Working with Line Plan Views and Updating Data in FlexPLM

FlexPLM gives you the ability to define a robust attribute set to accurately detail your products and other items in the database like materials and suppliers. You can use the Type Manager to define attributes and set the Table Editable and Mass Change options for easy editing. Once your attributes are associated with your products, you can generate common reports for different users by creating a “View” of their desired data with the appropriate attribute values.

Line plan views

• To create a new “View” of your data, select the “Create New Table Layout” icon next to “Views” pull down list from the default Line Plan page.
• This will launch an editor which first requires the entry of the name of the view.
• You can then select the desired attribute(s) to display, either by double clicking on it, or highlighting it and selecting “Add” to move it to the displayed attributes column.
• Once all desired attributes have been selected, hit the “Update” button.
• Hit the “Return” button, which brings the user back to the Line Plan View.
• The new “View” is available on the pull down list, showing only those attributes you selected.
• To modify the order of the attributes, select the “Update Table Layout” icon, and highlight the specific attribute.
• Use the UP or DOWN arrows and move the attribute into its desired sequence location.
• Don’t forget to select the “Update” button to save your changes. (Figure 1)

Users can define many different “Views” of their data by repeating the process above to generate many of the common reports typically done in Excel today. Note that “Views” can be copied and then modified for slight variations, as well as shared among different users in your company. Different “Views” can be defined as the Default view for different users, allowing each user to initially see the data they are most commonly interesting in.

In addition to creating different “Views” to display the desired attributes, you can leverage the Filtering capability within the Line Plan to display only the desired products/styles you are interested in viewing. Filters are created and modified in a similar way to Views; you can create numerous filters, keying each new filter from one or more attributes. This combination of hiding/showing specific attributes for desired styles will contribute greatly to reporting efforts currently done today. (Figure 2)

Updating data within a line plan view

Now that you have the appropriate data displayed in your “View” of the Line Plan, you may want to modify specific values. For example, if you are a production manager you may want to update the Sourcing Manager for a style, as well as change the actual supplier for a style. Rather than go to each individual style, and update those values, you can do it right from your “View” of the Line Plan.

• By selecting the “Edit Line Sheet (Product-Season)” option from the ACTIONS pull down menu, the Line Plan shifts into edit mode, and opens up like a spreadsheet.
• For those attributes defined as Table Editable (see earlier note), you can enter in new value(s) across many different styles.
• In addition, for those attributes changed via the “Mass Change” option, selecting the “Mass Change” button will allow one value to be selected and passed on to all displayed styles. (Figure 3)

This provides a fast, efficient manner to update value(s) across many different styles that may be in development.