Consignment Stock Processing

Purpose
Consignment goods are goods which are stored at the customer location but which are owned by your
company. The customer is not obliged to pay for these goods until they remove them from consignment
stock. Otherwise, the customer can usually return consignment goods which are not required.

Consignment processing offers the participating partners several advantages. Customers store the
consignment goods at their own warehouses. The customer can access the goods in the consignment
warehouse at any time. They are only billed for the goods when they are removed from the warehouse
and only for the actual quantity taken.

Since consignment stocks still form part of your valuated stock, you must manage this stock in your
system.

However, consignment stock must be

Managed separately from the rest of your stock so that you know exactly what stock is stored at
the customer location
Managed separately for each customer

In inventory management, the consignment stock is managed as special stock in your inventory and is
assigned to specific customers. This enables you to keep track of returnable packaging stock by
customer.
If the consignment stocks are not managed by the sold-to party but by a central office, you can use the
partner function for special stock partner.

Prerequisites

Special Stock Partner

The special stock partner has been defined for carrying out consignment stock processing by means of a
third party rather than the customer. This means you can manage all special stock under one partner. It
makes sense to use the special stock partner if your customer is using decentralized order processing but
manages consignment stock centrally.

Inventory Management Using the Special Stock Partner

If you want to process your consignment goods using a special stock partner, proceed as follows:

1. Create a customer master record for the special stock partner (account groups 0001 and DEBI
are defined for this purpose in the standard system).
2. Enter the special stock partner in the relevant customer master record on the partner screen
using the partner function SB.

When you create an order for this customer, the system automatically proposes the partner function SB in
the document header and the document items. Consignment goods which have been entered in a
consignment fill-up are always posted to the stock of the special stock partner when goods issue is
carried out. You can also enter the partner function SB manually in the document header or in the
relevant items if a special stock partner is required and is not proposed from the customer master record.
If a special stock partner does not exist in the document header, inventory management is carried out
using the sold-to party.

Process Flow
There are four main transactions for processing consignment stock in the R/3 System, all of which
support separate management of stock:

Creating a Consignment Fill-Up

Creating Consignment Issue
Creating a Consignment Pick-Up
Displaying Consignment Returns

Consignment fill-up

Consignment fill up is used to supplement the customers consignment stock.

Goods issue of the appropriate stock is posted from the unrestricted-use stock to consignment stock
(special stock). The goods remain in the possession of the vendor.

When you ship consignment stock to the customer, you record the transaction by creating a consignment
fill-up order (order type KB). As a result, the system carries out the following actions:
 If special stock does not yet exist in your inventory for the customer (or special stock partner), the
system creates it when goods issue is posted
The relevant quantity is removed from regular inventory in your plant and is added to the special
stock for the customer. The total valuated stock for the plant remains the same.
The transaction is not relevant for pricing since the consignment stock remains the property of
your company.

Consignment pick-up

Consignment issue enables the customer to take consignment goods from the special stock for their use
or to sell.

Consignment issue involves removing the goods from the special stock and making it the property of the
customer.

When the customer removes consignment stock to use or sell, you record the transaction in the system
by creating a consignment issue order (order type KE). As a result, the system carries out the following
actions:

When goods issue is posted, the relevant quantity is deducted from both the customers special
stock and your own total valuated stock.
The transaction is relevant for pricing since the goods now become the property of the customer.

Consignment issue

Any consignment goods stored at the customers warehouse that havent been used can be reposted to
your companys warehouse with a consignment pick-up.
If the customer returns consignment stock to you, you record the transaction in the system by creating a
consignment pick-up order (order type KA). As a result, the system carries out the following actions:

When goods issue is posted, the relevant quantity is deducted from the customers special stock
and is added back into your regular stock at the plant where the goods are returned. Your total
valuated stock remains the same since the returned stock was regarded as part of your own
inventory even while it was at the customers premises.
This transaction is not relevant for billing.

Consignment return

Consignment returns are used for when your customer wants to return goods to the consignment stock.

If the customer wishes to claim on consignment goods which have already been issued, you can record
this transaction by creating a consignment return order (order type KR). As a result, the system carries
out the following actions:

When goods issue is posted, the relevant quantity is added to the customers special stock at the
plant where the goods are returned
Since the ownership of the goods is passed from the customer back to your company, the
transaction is relevant for billing. In this case, the customer receives a credit memo for the
returned goods.

Depending on the settings in Customizing for Sales, you can create consignment returns with direct
reference to a consignment issue. The consignment issue appears in the document flow for the
consignment return. This function is not supported in the standard version of the SAP R/3 System.

When you create consignment returns in the standard version of the SAP R/3 System,
the system automatically sets a billing block. To credit a return, you must first approve the
request for a credit memo by removing the billing block in the return header. You can
control the automatic setting of a billing block in Customizing for Sales.
The following table provides an overview of the order types used in the standard system for processing
consignments:

Transaction Sales order type

Consignment fill-up KB

Consignment issue KE

Consignment pick-up KA

Consignment return KR

Pricing and Availability Check

Whether pricing is carried out for the individual transactions depends on the item category. The schedule
line category controls the availability check and the transfer of requirements in each of the transactions.
The schedule line category itself is determined by the item category and the MRP type of the material.
The order types KE and KA check against the consignment stock for the customer involved and order
type KB checks against your own plant stock. Requirement records for consignment stock are stored as
individual requirements, independently of the setting in the material master record.