Sales Configurator

This about description offers a brief overview of the purpose and use of the Sales Configurator Rules (for CTO, Configure To Order) functionality within Supply Chain and Manufacturing.

Introduction and Basic Terms

The sales configurator is a guide that helps the sales person or customer during the configuration process. The user gets prompted with possible combinations, valid values, information messages and automatically attached or detached values to ensure that a correct configuration is done and all chosen characteristics with option values are compatible with each other. This means that you create configurations that meet precise requirements on demand .

Working with your prospective customer, you can create complete, concise, and accurate product configurations designed to highlight the features, options, and benefits that the company offers. With the correct setup you minimize the risk of configuring incorrect/invalid parts.

This will benefit the salesperson since the configuration always uses the most up-to-date product information during the generation of sales quotations or customer orders. This simplifies the order taking and the salesperson can be certain that the part will not be inaccurately configured. It also allows non-specialized staff (or even customers) to enter configurations without any knowledge of the sales rule setup.

By using sales rules you will be sure that the complete configuration (added values, calculated or otherwise derived during the configuration explosion) can be produced with the back office rules (see About Back Office Configuration Rules) or to be sent to your supplier.

The basis of using the IFS Sales Configurator functionality is to have the basic data for the configured part (see About Configuration). Even if the decision to run IFS Sales Configurator is made after a product line has been set up in IFS/CTO, the IFS Sales Configurator can be used directly after a sales rule has been added for the part.

Sales Rule Engine

The sales configurator gives you the possibility to run IFS Sales Configurator in online mode as a background sales rule engine when configuring through IFS Configure-To-Order (CTO) functionality. In connection with the sales rule engine, it also gives you the possibility to calculate prices on orders and quotations based on the price handling that is set up in IFS customer order for the configured part.

If sales rules are connected to the configurable part and revision, the sales rule engine is executed automatically when you open the window in create or edit mode. All active sales rules are then executed in sequence upon any change of characteristic or option value in the configuration. Depending on the sales rule setup, a sales rule can for instance attach, detach or set a characteristic/option to unavailable. If a sales rule is executed, the configuration section in this window automatically adds or removes characteristics and/or option values.

If needed a Sales Rule Logger dialog is available to verify which sales rules that are executed on each change in the configuration. The logger includes information about missing values, invalid values, missing quantities and hidden characteristics.

With sales rules connected, this window can also be launched from the Sales Rule window to test the sales rules. This is useful if there is a need to test the setup before promoting to state Released so it can be used in production. The part configuration revision can be in any state to be able to perform the test from the Sales Rule window. When using this window to test sales rules, it is the sales rules that are tested which means no prices are displayed and the Price Detail dialog is not enabled.

You do not have to set up anything for each user, the sales rule logic and setup is handled centrally in basic data for configuration sales rules.

Integrated Media Library

You can also generate quotations and order confirmations that can include more detailed specifications, using the Media Library functionality that is integrated with the order taking functionality for configured parts. If images or text is connected to the configured part or to the chosen characteristics or options, they can be printed on the quotation or on order confirmation report.

Status Handling During Configuration

It is possible to partly save a configuration and continue the configuration later. A Parked state is available and can for instance be used in the situation when the configuration is complete but it shall not be possible to release the order until it has gone through an authorization step, the user can in this situation set the status to state Parked. The status can be manually set from the Parked state to Complete by the user and will then be ready for Release for production or purchase.

Sales Rule Basic Terms

The following terms are central when using sales rules in IFS Applications:

Configurable Part - A part that demands configurations, i.e., it is a configurable part.
Part Configuration Revision – is the revision for the configurable part that a sale rule is connected to.
Configuration Family - A set of products that share common engineering and configuration data. In IFS/Part Catalog the configuration family is used to make certain characteristics and options available to the part configuration revision.
Configuration Characteristic - An attribute or classification of a product that describes one of its functional capabilities. When the display type for a characteristic is set to Hidden, the characteristic will not be displayed in the configuration. Hidden characteristics can for instance be used for calculations in sales rules.
Option - An alternative attribute value that can be assigned to the characteristic.
Sale Rule – Is connected to the configurable part and its revision. You can have as many sale rules connected to a configurable part as you want. Each sale rule condition is executed upon every configuration change. Configuration sales rules allow you to define sales rules that will result in a valid configuration that can be used in manufacturing for production. A template with several sales rules can be connected to a specific sale rule on a part configuration revision.
Sale Rule Template – Is based on configuration family and can therefore be used by several configurable parts. This simplifies the maintenance if sales rules are connected to a template instead of directly to the part configuration revision. A sales rule template can be used within another sales rule template which will be displayed as a separate folder in the sales rule tree structure. A condition rule can be used to decide whether the sales rules within the template needs to be evaluated.
Rule Treestructure – Displays the order in which the sales rules will be executed. It is possible to use drag and drop to change the sort order, or manually change the sequence no.
Conditions – Is a set of Boolean expressions for the rule, that will be evaluated when the user selects a characteristics value or quantity. Result must be true if an action rule shall be executed.
Actions - Is a set of commands that will be performed if the conditions for the rule evaluate to true. Each type of action requires different supporting information to be completed.
Sales Rule Messages – Predefined messages that can be displayed to the user with message box during configuration.
Sales Rule Combination – Can be of type Allowed, Not Allowed or Function and allows you to define a matrix of possible configuration value combinations to determine either available options during configuration or handle return values based on matching values. Can be used in conditions or actions. You can use configuration characteristic values, as values for comparison in the combination table.
Sales Rule Formula - Allows you to define a mathematical expression to calculate numeric values used in either Conditions or Actions. Configuration characteristic values and quantities as well as formula or order information can be used as values in the formula.

