Purpose
You can use external processing to have individual process steps, that is operations or phases, carried out by a different company. This process describes how externally processed steps are treated in order processing.
Prerequisites
You have installed the application component Purchasing (MM-PUR).
The relevant purchasing master data has been created there (see the R/3 Library MM- Purchasing, section Master Records from the Purchasing View).
The following data has been maintained for the phase or secondary resource (refer to
External Processing Data Maintenance):Process Flow
Depending on the data entered in the master recipe, the purchase requisition created is of type Standard purchase order or Subcontracting and is assigned to the process order account. In addition to the external processing data, the system also copies the short text for the phase or secondary resource to the purchase requisition.
The purchase requisition number is copied to the external processing data of the phase or secondary resource in the process order (see General Data detail screen).

If you later change the dates and quantities in the order, these changes are automatically copied to the purchase requisition. However, they are not copied to an existing purchase order.
After external processing has been completed, you post a goods receipt for the In subcontracting phases, the allocated material components are automatically provided in the purchase order.
In subcontracting secondary resources, you must enter the material components to be provided to the vendor in the purchase order yourself.
In the process order, the system sets the P.O. exists (Purchase order exists) indicator in the external processing data for the phase or secondary resource.
The following activities are carried out at the same time:
See also:
R/3 Library MM- Purchasing Guide