Possible Combinations of Configuration Profiles

You often need to work with several configuration profiles within one configuration.

For example, the materials PC, MONITOR and KEYBOARD are configurable. The monitor and keyboard are also sold separately. You need to create separate configuration profiles for them, because this involves a multi-level configuration.

However, there are restrictions on the profiles you can select for subordinate components. You need to work with profiles that are allowed in combination with the scenario for the header material.

The following table shows the possible combinations:

Header Material Subordinate Materials	Plnd/Prod. No BOM explosion	Plnd/Prod. Single-/multi-level BOM explosion	Single-/multi-level sales order	Single- /multi-level order BOM - knowledge-based -	Single- /multi-level order BOM - result-oriented -
Plnd/Prod. Order No BOM explosion	C	C	A	C	C
Plnd/Prod. Order Single-/multi-level BOM explosion	C	A	C	C	C
Single-/multi-level sales order	C	C	A	C	C
Single-/multi-level order BOM - knowledge-based -	C	C	A	A	C
Single-/multi-level order BOM - result-oriented -	C	C	A	C	A

Abbreviations:

A = Possible/allowed

B = Not allowed

C = No effect:

• The material is handled as though it had no configuration profile.

• Profile selection shows no options.

Comment

The only difference between the scenarios "single-level" and "multi-level" is that the "single-level" setting only explodes the assembly of the header material (single-level explosion). You can only assign values to the components of the header material.

Note

You can run check report RCU_CHECK_SUB_PROF_NO_BOM_EXPL to check configuration profiles on subordinate levels that you have defined with No BOM explosion, and change them if required.

Changing/Displaying/Deleting Configuration Profiles

Procedure

Change Configuration Profile

1. From the variant configuration menu, choose Configuration Profile
® Change.

You see a dialog box for specifying the object whose configuration profile you want to change. Select an object and confirm your entry.



To switch to another object, choose Extras ® Change confble obj.

2. Enter the name of the object.
3. Choose Profile overview.

You see the overview of profiles created for the object.

You can create new profiles for the configurable object by choosing Edit ® New entries.

4. Choose Profile detail to see the detail screen. You can change the settings for the profile.

You cannot change the settings Process: Sales order (SET) and Order BOM for a material once the material has been configured with the profile. If only the header material has been changed, the settings can be changed, but not if subordinate items of the BOM have been changed.

Display Configuration Profile

1. From the variant configuration menu, choose Configuration profile ®
Display.
2. For the rest of the process, see Changing a Configuration Profile above. However, you cannot make changes in display mode.

Deleting a Configuration Profile

You can only delete an existing profile by using Configuration profile ® Change if the profile has not been used to configure the object. If a profile has been used to configure a material in a sales order, for example, you can no longer delete the profile. The profile can only be deactivated by changing the status.

You can only use engineering change management to delete configuration profiles if no configured objects exist, or if the dat e of the configuration of all configured objects is before the deletion date.

Renaming a Configuration Profile

You can change the name of a configuration profile on the profile overview by choosing Rename.

Interface Settings

Use

If you want to group and order characteristics on the value assignment screen according to your own criteria (Values ® Interface design), you must assign a name to the interface design on the Interface tab of the configuration profile. This activates the function on the value assignment screen.

The interface design you define on the value assignment screen is saved for the configurable object. If another configurable object is assigned to the same class, you can enter the interface design for this object, too. The characteristics are then displayed as you defined in the interface design.

However, you can only use an interface design for objects that are assigned to the same class. If the class assignment is not identical (for example, in multiple classification), you cannot enter the interface design you defined.

You can choose Settings to define object-specific settings for functions in the configuration editor. These settings are defaults for configuration, and can be overwritten for your user in the configuration editor.

Prerequisites

The configurable object must be assigned to a class.

See also:

Defining an Interface Design

Defining Settings for the Language

Defining the Scope and Display Options for Characteristics

Defining Settings for Pricing

Defining Settings for the Default Values

Defining Settings for the Configurator

Settings for Variant Matching

Multi-Level BOM Explosion

Purpose

The setting BOM explosion: multi-level means that multiple levels of the BOM of a configurable material are exploded in the sales order, if the configuration profiles of the configurable assemblies also support BOM explosion. You can configure assemblies across multiple levels.

