When Adding a new production variant you specify the item, the machine or machine group, the mould and the programme you want to use. If the 'Version' is also marked with 'red' meaning the data is compulsory, an entry must be made here in order to fulfil the company-internal specifications. In all other boxes the entry of data is not compulsory.
The production variants must differ from each other in at least one of the above mentioned key characteristics.
If the 'Version' is activated as a compulsory box and you copy a variant, the first three boxes can be identical whereas the 'Version' box must be unique. When saving your data, a message will appear telling you that when the first three boxes are combined in this way, only one can have the status of 'enabled'. You will be asked if the new variant is to be given the status of 'inhibited'. Answering this question with 'yes' takes over the new variant, with 'no' it is scrapped. In order to activate the new production variant, you must first 'inhibit' the active variant and then 'enable' the new variant. Apart from the fact that the entry made in the 'Version' box must be unique, the content of the box is not evaluated further in the administration module of the production variant.
Production variants for combination orders are a special case. Here two or more different items are produced in one mould. In this case you do not enter an item for the variant. When you drop the 'combination order' in the plan table all variants are displayed for which no item is specified.
