Role-based Workflows, Classification and Security Permissions in Aras

MarcL: PLM solutions should allow for the creation of workflows by specific roles (role-based workflow), so that individual users belonging to a specific role or group are guided through a workflow that is tailored for their process requirements.

Peter Schroer:

The entire Aras Innovator platform is a roles-based system including workflow processes.

All Workflow and Lifecycle assignments are made to Identities in the security model.

Identity is an Aras abstraction that resolves to either an individual person, all persons trained to perform a role, or all persons that are members of a group, where groups and roles are also hierarchical.

Classification can be used for different roles / groups by product line, product type, program project, plant, division, doc type or any other designation (or combination of) to guide BPM workflows.

Business rules can of course be based on other attributes for whatever complicated workflow scenario your business requires as well.

We provide training on how to set-up, administer and customize Aras Innovator’s workflows, lifecycles and classification structures as well as security permissions for identities, roles and groups.

For additional information see ‘BPM Workflow Voting, Conditional Process Steps and Dynamic Assignments in Aras’ or check out the Posts Tagged ‘Workflow’.

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Change Process Definition, SOA Workflow Service and Integration in Aras

MarcL: PLM solutions must support the ability to define multiple change procedures with different flows, timing constraints and voting rules, and the same process(es) should be able to be used for both part-centric and document-centric change processes. PLM solutions should also be able to model and execute multiple-step work processes at multiple levels (parent-child processes).

Peter Schroer:

This requirement is exactly the reason that Aras has created a general-purpose BPM (business process management) service instead of a hard-coded engineering change workflow module.

It is also the reason why Aras has a separation between Lifecycle and Workflow       where Lifecycle is about “State” management (i.e. a Part is In Draft, In Review, Released, etc) and Workflow is about “Process” management (i.e. routing a Form with attached Items & Files around for activities).

It is quite typical for companies to have common Lifecycles for Parts. These can be a single standard Lifecycle or different Lifecycles based on Classification, such as Mechanical having a different Lifecycle than Electrical which is different than Software/Firmware, etc.

The Workflow process map for any specific Part might be completely different.  These differences can be driven by the different business units, the Classification of the Parts, the complexity or risk level of the Change, etc.

A typical large company running Aras will have a dozen Lifecycle definitions (parts, documents, tools, specifications, etc.), and then many dozens of Workflow Process definitions for controlling those Lifecycles.   In this way, Aras is able to model the real-world business practices without compromise.

Aras Workflow Process Studio Provides Customization through Modeling and Powerful Web Services Integration Capabilities

The Aras Workflow service supports multi-step processes, with combinations of serial and parallel activities, branching based on business rules, and automatic escalation to ensure that every workflow instance that is started will be closed-loop.

Workflows are inherently hierarchical, and can be organized into libraries of Sub-Workflows that are initiated at a certain step in the Parent workflow.  This also means they can easily be re-used.

Workflows can be executed by people and other systems as well as a combination of both.

The Aras Workflow service can be used in conjunction with other systems that have BPM or Workflow capabilities like SAP, Oracle, Teamcenter, Windchill, etc or any of the BPM-specific systems         and can be either Parent or Sub-Workflow in conjunction with the other system’s Workflow. It’s a Web service.

We provide training on how to implement, customize, integrate and optimize the use of these Aras Innovator workflow process capabilities.

For additional information on workflow see the previous post ‘Lifecycle, Workflow and Other Types of Process Management in Aras’ or check out the Posts Tagged ‘Workflow’.

BPM / Workflow Escalation in Aras

MarcL: PLM solutions must be able to define escalation rules for workflow notification so that when a notification has not been responded to for a specific period of time, another pre-define user or group is notified.

Peter Schroer:

The Aras Innovator workflow web service supports a variety of escalation structures out of the box, and the escalation structure of a specific workflow process can depend on the item’s classification or other business rule.

The Aras Innovator workflow at the platform level has 2 levels of Escalation as a standard out-of-the-box Web service.

The first level is an escalation at the Activity level (there is an administrator defined escalation identity for each Activity).

The second level escalation is a notification of the process owner when the Activity fails to be completed on time by the first level escalation.

Additional escalation rules can be configured as well.

We provide training on how to implement, customize, and optimize these for self-sufficient operation of your PLM environment.

