Example: Configurable Materials in Purchasing
You are responsible for procuring office supplies for your company, including envelopes. A printing firm supplies you with envelopes featuring your company logo in various sizes, with or without an address window.
In order not to have to create separate material master records for every possible combination (e.g. C5 with window, C6 without window), you wish to use a configurable material.
You must carry out the following activities for a configurable material:
Create Characteristics
You define the criteria you use to differentiate between the variants of a material (in this case, the size of the envelope and the address window) by means of characteristics. You must create a characteristic for each criterion under Logistics ® Central Functions ® Classification System ® Master Data ® Characteristics Management.
Characteristic: Size of envelope
· Description:
Size of envelopes· Data type:
Character format· Number of characters:
20This indicates how many characters a characteristic value may comprise.
· Select the Single value indicator in the area Value assignment.
If you set the Single value indicator, one value only may be assigned to the characteristic. For example, only one size may be chosen when you specify the dimensions of the envelopes that are to be ordered in a PO.
· Enter possible values for the characteristic:
Characteristic value |
Description |
DIN C4 |
229 mm x 324 mm |
DIN C5 |
229 mm x 162 mm |
DIN "Langhülle" |
218 mm x 114 mm |
DIN C6 |
162 mm x 114 mm |
· Select the Additional values indicator.
If this indicator is selected, you may also specify values that you have not yet defined here when assigning values to the characteristic.
Characteristic: Address window in envelope
· Description:
Address window in envelopes· Data type:
Character format· Number of characters:
4· Select the Single value indicator in the area Value assignment.
· Values of characteristic:
yes , no· Do not select the Additional values indicator.
Create Class
You group several characteristics to form a class. The class is then assigned to a material.
· Class
· Class type:
300 (variants)Create Material
· Material:
Envelope· Industry sector:
Office supplies· Material type:
Configurable material· Short description of the material:
Envelopes with company logo· Base unit of measure:
KI (box)· Material group:
Office supplies· Valuation class:
<Valuation class>· Price control:
V· Moving average price:
99.95Create Configuration Profile
In the configuration profile, you assign characteristics to the material via a class.
· Priority:
01· Profile name:
Envelopes· Class type:
300 (variants)Use in Purchasing
You can now create, change and display this configurable material in all purchasing documents.
Display
If a configuration already exists for the material, you can display it in the purchasing document.
Change
If the configuration of the material was adopted from a sales order or from the material master record, you can change it in the purchasing document. This may be necessary if a material with the selected characteristic value cannot be supplied (is not available) and has to be changed to the material in the quotation.
If you change the configuration of a material in the purchasing document:
Create
If no configuration yet exists for a configurable material, you can create one in the purchasing document. This may be necessary, for example, if a configurable material is to be ordered without reference to a sales order.
Subcontracting items and the archiving of the characteristic values are not supported.
For more information on configurable materials, refer to the section
LO Variant Configuration.