Cognitive Sourcing 22.01 Release Notes

This document describes the final scope for Cognitive Sourcing Release 22.01. It is intended as a reference for LevaData Customers.

This document is not a comprehensive list of every addition, change, or deletion in this release. No legal commitment, either expressed or implied should be construed from this document.

Customers that would like additional information on any of the items in this document can contact support@levadatasupport.zendesk.com or their Customer Success Manager.

Table of Contents: Release Highlights

1. Enhancements to Platform
   1. User Account Information
   2. Settings
2. Enhancements to Supply Risk Navigator (SRN)
   1. Events Beta: Minor Enhancements
   2. Events Task Management: Integration to Affected Parts List
   3. Administration: Customer Vendor Sites
   4. Events Beta: Display Customer Sites in the Impacted Sites List
3. Enhancements to Smart RFX (SRFX)
   1. RFX for New Parts
   2. Toggle Views on SRFX Dashboard
4. Enhancements to New Product Accelerator (NPA)
   1. Download Flattened BOM to Excel
   2. Best BOM Costing Automation

1. Enhancements to Platform

a. User Account Information

Previously, the customer username was visible on the action bar, and the change password option was available in the settings menu. With this release, all the account-related options are available under one menu.

b. Settings

All the administrative options related to the LevaData application are currently available under the Action bar menu. In this release, they are moved to the Settings menu, which is available at the right corner of the action bar.

2. Enhancements to Supply Risk Navigator (SRN)

a. Events Beta: Minor Enhancements

• Impacted Site Prioritization - Impacted Sites are sorted by decreasing spend to facilitate user prioritization of which sites to triage. (1) Once the user selects an Event in the Events Summary, then (2) the Supplier Sites Affected table below will be filtered in descending order by Potential Spend Impact.

  

• Events: Time Zones - Events Creation and Updated Times now reflect GMT.

  

b. Events Task Management: Integration to Affected Parts List

Task Management was introduced at the LevaData platform level in Version 21.11, and the platform-level functionality was described in the corresponding Release Notes.

In the previous release, Task Management was integrated at the (1) Events list level and at the (2) Supplier Sites Affected level to facilitate internal collaboration through actionable tasks and corresponding assignment and tracking of Event Mitigation activities.

With this release, the context has been expanded and users can now assign tasks at the single or multiple part level. Upon (1) selection of one or more parts, (2) Invocation of the Part-level Task Creation icon transfers the user to the task creation page with the context set to the selected parts.

This capability can also be used to self-assign a task as a reminder. Once the task is assigned, notification with context (i.e., the event, the site(s) and the part(s)) is sent via email to the assignee, and the task becomes immediately available for viewing and processing through the Task Notification Center as described in Release Notes 21.11.

c. Administration: Customer Vendor Sites

Users can now upload their own supplier sites, at either the country/city/state or site address level. (1) Select settings from the three vertical dots menu, (2) Select Administration, (3) Select Vendor Site Management, and then (4) The Excel Download and Upload options are available for exporting and importing vendor site information.

Once the upload is complete, (1) the Upload Status will read "SUCCESS" and (2) the Accepted record count will appear green in the right column under Data Diagnostics.

If any records are rejected, they can be viewed in the Rejected column by double clicking on the red "Rejected" column, corrected, then re-uploaded. This may happen, for example, if a city name is misspelled and not found in the LevaData master geographical database, or if a mandatory field is left blank.

The rejected record with (1) error message (in this case - (2) invalid city name) and can be edited in the Excel Workbook and re-uploaded. Alternatively, the correction updates be done interactively in the LevaData platform, where the dropdown provides valid input for country, state, city, etc. If a city that you require is not in the list, a support ticket must be opened to add it our database before a site located there can be added.

3. Enhancements to Smart RFX (SRFX)

a. RFX for New Parts

Create an RFX for parts in Parts Data Management (PDM)

Before you begin: The parts should be checked out before creating a Request for Quote (RFQ) or Request for Information (RFI) in PDM. To checkout parts, the user can (1) select the desired part(s) in the Overview screen and (2) click on the Checkout.