For additional information on workflow see the posts ‘BPM / Workflow Voting and Promotion Authorization in Aras’ and ‘Lifecycle, Workflow and Other Types of Process Management in Aras’ or check out the Posts Tagged ‘Workflow’.

BPM / Workflow Voting and Promotion Authorization in Aras

MarcL: PLM solutions should provide the capability of assigning multiple reviewers and voting schemes at each approval level, and be able to support different approval voting schemes such as majority, chairman override, etc., with each release level having different pre-defined approvers. Also, PLM should provide the capability to enforce second level passwords.

Peter Schroer:

Aras Innovator includes all of these workflow capabilities out-of-the-box and they are the basis for the Enterprise Change Management functionality in our solution as well as other process-based applications in the suite.

Inside the SOA framework the Aras Innovator workflow service is a full BPM (business process management) application that is integrated at the platform-level within our PLM environment.

Aras Innovator’s BPM supports advanced capabilities such as hierarchical workflow maps and dynamic assignments based on role and / or classification and can include other business rules as well.

Aras Innovator Workflow Process Map Provides Branching, Parallel Paths, Many Different Voting Capabilities and more

The browser-based solution studio uses a Graphic drag-and-drop design that power users that have the appropriate permissions can do without IT / programming skills to provide serial paths, rules-based branching, parallel paths, voting (linear, weighted, veto), tasks for users, tasks for automation, and electronic signatures (either the session password, or a 2nd level “signature” password for compliance requirements such as the FDA’s 21 CFR Part 11).

The Aras workflow web service supports varied voting schemes out-of-the-box including the majority, override (Aras calls this a Veto), individual/chairman executive override, and the specific workflow process (Map) that is executed can depend on the lifecycle status, product classification, or other business rule.

We provide training on how to implement, customize, and optimize the use of these Aras Innovator process capabilities.

For additional information on workflow see the previous post ‘Lifecycle, Workflow and Other Types of Process Management in Aras’ or check out the Posts Tagged ‘Workflow’.

Item Number Generation and Cross Referencing in Aras

MarcL: PLM solutions must support the assignment of new numbers, and it should be possible to have the system assign automatically the next available number based on rules. Many companies also need multiple numbering of the same information such as part #s, doc #s, spec #s, equipment #s and other identifying numbers, as well as, provide cross-references and allow data to be retrieved by any number that is applicable to it. For example, users should be able to enter a supplier part number and find the internal id number and access the record/document itself.

Peter Schroer:

Item Numbering in PLM

You are able to modify the business object definitions to create multiple searchable identifiers (internal part number, supplier part number, SKU, old legacy number, etc) and all of these numbers are available for searching and cross reference.

The Aras Innovator platform includes a rules-based identifier creation service (we call Sequences).   Sequences are used for unique identifiers on any object such as part numbers, document numbers, supplier IDs, corrective action IDs, ECR #s, etc.

You can combine the automatic Sequence generator with business object-specific attributes such as classification, part family, lifecycle state, etc. to create intelligent numbering schemes.

A typical example would be a prefix based on classification followed by 6 digits from a sequence, followed by a Suffix based on part family.

You can also pull numbers from other systems, such as getting new part numbers from the ERP environment like SAP or generating document numbers from an existing PDM system like Teamcenter or Windchill.

And of course you can do manual entry of numbering as well.

With Aras Innovator you can combine all of these approaches for different aspects of the system and different processes.

You might have Part numbers come from different sources depending on the Part’s classification, organization, etc.

Mechanical part numbers at the Aerospace division come from Teamcenter, whereas mech part #s in the Oil & Gas division are pulled from Windchill and the Industrial group uses the Aras Sequences services with specific dash (-) designations. And then maybe all Supplier IDs are generated in SAP.

Or you could just use our OOTB numbering for all of these different Items.    It’s up to you and it’s not hard.  We provide training on how to set-up, administer and modify these capabilities yourself.

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Attributes for Different Lifecycle States and User Groups & Roles in Aras

MarcL: PLM solutions should support different attributes for different functional users, or just the addition of attributes as the object moves through its lifecycle. Please describe how this is supported.

Peter Schroer:

Aras Innovator maintains a 3x matrix of Role and LifeCycle and Classification for determining which attributes are displayed (and required) for any business objects.

More complex rules for determining which Attributes are displayed can also be created by the administrator.

We provide training on how to administer and modify these capabilities yourself as well.