VARIANT CONFIGURATION NOTES – A STEP BY STEP GUIDE

BY MICHAIL PAPADOPOULOS

(documentation excerpts added from help.sap.com)

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VARIANT CONFIGURATION .................................................................................3
PROCESS .....................................................................................................................4
STEPS IN CREATING A CONFIGURABLE MATERIAL .......................................................8
Material Type.........................................................................................................9
Characteristics.....................................................................................................11
Variant Conditions...............................................................................................15
Class.....................................................................................................................20
Material Master ...................................................................................................23
BOM.....................................................................................................................27
Dependencies .......................................................................................................29
Preconditions .......................................................................................................30
Configuration Profile...........................................................................................33
Variant Table .......................................................................................................40
Variant pricing.....................................................................................................50

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 Variant Configuration
Company BSA hire a vehicle from a vendor and in turn hire it out to a customer at the
purchasing price plus a mark-up of %10. The purchasing price depends on two parameters;
the vehicle type and the vendor. For every different combination of vehicle type and vendor
there is a different purchasing price, hence a different selling price.

At the same time there is a business requirement to generate a purchase order for the hire of
the vehicle from the vendor. This requirement is satisfied through a third-party order process
in SAP. When entering a sales item in the contract, the system generates a PR that is
connected to the sales document and is processed into a PO.

Without variant Configuration we would have had to create a separate material for each
combination of vendor and vehicle class and maintain a selling and purchasing price for each
one. With variant configuration we only need to maintain the master data for one material and
create what is called variant conditions for the different combinations of vendor and vehicle
type.

The process works as described below.

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Process

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After entering the material, you need to specify the combination of vendor and vehicle type in
when prompted

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Select the vehicle type (above) and vendor (below)

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As we can see there is a second line item in the contract. That was a result of the
configuration that we will see later on. Material EXTERNAL has a BOM, indicating that
whenever EXTERNAL is used in an order, material 36144 (Administration Charge) is added
automatically. The reason for this is so that users don’t forget to add the admin charge.

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Steps in creating a configurable material
You do not need to create a separate material for each variant of a product in your company.
You can use one configurable material to cover all variants. You create a super BOM and a
super routing for this material, containing all the components and operations for producing
all variants of the product.

To define the features of a configurable material, you use characteristics. To enable you to
use characteristics to configure a material, you assign the material to a class of class type
300. The customer can choose from among different options for each characteristic (values).

The only limitations are combinations of features that are not possible for either technical or
marketing reasons. You cannot combine all types of vehicle type with all vendors, because
not all vendors sell every vehicle type available in the market. In Variant Configuration, you
use dependencies to control this. This prevents combinations of options that are not allowed.

Each configurable object must have a configuration profile. The configuration profile for a
material controls the configuration process in the sales order.

You can make the price of a variant dependent on the characteristic values assigned
(Pricing). You can use variant conditions to define surcharges and discounts for a variant.

The main elements of a configurable material are Characteristics, a Class type 300,
dependencies, a configuration profile and variant conditions.

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Material Type

The first step in configuring a material is making sure that the material type that it belongs to,
supports variant configuration. Material External belongs to material type
ZIEN

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First of all the material type has to allow a Classification view.

This indicator defaults the “Material is configurable” option in the Basic Data 2 Tab of the
material master (see next section)

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Characteristics

You need to create 4 Characteristics. EQUIPMENT (for vehicle type), VENDOR2

CT04 - Create characteristic

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Create characteristic EQUIPMENT for the various vehicle types

Enter a Description and a Data Type (CHAR)

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Enter the values for the characteristic

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Perform the same for Characteristic VENDOR2

The Indicator O means that there are dependencies for that characteristic value. (See section
on dependencies)

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Variant Conditions

You can use variant conditions to influence the price of a configurable material depending on
the characteristic values assigned.

You can use variant conditions in Sales and Distribution and Purchasing to define surcharges
and discounts for the basic price.

Variant conditions consist of a variant key and an amount that is identified by the variant key.

In Purchasing, you can use variant conditions to define surcharges and discounts for
configurable materials that are procured externally. The surcharges and discounts depend on
the values assigned to the characteristics in the sales order or (for material variants) the
material master.

Prerequisites

You have created a characteristic that refers to table MMCOM, field VKOND. The
characteristic is assigned to the variant class for the configurable material.

An object characteristic with a reference to the table MMCOM field VKOND is multi-value
because several variant conditions can be entered.

In Customizing for Purchasing, you have defined a new access sequence (0014) and 2 new
condition types (VA00, which is quantity-dependent, and VA01, which is a percentage). These
condition types are in schema RM0000. You have set the Variant condition indicator.