User should (1) receive a confirmation of the checkout and (2) be able to modify the sourcing information.

Creating an RFX: RFQ or RFI can be created for the parts in an editable state in the checkout screen. To proceed, (1) select the part(s) in the checkout tab and (2) click on RFQ or RFI button. A dropdown with options (3) Create and Add to Existing appears.

To create a new RFQ or RFI, please select:

1. "Create" - and a confirmation dialog appears. A new browser tab is opened invoking RFQ creation flow upon clicking Yes.
2. "Add to Existing RFX" - and a dialog appears to select the RFX to which the part shall be added.

In the RFX Draft screen, the user can (1) configure the RFX information, (2) schedule, and (3) click on Next to preview the part information on the preview page. Discarding the RFX creation at this stage will abort the RFX creation flow.

On the Preview page, (1) verify the summary of the parts in the RFX and (2) configure the target savings.

By clicking Send, the RFQ/RFI is sent to the desired recipient, and a confirmation message is displayed.

After an RFX is successfully sent to the vendor, the customer is redirected to the Parts Data Management checkout tab.

The RFX status, RFX Name, and RFX MPN status attributes are updated accordingly, and any modifications to the RFX state are updated at the part level; however, the user cannot edit the parts' sourcing information included in an RFX in progress, so they are unavailable for selection in the checkout screen.

RFQ Data Sync: When vendors respond to the RFQ, the sourcing attributes are synchronized with the PDM at the part level. Currently, the following attributes are updated in PDM from the RFQ:

• Manufacturer Part Number (MPN) Cost
• Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)
• Lead Time (Weeks)
• Incoterms
• Payment Terms
• Standard (STD) / Non-cancelable, non-returnable (NCNR)
• Split Percentage

Notes about RFQ Data Sync:

• MPN Cost and Split % are available across various Quarters based on the requested RFQ period.
• MOQ, Lead Time, Incoterms, Payment Terms, and STD / NCNR are updated for all quarters including the Current Quarter in Parts Data Management
  • For Example: if an RFQ is created for FY23Q1, and the current Quarter is FY22Q4. The attributes mentioned above will be updated identically for FY23Q1 and FY22Q4.

Check In and Undo Check Out: Users can (1) Check In the parts to synchronize the latest sourcing information with PDM master data or discard the updates and revert to their original state by clicking on (2) Undo Check Out.

While a part is included in an RFX, it cannot be either checked-in or reverted to its original state until released. The part is removed from an RFX only when either Awarded, Closed, or Revoked.

b. Toggle Views on SRFX Dashboard

Users can now switch between two options to view the RFX content created by the current user and the content shared by their peers.

By default, the content displayed on the Dashboard is a combination of (1) All RFXs including both User Created and Shared content; however, in the dropdown a user can select (2) "Created by me" or (3) "Shared with me" options to filter the view to that discrete content accordingly.

4. Enhancements to New Product Accelerator (NPA)

a. Download Flattened BOM to Excel

The flattened Bill of Materials (BOM) type was introduced in the prior release. The user can now (1) navigate to BOM Management and (2) while toggled to the flattened view of the BOM and (3) select Download BOM the user will receive an Excel Workbook organized in the flattened BOM view.

b. Best BOM Costing Automation

Best BOM costing is the process in which the costing manager ensures that the costed BOM provided by the contract manufacturer is analyzed and optimized to ensure the best available component cost is being used. Before this release, a manual workflow was available to the costing manager to analyze and optimize the BOM cost. With this release, a single user action is now available from the UI, which automate all manual steps needed for best BOM costing:

1. BOM is analyzed to check for two conditions:
   1. LevaData (LD) Cost is available on the component.
   2. Contract Manufacturer / Original Design Manufacturer (CM/ODM) provided cost is less than the LD Cost synced from PDM.
2. Tasks are created and assigned to the respective commodity manager.

   

3. Email is triggered notifying commodity manager to take actions.
4. Tasks are monitored for closure and closed once the commodity manager successfully completes the assigned action.