Introduction to Variant

Configuration
Contents of Variant configuration

• Variant Configuration
• Master Data for Variant Configuration
• Characteristics
• Class
• Material Master
• Super BOM
• Super Routing
• Configuration Profile
• Object Dependency
• Scenario Testing
• Variant Price
 What is Variant configuration ?
It is a tool which helps to simplify the complex manufacturing of final
product with more varieties and Variation of the input material.
Example :- Automobile manufacturing, Furniture manufacturing

• Your company manufactures or sells products that are available in several

different varieties. In order to reduce your workload and storage costs, and
to enable you to maintain every possible end product variant, you have
decided to use the SAP system for variant configuration.
• Variant configuration in SAP R/3 lets you check the following as soon as
you create a sales order:
• Whether the required variant can be produced (only variants that are
technically possible can be ordered)What price you can quote for the
product Whether the customer's specifications can be covered from stock
And so on
Cross Module Integration
Master data of Variant configuration

 Super BOM
 Super Routing
 Characteristic and Values
 Classification
 Object Dependency
 Configurable Profile
 Configuration stimulation
 SD Condition Records
Master data settings:

 Basic data 2 : Set Material is Configurable indicator

 To determine item category TAC in sales order, maintain the suitable
item category such as 0002
 MRP 2 View: set Procurement type E
 MRP 3 View :Set strategy group 25: Make to order for configuration
 MRP3 :set Availability check 02 ;Individual Requirement
 Class view ; Attach the variant class
Prerequisites for Variant configuration

 Create a Material - KMAT type with Item category (002)

 Create characteristics
 Assign Characteristics to class
 Assign the class to material master
 Creating a configuration profile
 Configuration stimulation
 Assign object dependences
 Creating Sales Order
 Checking Requirements using MRP
 Requirements Planning
 Converting the planed order into a Production order
 Confirming the production order
 Checking the production order settlement
 Creating the delivery
 Creating the billing document
Introduction to Variant Configuration
Business Scenario

 Your company produces or sells products with

different designs. You decide to use the variant
configuration of the SAP system to reduce the effort
and warehouse management costs. Also, you would
like to maintain all possible product variants.
 Variant Configuration in SAP ERP lets you check the
following as soon as you relate a sales order:
 Whether the required variant can be produced
(only variants that are technically possible can be
ordered)
 What price you can quote for the product
 Whether the customer's specifications can be
covered from stock And so on.
Variant Configuration
The following objects make up the knowledge base of a configured
material:
 The material master is where the configurable attribute is defined along
with some additional planning and control data.
 Characteristics and values must be created in the classification system
and collected in variant classes (class type 300).
 The configuration profile contains control data for the configuration
process and result.
 A super BOM must be created that contains all standard components
and all possible variable components, as well as assemblies that are
required to configure a variant product.
 A super task list must be created that includes all operations, sub operations,
sequences, and production resources and tools (PRTs) required to
manufacture all possible variants.
 Pricing condition records must be created for pricing the configurable
material.
 There are five different types of object dependencies which can be used
during the configuration process. Dependencies provide the rules or logic for
the configuration process.
 Configurable materials are often used in specific industry sectors, such as
aerospace and defence, the automotive industry, make-to-order production,
assemble-to-order production, and the hi-tech industry.
Lets take an example of Fork lift
 Products with a large number of features and options have a large
range of possible variants. Without additional restrictions, the example
shown could produce 19,440 variants.
 In practice, there are restrictions in the form of rules that reduce the
number of possible options. These rules must be defined and applied
during the configuration process.
 Complex products are reflected in complex configuration tasks for sales
and production. However, a company that sells or produces products
with variants needs to perform these tasks quickly and accurately. As
the development cycles and life cycles of products become shorter and
shorter, this is becoming increasingly difficult.
 Configurable Product is the general term for a product that has a large
number of variants. The features that are used to create complex
products are stored in the SAP system as characteristics and values.
Forklift

Configurable Product, Class, Class Type

 A configurable material needs a material master record to do the
following:
 Store important planning and control data
 Link the product to other objects in the variant configuration data
model by assigning it to a variant class In variant configuration, a
variant class groups together the set of characteristics that describe
a configurable material.
 You can only use variant classes or class nodes to group together
characteristics for this purpose. The class type of a class determines
whether the class is a variant class or class node. In the standard
system, only classes of class type 300 are variant classes.
 Classes of class type 200 are class items (class nodes). In
Customizing for classification, you can define further class types –
including class types for variant classes.
Forklift

Configurable Product, Class and Characteristics

 You define the features of a product in the SAP system by defining
characteristics. You define values for each characteristic, and use these
values to describe the customer's requirements.
 You assign the characteristics that describe your configurable product
to the variant class.
 The configurable material is assigned to the variant class. By assigning
the configurable material to the class, you are able to configure the
product using the characteristics of the class.
BOM Forklift
 You use the BOM to define which parts can be used in a configurable
material.
 You create a super BOM for the configurable material, containing parts
that may be used in specific variants only (variable parts) and parts that
are required in all variants (non-variable parts).
 This BOM can contain items that are in themselves configurable materials
(multi-level configuration).
 You can use preconditions to check the consistency of the values you
assign. This allows you to ensure that only valid combinations of values
appear and can be selected in configuration.
 You can also use selection conditions to determine that a specific BOM
item and operation must be selected if a certain value is assigned.
 This allows you to determine which seat, seat back and extras must be
selected.
Routing of Fork lift
The routing of a configurable material:
 Has one standard sequence
 May have one or more parallel and alternative sequences
 Comprises operations, which can have sub operations
 May have production resources/tools (PRTs) assigned to operations
 You can use object dependencies to determine the extent to which
sequences (except the standard sequence), operations, sub
operations, and PRTs are required for each variant to be produced, and
whether they can be used in exactly this form.
Interdependencies Between Objects in the Model
 Thank