Business Scenario
The advanced variant configuration improves your company's sales, product management, and product engineering performance with SAP S/4HANA for advanced variant configuration.
Advanced Variant Configuration: First settings
Value Proposition
Streamline your product modeling with advanced configuration simulation capabilities in a comprehensive simulation environment for variant configuration models in order to:
Make faster and more informed decisions about your product portfolio by leveraging real-time analytics for configuration and classification in all related business objects (for example, sales order, batch, product master)
Improve your configuration efficiency through a state-of-the-art SAP Fiori user experience and a high-performing configurator based on SAP HANA capabilities
Streamline your product modeling with advanced configuration simulation capabilities in a comprehensive simulation environment for variant configuration models
Capabilities
New integrated advanced variant configurator supporting single-level variant configuration models
Support for make-to-stock scenarios using material variants and make-to-order scenarios using configurable materials
Reusable SAP Fiori configuration user experience (UX) integrated into sales order and material master providing improved user guidance through more precise value restrictions, filtering, and undo and redo functionality
State-of-the-art configuration engine leveraging SAP HANA capabilities
New simulation environment for bills of materials (BOMs) using SAP Fiori UX
Syntax enhancement: negative variant tables
Flexible report that allows users to generate core data services (CDS) views based on user-selected variant configurator characteristics
Watch the following video, which explains the coexistence of both engines inside SAP system.
Fiori Launchpad
Now let's have a look at the Fiori launchpad.
For low-level dependencies, the processing mode is supposed to be classic. As the bill of materials (BOM) explosion only considers classic dependency knowledge and ignores advanced dependency knowledge, incorrect data here does not cause problems.
Simulation of Advanced configuration models can be done directly from the PMEVC. The user can use the Simulate Configuration Models app, also.
Product Modeling Environment
Classic Processing Mode
Let's have a look at the processing mode, defined inside configuration profile of PMEVC app.
By default, all the existing variant configuration models in the system are Classic.
With the app VC Modeling Environment you work, initially, with this classic scenario.
Advanced Variant Configuration Processing Mode
Let's have a look at the advanced processing mode, defined inside configuration profile of PMEVC app.
To be able to use the new SAP Fiori based Advanced Variant Configuration, you have to set this up for the model. This can be done in the Configuration Profile, where you find the processing mode.
Note that this is possible for all the dependency objects (Dependency Net, Constraint, Precondition, Selection Condition, Procedure).
Simulation Environment
If you're working with the new variant configuration, you can also use two simulation environments.
With the new advanced variant configuration, two scenarios are available. You can easily use the existing scenarios, which you know, or work with the advanced scenario.
If you select the advanced scenario, you can work with a different simulation environment.