Sales Rules Functions, Conditions and Actions

The sale rules setup is structured with two different types of rules: Conditions and Actions.

Condition Rule

A condition allows you to define logical expressions to determine selection criteria based on specific configuration values or ranges of values. For example, conditions could be used to decide if an attach or detach shall be done based on the configuration values. The expressions are expressed as Boolean logic in the form of an equation, similar to a programmatic IF/THEN statement. If the expression is True, the action code is executed. If the expression is False, the action code is not executed. The absence of a condition (no conditions) means that the actions are always executed.

For example, you could define a sale rule condition where an action will be executed if country US is selected during configuration. The condition will then be COUNTRY = US where COUNTRY is a configuration characteristic and US is a discrete option value for the part. If the configuration specifies US, then will the action for the sale rule be executed in the configuration. You can also combine several conditions using AND/OR operators and parentheses if desired to make more complex statements like, COUNTRY = US AND HEIGHT > 4000.

When working with conditions and actions, you can access a variety of data values relevant for the configuration family (see About Configuration). The following data values can be used when defining sales rules both in conditions and actions:

Data Value	Description
Value (Option Value)	The value to be compared with the other value (Value1 or Value2) from the evaluated configuration.
Characteristic Value (Characteristic)	The value for this characteristic will be compared with the other value (Value1 or Value2).
Characteristic Quantity	The quantity for this characteristic will be compared with the other value (Value1 or Value2).
Sales Formula	Values calculated and retrieved by a sales rule formula. The result from the formula can be compared to another value entered by the user in the sales rule, or compared to another characteristic value from the configuration.
Combination Table (Function)	Values returned from a combination table. Configuration characteristic values can be used as values for comparison in the combination table. The retrieved value can be used for different sale rule combinations.
Order Info	Values retrieved from connected order which will be used during evaluation of the sales rules. Possible values that can be used: - Customer No, - Delivery Country for the Customer - Sales Group - Sales Part No - Sales Quantity - Sales Unit of Measure - User ID - Supply Site, (Supply Site is used for sales quotation line and customer order line. Site will be used if no Supply Site exists on the line).

Action Rules

This is used to define one or more actions to perform. An action is a rule in the form of a command that will be performed upon a condition rule, i.e., if the conditions evaluate to True.

For example, you can attach a required or optional characteristic with a value and/or a quantity for the attached characteristic. The quantity for a discrete characteristic can also be calculated with a formula, and for a variable characteristic, the value for the characteristic can be calculated instead of manually typed in.

Actions are performed whenever the conditions for the rule evaluate to True. The following action types can be defined as part of sales rules:

Action Type	Description
Unavailable	Designates the specified characteristic or option as unavailable for selection into a configuration. The specific item will not be displayed in the List of Values during configuration, and if user tries to add the specified item manually it will give an error.
Available	Designates the specified characteristic or option as available for selection into a configuration. User can add the item manually to the configuration and the item is also included in the List of Values during configuration.
Attach Required	The attached characteristic is required in the configuration and cannot be deleted.
Attach Optional	The attached characteristic is added to the configuration if it was not included in the configuration earlier. If an option value is also included in the Attach Optional rule, the option value will be added to the configuration if no value existed in the configuration for the specified characteristic. This value can be changed during configuration.
Detach	Detaches the specified characteristic or option value from the configuration. If the characteristic in base part is set as mandatory characteristic, the option value will be removed if a value exists and the characteristic will remain in the configuration.
Message	User-defined messages that generate a message box that is displayed to the user. User must close the message box before continuing the configuration. Available predefined messages can be selected from the List of Values. Messages are only displayed to the user once unless the message is connected with the type Stop.
Allowed Combination	This option will only display the valid characteristic values in the List of Values during configuration depending on the set of characteristics and their options that are valid to be used together. Combination tables are defined per base part characteristic revisions. The combination type used is Allowed.
Not Allowed Combination	This option will not display the invalid characteristic values in the List of Values during configuration depending on the set of characteristics and their options that are valid to be used together. Combination tables are defined per base part characteristic revisions. The combination type used is Not Allowed.
Stop	Stops the sales rule and stops the configuration from being completed. The message connected to the stop action will always be displayed to the user until the problem has been solved. A stop action is useful for basic option value validations, before calculations or combination rules are executed.
External	Is an action type which triggers a specific custom defined function. Example of a custom function can be to Round all variable values to nearest integer during configuration.

