SAP S4HANA/SD ; MATERIAL DETERMINATION

MATERIAL DETERMINATION

Material Determination is a method in SAP SD to determine the material to be used in Sales order. Material determination uses the condition technique to substitute one material in the sales order for another when certain conditions are met.

Material determination is triggered by the material entered in the line item of the sales order. This material may be used to automatically exchange one of the business products for another during certain periods – for example, Christmas time – using a specially wrapped product . Or it may be used to exchange a customer-specific part number for one the business part numbers. Material determination may also use a dialog box with a number of products that the user may select from.

An introduction to the condition technique

Material determination is also useful for substituting an old product that is to become obsolete or a new product that is to be released by organization at a specific date. Material determination can automatically swap the old product for the newer product at the time of sales order creation based on validity period

Material determination is sometimes referred to as product selection and can be automatic or manual. This is useful, for example, When the customer may not want the specially wrapped product at Christmas, but would prefer the standard product.

The configuration options available for material determination are

• Blank Value: Automatic substitution – Item will be replaced
• A : Substitute products are displayed for selection
• B : General material determination with selection, without ATP

For example Option “blank value” maybe the swapping of an obsolete product

Material determination uses the condition technique to automatically propose a new value. The condition technique is used extensively and is described in great detail in “pricing”

Maintaining prerequisites for material determination

To determine material determination, use the following menu path

Menu: SPROSDBASIC FUNCTIONSMATERIAL DETERMINATIONMAINTAIN PREREQUISITIES FOR MATERIAL DETERMINATION

Define condition type

The configuration of material determination by defining the CONDITION TYPE which is actually the same as defining the type of material determination

Menu path: SPROSDBASIC FUNCTIONSMATERIAL DETERMINATIONMAINTAIN PREREQUISITIES FOR MATERIAL DETERMINATIONDEFINE CONDITION TYPE –[OV12]

Create new condition type by copying standard A001 and maintain the validity periods.

Define access sequence

The access sequence must exist before we can assign it to a condition type. In this example access sequence A001 is assigned to the condition type A001.

An access sequence is a sequence of steps that the system follows in sequential order to obtain a condition record. The condition record has a value that is assigned to it.

The access number is the order in which the system will read the access sequence. The system will run through each step of the access sequence in sequential order until it finds an exact match for the defined table. If a record exists for that table, the system will come back with the data; if no record exists or no match is found, the result will be that no condition record exists for this condition type.

For example, if we had access number 10,20,30, and 40, the system will start with the lowest entry, which is 10. It will then try and process everything assigned to that step 10. Should it not be able to process the line, it will then processed to access 20, and so on.

Should it reach access 40 and still not able to find a condition record for the table in the access sequence, the result will be that no condition record exists for this condition type.

Menu: SPROSDBASIC FUNCTIONSMATERIAL DETERMINATIONMAINTAIN PREREQUISITES FOR MATERIAL DETERMINATIONMAINTAIN ACCESS SEQUENCE

As see in the below figure, 5-3, select the access sequence for example A001 and double click accesses. We will see the screen as below

Define condition tables

A condition table is merely a tabulated combination of fields. In figure below , the first table key used is 001. Table 001 is described as material entered. To see the fields used in this table, highlight the table and select fields on the left side. We will see a screen similar to below figure.

To see these condition tables, use the following menu path

Menu path: SPROSDBASIC FUNCTIONSMATERIAL DETERMINATIONMAINTAIN PREREQUISITES FOR MATEIRAL DETERMINATIONDISPLAY CONDITION TABLES. [ OV18]

Enter 001 in the table selection and press enter.

We are now presented with condition table 001 as show below, which consists of the field “ MATERIAL ENTERED”. This field has been selected from a list of fields in the field catalog. The field catalog is a list of allowed fields for material determination. It is maintainable – that is, we are able to add more fields to it for us to select from. However, we will cover that in “pricing”

Determination procedure

When a sales order is created and the determination procedure is accessed, the procedure then calls the condition types in sequence. The condition types then each individually calls the access sequence and subsequently calls the condition tables, which the system then checks to see if a valid condition record exists.

Menu: SPRO-SDBASIC FUNCTIONSMATERIAL DETERMINATIONMAINTAIN PREREQUISITES FOR MATERIAL DETERMINATIONMAINTAIN PROCEDURES (TO ACCESS THE MATERIAL DETERMINATION PROCEDURE)

Select the procedure A00001 and double-click control data on the left. We will see a determination scree, which , as shown in below is the same basic layout that is used in pricing ( just enhanced a bit further) as well as many other areas.

A condition type is assigned to the determination procedure. A requirement can also be entered for the condition type, again as a check to see if it must be accessed. In this example there is no limitation in the form of a requirement.

Now that the determination procedure has been done we need to assign it to a sales document type for which we would like to see material determination to be carried out. To assign it to a sales document type, use the following menu path.

Assign procedure to sales document types

Menu: SPROSDBASIC FUNCIONSMATERIAL DETERMINATIONASSIGN PROCEDURES TO SALES DOCUMENT TYPE [OV14]

By assigning the material determination procedures to the sales document type, we are activating material determination. Whenever that sales document type, is used, the system will execute material determination. Generally, all sales document types will be activated for a single material determination procedure as it would cause the user community to be confused if they get different results using different sales order.

