Creating a Placeholder MEP

If you do not have a manufacturer equivalent part in the system, you can capture and manage manufacturers’ part data by creating a Placeholder MEP, which holds information about locations and manufacturers for an enterprise part.

If you have access to MEPs, you can create, edit, and remove data for the Placeholder MEPs. This access includes users who have the role of Component Engineer, Compliance Engineer, Senior Design Engineer, or Senior Manufacturing Engineer. You also can convert a Placeholder MEP to a MEP. See Converting a Placeholder MEP into a MEP.

Note: Placeholder MEPs are displayed only in a list of a part’s equivalents and do not appear in any other summary pages or search results pages.

Required Access Roles:

  • Baseline: Leader, Author
  • App-specific: Component Engineer

Before you begin: There must exist under the host company at least one manufacturer defined as a supplier.
See Also
Editing Placeholder MEPs
Placeholder MEP Properties
  1. Open a part.
  2. Click the Equivalents category.
  3. From the page Actions menu or toolbar, click Create Placeholder Mfg Equivalent.
    The Create Placeholder Mfg Equivalent page opens. This page is the same as that for creating MEPs with the exceptions of part name, type, and revision fields.
  4. Complete the following:

    Field Description
    Autoname Series This list provides "-" as its only selectable option. This indicastes that the placeholder MEP that you create is assigned the name "TEMP". You can then select options in the Equivalents page Actions menu to assign either a new or existing part to replace the TEMP placeholder.
    Manufacturer Click to select the manufacturer of the equivalent part. You can search for and select a manufacturer that is defined as a supplier for the host company. Only one manufacturer can be assigned for any MEP.
    Usage Location information:
    Name The company title, plant title, or location name that has allocation responsibility for the MEP. Click to select the location. Click Reset to specify the default location.
    Status Indicates whether the company or location has been approved to allocate or inventory the part in support of production. The value can be:
    • Required - The part requires this location for allocation or inventory.
    • Authorized - The location is authorized to allocate or inventory the part.
    • Not Authorized -The location is not authorized to allocate or inventory the part.
    Preference Indicates whether the location is preferred for allocation or inventory of the part or not preferred.
    Owner The Owner is specified as the person who is creating the Placeholder MEP. To assign a different owner, click .
    Description Type details that describe the MEP that is to be the placeholder.

  5. Enter any of the following optional attributes for the new Placeholder MEP. These are not required fields, so you can opt to leave the information blank until you convert the Placeholder MEP to a MEP.

    Field Description
    UOM Type The type of unit of measure for the part
    Unit of Measure Select a Unit of Measure from the list: LB(pound), IN(inch), GA(gallon), FT(feet), EA(each).
    Lead Time Select the time required to manufacture the part.
    Material Category Select the substance the part is made of, for example: Metal, Plastic, Glass, Rubber, Concrete.
    Part Classification Select the general category of part from the list, for example: Unassigned, Wiring Harness, Software, Sheet Metal, Printed Circuit Board, Molded, Machined, Hardware, Extrusion, Other.
    Spare Part Select Yes or No from the list to specify whether the part is to be used as a spare.
    Target Release Date The intended date on which the part is to be released.
    Weight Enter the weight of the part.
    Target Cost Type the target cost on a per part basis.
    Estimated Cost Type the estimated cost on a per part basis. Select the currency from the list.

  6. Click Done.

These actions occur:

  • Adds the new Placeholder MEP object to the database.
  • Connects the Placeholder MEP to the enterprise part using the “Manufacturer Equivalent” relationship.
  • Connects the Placeholder MEP to the specified manufacturer company using the “Manufacturing Responsibility” relationship.