About Change Management

A typical change scenario involves replacing one or more system instances (or operation instances) by other such instances. This is to take into account modifications that were done upstream in the manufacturing assembly structure. According to the type of modification and the expected traceability, capability is provided to replace (in a configuration mode or not) an instance. It replaces an instance of system (or operation) by an instance whose reference can be:

  • A new revision of the instantiated reference
  • An existing reference that is not a new revision of the instantiated reference.

This page discusses:

See Also
Managing Changes

Typical Change Scenario and Procedure

The example below gives an overview of the context in which customers need to use the Change Management capability to replace systems (or operations).

This example does not take into account replacements in configuration mode. However, this point is supported.

The initial group of data before any changes are made to the manufacturing assembly structure is as follows.



  • Step 1: The manufacturing assembly structure is modified by replacing the instance of Create Assembly.1 by a new revision that assembles an additional part, like Provide C.



  • Step 2: The user reroutes the item/operation assignment links on the new item instance using the Edit Links capability.
  • Step 3: It is then possible to replace the instance of System_A in one of the following ways:
    • Replace by a revision of System_A that includes an additional loading operation (Load C, for example).



    • Replace by an instance of an existing system reference (System B, for example) includes an additional loading operation (Load C, for example).



  • Step 4: In the case of a replacement by:

    • A revision of the system, the link must be rerouted on the new instance of System_A using the Edit Links capability.
    • An existing system, the assignment links must be recreated in Process Planning using assignment capabilities (such as the Assign Item to Operation command).

Effectivity and Variability Space

Effectivity is the criteria that define the availability of an object for usage in a controlled configuration.

Most of the time an effectivity is built from an expression. For example:

  • An interval of serial numbers such as [1...100], meaning that an instance is available for all serial numbers between 1 and 100.
  • An interval of two dates, such as [Aug 2009, 5th-Dec 2009, 23rd], meaning that an instance is available for dates between the 5 August 2009 and the 23 December 2009.
  • A category (such as a roadster or a coupe)
  • A specification.

An effectivity is applied on the instance of a reference object that holds a variability space. It is built from the data described in the variability space held by the reference object that aggregates the instance.

A variability space is a configuration dictionary. It contains the different elements that can be used to define an effectivity. It is held by reference objects.

Configuration Mode

The Configuration mode is relative to a session where the user has activated the Define Effectivity option in the Authoring Context panel that appears after selecting View > Authoring Context.

In this mode, all the created/modified/deleted instances hold an effectivity valuated by the user if the reference that aggregates those instances holds a variability space.

Replace Menu

In a typical change scenario, the system planner can use the commands of the Replace context menu. This menu is available in the tree and Manufacturing Gantt for system and operation replacement and on the tiles of the System Editor grid for system replacement.

Replace Commands for Mono-Selection

The Replace by Existing command can be used to replace:

  • An instance of a system reference by an instance of another existing system reference, which is not a revision of the previous instance.
  • An instance of an operation reference by an instance of another existing operation reference, which is not a revision of the previous one.

The Replace by Revision command can be used to replace:

  • An instance of a system reference by an instance of a revision of the same system reference
  • An instance of an operation reference by an instance of a revision of the same operation reference.

The Replace by Latest Revision command can be used to replace:

  • An instance of a system reference by an instance of the latest revision of the same system reference
  • An instance of an operation reference by an instance of the latest revision of the same operation reference.

The Manage Latest Revisions command displays a Revisions management options dialog box to let you update the instances of several system and operation references by their latest revisions.

These commands are available in the tree. However, they are not available on the root System that is directly under the PPR context because this system is not an instance.

The commands are available on the tiles of the System Editor grid because they represent system instances. They are not available on the thumbnails because thumbnails represent system references and the commands are dedicated to instances.

Replace Commands for Multi-Selection

You can Multi-Select objects to be replaced. In this case, two types of replacement can be done:

  • N objects replaced by N objects.
  • N objects replaced by 1 object.

The Replace Items by Latest Revision command can be used to replace each selected object by its latest revision (N objects replaced by N objects). This command is available if different object types are selected (systems and items, for example).

Note: To enable item selection in Process Planning, the following variable must be used: DELMIA_DISABLE_MULTISELECTION_CHECK_ON_TYPES=1

The Replace Items by Existing command can be used to replace the selected objects by a single object of the same type (N objects replaced by 1 object). This command is not available if different object types are selected.