Outlining Supplier Consignment

The scope item, Supplier Consignment (‏2LG‏), belongs to the Operational Procurement and Invoice Management business areas, which are part of the Sourcing and Procurement line of business.

Consignment means that a vendor provides you with material that is stored on your premises but is still the property of the vendor. A liability to the vendor does not arise until you withdraw material from consignment stock. The quantity consumed or withdrawn is settled with the vendor according to agreed periods.

The following are the business benefits of Supplier Consignment:

• Streamline subcontracting processes efficiently and cost-effectively
• Ensure highly automated processes
• Reduce manual effort greatly
• Monitor the process progress in real-time

The following are the key process flows of Supplier Consignment:

• Create purchase requisition (optional)
• Create purchase order
• Approve purchase order (optional)
• Post goods receipts to consignment stock
• Monitor stock (optional)
• Post goods movements from consignment stock
• Settle consignment withdrawals

The following is a list of applicable process steps:

• Create consignment purchase requisition (optional)

  • In this optional step, you create a consignment purchase requisition either manually or automatically via Material Requirements Planning (MRP). A purchase requisition for consignment is identified by item category Consignment (K).

• Create consignment purchase order

  • In this step, you create a consignment purchase order manually in case you have no purchase requisition. To specify in a purchase order that a material is to be ordered for consignment stock, enter the item category Consignment (K). This item category has the following effect:

    • You must enter a material number.
    • You cannot enter a purchase order price or conditions for the item.
    • A goods receipt is mandatory for the item.
    • You cannot enter an invoice for the consignment item.

• Approve purchase order (optional)

• Post goods receipt to consignment stock with reference to a purchase order

  • In this step, you post a goods receipt to the consignment stock of the vendor. This goods receipt is not valuated.

• Display stock overview

  • In this step you can monitor your consignment stock.

    Material that you procure from a vendor by means of consignment is managed in a vendor specific special stock.

    This stock is updated at storage location level because the material is physically located in your own company. However, consignment stock is not valuated. The system displays both the total of all consignment stocks at storage location level and an exact overview of how the consignment stock is distributed among the individual consignment vendors.

    The consignment stock is managed under the same material number as your own stock.

    Consignment stock and own stock can be managed in the same storage location; it is not necessary to create a specific storage location for consignment stock.

    The consignment stock is taken into account when determining the available stock.

• Transfer consignment stock to own stock

  • A consignment material can be allocated to one of three stock types: unrestricted-use stock, quality inspection stock, and blocked stock. You can make transfer postings between these three stock types. However, transfer consignment stock to own stock from consignment stock can only be posted from unrestricted stock. A liability to the consignment vendor arises when you transfer the goods to your own stock.

• Post goods issue from consignment stock

  • Goods issues withdrawals from consignment stock can only be posted from unrestricted stock. A goods issue from consignment stock results in a payable to the consignment vendor.

• Settle consignment withdrawals

  • In this step, you analyze your withdrawals from your consignment stock since the last settlement. Based on this, the system generates a settlement document (invoice)

Note

Before you can order consignment material or post a goods receipt to consignment stock, you must maintain the price of the material with the relevant vendor in a consignment purchasing info record. The price is required for the valuation and settlement of withdrawals. Consignment stocks of the same material from different vendors can be managed independently from one another and at the price of the individual vendors.

Note

If you work with purchase requisitions, you can convert them into purchase orders.

Note

If a material is always procured for the consignment stock of a plant, you can maintain a special procurement key in the material master record. This special procurement key causes a consignment purchase requisition to be generated by the planning run if a requirement exists for this material.

With this app, you can manage purchase orders to ensure that you receive the ordered items on time, at the correct location, and in the required quantity. You can manually order materials for stock or for direct consumption as well as services. The displayed list of purchase orders is based on the header level of the purchase order (PO), so the information shown relates to the entire PO. On the overview, you can immediately see the number of overdue items for each PO. Depending on the PO status, you can still make changes such as adding or deleting items, or changing the purchase order quantity.

The following is a list of key features:

• Display a list of purchase orders according to filters.
• Create a new purchase order. To create a PO, choose Create.
• Jump into the details of a specific purchase order to review it.
• Edit an existing purchase order.
• Add attachments to the PO.
• View and resend output items.
• Filter according to the filter criteria Supplier, Purchasing Group, Company Code, and Status.
• Save your personal filter criteria as a variant.

Note

If a purchase order is subject to approval, it must be approved before the next steps are taken. Use the My Inbox – Approve Purchase Order (F0402A) app.

