Strategies for Variants 
Strategies for Variants
Definition
This section describes how to plan products that have a practical limited number of possible combinations of characteristics and characteristic values. Technically speaking this section describes the use of variants to sell configurable materials.
Variants can be used to facilitate the work with configurable materials. Variants of a configurable material are, for example, defined to prefabricate frequently required configurations and place them in stock, which is why variants were formerly called stockable types.
For some configurable materials, it may be difficult to determine the variants of a configurable material. To use the strategies for variants effectively you must have an estimate of future consumption for each variant.
If the configuration is not changed during the Sales Order stage, production can occur at the Production Before Sales Order stage. Then the customers must purchase the variants as they are or as they were planned. The benefit is that the products can be shipped immediately to the customers, if they are in stock.
For more information see:
Material Master Record for Variant Maintenance, which describes when and how to create variants
Variant Matching in Customer Orders and
Value Assignments for information on how variant determination and variant matching work Make to Stock Production for Variants
Variants can be planned on the finished product level using any make-to-stock strategy, such as Planning with Final Assembly (40) or Net Requirements Planning (10).
The planning of variants with make-to-stock strategies combines the advantages of make-to-stock production (very short delivery time) with the advantages of variant configuration (one BOM and one routing for a whole product family).
Make to Order Production for Variants
Variants can be planned on the finished product level using any make-to-order strategy, such as Planning w/o Final Assembly (50) or Planning with a Planning Material (60).
The planning of variants with make-to-order strategies combines the advantages of make-to-order production (planning without final assembly or cost tracking on the sales order level) with the advantages of variant configuration (one BOM and one routing for a whole product family).
Integration
The following table illustrates the stages involved for each strategy.
Strategy/Stage |
55 |
26 |
65 |
Similar Make-to-Order Strategy |
50 |
20 |
60 |
Demand Management |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Procurement before Sales |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Sales Order |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Procurement after Sales |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Goods Issue for Delivery and reduction of PIR |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |