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Variant Configuration: Set Processing and Order BOMs

Description

Up to Release 3.0, you allocated a configurable material to a variant class and defined the configuration parameters via Configurable object in the variant configuration menu. In Release 3.0, the name of this function was changed to Configuration profile. In addition, the standard network was included as an additional configurable object.

As of Release 3.0, additional modeling options for influencing the configuration of an object are available when you maintain the configuration profile. Until now, for example, you could only display the bill of material for a configurable material dynamically: the bill of material was recreated each time characteristic values were assigned to the material. The individual BOM items could not be changed. A bill of material for production was created from the characteristic values assigned in the sales order only if a MRP run was executed. As of Release 3.0, this type of BOM is determined via the Planned /prod. order indicator. In addition, the indicators Sales order and Order BOM are implemented.

With the order BOM, you can make certain changes for a sales order in the bill of material and store the changed bill of material as an order BOM. You create an order BOM via Environment -> Conf. simulation in the variant menu. Select Order BOM as configuration result. You can assign characteristic values for a certain order that you have created previously, and change the bill of material correspondingly. You can then store the changed bill of material as bill of material for the order and the order item.

Within sales processing, you can configure complex products (sets) by a multi-level, interactive configuration process. For these complex products, for example, you do not only have to specify an order item with the finished product, but also the relevant components of the configuration result from which the order is to be made. A kitchen is an example of such a product. For a kitchen, it is useful to enter the individual closets and shelves that make up the kitchen in the order, as order items. If you want to enter components of a product as order items in an order, you have to set the Sales order indicator in the configuration profile.

The individual order items are the result of a multi-level, interactive configuration. In Release 3.0, you can assign values for the individual materials separately by maintaining configuration profiles for materials that have their own configurable BOM. These materials are nodes of the multi-level bill of material.
The Assemblies pushbutton on the value assignment screen in the sales order allows you to branch to the assembly overview. In the dialog box, the materials are displayed in different colors, depending on the status of the configuration. The following are distinguished via the colors:

To configure the material, choose the Assembly pushbutton on the result screen. Via the Characteristics pushbutton in the dialog box, you can go to the value assignment screen and assign values to the characteristics of the assembly.
These are assemblies of a configurable material to which no configuration profile is allocated. The assemblies are configured via the higher-level material that contains assigned characteristic values directly.

If the bill of material contains a class node that could not be exploded, but was marked as required component, the Inconsistencies pushbutton is displayed. Select this pushbutton to display all inconsistencies in a configuration. For a class node, you can further break down the class using the Find objects pushbutton.

You can use the Classification pushbutton on the result screen to see whether and how the BOM component object was classified. You can select the Information pushbutton for more information on the individual components. This function tells you whether the component is a non-variable part, a selectable part, and so on.

For all three BOM explosion indicators, you can define additional settings in the configuration profile as follows:

1. Planned order/production order
If you have chosen the BOM explosion result Planned/prod. order, you can define for the sales order which functionality (master data, result, assemblies) you can directly select from the value assignment screen. You then see pushbuttons for the functions you selected on the value assignment screen screen.
In addition, you can specify whether only assemblies that were allocated to a configurable material are to be included in the BOM explosion.
2. Order BOM
In the configuration profile, you must specify an application for the order BOM. The application determines the sequence in which bills of material with different usages are exploded. The usage determines the areas to which the bill of material is relevant. The application and usage settings are made in the Production Implementation Guide in the section Master Data -> BOMs.
3. Sales order
For set processing, you also have to specify an application that controls the BOM explosion according to usage in a multi-level, interactive configuration. In addition, you can determine whether configuration in the sales order is to start with characteristic value assignment, the assembly overview, the result, or the master data. For example, if you select the assembly overview, the assembly overview is displayed first when you start a configuration. In set processing, you can also change components for the order. Before you can do this, you have to set the Manual changes allowed indicator.

Regardless of the BOM explosion result, you can determine that the BOM components are to be checked for availability. To do this, select the Component availability indicator.