3. Can we block Material/Vendor in SAP? What are the reasons to do this?

Yes, we can block the vendor in SAP as per the requirement received from business.

Ticket:

 Business user has been placed a request that they should block/Unblock the vendor X
repeatedly because they use to procure only certain times from that vendor X, they
would like to ensure no one should place to that vendor by mistake and when we place
we don’t want to block and unblock for purchasing and payment purpose, is there any
solution for this?

Solution:

Here the business user is unblocking the vendor for PO purpose when required and
blocking again after PO, and he again unblocking the vendor for payment purpose, so
they want resolution – As business user having only XK05 access he is unable to block
for particular segment/ One particular user can have MK05 access, so that instead of
blocking for both the activities they can block for purchasing when required and unblock.

MK05- purchase block for purchasing purpose and financial data will be processing as
per the vendor master.

If you are blocking any vendor in MK05, we use to block at purchase organization level,
so make sure you don’t have centralized purchasing in your company.

Material:

Answer: 

Yes, we can block a material as per the request but before blocking- is its requirement
to block the material throughout organization or specific plant.

We have 2 options to block – Client level OR purchase organization level.

Client level- Material blocked for all plants within the client

Purchasing tab- X-plant material status- Block it only for purchasing activities.

Q) What is the requirement to block a material in company?

 A) Required quantity is already there in plant and for some time they don’t want to do
production for that material due to demand, if there is safety stock maintained then user
can request for material block for some time.

It avoids the risk of ordering PO for that material by some other buyers.

A)     the usage of that material is currently restricted by the country due to safety features,
so that we can block that material for some time up to policy changes, after that we can
unblock.

What is the requirement to block a vendor in company?

A)     If the quality of the vendor providing is poor, then company would request for blocking
the vendor for some time.

4. How to change an Industry sector for a Material? Requirements to change.

Solution: 

We cannot change the industry sector for the material once its defined.

Resolution: Better to delete the old material and recreate the new material with correct
industry sector.

Before deleting the old material- prerequisites are check for open PO’s and Open PR’s
and check for the stock in the warehouse, once everything clarified to ‘0’ then its good
to delete and create new material.

Reason:
 we cannot change the industry sector because industry sector controls the sequence of
screens and fields, so once we define the material with once industry sector then we
cannot modify.

Interview Question 1:
 Can we have new Industry sector as per the company?

Answer: Yes, we can have our own industry sector as per our industry.

Example: Electrical industry/Cement Industry/Hydrocarbon etc

Process to define new industry sector:

SPRO- logistics general-Material master-field selection-Define industry sector.

OMS3- T-code
Select the new entries and enter Industry sector, Description and Field reference.

Interview Question 2: 

What are the standard industry sectors in SAP? Tell any 4.
Mechanical/Chemical/Pharmatechs/Beverages/Food/Construction
If there is any new type of machinery we are involving then we will create a new industry
sector, but its very rare condition.

5. How to change material type of Material? What are the prerequisites?

Yes, we can change the material type of a material by using t-code MMAM.

But we need to recommend by thinking prerequisites in mind.

No Open requisitions/ No open orders/Safety stock/Unrestricted stock.

1.     Both material type should have same attributes, then its ok because views are
different wrt material type.

2.      No open requisitions/Orders/RFQ

3.      Account category reference/valuation class- If required we need to change as per

the material type.

4.      BOM should be deleted for the material

5.      Safety stock should be removed/QM stock also

6.      Remove all stocks in inventory

7.      Few cases GR/IR/Payment should get completed to change the material type.

By keeping all these prerequisites, we will request the business users to clear
PR/PO/Stock and delete the material and recreate new material with correct material
type.

6. Material master is created at what level.

Answer:
Material master can be created at 4 levels.
1.      Client level- Basic data
2.      Plant level- Accounting data/MRP Views/ Purchasing data
3.      Storage level- Plant/Storage Location
4.      Sales Organization level- Sales view for few materials

Client Level:

Data maintained at client level will be available for all company codes in the client.
Same Basic data will be shown for a material throughout all company codes/Plants
(Only basic data)

Plant Level:

Data maintained in accounting tab and MRP tab and purchasing tab will be maintained
wrt plant for every material.

Note: If the valuation is at company code level then all this accounting data will be at
company code level, but most of companies they have valuation at plant level.

Storage level:

Data maintained at plant and storage location tabs will be at storage location level.

Sales Organization:

Its completely SD data, where for STO types we will use sales data to transfer goods.