Variant product MULTIMEDIA_WORKSTATION supports multi-level BOM explosion. The BOM contains configurable material PC. This material supports single-level BOM explosion. The BOM of the PC contains another configurable material MONITOR.

Features

• All configurable items are configured in the sales order, not only sales-relevant items.

You can use filters in the configuration profile to restrict the scope of the BOM items (see Filters for BOM Explosion).

• Sales-relevant items are copied to the sales order as order items.

• The characteristic values assigned to each configured item are saved.

• In MRP, components and operations selected depend on the characteristic values assigned according to the principles of low-level configuration (see
Low-Level Configuration).

• If you define selection conditions for the BOM items of a subordinate configurable assembly, and these selection conditions refer to the characteristics of the assembly, you must use the object variable $PARENT to refer to the characteristics.

The selection conditions for BOM components of the PC must refer to the characteristics of the monitor with object variable $PARENT – for example, $PARENT.MANUFACTURER = 'Sony'.

• This type of order processing lets you use constraints to infer values for configurable materials on different levels.

Prerequisites

The configuration profile of the header material has the configuration parameter BOM explosion: multi-level.

The subordinate materials whose BOMs are to be exploded in the sales order must also have a BOM explosion parameter (single-level or, preferably, multi-level).

Process Flow

1. Create a sales order and enter the configurable material as an order item.
2. You see the configuration editor, where you assign values to the characteristics of the header material. You can then display the result of the BOM explosion by choosing Result.
3. If any of the selected BOM components are also configurable materials, you can assign values to the characteristics of these materials. Depending on the configuration parameters, the BOMs of these materials are exploded on the result screen.
4. The header material appears as a sales order item. If the BOM contains further sales-relevant items, these are included as sub-items. The characteristic values assigned to the header material and the subordinate configurable materials are saved.
5. In the planned order or production order, BOM components and operations for the configured materials are determined according to the characteristic values assigned.

Single-Level BOM Explosion

Purpose

The BOM is exploded on one level on the result screen in the sales order. Other configurable material can be contained in the BOM and these can be configured. However, the BOMs of these materials are not exploded in the sales order.

You can combine this setting with Process: Sales order when dealing with configurable material of the BOM that you want to assemble in a set structure.

See also: Process: Sales Order

Example

The materials PC and MONITOR are configurable. The monitor has its own configuration profile and characteristics. The configurable PC has the setting BOM explosion: single level in its configuration profile. On the result screen in the sales order, you see the selected components.

Configurable material MONITOR can also be configured in the sales order. However, the BOM of the PC is not exploded, because a single-level explosion only is defined for the header material. The configuration parameters for the material MONITOR are not important in this instance.

Features

• All configurable items are configured in the sales order, not only sales-relevant items. The BOMs of these materials are not exploded in the sales order.

You can use filters in the configuration profile to restrict the scope of the BOM items (see Filters for BOM Explosion).

• Sales-relevant items are copied to the sales order as order items.

• The characteristic values assigned to each configured item are saved.

• In MRP the required components are determined based on the characteristic value assignments for the head material and the subordinate items as well as the task list operations based on low-level configuration. (See also
Low Level Configuration).

• If you define selection conditions for the BOM items of a subordinate configurable assembly, and these selection conditions refer to the characteristics of the assembly, you must use the object variable $PARENT to refer to the characteristics.

The selection conditions for BOM components of the monitor must refer to the characteristics of the monitor with object variable $PARENT – for example, $PARENT.MANUFACTURER = 'Sony'.

• This type of order processing lets you use constraints to infer values for configurable materials.

Prerequisites

The configuration profile of the header material has the configuration parameter BOM explosion: single level.

Process Flow

1. Create a sales order and enter the configurable material as an order item.
2. You see the configuration editor, where you assign values to the characteristics of the material. You can then display the result of the BOM explosion by choosing Result.
3. If any of the selected BOM components are also configurable materials, you can assign values to the characteristics of these materials. However, the BOMs of these materials are not exploded.
4. The header material appears as a sales order item. If the BOM contains further sales-relevant items, these are included as sub-items. The characteristic values assigned to the header material and the subordinate configurable materials are saved.
5. In the planned order or production order, BOM components and operations for the configured materials are determined according to the characteristic values assigned.

