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Managing color variants at assembly level

Question asked by Cristina Mereu on Aug 13, 2014
Latest reply on Aug 13, 2014 by Jamil Snead

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Hi,

i've got a serious doubt about how to proceed and i sincerely hope you can help me. Sorry in advance for my english!

From june i work in a new company, the typical firm with small brains but with enough profits. They asked me to work with them because they need someone that knows Production processes and i'm quite expert in Lean Production, EPDM and SAP. Unfortunately at the moment they don't have both EPDM (maybe next year, the said) and SAP, cause they assembly, they don't directly produce.

The Technical Director (the Deus ex machina of the company) goes on in asking to the Engineers to code everything with a crazy 18 alphanumeric significant part numbering system, where you have to specify also the color variants. During last days we had some problems: in fact, i go on in saying that it's useless to work in this way, because it's dangerous, especially for a PDM implementation. Too many details, too many problems in the future, and i need to find a solution that gives him the idea to have the control about everything as usual (i prefear to manage the color variants at ERP/MRP level, but the Technical Director doesn't want to give the).

According to you, there's any way to manage the color variants in Solidworks at assembly level? For example defining a color property for a part for each assembly configuration? Or, what you can suggest, in order to avoid having parts with a configuration for each color variant (and with a 18 long code for each of them)?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Cristina

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Glenn Schroeder Aug 13, 2014 1:56 PM

I'm not at all sure what you're trying to do (small brains here also), but I'll try to help.

1. Yes, you can assign different colors to the same part at the assembly level without affecting the part file. Click on the small double arrow at the top right of the tree to expand and show columns where you can control component colors, along with several other options.

2. You mentioned different configurations of a part. Different colors for a part, at the part level, can be managed with Display States instead of configurations. It will be a simpler process, and result in smaller files, as opposed to configurations.

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Cristina Mereu @ Glenn Schroeder on Aug 13, 2014 3:18 PM

Hi Glenn,

thanks for your reply!

Maybe i didn't explain myself very well, my fault: i wasn't speaking about coloring the part, but about the product configurations.

In fact we order from variuos supplier the assemblied parts (final product), that are painted with the colors related to the final product (not the part itself colored). For example we order xxxxx-001 and xxxxx-002; those ones are two variants of the same assembly, but with parts inside with different colors:

xxxxx-001

part_a_white

part_b_chrome

part_c_white

xxxxx-002

part_a_black

part_b_chrome

part_c_satin gold

We are only speaking about paintings, not surface treatments, and we receive the final product assembled (the company work is to design and sell)... so i cannot understand why they want to make everything difficult... but the Technical Director said months ago to make for every color a sldprt model, so with 100 colors you obtained 100 model of the same part_a!!!!!! CRAZY... and 100 checkin in a PDM...

Even going with configurations, according to me, have configurations of parts with the various colors, or a parts per color, have no sense. My idea is that the Technical Office have to design the parts without indicating the color (or indicating the available color in a table inside the related drawing) and the Purchasing Department in the MRP/ERP makes the final product configurations.. but as i said i cannot modify too much the Company.. small brains, big problems...

My last idea is to use the BOM in the assembly, with additional columns for the product color variant.

But the question is: how do you treat the final product color variants?

I sincerely hope now i have been more clear!

Cristina

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Jamil Snead @ Cristina Mereu on Aug 13, 2014 3:43 PM

It makes sense to have a different part number for each color of a part that you might buy, but whether or not you should have a SW model for each color is a whole other story. I would personally opt for the method you described, where you use a table on the part to list all color variations and the associated dash numbers, and then a table on the assembly to list all assembly color combinations and the associated assembly part number and corresponding component part numbers. In this case there is no reason to have multiple configurations of the parts or assembly.

The only reason I can think of to actually make every configuration in SW is to have the part numbers in the tables be linked to the models. But I think to get the table in the part drawings you would have to make the configurations with a design table and insert the design table into the drawing. I have never done this before but from what I've read it seems like dealing with design tables in drawings is a big pain in the butt. Then in the assembly you would need to create a configuration for every color combination, which could be a lot. On the assembly drawing you could create a SW BOM that lists every configuration, but I doubt you'd be able to get the table exactly the way you want it.

So in summary I think it would be better to just manually create the tables on drawings for the different combinations and let purchasing/production set up all of the versions and combinations in the computer.

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Glenn Schroeder Aug 13, 2014 1:56 PM
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I'm not at all sure what you're trying to do (small brains here also), but I'll try to help.

1. Yes, you can assign different colors to the same part at the assembly level without affecting the part file. Click on the small double arrow at the top right of the tree to expand and show columns where you can control component colors, along with several other options.
2. You mentioned different configurations of a part. Different colors for a part, at the part level, can be managed with Display States instead of configurations. It will be a simpler process, and result in smaller files, as opposed to configurations.
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- Cristina Mereu @ Glenn Schroeder on Aug 13, 2014 3:18 PM
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  Correct Answer
  Hi Glenn,
  
  thanks for your reply!
  
  Maybe i didn't explain myself very well, my fault: i wasn't speaking about coloring the part, but about the product configurations.
  
  In fact we order from variuos supplier the assemblied parts (final product), that are painted with the colors related to the final product (not the part itself colored). For example we order xxxxx-001 and xxxxx-002; those ones are two variants of the same assembly, but with parts inside with different colors:
  
  xxxxx-001
  part_a_white
  part_b_chrome
  part_c_white
  
  xxxxx-002
  part_a_black
  part_b_chrome
  part_c_satin gold
  
  We are only speaking about paintings, not surface treatments, and we receive the final product assembled (the company work is to design and sell)... so i cannot understand why they want to make everything difficult... but the Technical Director said months ago to make for every color a sldprt model, so with 100 colors you obtained 100 model of the same part_a!!!!!! CRAZY... and 100 checkin in a PDM...
  
  Even going with configurations, according to me, have configurations of parts with the various colors, or a parts per color, have no sense. My idea is that the Technical Office have to design the parts without indicating the color (or indicating the available color in a table inside the related drawing) and the Purchasing Department in the MRP/ERP makes the final product configurations.. but as i said i cannot modify too much the Company.. small brains, big problems...
  
  My last idea is to use the BOM in the assembly, with additional columns for the product color variant.
  
  But the question is: how do you treat the final product color variants?
  
  I sincerely hope now i have been more clear!
  
  Cristina
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  - Jamil Snead @ Cristina Mereu on Aug 13, 2014 3:43 PM
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    It makes sense to have a different part number for each color of a part that you might buy, but whether or not you should have a SW model for each color is a whole other story. I would personally opt for the method you described, where you use a table on the part to list all color variations and the associated dash numbers, and then a table on the assembly to list all assembly color combinations and the associated assembly part number and corresponding component part numbers. In this case there is no reason to have multiple configurations of the parts or assembly.
    
    The only reason I can think of to actually make every configuration in SW is to have the part numbers in the tables be linked to the models. But I think to get the table in the part drawings you would have to make the configurations with a design table and insert the design table into the drawing. I have never done this before but from what I've read it seems like dealing with design tables in drawings is a big pain in the butt. Then in the assembly you would need to create a configuration for every color combination, which could be a lot. On the assembly drawing you could create a SW BOM that lists every configuration, but I doubt you'd be able to get the table exactly the way you want it.
    
    So in summary I think it would be better to just manually create the tables on drawings for the different combinations and let purchasing/production set up all of the versions and combinations in the computer.
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Managing color variants at assembly level

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