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Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube

SAP VC Material Variants : Creation,Usage in Sales order for replacing Configurable Material – Part 1

Material Variants

Do you want to wait for customer order to plan and start production for the fastest selling and in demand configuration of your product ?

 

In many 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.

By definition from SAP Help,

Material Variants (1)

A material variant is a material that can be kept in stock and that arises from an individual configuration of a configurable product.

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.

 

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

These characteristics will have possible values associated

 

·        COLOUR

 

o   Red

o   Blue

o   Black

o   Green

o   Golden

o   Silver

o   Orange

o   Purple

o   Yellow

o   Dark Red

 

·        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

 

·        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

 

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

 

S1.jpg(3)

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

Transaction: MM01

Snap2.jpg(3)

Select views

Snap46.jpg(3)

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

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.

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.

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

 

S4.jpg(3)

Press   to configure this variant, you will get a pop-up

S6.jpg(3)

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

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

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

Transaction: CS40

S7.jpg(3)

Press enter

S8.jpg(3)

Save the assignment., Assign Routing

Transaction: CA02

S10.jpg(3)

 

Open a routing of configurable material

 

S11.jpg(3)

Use the material assignment option, Enter Group counter, Material and plant

S12.jpg(3)

Save the routing.

 

Now the material Variant is ready to be used.

If the strategy group associated is relevant for “Make to stock: production, you can plan the independent requirement, have MRP run, generate plan order, convert it to production order and confirm to generate stock of this material variants.

Make to Stock Production for Variants (1)

Variants can be planned on the finished product level using any make-to-stock strategy, such as Planning with Final Assembly (40) or Net Requirements Planning (10)

Make to Order Production for Variants(1)

Variants can be planned on the finished product level using any make-to-order strategy, such as Planning w/o Final Assembly (50) or Planning with a Planning Material (60)

Replacement of Configurable material with material Variant in Sales order.

You can define the settings for variant matching in the configuration profile of a configurable material and on the characteristic value assignment screen.

  1. In the configuration profile, choose Settings, and on the characteristic value assignment screen choose View —Settings.

S13.jpg(3)

Prerequisites (1)

You define the settings for variant matching in Customizing for Sales and Distribution, where you maintain item categories.

§  Configuration of Sales and Distribution -> Sales -> Sales Document -> Sales Document Item -> Define Item Categories.

/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/s14_137518.jpg(3)

  • Activate variant matching for an item category, by put a tick as shown above
  • Define Material variant action to decide how the system reacts if it finds a material variant:
    • The system automatically replaces the configurable material with the material variant.
    • You see a message telling you that a material variant with the same configuration exists.

If the material variant is not available, you can:

    • Receive an automatic message with a list of the material variant stock situation. You can then decide whether to replace the material variant.
    • Decide that you do not want to replace the variant.

Create Sales order

Transaction VA01:

 

/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/s15_137519.jpg(3)

Input configurable material as required material

/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/s16_137520.jpg(3)

  • Configure the configurable material in the sales order.
  • On the value assignment screen, you can check whether material variants match the configuration of the material

/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/s17_137521.jpg(3)

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

/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/s19_137524.jpg(3)

/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/s18_137523.jpg(3)

 

/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/s20_137526.jpg(3)

  • Once you have configured the material, leave the configuration editor.

 

  • 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.

 

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.

 

Relevant SAP Notes:

Note Number ,Description & Link

Note 794941 – Explosion of material variant as a configurable assembly

Note 513288 – Material variant as a component in multi-level configuration

Note 456510 – Material variant in multi-level configuration

Note 900732 – Variant matching does not work

Note 774346 – Composite SAP Note: Material variants

References:

(1)   Some part of text copied from SAP help

(2)   Link mention is a document by Philip Cluster on SAP SDN

(3)   All screen copied are from SAP IDES

(z) courtesy : https://www.motorcyclelegalfoundation.com/types-of-motorcycles/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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      59 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Navaneetha Krishnan
      Navaneetha Krishnan

      Hi Ritesh,

      Excellent document on material variant.

      Your effort on this is much appreciated.

      I especially liked the way you have mentioned your references and the system you have used!

