Empties are a type of returnable transport packaging or sales packaging that is normally subject to a deposit. Empties are assigned to a full product (for example, a crate containing 24 empty bottles is assigned to the full product lemonade).

Empties consist of several components that are summarized in a bill of material for empties. The full product and the unit of measure make up the bill of material header. The unit of measure of the empties must be one of the units of measure permitted for the full product.

The individual components in the bill of material and the full product itself each have their own article master record.

In the standard SAP Retail system, you create empties as single articles of article type Empties (Retail). The full product can belong to the following article types:

• Single articles

• Variant of a generic article

• The variants can only be processed individually (as single articles) in the purchase order and in goods receipt, not using the generic article matrix.

• Hierarchical sub-items (generic articles – variants – empties) are not supported in Inventory Management.

The corresponding full product must not belong to the article type Empties (Retail).

The indicator W/ empties BOM must be set for the full product. In the standard system, this indicator appears on the Basic Data screen of the article master.

If you list a full product that has empties assigned to it, the system automatically lists the empties as well.