Controlling the BOM Explosion in PP

The following factors determine how a BOM is exploded:

• BOM usage
• BOM application
• Filter defined in the configuration profile

BOM Usage

When you create a BOM, you must enter a usage. This usage defines which application areas (for example, sales and distribution, engineering/design, or production) a BOM can be exploded in. For example, the standard R/3 System supports usage 1 for BOM explosion in production. A BOM with usage 3 is relevant to sales and distribution, too.

The usage determines which indicators are active in the Item status dataset of BOM maintenance functions. This is where you specify whether BOM items are relevant to Sales or Production, for example.

Features

The BOM explosion is influenced by the application entered in the configuration profile. The application determines which usages of a BOM can be exploded and in which order of priority.

You enter the application for exploding the BOM in the configuration profile. However, please note that you can also enter an application for a sales order item category. This entry overwrites the setting in the configuration profile. Check the settings for the item category in Customizing for Sales and Distribution, by choosing Sales ® Sales Documents ® Sales Document Items ® Define item categories.

If you select the Sales order process in the configuration profile, ensure that the application supports explosion of sales-relevant BOMs and that sales-relevant BOMs have the highest priority.

You define an application that explodes first usage 1 and then usage 3. When you explode the BOM, the system first checks whether a BOM with usage 1 exists. If a BOM with usage 1 does exist, the BOM is exploded. If no BOM with usage 1 exists, the system checks whether a BOM of usage 3 exists.

Handling in the Sales Order

• If usage 1 is supported by the application, the BOM for the material is found but cannot be exploded, because usage 1 in the standard R/3 System is not relevant to sales and distribution.

• If usage 1 is not supported by the application, the system does not recognize in the sales order that a BOM exists for the material.

Filters in the Configuration Profile

In the configuration profile, you can define filters so that only certain items are displayed (see Filters for BOM Explosion).

Process: Order BOM

Purpose

You use this processing option if you want to make customer-specific changes to the BOM of a material that you configure in the sales order. In the sales order, you assign values to the characteristics of the header material, but the BOM is not exploded in the sales order.

The BOM components that match these values are not determined until you call a special processing function. Subordinate configurable materials can be configured in this function, and you can make order-specific changes to the BOM.

There are 2 types of order BOMs:

• The result-oriented order BOM saves the configured BOM with the manual changes.
• The knowledge-based order BOM saves the super BOM with all manual changes and dependencies, not the configured BOM. When you explode the BOM, the dependencies are processed dynamically and only the selected items are displayed.

If you change the characteristic values assigned to the material in transaction VA01, VA02, or CU51, this may affect the order BOM.

Prerequisites

The configuration profile of the configurable material has the Process: Order BOM indicator selected, with a single-level or multi-level BOM explosion.

Process Flow

Maintenance of Order BOM not Allowed in Sales Order

1. Create a sales order and enter the configurable material as an order item.
2. You see the configuration editor, where you assign values to the characteristics of the header material. As you enter characteristic values, dependencies for the characteristics and values are processed.

The BOM is not exploded in the sales order. You cannot assign values to subordinate configurable materials in the sales order.

The header material appears as a sales order item.

3. Once you have saved the sales order, you can process the BOM for the sales order by choosing Bill of material ® Order BOM ® Maintain multi-level from the bills of material menu. The values assigned to the material in the sales order are displayed and cannot be changed.

Maintenance of Order BOM Allowed in Sales Order

You can only use this function if you select Result-oriented BOM in the configuration profile first.

1. Create a sales order and enter the configurable material as an order item.
2. You see the configuration editor, where you assign values to the characteristics of the material. As you enter characteristic values, dependencies for the characteristics and values are processed.
3. Choose Engineering to process the order BOM.

• You can assign values to subordinate configurable materials or change values already assigned.
• Exit configuration and return to the sales order.

The order BOM is saved as a result-oriented order BOM when you save the sales order.

4. The header material is shown in the sales order as an order item.

Result

In material requirements planning (MRP), requirements are determined for the order item. To ensure that MRP checks whether a material has an order BOM, set the Sales order BOM indicator in Customizing by choosing Planning ® BOM Explosion/Determine Routing ® Define BOM explosion control.

See also:

For more information on maintaining order BOMs with and without Variant Configuration, together with the preceding and subsequent process, see the SAP Library under Logistics ® PP Production Planning ® PP Order BOM.

