Inventory Management: Logistical Variants 

 

Use

Logistical variants enable you to manage the inventory of an article in a distribution center in different logistical units of measure (for example, in packs of 6 and packs of 24). You can manage the different units of measure in different storage bins and plan requirements for them separately (see Requirements Planning: Logistical Variants).

The different units of measure of the article are created as logistical variants of a generic article. The unit of measure in this case is a variant-creating characteristic. The generic article is always assigned all the units of measure for which variants exist. The base unit of measure of the generic article is adopted in all the variants. This must be the same for all variants.

A difference is then made between procurement variants and sales variants.

·        An article is procured from internal or external vendors in a procurement variant. More than one procurement variant can exist for an article (such as a pack of 6 or a pack of 24).

·        Sales to consumers are posted in sales variants (such as pieces), Only one sales variant can exist for a generic article.

For further information on logistical variants, see Article: Logistical Variants.

Integration

·        You can configure your system so that the posting is automatically transferred to the sales variant at goods receipt.

·        You can also use this function if Warehouse Management (WM) is active.

Prerequisites

You can only use logistical variants if you use SAP Retail.

Features

·        Automatic transfer posting to the sales variant at goods receipt

If you want to have the system automatically transfer the posting to the sales variant at goods receipt, you must make the retail-specific article settings in Customizing to control the logistics processes involved with structured articles.

At goods receipt, the posting for the procurement variant is transferred to the sales variant using movement type 319. The transaction is reversed using reversal movement type 320.

·        Manual transfer posting between variants

You can transfer the posting of one variant to another using movement type 309. The transaction is reversed using reversal movement type 310.

Example

The example involves a goods receipt for a purchase order posted in a store. The goods were ordered in the procurement variant "pack of 6". The system is configured so that the posting for the procurement variant is automatically transferred to the sales variant "piece" at goods receipt. 20 cartons are delivered. This results in the following items in the article document:

Quantity	Unit of measure	Article	Movement type
20	Pack of 6	Variant "Pack of 6"	101 +
20	Pack of 6	Variant "Pack of 6"	319 -
120	Piece	Variant "Piece"	319 +