Hey all,
I was just hired into a new position that uses epicor. I have little to no knowledge of epicor, however, i have been doing my own personal research but i’m somewhat stuck. I need to create a configurator that will take a model string, for example “2DAF-59” and be able to pull a set of materials based on each letter (each letter pertaining to a motor, motor gear, etc). I know that i will be using a template BOM and i know that i will be uploading several tables… I just don’t know where to start. The training material is somewhat vague that i’ve found.
Wow… talk about being thrown directly into the fire… You need to learn some of the basics of the Configurator.
BUT, I will give you how I would probably approach this:
Two Significant options:
A configurator with a single input to enter the model.
I would probably make one input field, and then a calculated field for each letter for each motor, gear, etc.
what is often called a “Headless” or “No-Inputs” configurator (harder to build). This is because there are no inputs to see, and you can only see the RESULTS in the Job or Quote.
as a beginner, I would choose number 1 above. create a master template Part number. What does that Master Template look like? Well again, you have three options:
Super BOM - put one material into the bom for EVERY Option (one material for each motor, gear, etc. ie… if there are 5 possible motors, and 10 possible gears, you would need 15 material lines. This can result in a huge BOM. With this type, your Method rules are simple but very repetitive… you “Keep” the parts that are needed, and eliminate the rest.
“replacement” BOM - This is where you put line material line into the BOM for every possible component… if there is one motor, two gears, one bracket, one powercord, you would need 5 material lines. The rules become a little more complex, but there are far fewer to make. you simply replace the part number with the part needed for the options chosen.
Mix of the above… sometimes I will look at the BOM and Options there are some that only have 2 options, but others (like Color) where there are 1000s of options. In this case, I might choose to put two motor lines in the BOM, but only one Color line, and replace it.
Thank you so much! I will definitely take note of that. Do you happen to know of any further training documents, tutorials and/or videos i could watch? I am eager to learn this as fast as possible.
I would normally tell you “Hey… Insights starts one month from today, you should come had attend The Extended Education class I am teaching on Product Configurator”… but alas, we have no Insights planned in the near future.
As someone else said, the technical guide has quite a bit of information. It is a good foundation, and actually what I encourage everyone to take BEFORE I try to teach them more. This is because, even with this foundation, the product configurator can be fairly broad in all the capabilities and features, and how YOU choose to use it will be different from your neighbor.
Frequently when an intelligent part number is used making sure that the string is actually a combination that is valid is needed.
For this I will typically use a series of combo boxes that provide the user with valid choices for each part of the string. So if only 2, 4 and 6 are valid choices for the first number which tells us which motor is valid those are the only choices available. If 2, 4 and 6 stand for horsepower than the combo boxes label might be HP. As the user picks things the string is built in a read only field. if each digit in the string matches a part number that will be a material input on the MOM than the combo boxes would use a UD table to provide the choices of motor and that table would also hold the part number.
For most configurators a template BOM is usually a good fit, the material inputs are placeholders that are replaced with values from the UD table. Using a UD table for part numbers avoids the need to re-engineer the part or add/modify method rules if the part numbers change. For example if you start offering an 8 horsepower motor you just add it to the UD table and you are done. If you stop offering the 6 HP motor you just take it out of the UD table.
Using this approach you can also allow the user to hand enter the part number in a text box and then with a field change event parse the values into the combo boxes. If a value isn’t valid for that combo box the combo box will remain blank.
When learning the configurator take the time to learn how to use UD tables instead of PC lookup tables. In the end UD tables take less work and are much more flexible.
Also make sure you have stabilized how you want to use the MOM to build your product before starting to build the configurator. Configurator design can go on forever if the MOM isn’t stabilized first.
One thing I recommend to customers is to first lay out a good idea of what you want to do, even in rough picture format–don’t worry about the plumbing yet. It doesn’t need to be elaborate, just a logical sequence of the high-level needs will help you frame it up and figure out what your destination is.
At some point, I’d recommend having a good configurator consultant help you through a simple, abridged version so you can see how the basics work. I know from experience that the tech ref is helpful, but is hard to take in without some internal framework. A few key pointers can be most valuable. A couple of hours or a day’s worth of help might make all the difference.
There are a couple of good configurator guys on the list above.
Hey guys, I sincerely appreciate your input (no pun intended?). I have a lot on my plate and any help or direction I can get is seriously amazing. Is there anyone I could speak to, at length, in regards to this? I’ll even pay a few dollars here and there for some guidance. It would make a world’s difference.
Wish I could help, but I am at the end of a long go-live process which has been made even more complicated by Covid19 travel restrictions.
That said, (I am not trying to be negative here)… I will also say that it is not really feasible to train on the product configurator in a few minutes over the phone. I have performed many training sessions. I have found that even people with years of experience with Epicor take several days of training to get up to speed. Your best bet is to go through the self training as suggested above, build out the demonstrations, and then start experimenting. Until travel restrictions are gone, it will then probably take some hours of on-line screen-sharing sessions to go over the details of what you want.
James,
Thank you!!! I have been doing the old Googe/Youtube searches and can’t find anything that is very worth while. Do you happen to have any links or material that are better than what is out there? Just picking your brain. Thank you!
The product configurator can be a bit challenging as it combines understanding how the MOM, sales orders, quotes and jobs work along with programming. It is easy to build a brute force configurator that uses a lot of hard coding but that will be a maintenance nightmare.
To build a flexible configurator the key is a good design that has been modeled through the entire process manually before the first combo box gets dragged and dropped. The configurator for the most part only does what you can manually using standard functionality. if you extensively model your processes the configurator design usually comes easy.
After that “most” configurators use a lot of combo boxes with a smattering of other types of controls.
Given the current circumstances things are fairly quiet. I’d be happy to jump on line with you to walk through some coding examples.
I just want to encourage you @ActuationTechnology, configurators were the first Epicor assignment I got when I started this job - not starting from scratch but tackling existing configurations with huge masses of copy pasted code and 200+ inputs. Like all things its easiest to tackle one bit at a time.
Don’t feel afraid to get in the pilot and just go wild trying random things. The fastest way to learn is by doing things, and then getting specific questions answered. You aren’t going to find a video/book/tutorial that suddenly makes you capable, you have to try and fail lots on your own first in addition. Its quite do-able though, and shouldn’t even be too hard if you have a little coding experience already.
Today is open and after 10:30 AM eastern tomorrow. Send me an email to james.kinneman@gmail.com with the time that works for you and I’ll send a zoom invite.
Hi James, I have sent you an email with most of the detail of where my head is at with my understanding. I also included a time I would be free tomorrow. Please check it out and let me know what you think.
Any type of help or further direction would be amazing. Thank you!
