The effort required to create and maintain requirements for product variants is often enormous. There is also a risk of inconsist

The effort required to create and maintain requirements for product variants is often enormous. There is also a risk of inconsistencies: the same requirement can be formulated or interpreted differently across different product variants, leading to errors, quality losses, and additional work. To meet these challenges, CONTACT Software is now integrating variant management for specifications in CIM Database PLM. “With this enhancement, our customers can master increasing complexity and take their product documentation to a new level. This is a crucial step in accelerating time to market,” says Anica Kleinjan, Product Manager PLM at CONTACT Software.

Here's how variant management for specifications works in detail: The features and combinations that are valid are defined. This serves as the basis for efficient definition and management of requirements. A comprehensive 150 percent specification is modeled in the MaxSpec Editor. This contains all potential requirements for the possible product variants as well as selection rules that define which requirements apply to which product features.

Users can then use this central source to create individual 100 percent specifications for specific variants. This process ensures that requirements are formulated uniformly across different variants, which significantly increases quality and minimizes errors. The valid variant configurations are stored in the Variant Manager, from which specific 100 percent specifications can then be derived. As a result, variant-specific specifications can be created much more quickly.

Each generated requirement includes an explicit reference to the original requirement from the 150 percent specification and a variant classification. This is intended to guarantee complete traceability, as requirements and associated articles can be clearly assigned to a specific product variant.

encies: the same requirement can be formulated or interpreted differently across different product variants, leading to errors, quality losses, and additional work. To meet these challenges, CONTACT Software is now integrating variant management for specifications in CIM Database PLM. “With this enhancement, our customers can master increasing complexity and take their product documentation to a new level. This is a crucial step in accelerating time to market,” says Anica Kleinjan, Product Manager PLM at CONTACT Software.

Here's how variant management for specifications works in detail: The features and combinations that are valid are defined. This serves as the basis for efficient definition and management of requirements. A comprehensive 150 percent specification is modeled in the MaxSpec Editor. This contains all potential requirements for the possible product variants as well as selection rules that define which requirements apply to which product features.

Users can then use this central source to create individual 100 percent specifications for specific variants. This process ensures that requirements are formulated uniformly across different variants, which significantly increases quality and minimizes errors. The valid variant configurations are stored in the Variant Manager, from which specific 100 percent specifications can then be derived. As a result, variant-specific specifications can be created much more quickly.

Each generated requirement includes an explicit reference to the original requirement from the 150 percent specification and a variant classification. This is intended to guarantee complete traceability, as requirements and associated articles can be clearly assigned to a specific product variant.

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