In the APO product master, there is no equivalent to the special procurement key 50 (phantom assembly) in the material master. Therefore this special procurement key cannot be taken into consideration in SAP APO. You can only plan phantom assemblies in the planning matrix if you use iPPE product structures.

As is the case for BOMs in R/3, it is not possible to define different, plant-dependent splits for a phantom assembly. This means, you cannot plan the phantom assemblies as phantom assemblies on one plant and then treat the phantom assembly as a “normal” assembly in another plant.

The use of colored materials is not possible for phantom assemblies. However, the components of the phantom assembly can be colored.

The configuration of a phantom assembly is determined by the configuration of the order for the finished product. Therefore, the characteristics you use to maintain the dependencies of the phantom assembly must be included in the class of the finished product.

If you create an assembly group for the phantom assembly and assign the assembly items different activities and then assign these activities to different line elements in line balancing, the planning matrix will also determine the line element on which the components are to be assembled. When backflushing, on the other hand, all components are backflushed at the first reporting point irrespective of planning.

The use of the product interchangeability is only possible for the components of a phantom assembly. You execute product substitution for the components in the planned order of the finished product using the ATP check.

You represent a configurable phantom assembly using a one-level product variant structure. You create the phantom assembly as the access node. You create the components of the phantom assembly as component variants of structure nodes that are linked to the access nodes.

You create non-configurable phantom assemblies using assembly groups. You create the components of the phantom assembly as assembly items.

You include the phantom assembly in the product variant structure of the finished product via a reference to the component variant.

To enable the explosion of the product structure of a phantom assembly in the planning matrix, you have to create a material master record in the DI System for the phantom assembly. Then you have to enter this material number in the access node of the phantom assembly or in the assembly header of the phantom assembly.