Process: Sales Order

Purpose

You can use this processing type to describe variant products that comprise salable configurable materials. These products are supplied together, but are not assembled in a production order.

This processing form means that in the sales order you can only process sales-relevant BOM items.

You can use the item category group to define that requirements transfer and pricing are at component level.

For example, a PC is made up of the components monitor, CPU, keyboard, and printer. These components are all salable materials that are manufactured separately. In the sales order, you want to see the individual components that make up the computer as order items, as well as the whole computer. In the sales order, these products are grouped together in a SET. For this reason, this type of processing is also referred to as set processing.

The individual components of a BOM can be configurable products that are described by characteristics of their own. You must create a configuration profile for each of these materials, in order to assign the materials to a class. The superior configurable material only has a few characteristics that are relevant to all components.

In addition to the process, the BOM explosion settings for the header material must be specified in the configuration profile.

• For a single-level SET structure, it is sufficient to define a single-level BOM explosion in the configuration profile of the PC.

• BOM explosion: single-level setting and process Sales order.

• If the BOMs of the assemblies (such as the printer) contain other configurable materials, you need the multilevel BOM explosion setting for the PC:

• BOM explosion: multilevel setting and process Sales order.

If the header material supports multilevel BOM explosion, the configuration parameters of the assembly determine whether the BOM is exploded in the sales order.

If you only want the assemblies of the header material to appear in the sales order, and the components of subordinate assemblies are relevant to production, you can select the setting BOM explosion: Single-level and process Sales order for the configuration profile of the header material. The sales-relevant BOM of the header material is exploded in the sales order, and the production-relevant BOM is exploded in the planned order or production order.

Constraints

You can use constraints to infer values between configurable assemblies (for example, the printer and the CPU).

You can also use constraints to pass values from the PC to the assemblies, or from the assemblies to the PC.

Object Variable $PARENT

If you define selection conditions for the BOM items of a subordinate configurable assembly, and these selection conditions refer to the characteristics of the assembly, you must use the object variable $PARENT to refer to the characteristics.

The selection conditions for BOM components of the printer must refer to the characteristics of the printer with object variable $PARENT – for example, $PARENT.Pages/min = '3'.

Prerequisites

• Settings in the Configuration Profile

Before the components of a configurable material can appear as a set in the sales order, the parameters BOM explosion: Single-level or Multilevel and the process Sales order must be selected in the configuration profile of the material.

• Settings in BOM Maintenance

Only BOM items that are defined as relevant to sales and distribution appear in the sales order – in other words, you can only configure components that are relevant to sales.

The BOM must be created with a usage that supports sales-relevant BOM items, and you must define the BOM items as sales relevant by choosing Item ® Status/long text (see Controlling the BOM Explosion).

• Settings in the Material Master

Sales data must be maintained in the material master of the individual materials in the BOM.

If you want requirements transfer and pricing at component level, the configurable material must have item category group 0004.

• Allowing Manual Changes

You can also change the BOM items of the header material to suit customer requirements. The change is copied to the sales order item. However, you can only change the BOM items if the Manual changes allowed indicator is set in the configuration profile of the header material. You can only change BOM items that are relevant to sales.

If manual changes are allowed, you can delete items from the BOM or insert items in the BOM. You can also make changes to existing items (for example, you can change the quantity).

Process Flow

1. Create a sales order and enter the configurable material as an order item.
2. You see the configuration editor, where you assign values to the characteristics of the header material. You can then display the result of the BOM explosion by choosing Result.

You see all BOM components that are selected according to the values assigned, and are relevant to sales.

3. You can also configure the configurable assemblies. You can use constraints to infer characteristic values between assemblies. Once you have configured all materials, you return to the order item entry screen.
4. All BOM items that were selected and are relevant to sales are displayed as subitems for the main item in the sales order.

For more detailed information on settings for item categories for transferring requirements and pricing, see Item Categories for Configurable Materials.

Note

If you select the process Sales order in the configuration profile, this may lead to problems in costing. You need to remember that each configured instance that has the Sales order setting, and each sales-relevant configured instance below the Sales order setting, represents a configuration of its own. This means that each configurable material with these settings has its own CBase. The use of object variable $ROOT in dependencies can easily lead to errors here.

