Using Alternative Parts 

Use

In engineering/design or in shop floor control, you can define a group of components that can alternatively be used in assembly. This may be necessary if you have a material group and it does not really matter which of the materials are assembled, or if a group of substitute materials exist for a certain material and this information is to be saved in the BOM item.

Prerequisites

You have grouped all materials that can be used in the production process into an alternative item group in the BOM.

Features

If you create an alternative item group, you must also maintain the following data depending on the strategy you use: Priority, strategy, usage probability. The system uses the warehouse availability to control which components are selected for the withdrawal posting in backflushing. Two different withdrawal strategies exist:

For example, you define three alternative items (components) with similar characteristics; the first alternative item is withdrawn 50% of the time, the second 30% and the third 20%.

For example, you define three alternative items (components) with similar characteristics and you also define priorities in the BOM. The system initially tries to withdraw from the first alternative item. If less stock is available than is to be withdrawn, the system will then go to the second alternative item where it can withdraw the complete quantity, and so on. In this case, several alternative items cannot be withdrawn together.

For more information on using alternatives, please refer to the SAP document
MM Bills of Material.