Performing object changes

Up to now, you have maintained master data in the SAP system without using Engineering Change Management.

You now want to use Engineering Change Management to plan and control product changes in the SAP system. To do this effectively, you must first identify which master data objects are affected by such product changes.

Watch the following video to gain an understanding of typical product changes and their potential impact on related SAP master data.

Material changes with a change number can be:

• Immediate – effective right away
• Scheduled – effective from a defined valid-from date

• When you change materials using the Change → Immediately function, changes with a change number are allowed only if the valid-from date is the current date or lies in the past.

• When material master changes are made using a change number, no new time-dependent data records are created. Instead, the system documents the changes using change documents. The most recently saved changes—regardless of the valid-from date of the change master record—always represent the current status of the material.

• In this scenario, it is not mandatory to perform changes with history. After processing a material using a change number, you can still make further changes without a change number. Full traceability is maintained, as the system creates change documents for all material master changes.

• For material master changes with a change number, object management records are required. The system automatically sets the corresponding indicator in the object type overview of the change number. However, you must ensure that a suitable object management record either already exists or is generated automatically.

• When you change materials using the Change → Schedule function, you can make changes with reference to a change number only if the valid-from date lies in the future.

• These planned changes must be activated on the specified effective date in order to take effect. On that date, the system considers only those changes whose validity begins at that time.

  Note

  Activation can be performed automatically using a background job. For example, this job can run daily to check whether scheduled changes need to be activated.

• A change that is planned for a future date is stored as a change document. The key date is recorded in the header of the change document.

After changing the material and the material BOM for the forklift, you now also want to modify the routing using a change number.

If you change routings using a change number, the system stores both the previous and the new statuses of the following routing objects:

• Header, operation, sequence, operation – MRP assignment

• Inspection characteristics

• Operation – material component assignment

The key date determines the start of the validity period for a routing object. The system derives the valid-from date from the change master record.

Each validity period ends with a valid-to date, which is determined dynamically by the system and is not stored explicitly.

If a routing object is processed multiple times using different change numbers, the valid-from date of the subsequent change becomes the valid-to date of the previous data record. When you edit a routing for a specific key date, the system determines all routing objects that are valid on that date.

When working with a document info record, you can use only one change number per document version. Change numbers are first reserved and then assigned to the document version.

Watch the following video to gain a better understanding of document maintenance using Engineering Change Management.

When a document is released, the valid-from date is taken from the associated change number. The valid-to date is determined automatically by the system based on the valid-from date of the next subsequently released document version.

Once a document version has been released using a change number, all subsequent versions of that document must also be released with a change number.

Objects in the classification system can, to some extent, be changed historically using change numbers. This applies, for example, to characteristics themselves as well as to the assignment of characteristics to classes.

If you want to use change numbers for classification changes, you must explicitly activate this functionality in Customizing. The activation is carried out depending on the class type.

Object management records are not supported for objects in the classification system. For these objects, only the "Active" indicator can be used.

Engineering Change Management can also be used in the context of Variant Configuration. Please note, however, that not all objects are fully integrated in this scenario.

Watch the following video to get an overview of how Engineering Change Management interacts with Variant Configuration.

A history requirement applies to all Variant Configuration objects that are processed with reference to a change number.

You have identified that incorrect or unnecessary changes were made to the master data and now want to reverse these changes.

To do this, you can use transaction CCUNDO (Undo Changes), which allows you to undo changes that were made using a change number.

If you create an object with reference to a change number and then execute the Undo transaction (CCUNDO), the system completely removes the object from the database. Unlike deleting an object using a change number, the object is not merely flagged as deleted. As a result, you can create a new object with the same key once the change has been undone.

If you delete an object with reference to a change number and then execute the Undo transaction, the system only removes the deletion indicator. The object itself remains in the database.

If you change an object with reference to a change number and then execute the Undo transaction, all changes made to that object using the selected change number are reversed. This applies even if the changes were made at different points in time or across multiple transactions.

For example, if you created an object using a change number, changed it several times, and then deleted it—all with the same change number—the object will be removed completely when you execute the Undo transaction.