Changes to the Bill of Material (SAP Library

Changes to the Bill of Material

Use

Changes to pieces of equipment or materials are sometimes necessary for technical or economic reasons. Technical changes may be necessary, for example, to remove technical errors or to enforce new environmental regulations or safety requirements. Economic reasons for a change to a bill of material could be, for example, when cheaper material is introduced or customer requirements are taken into account.

Features

Changes are possible with and without a history.

If you want to change a maintenance bill of material without a history, do not enter a change number in the initial screen of the function "Change". The changes are not recorded by the system in change master records, but in change documents instead. They are valid from the last specified validity date for the bill of material.

For more information on how to see the changes that have been made, see Displaying Change Documents.

If you make changes to your maintenance bill of material using a history, the system records the changes. This documentation provides you with the following information:

What the BOM looked like before the changes
Who made the changes
When the changes were made
Which fields were changed

If you want to change a BOM using a history, you must first enter a change number before doing so. Both the changes and the change number are documented by the system. They are valid from the date that has been specified for the change number. By entering the change number you are identifying the change master record stored under this number. The change master record is managed in the Plant Maintenance (PM) System by the Engineering Change Management function.

For more information on how to see the changes that have been made, see Displaying Changes Using Change Master Records.

For more information on Engineering Change Management, refer to the SAP documentation PP - Engineering Change Management.