Value Type	Description
Value (Option Value)	The value that will be attached as the option value for the characteristic.
Characteristic Value (Option Value)	The value from this characteristic will be attached as the option value.
Characteristic Quantity	The quantity from this characteristic will be attached as the option value.
Sales Formula	Values calculated and retrieved by this sales rule formula will be used as the value for the characteristic.
Combination Table (Function)	Values returned from this combination table will be used as the value for the characteristic.
Order Info	Values retrieved from the connected order which will be used during evaluation of the sales rules. Possible values that can be used: - Customer No, - Delivery Country for the Customer - Latest Customer Value, (latest option value for this characteristic used by this customer in a configuration will be attached as the value. Same function is available with a right click in configuration window for the characteristics) - Latest Order Value, (latest option value for this characteristic used on the same order (Sales Quotation or Customer Order) will be attached as the value) - Sales Group, - Sales Part No, - Sales Quantity, - Sales Unit of Measure, - User ID - Supply Site, (Supply Site is used for sales quotation line and customer order line. Site will be used if no Supply Site exists on the line).

*Quantity* Type	Description
Value (Option Value)	The value that will be attached as the quantity for the characteristic.
Characteristic Value (Option Value)	The value from this characteristic will be attached as the quantity for the characteristic.
Characteristic Quantity	The quantity from this characteristic will be attached as the quantity for the characteristic.
Sales Formula	Values calculated and retrieved by this sales rule formula will be used as the quantity for the characteristic.
Combination Table (Function)	Values returned from this combination table will be used as the quantity for the characteristic.

Sales Rules Basic Terms

The following information can be used as guidelines when creating sales rules in IFS Applications:

Rules sequencing: All rules are executed in sequence, which means that attaching an option value has to be done in a rule before a condition checks the value. For example:
- Rule 1: Action - Attach Required CHAR-A Value 001
- Rule 2: Condition - Char Value CHAR-A Equals 001
- Rule 2: Action - Message - CHAR-A-001-IsSet
If rule 2 is evaluated before rule 1, the condition for rule 2 would be false and the message is not displayed. This also means that the characteristic must be set before they are used in formulas and combinations in other rules.
Use hidden characteristics: Characteristics set to hidden can for instance hold data that is not useful to be displayed in the configuration or they can be used to hold data for internal calculations or to be used in formulas or combination tables etc. Configuration characteristics can be set to client display hidden in the basic data for characteristics. The characteristic will not be displayed automatically in the configuration.
Configure by category: The configuration will be done per category instead of displaying all characteristics in the configuration window. When all characteristics in the first category have values, the next category can be configured. This mode simplifies the configuration and the display of the configuration, especially if many characteristics are used in the configuration.
For advanced rule writing: A value in conditions and actions can include a characteristic value using square brackets within the value. For instance, a value of “A[CHAR-A]B” will evaluate to “A001B”, if the characteristic CHAR-A is set to 001 in the configuration. This can decrease the amount of sales rules.

In addition, the following functions can be useful to have in mind when setting up and maintaining configurable parts with sales rules.

Configuration template: Start the configuration with a predefined configuration by selecting a configuration template in the configuration window. Sales rules and package characteristics are validated automatically when a template is loaded into the configuration.
Configuration characteristic packages: When a package characteristic is added to the configuration family and attached to the configuration, the connected component characteristic with a value and quantity is automatically added to the configuration. It is only the price for the package characteristic that is used in the price calculation and prices for the component characteristic are set to zero in the configuration. The characteristics that are set as components to a package in a configuration cannot be changed by the user or sales rules. It is only the package characteristic that can be changed.
Lock configuration rules: When all sales rules are setup and you don’t want anyone to be able to change the setup, the sales rule can be locked for editing by selecting this check box in the configuration family window.

If the company wishes to remove some or all sales rules for a specific configured part, it is possible to do so with a disabled flag for the sales rules. If all sales rules connected to a configured part are disabled it means that no sales rule will be triggered and the user must handle the configuration manually by adding each characteristic and option. How to handle the manual configuration is described and covered in the standard IFS solution scenarios and process description for CTO.