Example

Item in the Sales Order	Material	Material Type	Settings in the Configuration Profile
10	Kmat1	KMAT	Sales order
20	Kmat2	KMAT	Sales order
: : 80	Fert1	FERT	-® No setting in profile, material is not configurable

Items 10 and 20 both represent separate configurations. The structure information is in sales and distribution only.

For this reason, object variable $ROOT must not be used if you use dependencies for item 80 (Fert1), because in this example item 20 (Kmat2) is the parent or root of item 80 (Fert1).

See also:

Possible Combinations of Configuration Profiles

Process Overview

Purpose

There are different processes for configurable materials in sales documents. You can specify these processes on the Confign initial screen tab in the configuration profile, by choosing the Confign parameters tab. The processes are described in the following scenarios:

• Plnd/Prod. Order:

For information on this scenario, see:

No BOM Explosion

Single-Level BOM Explosion

Multi-Level BOM Explosion

You can use this processing type to describe variant products whose configurable materials are assembled using planned and production orders. The bill of material (BOM) can have single-level, multi-level, or no explosion.

• Sales Order (SET)

You can use this processing type to describe variant products that comprise salable configurable materials. These products are supplied together, but are not assembled in a production order. Only sales-relevant BOM items are exploded in the sales order.

For information on this scenario, see Process: Sales Order.

• Order BOM

You use this processing type if you want to make customer-specific changes to the BOM of a material that you configure in the sales order. In the sales order, you assign values to the characteristics of the header material, but the BOM is not exploded in the sales order.

For information on this scenario, see Process: Order BOM.

Availability of Components

Use

If you select Component availability in the configuration profile, by choosing the Confign initial screen tab, then the Configuration parameter tab, you see the Availability pushbutton on the value assignment screen in the configuration editor. You can use this pushbutton to check the availability of the components that are selected according to the values you assign. The entire BOM is checked and exploded.

For this reason, in a SET structure we advise you to check availability of the individual materials (Process setting Sales order), not for the header material.

The availability check is just a snapshot, telling you whether the materials required are in stock at this moment. Several users can access the same material at once. This means that supply problems can sometimes be overlooked.

Only 2 pieces of a material are in stock, but the material is used in 3 BOMs. The availability check does not detect a supply problem. The availability check for all 3 BOMs shows 2 pieces in stock.

Features

On the value assignment screen, you can define additional settings for the availability check:

• You can specify that a list of all components is shown with details of their availability.
• You can specify that only missing parts are shown in the list.

Filters for BOM Explosion

Use

By defining a filter in the configuration profile, you can determine the scope of the BOM items to improve system performance when you explode the BOM. The filter is active in high-level configuration, in result-oriented BOMs, and in SET processing.

Restrictions

You cannot define filters if you select the BOM explosion setting None.

Features

You can define the following filters:

• Object type

Class, material, document, text

In the standard system, all object types are selected and therefore exploded in the configuration. Deselect the object types that you do not want to be displayed.

• Item category, for example, stock or non-stock item

All item categories in the configuration are exploded in the standard system. Remove the selection for the item categories you do not want to be displayed.

• Item status

You maintain the status of a BOM item in maintain BOM dependent on its usage.

All items are displayed regardless of their item status in the standard system. However, only the items with this status are displayed when you select specific item statuses. Items are not displayed that do not have the selected status.

• Sort string

You can assign sort strings for BOM items in maintain BOM. You can restrict the display of the BOM items by using these sort strings.

Only items that carry sort strings are checked and only those that match are displayed. Items that have no sort string are always displayed.

See also:

Controlling the BOM Explosion

Class Assignment

Use

Before you can configure an object, you need to assign the object to a class whose class type supports variant configuration. For materials and other configurable objects, this is class type 300 in the standard system, except for model service specifications, which have class type 301. When you assign the object to the class, you can use the characteristics of the class to describe the object.

Prerequisites

In Customizing for the Classification System, the Variant class type indicator must be set for the class type.

Features

Class Assignment Pushbutton

The assignment to a class is not the same as any classification. The class is just a container for the characteristics that are required for configuring the object.

If you set values, this has the effect of restricting the allowed values for configuration, rather than assigning values as in classification. You can assign several values to single-value characteristics.

The values you set are not default values. During configuration, you only see the values you set in the class assignment.

