A product family is a grouping of products whose similarity in resource usage, design, and manufacturing process facilitates planning at an aggregate level. A product family cannot be a part of a Standard, Model, Option Class, or Planning Bill of Material. Consequently, a product family is a single level bill. Members of a product family can belong to one and only one product family. You will be able to plan based on the planning percentages and effectivity of the product family members.

   To create a product family item:

1. Navigate to the Master Item window.

   Additional Information: If you are a Flow Manufacturing customer, select Product Family from the Flow Manufacturing window. The product family template is automatically applied.

2. Apply the product family template. See: Item Templates.

   To define a default template for product family items, you must select a template from the INV: Product Family Item Template Name profile option. The template assigned in this profile option will be automatically applied when you create a new product family item.

   Note: You are not required to use the product family template. If you choose not to use a template, make sure that you define the correct product family attributes. Specifically, the item must be an inventory item and the BOM Item Type must be Product Family. The item must also be BOM allowed.

   Each product family corresponds to an item category. A new category is added for each product family item that is defined. The relationship between the product family item and the product family category is established by the equality of their concatenated key flexfield segment values. The category has the same name as the product family item. Consequently, product family item categories have the same flexfield structure as the System Items Flexfield. A new structure called Product Family has been defined for the Item Categories Flexfield. Each product family member item and the product family item itself are assigned to the corresponding category within the Product Family category set. The assignment is removed when an item is no longer a member of a product family.

   To assign product family members:

1. Navigate to the Product Family window.

   Note: If you are using Oracle Flow Manufacturing, you can select Product Family Members from the Flow Manufacturing menu.

2. Select a product family item.

3. Select item members of the product family. The description, type, forecast control, and planning method for the member items are displayed for the items selected.

   Additional Information: When an item is included in a product family, it will be automatically assigned to the same category as the family item.

4. Commit the record by selecting Save from the File menu.

   Additional Information: You can commit a record without assigning planning percentages. The default planning percent is 100. The default effectivity date is the system date.

   To assign planning percentages to product family members:

1. Navigate to the Product Family window. Do this by selecting Defining Product Families from the Bills of Material menu.

2. To assign planning percentages for a member item, choose the Allocation button.

3. Enter the product family member's planning factor.

4. Enter effectivity dates for the item. Effectivity dates cannot overlap.

5. Optionally, enter comment text.

6. Commit the record by selecting Save from the File menu.

   Additional Information: You can commit a record without assigning planning percentages. The default planning percent is 100. The default effectivity date is the system date.