Subcontracting in Purchasing (SAP Library - Managing Special Stocks (MM-IM))

Subcontracting in Purchasing

Use

The material to be produced by the vendor can be ordered as a subcontract item in a purchase requisition, purchase order, or scheduling agreement. Each subcontract item has one or more sub-items that contain the individual components the vendor needs to perform the subcontract work or value-added service.

The individual component items can either be

Entered or changed manually
Copied from an existing bill of material (this is known as a BOM explosion)

Features

Purchase Requisition

If you enter a subcontract item with components in a purchase requisition or copy it from a bill of material, the system automatically creates dependent requirements for each component. These are only relevant for MRP.

Purchase Order

Each subcontract item in the purchase order has component items. They are either copied from the purchase requisition, entered manually, or copied from a bill of material.

The purchase order price is the subcontract price for manufacturing the ordered material (see also Creating a Subcontract Order).

Scheduling Agreements and Schedule Lines

In a scheduling agreement you enter the material that is to be produced in a subcontract item. In each schedule line you enter the components that are to be provided to the vendor or copy them from the bill of material. This means that the components and their reservation items and arranged below the schedule lines. This also applies to scheduling agreement schedule lines and schedule lines in purchase requisitions and purchase orders (see also Entering Delivery Schedules).

Changes to the Purchasing Document

When you process subcontract orders in Purchasing, please note the following:

If you change the order quantity or scheduled quantity, the quantities of the components to be provided are changed proportionally, providing the indicator Fixed quantity is not set.
If you change the delivery date, the system only recalculates the date required, the components are not automatically redetermined in the bill of material. In this case, you must request a new BOM explosion.

Purchasing Master Data

The conditions for the material to be produced are stored in a subcontract info record.

You enter the special procurement type L (subcontracting) when making quota arrangements.

Monitoring Materials to be Provided to Vendor

By monitoring the material stocks to be provided to a vendor, you can determine whether the components required for subcontract work at the vendor's site are actually available in the warehouse (see also Monitoring Stocks of Material Provided to Vendor).