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QAD Automotive SRM Implementation Lessons Learned
Posted on: December 17, 2024 | By: Alexa Leitner | Uncategorized
Implementing SRM with AUX for an Automotive application poses several challenges. This article detail some of the solutions we designed to overcome the obstacles.
When quoting component parts in automotive the first roadblock we encountered involved identifying what we were quoting. One would think well you quote the part numbers you need to build your product, and that is correct much of the time. SRM functionality is designed out of the box to manage this situation with QAD’s “Sourcing Request”. Yet we found that a good majority of the time in automotive applications you do not quote part numbers, but instead you quote engineering “drawing numbers”.
The drawing number represents the engineering part drawing you are quoting, yet the part might be purchased in different colors so there might be multiple part numbers (one for each color). To get around this obstacle you quote the drawing number and identify how many variants of the items (colors) you will require. Each of the variant part numbers will inherit the same price as the price for the “drawing number” that was quoted.
When the business is awarded in SRM, it sends back the price for the drawing number to QAD.
A function was created in QAD that identifies the variant parts associated with the drawing number quoted. It then finds the awarded suppliers pricelist and create a price entry for all associated variant part numbers within the same supplier price list.
Two options to accomplish identifying the variant parts were explored:
- The first was creating product structures for the drawing part numbers for all parts that had variants and adding all variants as a level one child or component.
- Second was checking all part numbers with the quoted “drawing number” in the item drawing field.
In the customer install where this was tested option 1 was selected and the data was auto loaded from the engineering PLM system. The price synchronization routine checked all components on the drawing number product structure and created price list entry’s for each variant part number in the awarded supplier price list.
Additional Challenges:
Most automotive suppliers have customized quoting forms they manage for their type of product. We found the setup of these forms in SRM was a requirement to leverage the knowhow and quoting value add edge in each specific type of material supplied implementation. The SRM team configured the custom forms in their process. The same was true for the Supplier Quality audit forms in the supplier evaluation part of the quoting process. Each automotive suppliers has supplier quality audit forms specific for their type of product. The SRM team configured the custom Quality audit forms as part of the SRM supplier quoting process.
Another area where we found SRM required configuration was the setup of the pricing. Some automotive suppliers required 6 decimal digits and others standardized at 4 or less. The configuration of the decimal accuracy was very important due to the volume of parts that were produced. SRM tailored the decimal accuracy on the customized quoting forms to align with the financial teams requirements.
Next Steps:
If you want to learn more about implementing SRM with AUX for automotive applications, contact us here to see how we can support your business. You can also email us at info@loganconsulting.com or call (312) 345-8817.