Class C_CAR has characteristics EXTRAS and COLOR. You assign configurable material CAR to class C_CAR. You restrict characteristic EXTRAS to values ‘Sports’ and ‘Luxury’, and characteristic COLOR to values ‘Red’ and ‘Black’.

When you configure the car, you only see the two values you set for both COLOR and EXTRAS, because you have restricted the allowed values in the class assignment.

To allow all values in configuration, do not set values in the class assignment.

Multiple classification

If the class type allows multiple classification, you can classify the configurable object in several variant classes. When you configure the object, you see the characteristics of all classes of a class type to which the object is assigned.

If you only assign a configurable object to an additional class later on, and configurations (such as sales orders) already exist, you can no longer delete the assignment to the additional class once you have saved it.

The sequence of classes has no influence on the sequence of characteristics on the value assignment screen.

See also:

SAP Library ® CA Cross-Application Components ® CA Classification

Creating a Configuration Profile

Procedure

From the Variant Configuration menu, choose Configuration profile ® Create.

You see a dialog box. Select the object for which you want to create a configuration profile.

Enter the name of the object.

Confirm your entries.

3. You see the profile overview.

4. Enter a profile name and the class type whose classes you want to use for configuration. In Customizing for the Classification System, the class type must be defined as a variant class type.
5. Choose Goto
® Class assignments or the Class assignments pushbutton to assign the object to a class. (You can also specify the class assignment in Materials Management by choosing Create/Change Material, or in the Classification System by choosing Assign Object to Class.)

• You see the classification screen, where you enter the class.
• Define allowed values for the configurable object if required.

You can only release a profile if you have assigned the configurable object to a class. (see also Class Assignment)

4. To go to the detail screen, where you define further settings, choose the Profile detail pushbutton or double-click on the profile.

Optional Settings on the Profile Overview

• Organizational Areas

You can specify organizational areas for configuration. If you restrict a profile to specific organizational areas, you only see the characteristics that are relevant to your area when you configure the object.

You can change how characteristics are displayed according to organizational area for your user on the value assignment screen (see Organizational Areas).

• Priority of Configuration Profiles

You can create several configuration profiles for a configurable material. The profile with the lowest number has the highest priority.

If you define several profiles for an object, you see a dialog box for selecting a profile when you start configuration. The profile with the highest priority is at the top of the list.

The priority is also relevant if you use Application Link Enabling (ALE) or intermediate documents (IDocs) to run configuration, rather than dialog mode. In this case, the profile with the highest priority is selected for the object.

Profiles that have no priority are at the top of the list, because they automatically have priority 0.

Profile Detail

Configuration Profiles for Materials

The configuration profile has several screens. Depending on what you enter for the BOM explosion and configuration process, fields are shown or hidden.

The parameters you maintain for a material apply to the material as a header material in a BOM structure. You cannot define separate settings for use of a configurable material as an assembly in a BOM.

• By choosing the Assignments pushbutton, you can assign dependencies to the configuration profile. You also see this pushbutton on the basic data tab, once at least one dependency is assigned.

Basic Data Tab

• In the basic data, you see the profile overview data.
• You can determine whether the configuration process starts with a Start logo. To do this, you assign the document you want to display, such as a graphic showing the product you want to configure, to the variant class.

Configuration Initial Screen Tab

Configuration parameters

You specify the parameters for BOM explosion and the configuration process in the sales order.

• You must enter a BOM application, unless you select BOM explosion: None:
• You can enter a level of detail for a multi-level configuration. You can display configurable assemblies only in the BOM explosion. This improves system performance.
• You can define a filter.
• You can set the indicator for an availability check on assemblies.

Userinterf

Under Userinterf, you maintain the settings for the configuration editor user interface.

• You can specify an interface design to group characteristics together on the value assignment screen.
• You can choose Settings to define object-specific settings for functions in the configuration editor. These settings are defaults for configuration, and can be overwritten for your user in the configuration editor.
• For all configuration parameters except BOM explosion: None, you can select screens for the configuration editor and define which screen configuration starts with. The start screen must be one of the allowed screens.

You can select the indicator for the configuration browser independently of the other start screens, because the browser is an additional screen section.

Configuration Profiles for Objects Other than Materials

You see the basic data, where you see the profile overview data.

You can define object-specific settings for displaying characteristics and characteristic values in the configuration editor. These settings are defaults for configuration, and can be overwritten for your user in the configuration editor.

