/Configuration Characteristic.
If you want pricing details to be printed on order confirmation, delivery note, invoice, and credit note, you can do so in the basic data. There you can determine under which circumstances configuration details and prices should be displayed on the following reports:
For instance, you can decide whether no characteristics should be displayed, if the characteristics and prices should be displayed, etc. The settings are then connected to the customers of your choice.