Creating a Configuration Change Profile

Use

Depending on the status of the vehicle and which configuration role the VMS user has, a configuration change profile determines which configuration characteristics can still be changed in the SAP Internet Pricing and Configurator (SAP IPC) and which cannot. For example, when you create a sales order or change a purchase order, characteristics that can no longer be changed can either be displayed or hidden to the user.

For example, you can subdivide the configuration characteristics into characteristics relevant to the order such as color or engine, and characteristics relevant to rework or accessories, such as a roof rack. The dealer can then, as of a specific point in time, only change the second type of characteristic whereas the importer can still change both.

Characteristics that are visible but cannot be changed can be characteristics, for example, that involve country-specific requirements (right-hand or left-hand drive, yellow headlights, and so on) or characteristics that relate to levels of emission allowed by law, such as exhaust pipes or catalysts.

Prerequisites

  • You have created the required material master data and configuration data . If you use SAP IPC for vehicle configuration, you have downloaded the data to the IPC system.

  • You have created a configuration role for each role in the configuration activity (such as importer employee or dealer employee).

Procedure

  1. In transaction VELOP, create a configuration change profile for every combination of characteristics that can be changed and under Define Visibility of Characteristics , define which configuration characteristics you want to be visible but not changeable and which you do not want to be visible.

    To do this, you must know the configuration characteristics for the vehicle models for which you want to create the configuration change profile.

  2. Define when you want the profile to be used under Define Determination of Profile .

    Determination can be dependent on the following parameters:

    • Configuration role

    • Vehicle model

    • Availability status

    • Primary action control

    • Primary status

    • Secondary action control

    • Secondary status

    Note Note

    For primary and secondary statuses you can also use a generic status, that is, a status with placeholders such as MM* or SD*.

    For more information, see Vehicle and Action Control .

    All this data is for optional fields, in other words, you can choose how much or how little data you want to include. The entry that best fits the vehicle is used.

    Create an entry for each status combination for which you can execute an action with configuration. You can group together more than one status with the generic status and thus reduce the number of entries.

    End of the note.

    Note Note

    You can analyze the determination of the configuration change profile with transaction VELOPR. For example, you can display which configuration change profiles already exist for a specific vehicle model and a specific characteristic. With this information you can then check whether your entries in the table for defining configuration change profiles (transaction VELOP) are correct and complete.

    End of the note.

Result

When you start SAP IPC or the characteristic value assignment screen from the Vehicle Manager in order to configure a vehicle, the system determines which configuration role has been assigned to the user, which vehicle model the user is currently configuring, and the status of the vehicle being configured.

Depending on these input parameters, the system determines which configuration change profile has to be used during the configuration and transfers this profile to SAP IPC or to the characteristic value assignment screen.

Note Note

You can define your own determination logic in the Business Add-In (BAdI) VLC_DETERM_CHPROFILE.

End of the note.

Example

There are two configuration roles, importer and dealer, for which you have created the VMS roles KPIM and KPHD .

The vehicle model MEDIUMCAR has the configuration characteristics MOTOR , AUSSENFARBE (exterior color) and INNENFARBE (interior color) .

When the manufacturer has confirmed the purchase order (let us presume this is primary status MM10 of primary action control MMCT ), the importer is no longer allowed to change the engine and the dealer is not allowed to change the engine or the exterior color or the interior color.

You therefore need the following two configuration change profiles:

Profile

Description

Characteristic

Changeability

CP_ONE

Engine cannot be changed

MOTOR

Cannot be changed

CP_TWO

Engine, exterior color, interior color cannot be changed

MOTOREXTERIOR_COLORINTERIOR_COLOR

Cannot be changedCannot be changedCannot be changed

Profile determination is then as follows:

Profile

Role

Material

Primary action control

Primary status

CP_ONE

KPIM

MEDIUMCAR

MMCT

MM10

CP_TWO

KPHD

MEDIUMCAR

MMCT

MM10