      Thanks for such a nice document. I will try it some day this month (little held up for sometime)

      If you can move this to SD area, you will have more consultants reading your document, more will get benefitted. Dont know what should be done for that though.

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Navaneetha Krishnan,

      Thanks for comments, I will check if i can move it to SD.

      Regards

      Ritesh

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      SAP ERP Sales and Distribution (SAP SD)

      may be it will link it to SD forum.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Nice document, Ritesh 🙂

      Thanks for sharing.

      Regards,

      Senthil

      Author's profile photo SIVA KUMAR
      SIVA KUMAR

      Nice document, Ritesh 🙂

      Basant

      Author's profile photo Zev Yang
      Zev Yang

      hi,Ritesh:

      Is variant also work in MD81?I test it in MD81 but variant doesn't replace VC material..

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      HI,

      Please i need your help 🙂

      1) I created a class with categorie 300 and i affected it to some characteristic

      2) I have created a configurable material 'BIKE'  and o material variant like finished product 'BIKE-1000-BLACK' .

      3) I affect the class in configurable materiel 'BIKE'

      4) In the basic data, i linked the material variant to a configurable material.

      5) Now i can't  create a link to a configurable materiel with the transaction CS40. Should i create a BOW First? and the BOW it's necessary to complete the process of configurable materiel?

      Please 'im bloqued in this step.

      Thanks

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Good document.

      I will give it a try

      Thanks

      PV

      Author's profile photo venu gopal
      venu gopal

      Hai very wonderful document

      thanks a lot for sharing

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      venu gopal,

      Thanks for comment.

      Ritesh

      Author's profile photo Thierry Mathieu
      Thierry Mathieu

      Nice document, Ritesh 🙂

      Thanks for sharing.

      Regards,

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for comment.

      Ritesh

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks for Contributing to the community Ritesh,

      It is appreciated and the document is very helpful

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Amber Naseer,

      Thanks a lot for comments, I am just following your foot steps 🙂

      I can see you help a lot to community memmbers & share your knowledge & expertise.

      Regards

      Ritesh

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Very Useful and it solved my problem about the "Super Routing".

      Thanks a lot!!!

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for comment , appriciate if you rate this documnet too , by clicking on *  and like option too.

      Thanks

      Ritesh

      Author's profile photo Navaneetha Krishnan
      Navaneetha Krishnan

      Hi Ritesh,

      Read this document once again today just to clarify some doubts.

      1. Why do you use CS40 and CA02. Is it mandatory even in a non PP scenario. I have been working purely on SD perspective and have not used CS40 till date. Is that an acceptable approach. Actually I am of the belief that the MRP3 view or the basic view links the variant with the configurable material and hence CS40 is redundant. Please clarify if I am incorrect.

      2. Also Why do we need routing for variant material which anyway should be a MTS material. Again to my primitive understanding about routing, we can have routing only for MTO materials from SD perspective. During TOR, we send requirements to PP and then the production/assembly order will have the routing for the material. Hence in a stock scenario, this should not be applicable.

      If you can help me understanding these two concepts, it will help me.

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Navaneetha Krishnan        

      With MRP 3 entery you connect the configurable material with material variant ,

      using CS40 you connect material variant with BOM and through CA02 you made link between material variant & routing operation of configurable.

      BOM and routing are required object from PP prespective.

      weather its a MTO or MTS both require this object.

      Hope this explanation will help you.

      Thanks

      Ritesh.

      Author's profile photo Navaneetha Krishnan
      Navaneetha Krishnan

      Hi Ritesh,

      This makes my understanding very clear. Thanks a bunch for your response.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Ritesh,

      Nice document ! By the way for deleting/removing a material variant shall I go about in the reverse of the order in which we created it?
      If so, Will removing MV from mat.assignment in routing or

      Link to configurable material affect the routing in any way like deleting the comp.allocations?

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Krishnan Sekar,

      Thanks for comment , I dont think removing of MV from routing material assignment or changes to component allocations will affect anything.

      I truely trust SAP's integration for all object. 🙂

      Also, when you say reverse , I hope you do not want to remove configurable material from basic data 2 or MRP 3 view from configurable material field. Its Not possible

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Ritesh,

      Many thanks for the excellent sharing!

