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

The empties are several components grouped together in a bill of material (empties BOM). The full product together with the unit of measure form the BOM header. This unit of measure must be one of the units of measure defined for the full product.

The different components in the bill of material and the full product itself each have an article master record.

In the standard SAP Retail System, you create empties as a single article with the article type Empties (retail).

The full product can be either:

• Single article

• Variant of a generic article

• The variants can be ordered and received only as individual articles, not at generic article level using the matrix of variants defined for the generic article.

• Hierarchical subitems (generic article - variant - empties) are not supported in inventory management.

The full product must not have the article type Empties (retail).

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

When you list a full product to which empties have been assigned, the system always lists the empties too.