Multilevel structures, or indented structures, enable you to view all component levels of an item, through multiple levels of subassemblies to the raw materials. You can also view multilevel structures across multiple organizations, copy, and compare them.

   To use multilevel structure copy:

Performing a structure copy is a productive way for reusing existing structures to define new structures for an item. Copying a multilevel structure enables you to create a new structure or to copy specific subassemblies to any level of a multilevel structure within the same organization or across multiple organizations.

For example, you can manufacture an item in different organizations than the engineering organization. You can copy past, current and future item revisions to other organizations. If certain engineering components are not enabled in the other organizations, they are enabled as part of the copying process.

This functionality can improve your organization's efficiency by enabling the copying of items and their structures across multiple organizations.

1. Select item with the context organization. You can view the common structure information. Note that the shading indicates common structure information.

2. From the Actions menu select Copy Structure. You can also use the right click to select copy structure from the Structure menu item.

3. Enter the Copy From (source) structure information to be copied in the left pane. The selected item is defaulted. Optionally you can select any item manually. Enter the Copy to (target) structure information in the right pane which indicates the components or structure to be copied.

   Structure information includes:

   • Organization

   • Item

   • Revision

   • Structure Type

   • Structure Name

   • Engineering - engineering structure or manufacturing structure.

   • Effectivity Date (based on the type of effectivity control whether date or serial number or model/unit number), this field is appropriately rendered.

   • Levels To Copy - specifies the number of top levels in a structure to copy. For example, if a structure has 20 levels, you can specify to only copy the top 10 levels to another item's structure.

   • Filter (Current, Current and Future or All)

   • Changes

4. The target structure type and name is a filtered list for only the empty/new structure of the target Item.

5. In the target structure, you can optionally provide structure description.

6. If you select the Unchecked check box next to Engineering, this will indicate that the structure is to be used in Engineering and the field changes to Checked.

7. Select the Next button, and the Copy Structure: Select Organization form appears.

8. Select one of these options:

   • Master Organization: Select this option to include all items in all levels of the master organization.

   • Organization Hierarachy: Select this option to include a specific level within your organization.

9. Select the check box next to the organization from which you want to copy a structure.

   Right-click in the check box column to Select all or Deselect All organizations.

10. Optionally, select the Common Structure and Engineering check boxes for the organization from which you want to copy a structure.

    The Common Structure check box creates a common structure based on the target structure in the selected organization and assigns the items to the organizations if they do not exist.

    The Engineering check box enables you to set the engineering type for the structure in the selected organizations. If the source structure is a manufacturing structure, you can choose to copy the source structure to a manufacturing or engineering structure.

11. Click the Next button, and the Copy Structure form appears. The Copy Structure form displays:

    • All of the organizations that the copy/common function will use

    • The components and sub-assemblies for the structure revisions for the components

    • The current item assignment

    • The organizations in which new item assignments will be made, for each component

    • The organizations in which the structure current exists

    • The organizations in which the component or subassembly will be copied to

    • The organizations that the component or subassembly currently is common in and the organizations that they will be common in after the copy

12. Complete selection of release options for end Items and sub-assemblies.

    Double clicking on a component row will bring up the Component Option form. You can use this form to control each organization at a the component level. For example you can control how the component in each organization will be managed during the copy. Unchecking the options (which vary on the copy options selected) will exclude operations on the component during the copy.

13. Click the Copy button. A popup menu appears, and you can chose from the following options:

    • Copy in Place

    • To the New change Order

    • To an Existing Change Order

14. (Optional) Select the Submit Concurrent Request check box if you want to perform the copy structure process immediately. If you select Submit Concurrent job checkbox and select the copy, you get the three options: Select Copy button, Choose from options (the option will determine how the copy operation will be processed) and Copy In Place which will create a concurrent request. The other two will allow you manage the copy through a new or existing change order.

    If you do not check the Submit Concurrent job check box and select copy, then you have the three options as before. If you choose copy in place the system proceeds with the copy.

15. Click the Copy button.

16. Copy In Place generates concurrent request and errors and details reports.

    The structure will be copied and the new structure window will open.

    Note: Structure is copied immediately and it does not create a redlined BOM.

    The structure is also copied in place and can be added to a new or an existing change order.

    When the source structure is copied into the target structure, the source component revision must be valid for the target parent item revision.

    If the target structure name is available in the sub-assemblies, all the sub-assemblies, their hierarchies and components will be available in the target structure as well.

    The effectivity of the components are created according to the value as given by the user in the copy dialog.

   To use multilevel structure compare:

Product Workbench's feature-rich graphical user interface allows you to perform a side-by-side comparison of structures across multiple organizations. You can compare two structures of the same item, two structures of different revisions of the same item, or compare structures of two different items, all accomplished by using the source and target structures you have selected for comparison in the same interface.

To compare two structures, either click the Compare Structures menu from the Action menu, or select a structure, right-click and then select Compare Structure as a context action.

1. Enter the Source Structure information for which comparison needs to be done in the left pane and the target structure information with which the comparison will be done. Structure information includes:

   • Organization

   • Item

   • Revision

   • Structure Name

   • Filter (Current, Current and Future or All)

   • Effectivity Date (based on the type of effectivity control whether Date or Serial number or Model/Unit number, this field is appropriately rendered

   • Compare Options

     • Search Criteria

     • Display Format

2. Specify the search criteria (BOM filter) and display format (all the columns you want to see in the comparison results window) for the structure.

3. Click Compare button in the dialog to view the results. Depending on the size of both structures, this may take some to time to display the results.

   The overall difference summary is shown in the status line indicating how many components have been added/deleted/changed between the two structures.

   The differences between the two structures are visually indicated according to the difference For Example, components that exist in one structure only are indicated in blue.

4. When comparing structures, you can easily browse through the next and previous differences between the two structures using the Previous and Next icon/button on the top of the window.

   Expanding a node in the source structure will automatically expand the corresponding node in the target structure to maintain a one to one correspondence between the levels of the two structures being compared.

5. You can also change the comparison criteria for the source and target structures you have selected earlier in the results window, as well using the collapsible hide/show section in the top part of the results window.