7. Vendor master is created at what level?

Answer: We can create vendor master at Company code level and Purchase
organization level.

Company code level: Basic data of vendor and Accounting will be company code data
Purchase Organization level: Basic data of vendor and purchasing data will be
maintained in this level.

Example:

if we are creating a PO, then vendor master should contain purchasing data as
mandatory.

If we are invoicing any vendor for payment, then accounting view with bank details need
to be maintained, without this data invoice will not be paid.

We can have 2 different vendors for this, 1 vendor for purchasing and 1 vendor for
accounting.

Scenarios:

If we want to block any vendor for payment purpose, then we can block in FK05
Where accounting data gets blocked and no payment process further, whereas if we
want only purchasing block and not finance block then we can achieve in MK05.

Example 1:
 Once User has blocked the vendor for purchasing and raised a ticket that he wants to
create PO for plant with that block.

Resolution: Even this vendor belongs to same purchase organization, the user cannot
create PO with this vendor with any plants.

So, we can request him to block at source list level, so that only that plant with purchase
organization will gets blocked and you can create a PO for the same.

Single plant- Single vendor-1 Purchase organization= we can block in source list and
not in MK05/FK05.

8. How to change vendor account group? Effects

A) We can change the vendor account group in XK07, whereas before changing we
need to remember few things.

 Account group controls number ranges/Field selection, both the account groups should
have the same filed selection to process further.

·        Partner schema has partner functions which must be same for both account groups-
Its good to have a same partner schema for both account groups, if not then both
partner schema contains same partner functions.

Normally once we tell all this prerequisite to business user, they would request to create
a new vendor by deleting the old vendor.

If they accepted to delete, then follow below.

Open PR/PO

GR Pending/Waiting for Invoice

Pending payment, ensure above 3 conditions are fully closed then process further.

Scenario: 
1. Changing vendor to internal vendor from external vendor.
2. Preferred vendor to non-preferred vendor (Both the ways possible)
3. Changing vendor account group from KRED to ZARG.
9. Name important material master and vendor master table names?
Answer: 

Few of the important material master tables are:

MARA- Material master general data

MARC- Material master plant data
MARD- Material master storage location data
MAKT- Material master description

Vendor master:

LFA1- General data for vendor

LFB1- Company code for vendor
LFB2- Purchasing data for vendor
LFB1- Purchase organization data

Scenario:

In our company users don’t have se16n, so they requested the consultant for vendor list
where for how many vendor communications is email and fax.

Scenario 2: 

Output condition record: they are many conditions 2 maintain an output condition
record, users use to duplicate the OCR by maintaining in different conditions.
Finally, they use to request us to delete the duplicate OCR, so just we need to find out
the OCR duplication and give it to them or else we will inform to Superuser to do this
request.

Resolution for future: 

we informed to client that we can use one or two conditions to maintain OCR, so that
there will be no duplication.

10. What is the requirement to have multiple valuation class for 1 material type?

Answer: 1 material type contains 1 account category reference, and account category
reference contains multiple valuation classes.

So, while creating material through account category reference we see some valuation
classes will pop-up, as we are handling material types the hierarchy of material types
contains group/class- so to differentiate financially to which GL account it should hit.

*Multiple valuation classes explain different type of materials in one material type.
 Electronics- we have Phones/Laptop and Washing machine/Refrigerator.

Scenario: Ticket has been created for one material type, where there organization has
acquired 1 small company which belongs to IT and this has been taken as roll out
project and asked for creation of new material type for IT goods, so that they can
maintain new valuation class(Scenario Assumed) by using existing material type.

In those we will define a new valuation class and assign to account category reference
for that material type to reflect in material master.

What is the requirement to have multiple valuation class for 1 material

Answer:

·        one material we use for purchasing/sales then we would like to have 2 valuation class
for 1 Material.
·        One material we have separate Quality like Q1/Q2/Q3, the prices needs to be
differentiated by split valuation.
·        One material that procured from vendor and same material it may be manufactured in
same plant then prices needs to be maintained differently.

But for this split valuation must be activated in the configuration.

11. Is It Possible To Create New Material Type And What Is The Business
Requirement?

The new material type is created based on your requirement.(OMS2)

some of requirements

 if you want post in different account (Qty or Value Update)

 If you want different number range

 If you different screen layout & field selection

SPRO->Logistics-General->Material Master->Basic Settings->Material Types->Define

attributes of material types.

