Smart Construction can be configured to communicate with a materials management system to provide materials status information when viewing a work package or when using the component directory.
You can perform two basic tasks using material status:
-
Material type to Purpose mapping – Maps the package purpose to a material type. A material type can be shop, field, or none. By assigning the material type to a package based on its purpose, this material type will be used to filter the material items displayed in the package. For more information on material type to purpose mapping, see Configure the work package purpose and material type mapping.
-
BOM list preparation for the package – BOM providers are available to help you to prepare a pre-determined BOM list by collecting the drawings attached to the package or by using the BOM path associated with the components. You can also add manual BOM entries if you do not see what you need in the list. Once the BOM list is ready, you can send the request to the material system.
SPC_ManagePackageMaterialStatus, SPC_AllowPackageManualBOM, and SPC_AllowPackageManualMaterials
access groups in Smart Construction are specially designed to take care of this functionality.
For more information on access groups in Smart Construction, see Configure access groups.
Material availability is an important part of effectively planning work packages and efficient execution. To aid the planner in scheduling, it is beneficial to have easy access to BOM details, on-hand quantities, and arrival dates. While Smart Construction can be configured to communicate with a materials management system to obtain this information, it is important to understand that it is intended to be a quick overview and not a replacement for interaction with the materials handlers. Smart Construction can deliver BOM details including warehouse quantities and substitutions, but warehouse allocations and utilization of substitutions can only be accurately evaluated by the material handlers. As such, Smart Construction delivers the information as it is received, with no interpretation or aggregation that might result in inaccurate or incomplete information.
Material status in component directory
While viewing components in the component directory, it can be useful to view quick material status for uniquely tagged items. To provide this status, component directory views may be configured with materials columns and the information obtained from the materials service in real-time. While this feature is intended for uniquely tagged items, you can choose to view the full BOM details on demand if more information is needed.
Material status in work packages
Once drawings and components are established in a work package, material information may be fetched from the materials system. An initial BOM list is determined based on the configured BOM provider. The planner may alter this BOM list to suit the needs of the package and then request the BOM details for the BOM list from the materials system. These results are stored until the data is refreshed by the planner. Therefore, it is advised that a final refresh be performed just prior to issuing the package. This update allows the planner or issuer to perform one final confirmation of material availability and act accordingly.
Material Issue Report in work packages
A planner can create a Material Issue Report (MIR) from within a SmartPlant Construction work package in order to send a request to the materials manager to issue the materials for that package. Once the materials are issued, the planner can view the status of the materials for the package to take the necessary actions.
Partial BOM packages
Work packages generally contain an entire BOM, which aligns well to the way materials are typically managed in the warehouse. To accommodate cases where a package contains a partial BOM, the planner may deselect items in the results, as well as make manual additions. Smart Construction retains these selections through refreshes when it is able to match the selections to the new results. It is important to always review the results after a refresh to ensure the desired results have been returned.
Intergraph Smart Materials
When connected to Smart Materials, the material status shown in Smart Construction reflects the project wide forecast data prepared in Smart Materials within the previous 180 days. This improves the information available to the planner since it considers a larger scope when calculating availability. For more information about forecasting, see the Smart Materials documentation.
Custom Smart Construction materials services can be written to connect systems other than Smart Materials. Forecast and status behavior is the responsibility of the custom service and materials system. Smart Construction does not provide this capability for custom services.
