CL02 CT04 CU41

VARIANT
MICKAEL QUESNOT CONFIGURATION
SAP S/4HANA CONSULTANT /
SAP HELPER MATERIAL
VARIANTS
MATERIAL VARIANTS
In industries when we deal with Configurable material, many of times we come across a configuration which is asked
every now and then by many customer.

Also business don’t want to wait for customer to enter order and then start its production , instead there is a need to have
something similar to Make to Stock for this configuration to bring lead time down and maintain some stock of this fast
moving configuration.

To address all of these and many other requirements, there is a standard option available in SAP to create “Material
Variant”.

This document will be useful for beginners in VC area to understand the concept of Material Variant and how it can be
setup using standard SAP. Also we will discuss how when you configure a material in sales order (VA01) or Configuration
Simulation CU50, you can check whether a material variant already exists that has the same characteristic values and it
will manually or automatically replace the configurable material in sales order. You can display existing material variants
on the characteristic value assignment screen. However, the configurable material is not automatically replaced by the
variant.

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A material variant is a material that can be kept
in stock and that arises from an individual
configuration of a configurable product.
MATERIAL
VARIANTS
The material master record of a material variant
is linked to the configurable material and
configured using the characteristics of the
configurable material. This variant of the
configurable material can then be manufactured
and kept in stock.

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1.You have a Configurable Product “BIKE” which has 3 attribute
on which it can be configured, which become Characteristics of
this configurable material.

MM01 / MATERIAL TYPE KMAT

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These characteristics will have possible values associated

CL02 : CLASS COLOUR

CT04 : CHARACTERISTIC COLOUR

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COLOUR

o Red
o Blue
o Black
o Green
o Golden
o Silver
o Orange
o Purple
o Yellow
o Dark Red

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ENGINE TYPE

o 200 CC
o 400 CC
o 600 CC
o 800 CC
o 1000 CC
o 1200 CC
o 1400 CC
o 1500 CC
o 1600 CC
o 1800 CC

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• EXHAUST

o S- EXHAUST 1
o S- EXHAUST 2
o S- EXHAUST 3
o S- EXHAUST 4
o S- EXHAUST 5
o S- EXHAUST 6
o S- EXHAUST 7
o S- EXHAUST 8
o S- EXHAUST 9
o S- EXHAUST 10

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CREATE A NEW CHARACTERISTIC

CT04

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ENTER Characteristic Name
Name that uniquely identifies a characteristic.

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SELECT CREATE

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ENTER Characteristic description
Language-dependent description of characteristic.

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SELECT Data Type
The data type categorizes a characteristic and shows the
format for entering characteristic values.
You can use the possible entries to select one of the
following predefined data types (the abbreviations used in
Customizing are shown in parentheses):
•Character format (CHAR): for characteristic values that
consist of a character string
•Numeric format (NUM): for numeric characteristic values
•Date format (DATE): for characteristic values that
represent a date
•Time format (TIME): for characteristic values that
represent a time
•Currency format (CURR): for characteristic values that
are entered in a currency
•User-defined data types: you can define these in
characteristics management by choosing Extras -> More
functions -> User-defined data type.

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ENTER THE Number of Characters
Total number of characters that you can enter when you
assign a value to this characteristic. This figure includes
the number of decimal places.
This figure does not include plus or minus signs or
decimal points.

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SELECT VALUE ASSIGNMENT

SELECT Entry Required

Defines whether values must be assigned to the
characteristic.

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SELECT VALUES

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ENTER CHAR VALUES

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SAVE

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SAVED

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CREATE A NEW CLASS

CL01

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ENTER THE Class number
Name used to uniquely identify a class within a class
type.

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ENTER THE Class Type 300
Uniquely identifies the class type.
You maintain class types in Customizing for
Classification.

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SELECT CREATE

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ENTER THE Class Description
Language-dependent description of a class.

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SELECT THE TAB CHAR.

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ENTER THE Characteristic Name
Name that uniquely identifies a characteristic.

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SAVE

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THE Class type 300 IS created

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You created configurable material with all Basic settings
required for “Variant Configuration”

MM01

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ENTER MATERIAL OR NOT (INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL RANGE
NUMBER) , THE INDUSTRY SECTOR AND THE MATERIAL TYPE
KMAT

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SELECT VIEW CLASSIFICATION

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CLASS TYPE 300

ENTER CLASS

SAVE

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Configuration Profile

CU41 - Create

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THEN Below are the steps to create a Material Variant”, Create
a new material, BIKE – BLACK – 1000

Transaction: MM01

PRE REQUISITE : THE CONFIGURATION PROFILE MUST BE

CREATED

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ENTER INDUSTRY SECTOR AND MATERIAL TYPE

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Select views

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Complete the material creation process by filling out necessary
details and mandatory fields.

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Complete the material creation process by
filling out necessary details and mandatory
fields.

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To manufacture the material variant in-house, you must
maintain the variant at plant level, so that BOMs, routings,
and so on can be determined. Cross-plant variants can be
used in Purchasing, but are not supported in Sales.

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To set up the material variant specific to a plant, in MRP 3 View,
in field “Configurable Material ( MARC-STDPD) “ in put the
configurable material number.

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Press enter; you will get a message to “Configure the material.

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configure this variant

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Come out of the screen using, complete the process of creation
of material following all required view and mandatory fields.

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In the basic data, you can link the material variant to a
configurable material. This configuration applies to all plants.

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Now the Material Variant is created, and need to be linked with
BOM and Routings of Configurable Material.

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Transaction: CS40

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Press enter

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Save the assignment.

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Assign Routing

Transaction: CA02

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Open a routing of configurable material

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Use the material assignment option

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Enter Group counter, Material and plant

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CONTINUE

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Save the routing.

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Now the material Variant is ready to be used.

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Create Sales order

Transaction VA01:

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•Configure the configurable material in the sales order.

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•On the value assignment screen, you can check whether
material variants match the configuration of the material

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Material Variant matching the values will listed on lower
part of screen.

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Once you have configured the material, leave the
configuration editor

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•Depending on the settings in Customizing, either the
material is replaced by the material variant immediately, or
you see a message telling you that a suitable material
variant has been found.

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Save the sales order.

Individual or collective requirements can be generated for

the material variant. Pricing also applies to the material
variant, unless you define the configurable material as the
pricing material for the material variant.

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