Working with Materials

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to work with Materials and perform the necessary settings for VC

Material Master

Knowledge Base for Materials (Part in This Unit)

Watch the following video, which explains the knowledge base for materials.

Knowledge Base for Materials (all parts)

The following figure shows you all parts of the VC Knowledge Base in comparison.

Diagram illustrating material dependencies, including variant classes, pricing conditions, BOM, and routing, with interconnected boxes highlighting preconditions, selection conditions, and configuration profiles. Various components are coded with letters such as P, PC, SC, and C.

Configurable Material

The following video explains the meaning of a configurable material.

Views for Material Master Maintenance

Material master records are also referred to as materials and product masters.

Diagram depicting various departments linked to Material in the center, including Purchasing, Sales, Accounting, and Storage. Each department is represented with an icon and is described as having its own view of the material, containing relevant data.

Each department has its own view on a material master record. For BOM maintenance, it does not matter which views exist, provided that at least one view exists at the plant level.

In Customizing for bills of material, you can define which material types can be used to create BOMs and which material types are not allowed in BOMs.

The material status must allow BOM maintenance.

The user-specific material master allows you to tailor the data displayed to meet your specific requirements.

You can define default settings for the views, the industry sector, and the organizational levels.

The views selected have particular relevance to how the material is processed. For example, Basic Data defines if the material is configurable; MRP sets planning parameters; Sales identifies the item category group and general item category group; Work Scheduling sets the order change profile; and Classification can be used for class and characteristic value assignments.

Settings for a Configurable Material

The following image shows the special settings in a material that are necessary for variant configuration.

Flowchart showing material configuration in sections: basic data, MRP, sales, classification, and work scheduling. Each section details specific parameters like MRP type, strategy group, and item category group.

Configurable Material: Detailed Information

In the standard system, material type KMAT is defined for configurable materials.

You can define a material as configurable even if the material has a non-configurable material type, by setting the indicator on the basic data screen of the material master.

You must define the following configuration-specific settings in the material master of a configurable material:

  • In the sales data, you enter the item category group. The item category group controls the assignment of item categories in sales orders. The item category of an item influences the transfer of requirements and pricing for the item.

  • In the MRP data, you enter an MRP group or a strategy group. The strategy group determines the planning strategy for the configurable material (for example, make-to-order production). The MRP type determines whether and how the material is planned (for example, using planned orders). The lot size determines the lot size procedure that the system uses to calculate the quantity of the material to be produced. A configurable material needs exact lot sizes.

  • The Individual/Collective indicator controls whether separate segments for requirements for the configurable material are created in the MRP requirements explosion.

  • To enable availability checks for the material and its components, enter a checking rule. The default checking rule for a configurable material is 02.

  • To enable order change management (OCM), define the profile in the work scheduling view.

Phantom Assemblies

The following video explains the use of Phantom Assemblies in the context of Variant Configuration.

Manage Materials

In this step of modeling for configuration, you must check and, if necessary, create the material master records for the configurable materials. In addition to the forklift, it must also be possible to configure the header material of each assembly in whose BOM object dependencies are to take effect. This means that two configurable material master records are required: one for the forklift and one for the extras.

Watch the following simulation, which shows the creation of materials, one relevant for the forklift itself, one for the extras.

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