12. In Your previous project how many material types you are using and examples?

Answer:
 In our previous projects we were using around 40 material types, we have in raw
materials around 10 different types of Raw and even for consumable materials we have
material type, and few mentioned below.

Raw material:

ROH- ZROH Raw materials

ZROS- Raw Serial material
ZRND- Research material

Packaging:

VERP- ZPAK-Packaging
ZPAS- Packaging serial material

Semi-Finished:

HALB-
ZNRW- Semi finished

Finished:

FERT- Finished
Few other similar material types are:
ZFIP- Finished marketing
ZFIS-Finished serial material
ZHDC- Hydrocarbons
ZINV- Inventory materials
ZLEI- Returnable package material

Y-Series:

YQBM- Bulk Materials

YQBP- By-Products
YQCP- Co-Products
YQNM- Non valuated materials
YQPM- Pipeline materials
YQSM- Sample materials
ZALE- Sale material

13. Significance of material type and vendor account group?

Answer: 

Material type and vendor account group controls many things related to that master
data.
Material type:

Material type defines the type of material they are dealing, the main significance
involves
1.Number ranges (Internal or External)
2.Field selection (Which field to be mandatory)
3.Quantity and value updating (It involves checking whether the material will be
managed on Quantity basis or value basis)

Eg: if there is quantity check then when we post MIGO, the material document will gets
posted
When you check both quantity and value then both material document and account
document get posted.

4.Internal or external purchase orders allowed or not.

5.User departments (Which departments can use this material for business purpose)
6.Valaution classes (respective valuation class will get triggered)
7.Price Control

Vendor Account group:

Vendor account group controls many things

1.Vendor master number ranges

2.Field selection
3.One-time vendor (It mentions the vendor is one-time vendor or regular vendor)
4.Vendor Subrange (Subrange for purchasing and partners)
5.Partner functions

14. What is the significance of procurement type in material master and its types?

Answer: Procurement types tells what type of procurement.

We have Internal procurement and external procurement also both, we can control this
in 2 ways.

1.OMS2
2.Material master-MRP2

OMS2- mention Internal/External purchase orders

0/1/2-Options- If required for all materials under this one.

MM01-MRP2

Procurement type:
F- External procurement with material level (One material)
X- Both Procurement types
Blank- No procurement

Scenario: 

Once the buyer requested to change the procurement type for 1 material type, where he
received a workflow contract from stakeholders in that procurement type mentioned as
X and buyer wants it as F, because of region issues.

Solution: 

We mentioned X is both procurement like internal and external and again we requested
please check the plants is it within your region or out of scope region.
Let me know if it’s a wrong routing then we will forward this ticket to Basis consultant to
look forward.

15.REPEATED Q9

16. Use of partner function and vendor sub-range?

Answer: Partner function explains the role of partner,
 like one central vendor has many partners where few are OA/GS/PI- OA- where we use
to order by sending output(Normally output will be sent to OA address), GS- the partner
who carries out goods and supplies to plant from the vendor plant, PI- to which partner
the billing should be done.

How do you create partner functions?

Answer: First we will define partner functions as per our company standards
Once we have partner functions, we will assign to Account group, now we will define a
partner schema and assign to vendor account group to get displayed in vendor master.

Vendor Sub-range:

As we have business partner to maintain our business, they may have child companies
as per there standards and once they have, we use from procure from child vendor to
our local plant to decrease the costs and customs. 
`
In this case we can maintain the vendor sub-range to the central vendor like sub-range
in purchasing and partner functions.

Purchasing is for allowing local currencies to pay to the vendor and partner functions is
for maintaining OA and GS as local vendor (local vendor means company plant place).

What are the requirements to maintain sub-range?

 We must do settings in vendor account group- vendor sub-range/Plant.
Assign partner schema in account group which we defined as per A/c group.

Ticket: User tried to add Z5 as partner to PO, where it shown error partner not allowed.
Resolution: First partner needs to be maintained for that document type as per the
business approvers, then we can add it to account group upon approvals.

Level 3 ticket: Region in vendor master cannot be controlled by field settings:

Solution: Worked with ABAPer to maintain that field setting as mandatory by
customizing the existing code.

17. what is the purpose of PIR from business angle?

Purchase info record acts as a source of information for the purchasing department as
we know it’s a master data which contains the vendor and material information, price
related/subrange/lead time/tolerance/ERS/GR based IR and even rounding profile.

Info record is mandatory for consignment and pipeline where MRKO report pulls the
price from Info-record if not system throughs an error.

