Creating and updating variant items

A variant item is a specific variant of a completely configured assembly, for example, a Door assembly with height = 500, width = 600; application = fridge, and color = white. Variant items are physical parts with no variability. You can allocate a manufacturing part number to a variant item. You cannot manufacture an unconfigured structure. They may have a large number of options and numeric options; options have a limited number of selections, while numeric options may have an infinite range unless permitted values are specified. This results in a correspondingly large number of product permutations, not all of which are valid. You may want to reuse permutations that have previously been sold, particularly if significant engineering work was invested in creating the associated technical documentation, drawings and manufacturing data. You can attach such associated data to the variant items once they are created. You can search for existing variant items so that they can be reused. If a suitable variant item does not already exist, you can create new variant items as required. You can then build up variant items into a complete structure for a specific configuration, for example, a configuration that corresponds to a customer order. In this specific configuration, all modules are replaced by variant items. It is good business practice to release the generic item revision before you generate variant items from it. If you do not do this, the variant items fully correspond to the generic items from which you generated them. Teamcenter does not enforce a release process for generic item revisions. Teamcenter allows you to manage variant items, as follows: Search for existing variant items by entering option values. Create a new variant item if no existing variant item is found. You should create new variant item at the lowest possible level of the structure. Replace a selected variant item in the associated assembly to build up a complete variant item structure. Open a variant item and view it. After creating a variant item from a generic structure, you cannot make any structure changes to the BOM view revisions of the generic item revision or the variant item revision. Such changes make both the generic structure and the variant item structure invalid. To make any such structural change, revise the generic structure and then make changes to the new revision. These changes are not reflected in previously linked variant items automatically; you must search for the affected variant items and update them individually with the changes. You cannot make structural changes to the generic item when it is linked to a variant item, including adding or removing a line, and creating a relation. Likewise, you can change the item revision master form attributes on the variant item, but cannot make structural changes. If you make changes to the master form attributes, you should search for other variant items that should be updated.