See also:

On configuration parameters:

Controlling the BOM Explosion

No BOM Explosion

Single-Level BOM Explosion

Multi-Level BOM Explosion

Process: Sales Order

Process: Order BOM

Filters for BOM Explosion

Availability of Components

On settings:

Defining Settings for the Language

Defining the Scope and Display Options for Characteristics

Defining Settings for the Default Values

Defining Settings for Pricing

Defining Settings for the Configurator

Settings for Variant Matching

The Configuration Profile

Purpose

You maintain configuration profiles for configurable objects to define central settings for configuring the object.

You can create several configuration profiles with different settings for an object. If an object has several configuration profiles, you must select a profile during configuration. You can only make changes to a configuration with the profile that you first used to configure the object.

Integration

You maintain configuration profiles for all configurable objects:

• Configurable materials
• Configurable standard networks
• Configurable general maintenance task lists
• Configurable model service specifications

Features

You define different settings in configuration profiles for materials than for other configurable objects.

• You use the configuration profile to assign the configurable object to one or more variant classes. This links the object to the characteristics of the class for configuration.

Note that the class is then assigned to the configurable object, not the profile. The profile only allows you to go to classification.

• You can define settings that affect the display options and scope of characteristics on the value assignment screen. You define these settings for each object, and they apply to the object wherever it is used. However, you can overwrite these settings for your user in the configuration editor.

• You can use an interface design to group characteristics together and define a sequence on the value assignment screen. You need to assign a name to an interface design to enable further maintenance in the configuration simulation.

• You can use the configuration profile to assign dependencies to a configurable object. You can only assign dependency nets to a configuration profile. If you assign actions and procedures to the configuration profile, you can manage them more easily because they are all in one place.

• For materials, you must also maintain configuration parameters for BOM explosion. Depending on the configuration parameters you set, other fields in the configuration profile are hidden or shown.
• You determine the status of the configurable object.

You can also define settings for the status in Customizing. In Customizing, choose Configuration Profile ® Configurable Objects ® Material ® Maintain Status.

Defining Classes as BOM Items

Purpose

You can use class items to control the selection of variant parts in a BOM. Variant parts are classified in a class, and the class is entered in the BOM as a class item. When you configure the material, the class is replaced by a suitable variant part.

Class items can help you to simplify maintenance of BOMs for configurable materials:

• You only enter one item for the class, instead of several items for the individual variant parts.
• You do not need to create and assign selection conditions.
• You can classify additional objects in the class at any time, without having to change the BOM.

When you configure the material, the class item is replaced by a specific component.

Prerequisites

You can only uses classes for classifying the following objects as BOM items:

• Materials
• Documents

The class type determines whether a class can be used as a class item in BOMs. In Customizing for the Classification System, the Class node indicator must be set for the class type. In the standard system, class types 200 and 300 are defined for materials, and class type 201 is defined for documents.

Configurable materials can be assigned to classes of class type 300. If a class item is replaced by a configurable material, this material is added to the configuration structure automatically.

Process Flow

1. Create characteristics that describe the objects.
2. Create your class using a class type for class items.

Maintain the additional data for the class (see the SAP Library CA - Cross-Application Components ® Classification (CA-CL) ® Classification (CA-CL) ®Additional Data).

3. Assign objects to the class and assign values to the characteristics of the class for each object.
4. Enter the class as a class item in the BOM of the configurable material – see the SAP Library Bills of Material (PP-BD-BOM).

• 
  
Detail Screens For A Class Item
• 
  
Entering Class Items

See also:

Selection from a Class Item

Variant Classes

In variant configuration, a class is used to hold the characteristics that describe a configurable material. By linking the class to the configurable material, you allow the material to be configured using the characteristics of the class.

You can only use a class in variant configuration if the class has a class type that supports variant configuration. In the standard R/3 System, the class type for variants is class type 300. However, in Customizing for Classification, you can define other class types for variant configuration. In the step Define class types, you can set the Variant class type indicator for a class type.

Once you have created a variant class, you can do the following, as for any other class:

• Classify materials in the class
  These materials do not have to be configurable materials.

• Set up a class hierarchy
  This allows you to use inherited characteristics and restrict characteristic values.