Ticket: We use to get lot of tickets related to PIR for UOM discrepancy, Payment is not
done.
Solution: There is no action from functional side, where for PO GR/IR is already done,
so we requested as – please make reverse all the documents posted and correct the
PO by deleting the PIR and repost all documents.

So that issue will gets resolved and after correcting the PIR for long term issues.
Path to create Info Record
Logistics ⇒ Material Management ⇒ Purchasing ⇒ Master Data ⇒ Info Record ⇒
Create
TCode: ME11

18.Types of Info-category in PIR?

Answer: we have 4 types of info-category

1.      Standard
2.      Sub-Contracting
3.      Consignment
4.      Pipeline

Standard- 

Where PIR is optional, but if we maintain PIR there are many conditions flow from PIR
to PO.
Price/Lead time/MOQ/Tolerance

Sub-Contracting:

 it consists the material price that belongs to consumables, which will be useful to
prepare finished goods. Its mainly deals with subcontracting.
Price of main components and child components.

Consignment:

 few materials we use store in plant for future purpose which belongs to vendor, those
material prices are maintained in this category and its Mandatory to maintain.

Pipeline: prices will be stored for materials that belongs to Oil/gas/Wire

19. What is the purpose of MRP indicator in Source list?

Answer:

 MRP- Material requirement planning

If we want MRP run should take their source automatically then MRP indicator should
setup and for schedule lines to be generated automatically if MRP is set for 2.
By MRP process we can automate the full procurement, where from PR through MRP
with source and PO through background jobs and this completes the PR-PO process
automate.

Ticket:

 User raised a ticket for Quote arrangement, where Quota is not working as maintained.
Resolution: 

As we analyzed the query, we see users use to fix the source list and they use to
remove the indicator as per there clients request, to work Quote we need source list
with no fix indicator and MRP indicates should be 1.

20. Question: What is the significance of fixed indicator and block indicator in
source list?

Answer: Fixed indicator:

It explains procurement should be done only from this vendor, where its through MRP or
Contract or manual.
Ticket: User wants to check the fix for 2 contracts, where he had 2 agreements and he
wants to check for both and he is not sure it is having Quota or not.
Solution: We have advised check the source list can be done for single vendor and its
not possible for multiple, if required don’t maintain fix indicator and if your quota to work
then tick should not be present.

Block Indicator:

If we want any vendor to get blocked for purchasing, then it will not allow this vendor for
purchasing.
If we agreements/MRP and manual it will block the vendor for all the purchasing
activities.

Ticket: User wants to maintain block indicator of source list for 100-200 items.
Solution: Using LSMW

21. For which business scenario, we will suggest source list and Quota
arrangement?
Answer: Source list:

We will suggest the source list in terms of agreement-based purchasing.

For specific plants, they require material from only approved vendors, then we will
suggest source list as mandatory for plants.

When there is a requirement to block single material/single vendor then we can suggest
source list to use.
Forecast based MRP planning- Check

Quota arrangement:

When they are using MRP run with multiple vendors, then its better to go with Quota.
Even in terms of agreement also they can go with quota arrangement, because there
will be lot of savings and dependency will not there on single vendor.

Mostly, when we are working with multiple vendors scenario.

22. Is it possible to create PIR without material master?

Yes, its possible to create a PIR without material master and many cases we will create
PIR for example for consumables and even for services we can maintain and its
possible.
Where we have material group, for every material the material group is mandatory and if
there is no material then material group should be there to create PIR.
Here we need to maintain material group and short text for identification and price will
be pulled from PIR through this.
23. What is the difference between Internal and external purchasing document and how
many are there?
Answer: 

PR is an internal document, where we will share these documents internally.

PO/Contract/Scheduled agreement/RFQ is external document and even invoice is also,
where we will share the documents to the vendor.

24. Significance of PR and PO document type:

Answer: PR document type controls:
Number ranges, filed selection, release procedure header/Item level, Allowed item
categories for document type.

