Streamline your Supply Chain Management with Autodesk’s Fusion Manage for PLM

Autodesk Fusion Manage is a cloud-based PLM solution that streamlines supply chain management, driving efficiency and savings.

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is integral to managing a product from inception through design and manufacturing, to service and disposal. Autodesk’s PLM solution, Fusion Manage streamline this process, ensuring that every phase is meticulously documented, analyzed, and optimized. This holistic approach allows manufacturers to innovate efficiently while maintaining high standards of quality and compliance. 

Autodesk Fusion Manage: Connect People, Processes, and Data

Streamline workflows, enhance collaboration, and gain real-time visibility with PLM.

Learn More Contact Sales

Procurement: The backbone of sourcing and supply chain efficiency 

Effective procurement strategies are vital for sourcing the right materials at the best prices, which directly impacts the bottom line. Procurement and sourcing solutions must be designed to optimize sourcing activities, ensuring that manufacturers can engage suppliers and manufacturers who meet their specific criteria for quality, cost, and reliability. 

Component sourcing management is a crucial enterprise function that bridges Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Increasingly, organizations expect PLM solutions to assist with procurement and sourcing activities. A key reason is the prevalent supply chain challenges. organizations seek to perform quick “what if” analyses to evaluate cost versus lead time alternatives. Using PLM to help manage and automate a list of approved manufacturers and suppliers, complete with unit costs and lead times, facilitates informed decision-making for positive business impacts. Additionally, carbon footprint tracking has heightened the need to consider supplier locations and shipping distances.  

Enter Autodesk’s PLM solution Fusion Manage  

If you’re not familiar with Fusion Manage, it’s a cloud-based PLM solution. It provides supply chain management, automates workflows, and improves collaboration for everyone involved in product development. It also features an open API for integration with ERP and other business systems. 

Fusion Manage PLM facilitates two primary business processes concerning suppliers: 

Supplier management 

Procurement specialists can efficiently manage supplier onboarding, approvals, certifications, and KPIs using Autodesk’s integrated solutions. Regular audits to monitor supplier performance can be planned, with the PLM system prompting specialists with due dates and tasks. Supplier certification documentation can be seamlessly managed, ensuring all necessary records are up to date. Additionally, any non-conformance issues arising from suppliers can be tracked within the same application, keeping all relevant information consolidated in one place for improved oversight and decision-making. 

Component sourcing management 

Procurement specialists can actively work towards derisking the supply chain by having multiple manufacturers and suppliers who can supply critical components.  Fusion Manage PLM supports comprehensive sourcing capabilities, allowing users to: 

• Manage supplier and manufacturer part number information for a given component 

• Manage quote (qty, lead time, unit cost) for each supplied part 

• Set a quote as a default to roll up cost information on Fusion Manage’s bill of materials (BOM) tab 

• Facilitate what-if analysis by changing the supplier/quote information while on the BOM tab 

• Find components supplied by each supplier 

• Add custom sourcing properties  

Availability of the sourcing capability in Fusion Manage can help customers to achieve operational efficiency, cost savings, and stay up-to-date during ever-evolving supply chain changes. 

Enabling sourcing capabilities in your Fusion Manage tenant 

This next section is for Fusion Manage customers with step-by-step instructions on how to enable sourcing capabilities in your Fusion Manage tenant. 

If you don’t see a sourcing tab for Items Workspace or Item and BOMs Workspace, then a couple of configuration changes are needed. 

Here are mandatory configuration changes you need to do: 

Enable permissions to sourcing information

• Grant permission to sourcing tab in Items or Items and BOMs workspace 
  • Update role Items [R/W] or Items and BOMs [R/W] 
    • Add permission for all Sourcing related actions

• Update role Items [R] or Items and BOMs [R] 
  • Add permission to view Sourcing information 

• Add permission to view Supplied Items in Suppliers workspace 
  • Update role Suppliers [R/W] and Suppliers [R] 

Configure a BOM view to support cost rollups

This BOM View should contain the sourcing fields apart from the other fields.  

The sourcing fields of relevance are supplier, supplier part no., unit cost, total cost, manufacturer and manufacturer part number. 

Here are optional configuration changes you need to do :

On the approved manufacturer list (AML) tab 

If your configuration has AML tab enabled for Items / Items and BOMs, then it is good to get rid of it to avoid any confusion with the Sourcing tab. 

• Remove permission to the Grid tab on Items workspace or Items and BOMs workspace. 

• Reclaim the Grid tab for other purposes by removing all fields related to AML  

Sourcing summary on items details page 

A sourcing summary on the items detail page could provide a quick comparison of the default quote with other quotes. 

Setting up the “sourcing summary” requires adding a “Sourcing Summary” section and a custom on demand script to copy over the summary from the sourcing tab. 

If you already have the “AML summary” section for your Item, you can rename it to “Sourcing Summary”. 

Potential savings fields are computed fields which follow a pattern: Default Quote Value – Minimum value (Ex: UNIT_COST – UNIT_COST_MIN) 

Potential Savings % fields are computed fields which follow similar patterns. 

Example: 

CASE 
   WHEN (UNIT_COST > 0) THEN (UNIT_COST – UNIT_COST_MIN) * 100 / UNIT_COST 
END  

Add an action script (Update Sourcing Summary) to copy over sourcing information to “Sourcing Summary”.  A sample script is available at Fusion Manage Help | Scripting Examples | Autodesk  

Manufacturer PN script update 

In case, you have not modified the default “Manufacturer PN WF Validations” and “Manufacturer PN WF Actions” scripts, you may need to update those. 

• Manufacturer PN WF Actions – Disable Item Updates, specifically functions addMPNs( ) and removeMPNs( ) 

• Manufacturer PN WF Validations – Disable validation on approval and Archival  

Fusion Manage for PLM

I hope these instructions are helpful. Efficient component sourcing and supplier management are crucial elements for the success of any manufacturing operation. Fusion Manage is a powerful PLM solution that can help businesses streamline their supply chain processes, ensuring that they have access to high-quality components at competitive prices. All this in the same ecosystem which hosts their engineering, change management, NPI and quality management data.  

As the manufacturing industry continues to evolve, companies that prioritize strategic sourcing and robust supplier management will be better positioned to navigate challenges and seize opportunities in a dynamic market landscape. Embracing digital solutions and data-driven decision-making can empower businesses to optimize their supply chain, enhance operational efficiency, and ultimately achieve sustainable growth. 

Autodesk Fusion Manage: Connect People, Processes, and Data

Streamline workflows, enhance collaboration, and gain real-time visibility with PLM.

Learn More Contact Sales