(See section Variant Pricing)

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First create characteristic PURCHASINGPRICE. Enter description and data type

Leave values blank

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Remember to reference MMCOM – VKOND. Also select indicators “Not ready for input” and
“No Display”

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In Sales and Distribution, you can use variant conditions to define surcharges and discounts
for configurable materials, depending on the characteristic values you assign.

You create variant conditions with reference to a material, a distribution channel, and a sales
organization.

Prerequisites
You have created a characteristic that refers to table SDCOM, field VKOND. The
characteristic is assigned to the variant class for the configurable material.

An object characteristic with a reference to the table SDCOM field VKOND is multi-value
because several variant conditions can be entered.

First create characteristic SELLPRICE

Enter description and data type

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Leave values blank

Reference SDCOM – VKOND. Select indicators “Not ready for input” and “No Display”

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Class

In variant configuration, a class is used to hold the characteristics that describe a configurable
material. By linking the class to the configurable material, you allow the material to be
configured using the characteristics of the class.

You can only use a class in variant configuration if the class has a class type that supports
variant configuration. In the standard R/3 System, the class type for variants is class type 300.
However, in Customizing for Classification, you can define other class types for variant
configuration. In the step Define class types, you can set the Variant class type indicator for a
class type.

CL02 – Create Class

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Name your Class (EQUIPMENT 2)

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Assign the 4 characteristics that we’ve created to the class

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Material Master

Create your configurable material EXTERNAL

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In the Basic Data 2 Tab in the material master you specify whether the material is
configurable or not.

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In the classification view you specify the Class that is assigned to the configurable material

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BOM

CS01 – Create your Bill of materials

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Enter the materials that you want to explode in the order.

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Dependencies

Dependencies let you do the following:

• Describe the interdependencies between characteristics and characteristic values

You use a special syntax in the dependency editor to define dependencies.

• Preconditions
• Selection conditions
• Actions (obsolete)
• Procedures
• Constraints

The differences between global and local dependencies are as follows:

• Global dependencies are created centrally and can be assigned to several objects.
• Local dependencies are created for one object and can only be used with this object.

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Preconditions

You can use preconditions to hide characteristics and characteristic values that are not
allowed and thereby ensure that the configuration of an object is consistent.

You can allocate preconditions to the following objects:

• A characteristic that you want to hide

In the precondition, you define the circumstances under which a characteristic or value is
hidden.

In our case we want only several values of vendor to appear for specific values of vehicle
class. In order to achieve that we have to create a Precondition for each value of vendor and
specify for which values of vehicle type they are available.

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The syntax in this precondition is instructing the variant configurator only to display vendor
value 4979 – TLS, when the value for vehicle characteristic (EQUIPMENT) is one of the
values specified.

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Configuration Profile

You maintain configuration profiles for configurable objects to define central settings for
configuring the object.

You define different settings in configuration profiles for materials than for other configurable
objects.

You can use the configuration profile to assign dependencies to a configurable object. You
can only assign dependency nets to a configuration profile. If you assign actions and
procedures to the configuration profile, you can manage them more easily because they are
all in one place.

For materials, you must also maintain configuration parameters for BOM explosion.
Depending on the configuration parameters you set, other fields in the configuration profile
are hidden or shown.

CU41 - Create the configuration profile that controls the behaviour of your material
(EXTERNAL)

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The Syntax for this procedure indicates that table VMSTABLE6 determines the values for the
selling price and the purchasing price.

See the next section to see how this table is created and populated.

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Variant Table
Table

Tables are used to store combinations of values for different characteristics. Tables are an aid
to entry for dependencies. You enter the table in a dependency. The system uses the table to
infer and check values. If the interdependencies between characteristics change, you change
the table, not the dependencies

CU61 – Create table structure

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The unique combination of vehicle type (EQUIPMENT) and vendor (VENDOR2) will give a
different rate. That’s why you need to specify characteristics EQUIPMENT and VENDOR2 as
the key fields in your tables.

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Next, populate the table in CU60

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V1, V2, V3 are just dummy values.

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The prices for each value of Selling and Purchasing Price are maintained in the pricing
conditions of SD and MM. We will create condition records for each dummy value (V1, V2, V3
etc.) First in SD create a condition record for pricing (VK11)

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Then do the same for MM (MEK1)

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Variant pricing

Now we will see what condition types and access sequences were used to enable VC pricing.

Pricing for variant configuration, whether for purchasing or sales needs a condition type that
supports variant configuration.

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The Condition Category indicator needs to be set to 0.

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The Access sequence needs to have a table that uses the field Variant.

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A similar condition type needs to be set up for purchasing as well

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Again, the Condition category needs to be set as 0 – Variants

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Again, the access sequence needs to have a table with the Variant field VARKOND

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