      I have particular question - if there are more then one suitable material variants in my case system propose only one of them (with least mat.num.). Is it expected behaviour or some customisation is missed?

      Author's profile photo Caetano Almeida
      Caetano Almeida

      Hi Ritesh

      Very nice document. I wrote the following document about an error that may happen with variant materials that may be useful:

      Configurable planned order for material variants: Exception "53: No BOM explosion due to missing configuration"

      BR

      Caetano

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for comment Caetano Almeida, I follow you in PP forum and already gone thorugh yoru document. 🙂

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Ritesh,

      Really a very useful document to understand the material variant concept. Your explanation with screenshots would leave no doubts in mind of the reader.

      Regards

      SD

      Author's profile photo Meraj Ansari
      Meraj Ansari

      Hi Ritesh,

      its a very nice documents.thanks for shairing.

      if you have any document regading how to call variant table,constrian table.in dependencies so it will be very beficial for us. your explanation is always mind blowing.

      Regards,

      Meraj Ansari

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      hi ritesh,

      a complex topic ....explained in simple terms.....

      thanks for preparing and sharing the doc...

      regards,

      sandeep

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Very good explanation,

      Clean & clear....

      Very usefull document

      Author's profile photo Yael Yashfe-Dery
      Yael Yashfe-Dery

      Very thorough explanation.

      Thanks

      Author's profile photo Anupam Sharma
      Anupam Sharma

      Hi Ritesh,

      Appreciate your efforts in preparing and sharing this document!!!

      Excellent document 🙂

      Keep contributing.

      Thanks

      Anupam Sharma

      Author's profile photo Naga Venkata Ratnagupta Gamini
      Naga Venkata Ratnagupta Gamini

      Hi Ritesh,

      Thanks for the detailed information. I just have one question. May I know in which table does the material->variant configuration information gets persisted. I would like to know the variant configuration for a given material via a Table/API. Any input will be very much appreciated.

      Thanks & Best Regards,

      Gupta

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Gupta GNVR,

      Thanks for comment, Instead of posting issue here, I suggest please open a new thread in SAP ERP PLM - Classification and Variant Configuration space. So that it will increase chances of getting more favorable replies.

      Thanks

      Ritesh

      Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal
      Nitin Jinagal

      Hi Ritesh,

      I'm trying my luck with VC these days and I must say this is exactly the document I was looking for. I was wondering what if a particular variant is very common and get more than 50% of total production, and then I found this. Very nicely written 🙂

      NJ

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks  for comments Nitin Jinagal.

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Joseph Whiteley,

      Thanks for your comment.

      I can help on question your asked here , Please open a thread in SAP ERP PLM - Classification and Variant Configuration with your specific question so that you will get more favorable replies.

      Please rate the document if you like it.

      Thanks

      Ritesh

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hey Ritesh,

      Nice Doc.

      I have an issue.. I have a configurables material AA and created a variant BB.

      I have a contract with AA. When I create a PO for AA with characteric values same as BB, it should match BB and pick the same. But Variant matching is not working in Purchase order creation.

      Any idea?

      Thanks

      Raj

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for comment Raj T, please rate the document if you  like it.

      For any questions related to functionality explained in document , please create a new thread in forum , you will get more favorable replies.

      Thanks

      Ritesh

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks, Ritesh, you did give a very good doc.


      I created a configurable material, but when I transfer it to CRM system, and use the materials to create sales order, the system will give out the error message "please configure the product xx". And I tried to create a sales order in ECC, the system gave out the error message "Profitab. Segmt No.".


      I have no idea with the error, is there more configurations I need to do? could you please help with that? thanks a lot.


      Fiona

      Author's profile photo Atul Keshav
      Atul Keshav

      Hello Ritesh,

      Great document very well explained.

      Kind Regards

      Atul

      Author's profile photo Wendy Li
      Wendy Li

      Hello Ritesh,

      Very good learning material. It helped me a lot.

      But I have a question now. I created a multi-level configurable variant BOM, but the BOM cannot be exploded completely... Could you give me some suggestions to solve it?

      The detail of this question is described here

      Thank you very much!

