Articles: Defining a Logistical Variant (SAP Library

Articles: Defining a Logistical Variant

Prerequisites

You have defined a characteristic whose characteristic values are the units of measure allowed.

As the possible values for the characteristic, you are recommended allowing all units of measure defined in the system. This requires you to assign table T006 to the characteristic as the check table. For more information, see CA Characteristics.

You have assigned the characteristic to one of the following hierarchy levels so that logistical variants are defined by the characteristic. You must always choose 3 (for logistical variant) as the relevancy indicator.

Merchandise category or merchandise category hierarchy

Characteristics profile

This option is recommended if you do not want to use the characteristic logistical variant for all articles in a merchandise category. You can then use the characteristics profile only for those articles that are to have this attribute.

For more information, see Assigning Characteristics to Merchandise Category Objects.

Procedure

Create a generic article with the characteristic logistical variant and specify on the Characteristic Value Assignment screen the units of measure for which the sales variant and/or procurement variant(s) are to be defined.

For the sales variant, specify the unit of measure in which the article is sold to consumers. If the article is sold to consumers in more than one unit of measure, choose the smallest of them.

For the procurement variant(s), specify the units of measure in which the article is delivered by the vendor and in which you want to manage stock. For example, if deliveries are made by the vendor on pallets containing boxes of 6, you may want to manage stock in the unit of measure box rather than in the unit of measure pallet.

Example

An article is procured in boxes of 4 and in boxes of 6, but is always sold by piece. For the characteristic unit of measure, you specify the values B4, B6, and PC (assuming you have defined the units of measure B4 and B6 in Customizing for General Parameters in Check Units of Measurement). The sales variant is therefore PC, and the procurement variants are B4 and B6.

Choose Back to access the Variants of Generic Article screen and define the variants by selecting them as required. You can do this automatically by choosing Generate all missing nodes.

Choose Back to access the Basic Data screen for the generic article and specify the conversion factors for the units of measure displayed. Also flag the base unit of measure as required, or enter a different unit of measure and flag it as the base unit of measure.

Maintain the generic article as required and save your data.

Additional Information

Articles: Creating an Article Master Record