25. Is it possible to create a new document for PR and PO and in which scenario we
will create?
Yes for any particular person requires individual authority for these we create a new
purchase document type EX; Zabc here we set item category as “L” (for subcontracting
with the help of basis consultant allow to give individual authority.
Scenario: Our company acquired small company and they have procurement related to
IT, so for easy analysis and reporting purpose we created new document type and
maintained new valuation class to reflect the new GL account.
26. Is it possible to create a new Item category?
No, its not possible to create a new item category whereas SAP has given predefined
item categories for all business scenario.
As I know, we cannot and for developing new category contact ABAP team id they can.
But its not required to create new.
27. Difference between with and without classification:
It’s an approval process for internal and external document-Release Procedure
Sl With Classification Without Classification
no
1 We set release Procedure for PR and We set release Procedure only for
PO PR
2 We set release Procedure for PR for We set release Procedure only for
item and Header Level item level
3 We set this with the help of No communicaation table available
communcation table

28. Configuration step for header and item level release procedure for PR?
Same configuratiion follows for PR (CEBAN) [Technical name :WERKS] and PO
(CEKKO) [Technical name :WERKS-for plant and GNETW-for net value]release but the
table is different for PO and PR.
1.We have to create a characteristic using Tcode –CT04:Here we assign
communication table with respect to particular field.
2. Create a class using CL02 and assign the characteristic to class.
3. Create a release group and assign the class to release group
4. Create release codes and assign the Release group to each release codes.
5. Finally we create release strategy and enter the release group and release codes.

29. Is it possible to configuration PO item level release procedure?

No, its not possible to maintain the release procedure for PO item level, Item level
release procedure is possible only for PR.
With classification method has PO header level release only possible.

30. Is it possible to assign more release classes in the release group step.
We can have N number of release groups but only one release class is possible.

31. Maximum how many release Quotes possible:

we have maximum of 8 release quotes possible.

32. What is the purpose of changeability function in release procedure?

changeability function acts as a retriggering of PR/PO approval process.
If we create a PO for 100 quantity and release the PO after releasse we change the
quantity as 50.This is changeability function in release procedure.

33. Difference between 122, 124 & 161 Movement types?

122/161 is actually done when the goods are returned to the vendor. ie they no longer
remain in the companys stock but are returned tothe vendor..
Both the functionalities and purpose is same
Solution: where as 122 Movement type is with refernce to Materials document and 161
Movement Type is With reference to Return Purchase order(tick field 'RE' on PO item
level, with reference with return PO, the system would automatically set movement type
to 161 during GR).
122 – return to vendor
Where we will return to vendor with same document number in which invoice is not
paid.
124- return to vendor.
In this vendor we will return the goods from GR blocked stock to vendor, so system we
need to use movement 124
161- return to vendor.
Where we return to vendor with other document number which contains return check in
PO, where invoice is paid to vendor.

34. Is it possible to create new movement types and what is the requirement of
business?
Yes, we can create new movement type as per our business requirement.
Example: we have our customized movement types for scrap.
Where 551 will be for external scrap and Z51 is for internal scrap storage, so as per the
requirement we will create new movement type, but we will not disturb the existing
movement types.

35.Expain MTO process.

Make to Order is process in which a company produces the products in order to satiisfy
the demads of the customer (Customization).
Ex: Machine Tools or Heavy Machinery.

36.Explain MTS process.

The company manufactures the products or components in advance and kepps in
stock.
Ex: Consumables.

37. Explain the sub-contracting process with movement types and transaction
event keys.
There are many scenarios in sub-contracting in which we will send the child materials to
vendor and vendor makes furnishing and make it ready as a finished goods and for
service charge, we will pay to the vendor.
Sometimes we will collect even waste while manufacturing, so this is another scenario.

Movement types: -scrap scenario

541- Goods transfer to vendor.

101-Goods received to plant

543- Consumption takes place by vendor
542- to receive the by-product from vendor
545-vendor delivers the by-product

Cancellation of every movement type mentioned above is +1

Transaction event keys:

BSX- Parent material credit

WRX- GR/IR clearing
BSV- Consumption of Material by vendor
FRL- Service charge from vendor
BSX- Child material credit
GBB(VBO)- Debit

Accounting entries examples:

C- 10, C2- 15 SC- 5

101- BSX + = 30
          WRX- = 5
SC – BSV – 30
         FRL + 5
543- BSX - = 15
          GBB+(VBO) = 15
543- BSX- = 20
        GBB+(VBO) = 20

38. Explain Planned and Unplanned service procurement:

Planned
Where we know the nature of service and budget allocated for that service then we can
maintain service tabs and following with SES- ML81N.

Unplanned- when we don’t the nature of service with only budget then we can maintain
limits tab without maintain services tab.
ML81N -SES after creating PO with Limits tab, in background GR will gets posted
automatically with 101 movement.

39.  Explain 3rd party process?

40.