Question:
Hi Everybody,
Let's suppose that I want to create a variant configuration for a Car.
Is it right to create the material "Car" as a configurable material and all the parts (Engine, Wheels, Transmission, etc) as characteristics ?
If these parts are create as characteristics, how can I control the inventory level for them ? As I understood, we don't have a part number assign for all of these characteristics, so how to control them
Thank you for your help.
Answer:
I wouldn't do it like that, I would consider Car to be a final assembly - so I would create a BoM for my Car and have all the other items (wheels, engine, subframe, etc.) as subcomponents of the BoM. Thereby allowing inventory / warehouse management of the parts that I had consumed to create the finished product.
Since one car might have many engines a configurable material at that level might be appropriate, or a BoM variant if you want to track how many 2 litre versus how many 1.6 litre engines were consumed in the 10 cars you made last week.
Does that help?
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Kind Regards
Rosie Brent
Please remember to search the forum and check the FAQ before posting questions, thank you.
Tuly Idiot most of the time, part-time Guru
Answer:
Thanks for the prompt reply.
You're right, but this is the point. How can I control the inventory level for the engine 1.6 and engine 2.0 if they don't have any part number ? As I understood, if we create the engine as configurable material we will have just one part number "Engine". We don't have a part number for "Engine 1.6" and "Engine 2.0". Is it right ?
Thanks again.
Answer:
Configurable materials can still have a unique material number, you can enter a top level material number, enter the metrics for the specific configuration of the material you want to use and the system can resolve a part number for you, this can be used in Sales Order BoMs.
It is really dependant on what fits your business scenario best.
_________________
Kind Regards
Rosie Brent
Please remember to search the forum and check the FAQ before posting questions, thank you.
Tuly Idiot most of the time, part-time Guru
Answer:
Hi RosieBrent,
When you say that the system can resolve the part numbers, you mean that we do not have a specific part number for " Engine 1.6" and "Engine 2.0" ? How can I check the stock level for Engine 1.6, for example?
Thanks
Answer:
Hi RosieBrent,
When you say that the system can resolve the part numbers, you mean that we do not have a specific part number for " Engine 1.6" and "Engine 2.0" ? How can I check the stock level for Engine 1.6, for example?
Thanks
Hi fbz
No I mean the exact opposite. For Sales Order BoMs quite often it is necessary to allow sales staff to enter a generic material (think of it as your part ENGINE) and then specific metrics (e.g. 1.6 litre) to allow the system itself to resolve the specific material number for that particular engine and size. You quite often see this in CRM environments where many orders for similar items are being taken by telephone, it allows staff to remember a small number of part numbers, but deal with stock of actual parts numbering (in the case of my previous company) several thousand different part numbers.
When the metrics are added, the system 'explodes' the BoM onto the Sales Order / Contract / Scheduling Agreement using the specific part number for the variant of the material chosen by the user. It also tells the user if it cannot resolve a final part number (indicating that the metrics entered were invalid).
It is really dependant on what your company wants to keep in terms of stock information, asset information etc. as to how you configure your stock items in your system.
There is nothing to stop you going down your original route - I just think that what you really want to do is build complex BoMs and manage all of the sub component parts in order to track what you have built, what it has cost and where serialised etc. parts are for traceability (complete gut instinct guess here - so am prepared to be wrong!)
Come back with more detail if you want to thrash this out further... and I suggest you have a look at the Warehouse Management, Inventory Mangement and Bill Of Material information available on help.sap.com to see what route you might be best going down for your organisation.
_________________
Kind Regards
Rosie Brent
Please remember to search the forum and check the FAQ before posting questions, thank you.
Tuly Idiot most of the time, part-time Guru
Answer:
Hi RosieBrent,
Now I will think how to build up the solution.
Any other question I will let you know.
Thank you very much for your help.
Answer:
I've already customized Characteristic, Classes and Dependency groups. I have also created all the Super BOM.
Do you have any idea why I still cannot see the Sales Order BOM when I save my Sales Order? I assume that the item category is correct.
Thanks
Answer:
I've already customized Characteristic, Classes and Dependency groups. I have also created all the Super BOM.
Do you have any idea why I still cannot see the Sales Order BOM when I save my Sales Order? I assume that the item category is correct.
Thanks
When you say cannot see the Sales Order BOM what do you mean? Are you unable to select it as a valid material? Does it not explode and resolve? are there other issues?
Come back with a little more information.
_________________
Kind Regards
Rosie Brent
Please remember to search the forum and check the FAQ before posting questions, thank you.
Tuly Idiot most of the time, part-time Guru
Answer:
Hi RosieBrent,
I can select the characteristics of a specific configurable material in the Sales Order, but when I save it, the system doesn't explode/resolve the Bill of Material. Fyi, I have a Super BOM created (with Object dependencies) for this configurable material.
If you need any more information, please let me know
Thank you for you help
Answer:
Hi RosieBrent,
I can select the characteristics of a specific configurable material in the Sales Order, but when I save it, the system doesn't explode/resolve the Bill of Material. Fyi, I have a Super BOM created (with Object dependencies) for this configurable material.
If you need any more information, please let me know
Thank you for you help
Hi fbz
Okay, what I would expect you to do when raising the sales order is to put the BoM in the material field at item level, hit enter and select the characteristics for the configuration of the material you want the SO BoM to resolve to when returning to the Sales Order the SO should contain your BoM and the items resolved below it. If this is not happening I suggest you post on the SD forum with the specifics of what you are doing and what you are experiencing... someone with more SD knowledge than me will be able to assist you further I am sure
_________________
Kind Regards
Rosie Brent
Please remember to search the forum and check the FAQ before posting questions, thank you.
Tuly Idiot most of the time, part-time Guru
Answer:
Hi RosieBrent,
Before I ask some SD experts, I still have a lot of possibilities to test.
Don't you think that some of the fields in the Configuration Profile, or Dependency, or Super BOM, or Item Category or even in the Material Master Data could be responsible for this problem ?
The SAP documentation is really superficial at this point. Do you have any other documentation that I could have a look ?
Thanks again.
Answer:
It is possible that there are other factors at play of course (it's a complex process with a lot of data to configure). However, I noticed a post in the SD forum recently that mentioned a flag which can be set in BoMs other than Sales Order BoMs to ensure that they explode as expected onto Sales Orders.... this might be the reason your Super BoM is not behaving as expected. For further details having a look at this link /forums/viewtopic.php?t=57710
_________________
Kind Regards
Rosie Brent
Please remember to search the forum and check the FAQ before posting questions, thank you.
Tuly Idiot most of the time, part-time Guru
Answer:
Hi RosieBrent,
I can select the characteristics of a specific configurable material in the Sales Order, but when I save it, the system doesn't explode/resolve the Bill of Material. Fyi, I have a Super BOM created (with Object dependencies) for this configurable material.
If you need any more information, please let me know
Thank you for you help
Make sure in your Configure Profile under the configuration initial screen tab the select multi level tick is on.
Have you ever think of using a phantom item for every Characteristic that have lower level material Ex. the engins. and then create a super bom that only consist of phantom items and then create a bom for each phantom.
willemb
Answer:
Hi RosieBrent,
I've checked these other two fields that you mentioned and they are all right.
I know that a very small detail is missing. The best think is that the system can resolve the characteristics of the configurable material. As soon as enter with Material, quantity and Item category in the Sales Order and I choose the characteristics of the configurable material, the system shows me the availability screen with all the components that I chose. But the problem is that the system does not create a Sales Order BOM automatically.
Thanks.