About Alternate and Substitute Parts

Alternate and substitute part definitions are supported in Engineering BOM Management. When only Engineering BOM Management is installed, defining alternates and substitutes is for information purposes only. Any change to replace the actual part with an alternate or substitute in the EBOM is a manual process.

The actual utilization of this capability is in the MBOM where each plant can have different alternates or substitutes. When Manufacturing BOM Management is installed, the alternates and substitutes can be initialized from the EBOM Common view. From there, you can also assign plant-specific preferences for alternate/substitute, but only if there is a plant assigned to the parent part through the Manufacturing Responsibility relationship. When multiple plants are assigned to the parent part, the plant-specific alternate and substitute definitions initially contain default values, which can be changed in Edit mode.

The following topics are included:

This page discusses:

See Also
Assigning Manufacturing Responsibility
Part Bill of Materials - Plant Preferences View
Switching to Alternate Part/ Manufacturing Substitute in MBOM

Alternate Part Definition

An alternate part is a component that is a suitable replacement for another part in every assembly in which the original part occurs.

For example: Widget B is an alternate part for Widget A only if a manufacturer can use Widget B instead of the specified part (Widget A) across all products in which Widget A appears. (Note that you cannot assume that Widget A is also an alternate part for Widget B.) Widget B serves the same form, fit, and function in all products as Widget A does. Companies use alternate parts when multiple vendors can supply parts that serve the identical function and fit. You can specify that any existing part is an alternate for the current part. If the part does not yet exist, you must first create it, then access the PowerView page of the part where you want to define it as an alternate.

Note: Alternate parts are item-specific.

Substitute Part Definition

A substitute part is a component that is a suitable replacement for another part in only one assembly in which the original part occurs.

Substitutes can be created and managed only at the assembly level. Before a substitute can be added, the system checks to see if the selected part is an assembly by checking for the existence of a BOM. If not, the system displays a blank list on the Search results page.

When substitutes are created, they inherit the find number and reference designator from the BOM. If you change either in the BOM, they are automatically updated on any of its substitute objects.

When Manufacturing BOM Management is installed, substitutes inherit the manufacturing responsibility and plant-specific attributes of the substituted part for that assembly. This includes substitutes defined as edit items or substitutes with an end item override enabled attribute of “Yes.”

If you change the manufacturing responsibility for a part, all substitutes defined for that part will inherit this change.

Note: Substitute parts are BOM-specific.