This application enables one to post goods receipts with reference to a purchase order. After entering the purchase order number, the system selects the open goods receipt quantities. You can adjust the proposed quantity. You define the storage location and the stock type. A purchase order item quantity can be distributed to several storage locations/stock types if required.

The item category Consignment (K) from the purchase order item causes the goods receipt to be posted to the special stock, vendor consignment.

This app is an SAP GUI for HTML transactions. These transactions are available in the SAP Fiori theme to support a seamless user experience across the SAP Fiori launchpad.

This app allows you to monitor your stock. You maintain selection data on the initial screen and then carry out the evaluation.

An overview is displayed of your own stock and the consignment stock according to your selection criteria.

If consignment stock exists, the line vendor consignment is displayed for the relevant storage location. You can select this line to display detailed information on the consignment stock.

With this app, you can make transfer postings within a plant. In particular, you can use this app for transfer postings between a vendor consignment stock and your own stock.

For vendor consignment, the following postings are possible with this app:

• Transfer postings of a vendor consignment stock between the different stock types (unrestricted-use stock, stock in quality inspection and blocked stock).
• Transfer postings of a vendor consignment stock between storage locations.
  Note

  Transfer postings between different stock types and between storage locations can be combined in one posting. For example, you can post a quantity from vendor consignment stock – from blocked stock in storage location 001 – to unrestricted-use stock in storage location 002.
• Transfer postings from a vendor consignment stock to your own stock
  Note

  A transfer from consignment stock to your own stock can only be posted from unrestricted-use stock to unrestricted-use stock.

Note

The Transfer Stock - In-Plant (F1061) app supports several movement types for different business processes. The app offers you authorization-dependent movement types. You have different authorizations depending on your business role. If movement types are missing for your task or you have restricted authorizations for a movement type, double check that the correct permissions are assigned.

In addition, the app supports the following technical features and options:

• This app includes SAP CoPilot. This digital assistant in the SAP S/4HANA system supports you with features such as business context awareness or quick actions to manage follow-on activities directly from the app.
• This app supports specific authorization checks for transfer postings. The app does not support transfer postings for materials assigned to an inspection lot. For further goods movement (activities) with such materials, you need the relevant authorization for the Quality Technician role. With this Quality Management (QM) role, you can carry out further transfer postings for the materials in the stock in quality inspection. Therefore, you can navigate directly to the Manage Inspection Lots app.

Note

If you notice that you have made an error in posting stock changes, correct the error by reversing the material document and posting the stock changes again. To reverse the material document, use the Material Documents Overview app.

This app is based on the SAP transaction MIGO. Among other things, MIGO enables you to post goods issues from the supplier consignment stock. For example, it is possible to post a goods issue for a production order or a cost center or to directly withdraw material for scrapping from a supplier consignment stock.

Please consider the following when posting a goods issue from supplier consignment stock:

• Choose the transaction/event Goods Issue.
• Choose the relevant reference document, for example, choose Other for an unplanned goods issue and Reservation for a goods issue with reference to a reservation.
• Choose the relevant movement type.
• On the item level, enter the relevant material, plant, storage location, and stock type. Enter the special stock indicator K for consignment and the relevant supplier.

The Material Documents Overview (F1077) app provides comprehensive information on material documents through an intuitive and easy-to-use SAP-Fiori-based user interface. This app delivers highly flexible displays of lists of material document items. It also offers various possibilities to find a document via innovative search patterns and search methods: You can now directly filter for material documents that show stock changes, for example, search for stock increase. From here, you can also access a detailed view that shows the document flow and material document details. In addition, you can reverse a material document.

If you want to display all material movements related to the supplier consignment stock, filter for the relevant material numbers and the special stock type K for consignment. You will obtain a list of goods receipts, transfer postings and goods issues. If you choose a particular document, you can display the document details and the document flow. Since a goods receipt to consignment stock is not valuated, the document flow does not show any accounting document as a follow-on document, in contrast to a goods issue or a transfer to own stock.

Removing material from consignment stores, or transferring material to your company’s own stock, results in liabilities towards the vendor. You should settle these liabilities at regular intervals.

Consignment materials are settled without the vendor issuing an invoice, as the vendor company is unable to track withdrawals directly.

You can use this app to select and settle withdrawals that have not yet been settled.

You can also use this app to display withdrawals that are both settled and not settled.

Consignment settlement is connected to message determination. A message record is created during each settlement and can be transmitted to the vendor.

The following table lists the SAP Fiori apps that are used in the Supplier Consignment Process steps.