       

      Best regards,

      Wendy

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Sir,

      Can you please shared , how ECN and OCM work in case if sales order has changed  after production order creation, As We are working in S4 HANA , here system allows us to change sales order configuration even after production order exist. How changes in sales order automatically triggered in production order by OCM

       

      Regards,

      Sumit Yeole

      Author's profile photo Vignesh Veerasamy
      Vignesh Veerasamy

      Hi

      Very Very clear and explained document.

      With S4 Hana how can material variant be handled as MRP4 view will validate for seperate Routing and BOM for mapping Production version ?

      Thanks in Advance.

      Vignesh Veerasamy

      Author's profile photo Dan Tobin
      Dan Tobin

      Ritesh Dube  We use class nodes (class type 200) within the BoM of the configurable material. Some BoM's go about 3 levels

      The material variant assigned to the configurable material, doesn't seem to fire lower level configuration, is that a true statement?

      We have BoM's that go about 3 levels & they don't seem to work, I assume because they are needing a sales order? Maybe the class node has to "look" at the sales order?
      Please help

       

      Thank you so much

      Dan

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Dan,

       

      Thanks for reading my blog and marking your “Like”.

      In short i can say that you cant have configurable material variants. Material variants will have frozen configuration only. I suggest , please open a thread in classification forum using below link with an example of your configuration structure and i will try to help with information and possible solution if any.

      https://answers.sap.com/tags/411295671235448601330173655419575

       

      Thanks

      Ritesh

       

       

      Author's profile photo Dan Tobin
      Dan Tobin

      Ritesh Dube Thank you so much, I did log a question in the link you provided.

       

      Author's profile photo Gopal Ramlal
      Gopal Ramlal

      Great  document.

      Author's profile photo Fábio Pinto
      Fábio Pinto

      Hello,

      Good document. Unfortunately, my variant material is not popping up in the material variants in VA01 or CU50 and i followed your instructions.

      Can you please help me? Can it be something wrong with the system?

      I have been trying to get this to work for a while and I can’t seem to find the problem.

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Please post your issue in question space and i will reply there.

      Thanks

      RD

      Author's profile photo Learn SAP
      Learn SAP

      good blog, could you please suggest how to change material in MRP3 view. while creating a test material i put the wrong number.

      BR

      Veera

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks, Please post question in forum.

      Thanks

      RD

      Author's profile photo Learn SAP
      Learn SAP

      ok, i am posting in forum.

      Author's profile photo Eric Compton
      Eric Compton

      Great article Ritesh, it really helped me visualize the concept you were conveying.

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Eric Compton, You are welcome.

      Author's profile photo nirbhay singh
      nirbhay singh

      Hi,

      Thank you Ritesh. it's very helpful document specially for those who are new for the variant configuration I have one query regarding the item list which is appearing while creating sales order it’s in last screen shot could you help me how this is appearing i tried to find out the relevant setting however i could not get it.

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for the comment.

      You mean below screen ?

       

      you will get this screen when the characteristic value assign to sales order line item matches the values fro m material variant, you can press variant matching button to get this screen. Please try out in your sandbox and if you have any issue please open a thread in VC forum so that other experts could also reply to you.

       

      Author's profile photo nirbhay singh
      nirbhay singh

      Thank you so much Ritesh for your valuable response.

      Author's profile photo SAP2020ALL Module
      SAP2020ALL Module

      Also, there is far less online material available online on dependencies syntax, providing more information on various dependency type and out of the box syntax y help learner like me a lot.

      Author's profile photo Ankit Mehrotra
      Ankit Mehrotra

      In case of multi-level configuration with sales BOM explosion, material variant replacement does not happen at sales BOM component level. Can you please share any possible solutions to this?

      Thanks & Best Regards,

      Ankit Mehrotra

      Author's profile photo Ritesh Dube
      Ritesh Dube
      Blog Post Author

      I suggest open a thread in forum with all details of your setup so that you will get replies from other members too.

      you can also search forum there are few threads which could help you.

      https://answers.sap.com/comments/10358945/view.html

      https://answers.sap.com/comments/10358945/view.html

      https://answers.sap.com/questions/10351966/variant-matching-in-multi-level-configuration.html?childToView=10358945#comment-10358945

      https://answers.sap.com/answers/13024180/view.html

      Thanks

      RD