Material 

Purpose

• In projects that have few material requirements, you can assign the network activities material components individually.
• You can assign a material with a BOM to an activity and then explode the BOM (level by level).
• If you work with BOMs that contain a large number of components or that are still been built up, you can expect to make several changes to the BOM during the project. You can minimize the amount of work involved in making these changes in the project by using BOM transfer. Here you create logical connections between BOM items and the network activities. To update the changes in the BOM in the project, you only have to execute the assignment again.
• If you use standard networks for creating your networks, you can predefine material assignments by assigning material to activities in standard networks. When you then create a network, these component assignments are copied. You can use this method together with variant configuration, if you use projects to manufacture "products" that differ but use the same material components and have a similar project structure. In this case, you create a configurable standard network that is assigned a super BOM, which contains all possible components. When you create a network, the system copies the necessary components to the network, based on the characteristic value assignment.
• Assembly processing is a special case of this process, in which the Project System has a direct connection to sales: If you enter a material that has been set up in the correct manner in a sales document item and this material is assigned to a standard network, a project structure is generated automatically from the sales document. The material requirements can be predefined in the standard network as above.

When you assign a material, you can determine how it is to be procured via the item category and other settings. For a brief guide to the settings in the system that affect procurement, see Procurement Settings

• The SAP standard item category N (non-stock item) always leads to direct procurement and to a purchase requisition, which is generated by the network. The system does not generate reservations that are relevant to MRP. You cannot post movements to stock for components with item category N.
• Inventory management is envisaged for the SAP standard item category L (stock item). Depending on the settings in the material master and the bill of material, or the settings and assignments in the project system, the system generates for components with this item category a reservation or a reservation and a purchase requisition. For more information, see Procurement Settings

During the scheduling of a project, the system also determines the requirements dates of the components in relation to the activity dates. This ensures that you can control and monitor the staging of the required components.

Due to the multi-level BOM explosion in networks, you can control dates exactly, since you can examine not only the top component but also all the subordinate BOM items.

With Monitoring Dates you have a tool with which you can manage the dates in materials procurement (internal and external).

Material for a project can either be kept in general plant stock or an individual customer stock. You can use project stock to view the material components required by a project separately with regard inventory management and MRP. If a network is assigned to a sales order, you can also manage the material components in sales order stock. For more information, see Managing Stocks of Material Components and Project Stock.

If components are assigned to a project, you can create deliveries in the Project System, and as a result deliver independently of a sales order.

Via third party orders, it is possible to have externally procured components delivered directly from the vendor to the customer.