1.1. Article assignment (initial filling of LinkDB)

Chapter 1. PARTdataCenter 1.1. Article assignment (initial filling of LinkDB)
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Transfer data from ERP/PDM system and display in PARTdataManager

Do you want to display data from your ERP and/or PDM system such as article number, descriptions, release status, material, surface, storage information, prices, etc. in the PARTdataManager?

PARTdataManager: The columns "ERP number", "Description" and "Material" (in the figure) are just exemplarily for any information from third party systems.

Then these data have to be linked in the LinkDB with the corresponding standard and supplier parts of PARTsolutions catalogs.

ERP/PDM system are able to export article data in the form of a CSV file.

The module PARTdataCenter will automatically establish the link between the PARTsolutions characteristic attribute table and the corresponding CSV information. The number of datasets which can be linked by an automatic process depends on the quality of data. Using different filters, products which couldn't be uniquely assigned yet are filtered and so can be systematically processed. Furthermore the user interface enables a manual processing in addition.

Outline of help

General:

For getting started quickly use the provided exemplary CSV files. These only contain a few lines (characteristics) by which all important can be explained. You can find these files under "$CADENAS/training/partdatacenter/article_number_assignment/".

The most important sections:

Start
User interface and processes at a glance
Create catalog from CSV file
Manual assignment
Dimension search from A to Z (without "Optional settings ...")
LinkDB export (directly or via CSV file)

More information:

Explanations on the other templates:
- Dimension search from A to Z (with "Optional settings ...")
- Article number search - Automatic assignment by manufacturer's article number
- Attribute mapping
- Global textual mapping
- LinkDB import
Functions, settings and signs and symbols

Target group

Customer administration, ERP consultant

Providing the CSV file:

	Important
	To conduct an article assignment the CSV file has to contain certain attributes. The following list gives an overview. (Not all attributes are required necessarily.) ERP identification number (material number, ident number) Name / standard name (e.g. ISO 4762) It identifies a project within a PARTsolutions catalog. Dimensions (e.g. M10x30)^[a] These are always required to find the adequate line in the assigned project. Order number Any further data from the third party system are optional. E.g. prices, inventory, etc. This additional information is not relevant for the assignment.

^[a]Generally: Specific parameters to determine the characteristic

Note

Information on standard number, dimension, material, order number, etc. can be part of one single column as well.^[a] Nevertheless, with the help of automatically running recognition algorithms mostly an assignment is possible.

If the data does not follow any clear rule, the assignment causes additional effort, because the crucial data has to be separated either in a pre-process or within PARTdataCenter with the help of regular expressions.^[b]

^[a]See Section 1.1.5.2, “Optional settings in the node "Class Filter" (data in one field)”.

^[b]You can find an example on this under Section 1.1.6.2, “ Article Number Search with regular expression”.

LinkDB connection must be possible. As an alternative, product assignments / link information can be saved in a CSV file in an intermediate step and later be imported into the LinkDB.
The PARTsolutions target catalog has to be installed (for the following examples mostly the Standards catalog).