Now all that is left is for us to create a condition record for the condition type A001. To create condition records for a condition type, use the following menu path.

Menu path: SAP EASY ACCESS--.LOGISTICSSDMASTER DATAPRODUCTSMATERIAL DETERMINATION->VB11 CREATE

Defining substitution reason

As mentioned, this completes the introduction to the condition technique. however, for material determination we need a substitution reason. A substitution reason is a rule that controls the material determination’s execution.

To define substitution reasons, use the following menu path.

menu path: SPROSDBASIC FUNCTIONSMATERIAL DETERMINATIONDEFINE SUBSTITUTION REASONS [OVRQ]

The first column is ENTRY, which controls whether we would like the system to print the name or number of the original material or the substituted materials name or number on the order confirmations

The next column is the WARNING indicator. If check, it will indicate a warning message to the user that material determination is about to take place.

The STRATEGY column is used to indicate if the substitution should be automatic or if the proposed material determination items should be displayed via a dialog box for selection.

We have 3 options such as

Blank value is used for automatic replace of item without selection

Value A – substitute products are displayed for selection

Value B - Materials will be selected for selections without ATP

When using material determination we may enter the material to be swapped in the standard material entered column of the sales order. However, when using the customer material information record we may only enter the customer’s material in the customer material field of the sales order. Should we be using material determination to indicate automatic swapping of the customer number automatically one to one, be carefully not to use the customer material information record, as this may confuse the user as to where he should enter the data.

The Automatic substitution that happens in the background only occurs according to the availability check ( if we select as a sub-item). Suppose, we have four products for the system to do an automatic substitution on, and we have stock of one of them but not the other three. The system will propose and consume that one for which have stock. This can cause problem, because if this one material is procured correctly, due to there being a demand for it, it may automatically fill up, causing a continual cycle where only this material is ever used and other three are not consumed.

The OUTCOME COLUMN allows us to select whether the proposed item from material determination should automatically replace the existing material or if it should be displayed as a sub-item in the sales order.

Remember, if we see the outcome sub-items can be sure to configure our item category determination correctly. This is, the main item that is being substituted should have the usage indicator PSHP (product selection higher level item) and the sub-item material that is being displayed as a sub-item should have the usage indicator PSEL

OUTCOME A

• product substitution re-determined when copying the item from sales order to delivery
• Rush orders are not supported
• Main Items and sub-items must be carried through from the sales documents to the delivery and from delivery to Billing documents
• If we use listing and exclusion in the sales document process, the system does not take them into account while re-determining substitutions in the delivery,

OUTCOME B

• The system does not re-determine product substitution when copying them from sales document to the deliveries. All items are copied directly.
• Rush orders are fully supported
• Main Items and sub items do not have to be carried through the sales document to the delivery and to billing document
• If listing and exclusions are used in the sales document process, the changes made as the result influence the delivery documents.

	OUTCOME A	OUTCOME B	Usuage
Create as sub-items	YES	YES	PSHP/ PSEL
New PRODUCT SELECTION IN DELIVERY	YES	NO	PSA1/PSA2

Only one schedule line is proposed by the system for the line item for which automatic substitution occurs when the item is represented as a sub-item

in the field SUBSTITUTION CATEGORY, enter the value if we want to swap the material for service product

Lastly, when using one – to –one automatic swapping of materials, the material entered does not need to be created in the system. However should we use the outcome displayed as sub-item, both materials need to be configured in the system.

Ex:-1

Warning indicator

In the substitution reason the warning indicator is active for one of the substitution reason OVRQ

create the order and a warning message will be displayed

Ex-2

Enter the substitution reason with Strategy A and outcome Blank

When we create sales order with this combination

Check the material entered and determined material

The substitution reason used is 0004

Ex:-3

Enter the substation strategy as Automatic and outcome as A (sub-item)

Create the sales order and check the impact

determined Material is added as a sub-item and it is also relevant for delivery.

Ex:-4

Enter the strategy as Automatic and outcome as B ( sub-item is created for material determined but only in creating sales)

When we use outcome as B, the material determined as sub-item and sub-item determined is only relevant for sales and not for delivery

The schedule line category for the sub-item is PP which is not relevant for delivery

Ex:-5

If we set the strategy as A which is to display substitute products then result will be as follow

Here system will show the availability of the material determined

Ex:-6

If we set the Strategy as B then the system will display the material with selection and without MRP

create the sales order and check the impact of the indicator

EX:- 7

If we use the 0004 substitution reason and if the material determined has no sufficient quantity while system checking the availability, system will determine another sub-item which was maintained in VB11

Prerequisites

In VB11

now when we create the sales order with the material entered

In the sales order, item will be determined as sub-item with the available quantity

In the delivery the system will determine the new sub-item with the remaining quantity

Ex:- 8

Substitution reason 0006 is used to have the material determination only at the sales order only

Substitution reason 0004 is used to determine the material both at sales order and delivery

Note:- To activate the Material determination analysis click on

Note:- Material determination at the delivery will be re-determined only when OUTCOME A is used