Lifecycle States (Items)

The lifecycle state of an item indicates where the item is within the design and manufacturing process. An item can be marked as a Work in progress, In Review, Released to production, or Obsolete. Use lifecycle states to track the release status of items.

General Rules for Item Lifecycle States

• Only users with Item Editor Level 2, ERP Manager, or Administrator roles can change the state of an item.
• Releasing an assembly automatically releases any previously unreleased children.  
• An assembly cannot be released if any of its children are not released, or have not been previously released.
• The effectivity date for an item must be specified to release the item to production. The default value is the date the item is released.
• When an item is released, all parents of that item automatically consume the latest revision of the item in their Latest Bill of Materials.
• The BOM shows the most current revision of all released children.
• Obsolete and released items can only be changed back to a WIP state.
• In release prior to Vault Proffessional 2012, an obsolete child can only have obsolete parents.Obsolete items can only appear in BOMs of obsolete parents. It is not possible to have an obsolete item in a Bill of Material of an assembly that is not obsolete.
• In Vault Proffessional 2012, Items can be set to Obsolete at any time and can appear in a released assembly's BOM. An assembly can not be released with Obsolete child items, however.

Rules for Change Orders and Lifecycle States

• If an item in the Released state is added to a change order and the Change Order Administrator Allows Edit, the item's state changes to Work in Progress and a new revision is created, unless the bump revision action is set to None in the Lifecycle Rules dialog box.
• If the change administrator changes Allow Edit on a change order so that the item cannot be edited (check box on Allow Edit is off) on an item in the Work in Progress state, it changes the item to In Review so that it is not editable.

  After a new revision is created, the change administrator can switch between making the item editable and non-editable by enabling or disabling Allow Edits. This action changes the lifecycle state of the item:

  • If the item is in a Work in Progress state, selecting Allow Edit changes the lifecycle state to In Review.
  • If the item is in a In Review lifecycle state, selecting Allow Edit changes the lifecycle state to Work in Progress state.
• If the item is in the Released state when the Change order is approved, no lifecycle state change occurs.
• In releases prior to Vault Professional 2012, Obsolete items cannot be associated with a change order.
• In Vault Professional 2012, Items may be Obsoleted in a Change Order and the Change Order can be approved with Obsolete items attached.

Change an Item Lifecycle State

Only users with Item Editor Level 2, ERP Manager, or Administrator roles can change the state on an item.

1. Right-click an item in the Item Master, and select Change State.
2. Select the lifecycle state for the item.

   If the item is in the Released State, you can set the effectivity date for the item. Select Set Effectivity to specify the effectivity date.

3. Click OK.
Note: Releasing an assembly forces the release of its children. 

Skip a Lifecycle State Revision Bump (Vault Professional Only)

Revision bumps can be configured to take place automatically on any state change. In Vault Professional 2012, users with the Administrator, Item Editor (Level 2), or ERP Manager roles can choose to skip the configured automatic revision bump on any item state change.

1. Right-click a released item in the Item Master, and select Change State.

2. Select the Work in Progress lifecycle state for the item.

   If the Lifecycle is configured to bump revision, the Skip Revision Bump checkbox will enable.

3. Check the Skip Revision Bump check box.

4. Click OK.

The Item will be moved to Work in Progress and remain at the same Revision.

Change the Item Lifecycle State Display Name

1. Select Tools Administration.
2. Select the Items tab.
3. In the Lifecycles and Revisions section, click Configure.
4. In the Configure Item Lifecycle dialog box, select a lifecycle state from the list.
5. In the Display Name column, double-click the current display name for the lifecycle state and then enter a new display name.
6. Click OK.

Roll Back the Lifecycle State of an Item

 Only users with Item Editor Level 2, ERP Manager, or Administrator roles can change the state on an item.

1. Select an item in the Item Master, and then select Actions  Roll Back Lifecycle State Change.
2. In the Roll Back Lifecycle State Change dialog box, specify whether or not a new version of the associated file should be created. If you are rolling back an item from Released to either In Review or Work In Progress, this option is not available.
3. Click Continue.