Applies to:

SAP ECC 6.0 EHP4

Summary                    

Empties Management functionality was available for Sales and Distribution in SAP. With introduction of EHP 4, Empties Management Functionality is available in Materials Management to help Procurement and track Empties Movements between Customer and Vendor. This White paper intends to help SAP Consultant to understand the process and configure the scenario with SAP ECC 6.0 with EHP 4 and above.

Author(s):        Sharabh C. Chaudhari

Company:        Vodafone India Services Pvt. Limited

Created on:      28/05/2018

Author Bio

Sharabh Chaudhari is an employee of Vodafone India Services Pvt. Ltd. He has total 13+ years of experience out of which 12 years of experience in SAP MM Consulting. His experience includes 4 implementation and 4 support projects from different industries like Healthcare, Food and Beverage, Telecommunication, Auto component manufacturing and CNC Machine tool manufacturing industries.

Business Significance for Empties Management

Configuration

Master Data Setup

Process Flow

   PO Creation.

   Goods Receipt

   Invoice Verification.

Conclusion

Empties are type of returnable packaging which are intend to serve the purpose of ease in handling and movement of the main product.  In Consumer Product Industry e.g. Breweries and bottlers and in retailing of these Consumer products Empties management can be used in following scenarios.

Procuring Full Products- Empties Management in Procurement makes it possible to add up empties items in the PO and Invoice Verification. The added empties may require behaving differently based on following cases.

1.     Empties are free with the Full Product.

2.     Empties are not free with the Full Product.

3.     Empties can be returned with the full product.

Following are some business requirements which can be mapped using Empties Management.

Customer is delivered with the full product free of charge by a manufacturer as a part of advertising campaign or to cater justified complaint. Manufacturer also provides Empties free of charge with the full product.

Business wants to see up to date status of empties in full product or empties procurement like how many empties are received billed and returned against PO and Invoices verified. (Vendor account wise Empties balances)

Customer want to track value based and quantity based empties movements between customer and manufacturer.

Buyer need to track what are empties delivered during goods receipt of full product.

Following basic steps are to be followed to use SAP Empties management in Material Management.

1.     Enterprise Extension for Consumer Products (EA-CP) must be activated using T Code-SFW5

2.     Business Function “/BEV1/NE_ENH” should be activated using T code –SFW5. This Business Function provides Improved traceability of Value based and quantity based Empties movements  between Customer and Vendor and associated Empties balances for a vendor.

3.     Empties Management for Material Management should be activated on path :SPRO>> Materials Management>> Purchasing>> Purchase Order>> Empties Management>> Activate Empties Management

4.     Assign Screen Sequence to the particular user id on following path.

SPRO>> Logistics – General>> Material Master>> Configuring the Material Master>> Assign Screen Sequences to User/Material Type/Transaction/Industry Sector

5.     BAdI /BEV1/NE_ITEM_PO can be implemented to suit own requirements. This BadI is used to control determination and prepopulation of account assignement for Empties Item generated while PO creation.

Atleast Activation of this BadI is must for Empties Management in Material Management.

SE18>>Enter BAdI Name and activate it.

1.     Create Outer Most Packaging material with Material Type HAWA (Trading Goods). Maintain Structure Category as “Full Product” in Material Master Basic Data1 View.

e. g. Here Crate for Beer Bottles has to be created with above method.

2.     Empties which are encapsulated in the Main Packaging material are to be created with Material Type LEER (Empties). Maintain Structure Category as “Structured Empties” in Material Master Basic Data1 View.

e. g. Here Beer Bottles has to be created with above method.

3.     Create BOM for Main Packaging Material which packages rest of sub componenets in CS01 T Code.

Create PO with main packaging material as a line item.

Empties Tab gets generated for Main Packaging Material. If Dependent Item Free Tick mark is set then Component Materials of this Main Empty are set as Free.

Also Sub Component Empty Materials are populated in PO only after pressing check button  or save  button once Main Packaging material is entered as line item.

Once Check button is pressed following warning is displayed to indicate that Sub components are added.

Second Line Item populated in PO for Empty appears as grey which cannot be changed.

For Second Line Item added; GR based Invoice Verification is un ticked in Invoice Tab at line item level.

As in Header Material Line Item Data (Empties tab) Dependent Items Free Tick is selected Second line item is set as Free.

PO is saved 

Another PO is created with same Header Line item but without Dependent Item Free Tick for Header Item.

During GR only Main Header Packaging Material is captured in Material Document. Unless GR or Invoice Verification.

 Report “/BEV1/NE_LISTBALPO – Empties Balances in Purchasing” will not consider Record for the Empties Balances.

Account Document generated for Goods Receipt shows following accounting entries for Header material when dependent item is free.

Account Document generated for Goods Receipt shows following accounting entries for Header material when dependent item is not free. (No Entry is captured for Sub component Empty which is set as not free item)

After GR Report “/BEV1/NEMB51 – Material Document List (w. Empties) “captures Empties details as follows.

After GR Report “/BEV1/NE_LISTBALPO – Empties Balances in Purchasing “captures Empties details as follows.

Selection Screen:-

Vendor is paid for only Header (Main) packaging material in case of Tied Empties set as free in PO.

While in case of Tied Empties not set for free in PO; Vendor is paid for both for Header as well as Sub component (Tied Empties) Material. In this case 2 line items are visible in Invoice Verification.

Report “/BEV1/NE_LISTBALPO – Empties Balances in Purchasing” is updated as follows

       Invoice Document Number and Invoice Value is updated only for Untied Empty when it is not set as Free in PO.

Conclusion:

Thus Empties Management in Procurement helps to track clear picture of status of empties, empties movements and empties balances each Vendor Account for Company (based on Value and Quantity). Which is very useful functionality for Companies trading or manufacturing industrial gas, chemicals or Beverages.