Specify product's structure by entering specification. There are various definitions of product structure occurring throughout different manufacturing branches. Below you can see some of them: specification, recipe, technology specification... We will constantly use the term specification in the follow-up. Using a product specification you can:

• see which materials and semi-finished products are used in constructing a product (specification) and
• which operations need to performed (procedures) in production

This division can lead to further basic division. To create a product you use material. Material is then used in assemblies to finally get the product. This construction can go through several stages. It is best to add the term product structure to the basic one for specification.

Not forgetting of course that its definition varies throughout manufacturing branches. It most often is not used in food, chemical and textile industries. To create a finished product from materials you use recipes in the above-mentiond branches.

In technical manufacturing where product is made of a great number of various materials it represents one of the main components. A product component can be seen as a subassembly (semi-finished product).

Dismantling a product enables you to view product structure and at the same time allows you to use the same subassembly in multiple related products. It simplifies preparation of standards decreasing cost of manufacturing because you can create subassemblies for multiple products.

Individual subassembly can be processed same way as the product itself. That is, it can be dismantled with its own specification and a list of procedures used. Any product can be represented in tree-structure view branching out to semi-finished products and materials. This is called structural specification whih can have multiple levels. The number of levels is not restricted.

Below you can see how a product is created:

Material is by all means the underlying component. It represents for example raw material or any other asset you purchase and integrate it in your product at any level.

When preparating a specification we should take a look at procedure and operation.

The most detailed piece of data in technological product deconstruction is operation. Operations can be divided as follows: working, fictional, control, external.

Typically, duration and resource where operation is being carried out are defined Set production and set-up time for operation.

Individual operation is closely related to the position of employement which is set as resource. Besides this you will also find terms such as technological division, position. work center, etc.

Indivdiual operations are grouped into technological procedure. It represents an order of individual operations which are interrelated. That is, set how operations follow each other, pace and delay. This way you can set cycle time for individual technological procedure.

Take special care when entering alternates. By using them it is allowed that a specific product can be manufactured using different materials and procedures. Thus a specification can contain (product) specification, plus 250 various alternates.

Besides the product specification there are also plan specifications (by linking individual specification with plan) and manufacturing specifications (by linking specification with work order).

Whenever you use contractors in order to create assemblies and in finishing operations you have to set the operations as external. For more information see topic Setting-up Subcontracting in Specifications.

Besides previously mentioned specifications which are used in the PANTHEON manufacturing module, there is also the commercial specification allowing you to create simple structured compound products. Here is mainly processed material product structure. There are only descriptions given for technological procedures without any processing. Edit it in the Items register.

Whenever specifications are used in manufacturing module the commercial specification is not used.

Using specifications also provides you with a possibility to calculate production costs estimate in costing (cost estimation) since most variable production costs, and indirectly a major part of fixed production costs are specified in them.