• Use the class to find objects

Class type 300 has 2 other special attributes, in addition to the Variant class indicator:

• In classes of this class type, you can classify objects of different object types. This means that all the objects linked to the configurable material are classified in one class.

For example, if you create a sales order for a configurable material, this order is automatically classified in the variant class.

• You can also use classes of class type 300 as BOM items. For more information, refer to
Classes as BOM Items.

You define these two settings in Customizing for Classification, step Define class types.

Reporting: Characteristics and Values

You can display all the characteristics that describe a configurable material. You also see information on whether an entry is required for a characteristic, whether a default value is defined for a characteristic, and whether dependencies are allocated to a characteristic.

1. Choose Environment
® Reporting ® Chars and Values from the variant configuration menu.

You see the initial screen. Enter the material for which you want to execute this function. You can enter the following data:

– The date on which you want to execute the reporting function.

If the material has been processed with engineering change management on different dates, different characteristics may be assigned to the material on different dates.

– The language in which you want the characteristics displayed.

In characteristics maintenance functions, you can enter language-dependent descriptions for characteristics and for values with CHAR format.

– You can define that characteristics are displayed with values.

– You can define that the status of dependencies is checked. If a dependency that is not released is allocated to a characteristic or characteristic value, the indicator for dependencies is selected in the result of the report.

Once you have defined your settings, choose Execute.

2. You see the configurable material and the class to which the material is allocated. Below it, you see a list of the characteristics of the material. You can print this list.

If object dependencies are allocated to a characteristic or characteristic value, the O indicator is selected. If you are interested in the status, released and locked dependencies are displayed differently.

If a characteristic is required entry, the R indicator is selected.

If a value is defined as a default value, the D indicator is selected.

You can select a characteristic and display detailed information on its format and attributes.

Maintaining Characteristics for Configuration

Use

When you create a sales order for a configurable material, this sales order must describe precisely how the product being ordered is to look. This description comes from characteristics and characteristic values.

A car, for example, has a large number of options that need to be described.

The graphic shows the individual product options such as engine, gears, paintwork, mapped as characteristics. You define values for characteristics, to allow you to select specific options, such as 'black' for paintwork.

To create characteristics, you use the standard functions in the classification system menu (see the SAP Library CA Cross-Application Components ® Classification (CA-CL) ® Characteristics (CA-CL-CHR ® Creating, Changing, and Displaying Characteristics).

Features

You can assign object dependencies to characteristics and characteristic values, to ensure that the values assigned are complete and consistent (see Characteristics (CA-CL-CHR): Creating Dependencies for a Characteristic and Maintaining Dependencies for a Characteristic Value).

You can define characteristics as restrictable, specifically for variant configuration. The values of a restrictable characteristic can be restricted during configuration to certain allowed values (see Restrictable Characteristics).

Routings for Configurable Materials

Use

A routing (or task list) for a configurable material contains all the operations, operation sequences, and production resources/tools (PRTs) that are required to manufacture all variants of a configurable material.

Routings (task lists) for configurable materials are known as super task lists.

When you configure the material, you assign characteristic values that are used in production to determine the operations required.

In the processing industries, master recipes are used instead of task lists. Master recipes contain all the recipe objects that are required for all product variants.

Features

To maintain task lists for configurable materials, choose Routings ® Routing ® Create. You create the routing in the same way as for other materials.

You can assign dependencies to the operations, operation sequences, and PRTs in routings for configurable materials.

You can assign dependencies to the phases, operations, BOM items, and secondary resources in master recipes.

You can assign the following dependency types:

• Selection conditions

To ensure that operations, operation sequences, and PRTs are selected when they are needed in a variant, you assign selection conditions to them.

Selection conditions also ensure that the correct objects in master recipes are selected.

See Selection Conditions and

Selection Conditions for a BOM Item and Operation.

• Procedures (actions)

To change fields in operations and PRTs, such as the standard values, you use procedures or actions.

In master recipes, you can change fields in operations, phases, secondary resources, and BOM components.

See Reference Characteristics in Dependencies and Master Data References in Task Lists

See also:

PP Routings

Creating a Routing

Creating Local Object Dependencies for an Operation

Creating Global Object Dependencies in an Operation

PP–PI Master Recipes

Creating Master Recipes

Editing Configurable Master Recipes

Editing Global Object Dependencies

Editing Local Object Dependencies