Class Item: K of BOM in Variant

Configuration

Applies to:
SAP R/3. For more information, visit the Manufacturing homepage.

Summary
The Client Company is in the Business of Manufacturing Electronic Panel. The Electronic Panel has complex
product structure. Client like to offer wide amount of selection options for different product components
which will be helpful to the customer or salesperson to put together specifications for the product and ensure
that the product can be produced from these specifications. The important thing is to react quickly to
customers' requirements. Client expects to implement Variant Configuration with minimum dependencies
data to be created through SAP Best Practices.

Author: Meghasham Badgujar

Company: Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd.
Created on: 10 November 2009

Author Bio
Meghasham has about 13 years of total experience. Out of which 6 years in SAP R/3 in Implementation and
Rollout project as a SAP PP Team Lead, functional consultant, Functional Support, Core team member and
end user. Currently a part of the SAP functional team in L&T Infotech ltd.

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 1
Table of Contents
Business Process ............................................................................................................................................... 3
Customer’s Expectations .................................................................................................................................... 3
SAP Standard Solution ....................................................................................................................................... 3
Proposed Solution for the Customer’s Expectations in SAP .............................................................................. 3
Functioning in SAP ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Benefits of Class Item in BOM: ......................................................................................................................... 13
Related Content ................................................................................................................................................ 13
Disclaimer and Liability Notice .......................................................................................................................... 14

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 2
Business Process
Client Company manufactures Electronic Panel. They also manufactures a wide variety of fuses for the
electrical, electronics and transportation industries, plus inductors and transformers for power quality in
electronic applications.
Each product has complex product structure. Client like to offer wide amount of selection options for
different product components which will be helpful to the customer or salesperson to put together
specifications for the product and ensure that the product can be produced from these specifications. The
important thing is to react quickly to customers' requirements.

Customer’s Expectations
The Client expects to implement Variant Configuration by maintaining minimum amount of Dependency data.
And they expect to have this though SAP Best Practices. To implement the Variant, it requires maintaining
dependencies particularly for Selecting the Component from BOM. Dependency type “Selection Condition” is
to be maintained and need to be assigned in the BOM Component. So this requires large amount of
Dependency Data and also number of components in BOM also gets increased.

SAP Standard Solution

Standard SAP gives two ways to have component selection as mentioned below:
1. Creating a Super BOM and assigning all the components as BOM items. Need to assign
dependency “Selection Condition” to each BOM item if these components to be selected.
2. By using Class of Class Type 200. In this, class characteristics have to be assigned which will have
values nothing but the components. This class gets assigned in the BOM as Class Item thus
avoiding direct assignment of components. This class also needs to be assigned to Material
Component by selecting corresponding characteristics value.

Proposed Solution for the Customer’s Expectations in SAP

For this purpose Classes of Class Type 200 were created. Each class has one characteristics having values
equal to those many number of components available to select. These characteristics were assigned to main
configurable class.
These classes of class type 200 assigned to material components in material master and relevant value was
selected.
These Classes were assigned in the Super BOM as Class Item.

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 3
Functioning in SAP
Data used for demonstration-
Configurable Material – Class 200
Plant - 3800
Component – COMPONT1, RAW1
Configurable Class of Class Type 300 – Class_300
Material (Configurable Objects) of Class Type 200 – Class_200_1, Class_200_3
Characteristics – Charact 200_1, Charact 200_3
Characteristics is created to which values are assigned which represents the components/options,

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 4
This characteristics is assigned to Class of Class Type 200,

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 5
Maintain “Indicator- Allowed in BOM’s”, “Base Unit Of Measure”, “Res. Item Category” in Additional Data of
Class.

This characteristics is also need to be assigned in Configurable Class of Class Type 300,

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 6
The class of Class type 200 is assigned to Material Components in material master. In the material master
the relevant values should be selected.

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 7
Assigned the class in BOM as class item,

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 8
The components to which this class is assigned can be seen in “TAB- Class Recursion” of Item Data, Here
we see that all types of Door components are clubbed in one class. Thus this reduces the number of
components to be maintained in the BOM.

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 9
The results can be checked in Configuration Simulation,

See the characteristics “Characteristics 1” have values which represents the components. Select the value
“COMPONT1”,

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 10
Similarly for the characteristics “Characteristics 3” have values which represents the components. Select the
value “RAW1”,

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 11
Due to this corresponding components gets selected in the BOM List.

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 12
Benefits of Class Item in BOM:
Class Items can help to simplify maintenance of BOMs for configurable materials –
Need to enter one item for the class, instead of several items for the individual variant parts.
No need to create and assign selection conditions.
It help to classify additional objects in the class at any time, without having to change the BOM

Related Content
Reference (site) 1 – Variant Configuration
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_47x200/helpdata/en/92/58d455417011d189ec0000e81ddfac/frameset.htm
Reference (site) 2 – BOMs
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_47x200/helpdata/en/a0/1016bd4c8311d189520000e829fbbd/frameset.htm

Reference (Book) 3 – Basics in Supply Chain Management By Tony Arnold

For more information, visit the Manufacturing homepage.

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 13
Disclaimer and Liability Notice
This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include SAP official interfaces and therefore is not
supported by SAP. Changes made based on this information are not supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade.
SAP will not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing the information, code or methods suggested in this document,
and anyone using these methods does so at his/her own risk.
SAP offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type with respect to the content of this technical article or
code sample, including any liability resulting from incompatibility between the content within this document and the materials and
services offered by SAP. You agree that you will not hold, or seek to hold, SAP responsible or liable with respect to the content of this
document.

SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK SDN - sdn.sap.com | BPX - bpx.sap.com | BOC - boc.sap.com

© 2008 SAP AG 14