Managing Make to Stock Process for Product Variants

Make to Stock (MTS) is used to produce materials variants based on planned-independent requirements.

A sales order for a configurable material is defined and while configuration a material variant is found. This variant is directly delivered to customer.

• Production Planner: Defines the configurable material and the material variants.

• Production Supervisor: Executes the "Make-to-Stock" production for material variants of the configurable product.

• Internal Sales Representative: Creates a customer sales order for a configured fork lifter resulting in a material variant.

• Internal Sales Representative: Calculates the sales price based on characteristics of the material variant.

• Shipping Specialist: Processes the delivery.

• Billing Clerk: Does the billing for the customer.

• Improve your company's sales and manufacturing performance with integrated Advanced Variant Configuration.
• Enable your sales business process to handle frequently required variants that are represented as material variants in sales and manufacturing and show the configuration on the print-out.
• Produce material variants upfront to incoming sales orders based on expected demand.
• Deliver customer sales order processing for material variants immediately if stock is available from production.

These process videos show a Make-to-Stock Production scenario using the Advanced Variant Configuration for an efficient state-of-the-art configuration of a configurable material ordered by a customer. A material variant is found and directly delivered to the customer.

Up to now, only configurable materials were used inside your company. These materials also have a matching Super BOM.

However, it is often the case that the same configuration is ordered by customers. Therefore, the company decided that these will be defined as material variants in the SAP system. These variants should then also be produced sales order independent and then delivered directly to the customer if required.

In this first task Thomas, our Production Planner defines a material variant and the respective material BOM.

The following video demonstrates this task.

After the material variants have been created by Production Planner Thomas, Production Supervisor Anna takes care of the appropriate stock of the material variants. To do this, she performs a requirement planning, creates a production order, confirms it, and posts the product to stock.

The following video demonstrates this task.

Now that the appropriate stock has been built up for the material variants, Sales and Distribution can accept the purchase orders for the forklift. If a configuration is carried out together with the customer in the sales order, it can directly be checked on the valuation screen whether suitable material variants exists. It can then be decided, whether this variant is used instead of the configurable material inside sales order.

In this activity, a customer wants to buy a forklift with a configuration which leads to a material variant of the configurable forklift. This material variant was already produced so the selling happens directly from stock.

Internal Sales Representative Marc speaks with the customer and creates the sales order.

The following video demonstrates this task.

After Marc, the Internal Sales Representative, has created the sales order together with the customer, it is now the task of the Shipping Specialist Marie to realize the delivery.

Picking is executed and the goods issues are posted. This is done by shipping specialist Marie.

Please note that the material variant, available in stock, is now directly delivered.

The billing of the Sales Order is performed by Billing Clerk Kathy.

The following video demonstrates this task.

Now you should have an impression of "How to configure Product Variants using Make to Stock".