Differences in the Summarization Methods 
The Information System for Cost Object Controlling provides a number of different procedures for analyzing the costs of a material or order at a summarized level. Data is summarized with the following methods:
Product drilldowns
Summarization hierarchies
Cost object hierarchies
The following presents short examples of the different reports for summarized analysis. These examples serve to illustrate the differences between the individual summarization methods.
Product Drilldowns
A product drilldown is an interactive tool for evaluation and presentation of data in Cost Object Controlling. The data is summarized according to predefined structures. You can expand this summarized dataset using different criteria to access the lower levels.
Example
You have a report that summarizes the data by the characteristics Plant and Material.
Suppose you manufacture materials M1 and M2 in plants A and B. Each material is manufactured in both plants. With product drilldown you can analyze them from different perspectives:
Which materials accounted for which production costs in plant A?
Plant A | |
|---|---|
Material M1 | USD 1000 |
Material M2 | USD 3000 |
What were the production costs for material M1 in the two plants?
Material M1 | |
|---|---|
Plant A | USD 1000 |
Plant B | USD 6000 |
Summarization Hierarchies
In summarization hierarchies, the data is also summarized upwards based on a structure that you defined. In contrast to product drilldowns, you can only expand this summarized dataset from the top downwards. The summarization is by original cost element.
Example
Suppose you manufacture materials M1 and M2 in plants A and B. Each material is manufactured in both plants. You define an order hierarchy in the following sequence:
Plant
Material
You then have the following analysis options in the report:
Plant A | |
|---|---|
Material M1 | USD 100 |
Material M2 | USD 200 |
Plant B | |
|---|---|
Material M1 | USD 300 |
Material M2 | USD 120 |
In contrast to product drilldowns, it is not possible to dynamically reverse the order of the characteristics Plant and Material.
Cost Object Hierarchies
The following presents short examples of the different reports for summarized analysis. These examples serve to illustrate the differences between the individual summarization methods.
Cost object hierarchies are objects in the Product Cost by Period component that consist of cost object nodes arranged in a hierarchical structure. In contrast to summarization hierarchies, they do not represent primary report structures. You can post actual costs directly to cost object hierarchies. In contrast, summarization hierarchies are not objects to which you can make postings, but are rather a construct for the structured summarization of data.
The costs updated to the cost object hierarchy and the objects assigned to the cost object hierarchy (for example, product cost collectors) can be summarized. For summarized analysis, the cost object hierarchy is a predefined structure that is summarized in the same way as a summarization hierarchy. You can analyze the values summarized on the individual cost object nodes in the Information System of Product Cost by Period.
More Information
For detailed information on the methods, see the following sections: