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Product Lifecycle Management / … / Introduction to LO-VC

1. Overview of Variant Configuration

Created by Former Member, last modified on Mar 20, 2017

Variant configuration enables the manufacturing of complex products that also have many variants. Often, new variants are created
by modifying existing product designs as the order is processed and reacting quickly to customers' requirements is also necessary.
With variant configuration, the customer or a salesperson can also determine features of a product, collect and document
specifications for the product and ensure that the product can be produced with those specifications while productions costs are
automatically calculated. The product configurator also improves information exchange between sales, engineering, and production.

Variant Configuration is integrated with or has interfaces to the following modules:

CA-CL Classification

LO-MD-BOM / LO-MD-MM Material Master, Bill of Material

PP Routings, MRP, Production order

PP-PI Master Recipes

SD Sales, Conditions

MM Purchasing

CO Costing

Additionally, interfaces to CRM (IPC) and APO are also provided.

It is possible to configure:

• Materials
• Standard networks in the Project System
• PM General maintenance task lists
• Model service specifications

The master data of a configuration model comprises materials, bills of material (BOMs), classes, characteristics,
dependencies, and configuration profiles.

In the material master, the MARA-KZKFG indicator determines whether a material is configurable. Before a material
can be configured, at least one valid configuration profile and one variant class (standard class type 300) must be
assigned to the material.

The realization of a product's Bill of Materials / routings is controlled by the configuration model and its dependency knowledge
which is modeled and designed by the user.

The following steps are required to be able to configure objects and simplify and automate the production process:

Most important configuration tables:

 Table Description

MARA General material data

CUCO Master data table for configuration profiles

INOB Assignment of internal number to object

MAST Assignment: material to BOM

KSSK Assignment: object to class

CUOB Assignment: object to dependencies

STPO BOM items

CABN Characteristic master data

KLAH Class header master data

KSML Assignment: characteristics to classes

CAWN Characteristic value master data

CUEX Dependency source code - compilation

CUKB Administrative information for dependency maintenance

CUKN Dependencies for variants / configuration Database

Configuration Profile
The configuration profile contains the main dependency logic for the configurable material, controls how
BOM explosion is processed and allows further specifications for the BOM. Additionally, the class assignment
can also be maintained here.

For BOM processing, the following options are available:

1. Planned/Production Order
2. Sales Order (SET)
3. Order BOM

[Link]/Production Order

When the level of BOM explosion (none, single level, multi-level) in the sales order is selected, the following
processes apply:

• All configurable items are configured in the sales order

• Sales relevant items are copied to the sales order as sales items
• Value assignments are stored on the data base for each configurable material
[Link] Order (SET)

• Products are supplied together, but not assembled together (Its just a grouping)
• Only sales relevant BOM items are exploded
• 11, 12, and 13 have their own BOM, can be sold separately, not only in group 1

[Link] BOM

Order BOM is used for customer specific adjustment of the BOM and the value assignment is done in SD,
but not in BOM explosion.

Two types of order BOM can be choosen:

1. Result oriented (saves the final result with manual changes)

2. Knowledge based (saves the Super BOM , manual changes, dependency knowledge)

Generally, the BOM explosion is controlled by the BOM usage, the BOM application and the BOM filters.
Dependency Knowledge
The following type of dependencies are used in variant configuration:

Dependency Where it is attached What it is used For Processing order

Type

Preconditions Characteristic value Hide a value Preconditions are processed after the
Characteristic Hide a characteristic value has been set (by pressing
enter)

Selection Characteristic Make a characteristic required Selection conditions are processed

condition BOM/Routing Select components after the value has been set (pressing
enter)

Procedure Characteristic Value Infer values, send values from root Procedures are processed in
Characteristic material to subcomponents sequential order after the value has
Configuration Profile been set (pressing enter)
BOM/Routing

Constraint Configuration Profile Infer values top down and vice Processing order of constraints is not
versa fixed

The objects in the BOM can be called by either: $SELF , $PARENT or $ROOT depending on the level on which the object can be found.

Low level and high level configuration

High Level
On high level, every interactive configuration and all dependencies are processed.

Low level

Low level configuration refers to background explosion of BOM, production order creation and MRP restrictions of the selection condition,
the procedures changing master data and the class nodes replacements.

In low level configuration, processing of dependcies is limited and some syntax such as $set_pricing_factor is not read.

Class Nodes
Class nodes can be created by using classes as nodes instead of setting multiple BOM items in a following manner:

Database storage
The main anchor where the configuration of an object in an application is stored is TABLE_APPLICATION-CUOBJ

Table Description

AFPO Production order

PLAF Planned order

RESB Reservations

VBAP Sales orders

MARA(CUOBF) Plant independent material variants

MARC(CUOBJ/V) Plant specific material variants

EQUI Equipments

SER00 Serial numbers

EBAN Purchase requisitions

LIPS Deliveries

EKPO Purchase orders

VBRP Invoices

BGMP Master Warranty Item

ESLH Service packages

PBED Independent requirement data

Use CUOBJ and go to transaction CUTABLEINFO .

There you get all relevant configuration data stored in different tables on the data base on one screen.

Table Description Important fields

IBIB Basic data Ibase, objnr

 Table Description Important fields

IBIN Instance Instance (=ibase+1)

In_recno (internal uni identif)
Valfrom, valto, cuco (profile)

IBINOWN Owner of instance Inttyp, (obtab), objkey

IBINVALUES Characteristic values of an instance Sybmol_id, ataut

IBSYMBOL Char-value combinations Atinn, atwrt, atflv

Communication with other applications

Very important is the pricing Reference characteristic to SDCOM-VKOND

Very common is changing master data via dependencies e.g. number of components in the BOM
Reference characteristic STPO-MENGE

The following fields can be changes by variant configuration.

Reading access to sales order data

Table Description

VBAK Header data

VBAP Item data

MAEPV Material master fields

MAAPV Material master fields

VBKD Sales document: commercial data

VBPA_AG Partner: sold-to party

VBPA_WE Partner: ship-to party

VBPA_RE Partner: bill-to party

VBPA_RG Partner: payer

Changing access by using VCSD_UPDATE Structure

Table Description

BRGEW Gross weight of item

NTGEW Net weight of item

GEWEI Unit of weight

VOLUM Volume

VOLEH Volume unit

KWMENG Item quantity

VRKME Sales unit of measure

ZMENG Target quantity

ZIEME Target quantity unit

ARKTX Article description

You moreover have the possibility to change master of BOM, routing and master recipes

Table Description

STPO Bill of Material (BOM)

POTX1 Item text

 Table Description

POTX2 Item text

ROMS1-3 Variable-size item sizes 1-3

ROANZ Number of variable-size items

ROMEN Variable-size item quantity

MENGE Component quantity

Table Description

PLPOD Task list and master recipe

LAR01-06 Activity types

VGW01-06 Standard values

VGE01-06 Unit of measure

ARBPL Work center

LTXA1 Operation description

LTXA2 Operation description

Table Description

PLFLD Sequence of operations

LOSVN Lot size from

LOSBS Lot size to

Table Description

PLFHD Production resources/tools

MGVGW Quantity

MGFORM Quantity formula

EWVGW Required quantity

EWFORM Required quantity formula

Important function modules / programs

Standard function module for interactive processing (high level)
ce_c_processing
Standard function modules for low level configuration BOM explosions
CUBX_CONFIGURE_MDSP
CUBX_CONFIGURE_OBJECT
CUBX_CONFIGURE_STPOB
CUKO_DDB_HAS_COMPONENTS (SD)
CUBX_MDSP_HAS_CONFIGURATION (multi-level)
CUBX_STPOB_HAS_CONFIGURATION (multi-level)

Standard reading configuration from data base vc_i_get_configuration (with dependency knowledge)
vc_i_get_configuration_ibase (without dependency knowledge)

External value set (BAPI/IDOC) Use transaction BAPI

--> Sales and distribution
--> Sales
--> Sales Order
Relevant function module cei0_ddb_set_values_for_idoc

Performance issues
• Number BOM explosions (SAPLCUKO)
• Perform BOM_EXPLOSION CHECK_UNPROCESSED_DDB_MSGS in function group cuko
• Procedure and Constraints run too often • Procedure may be turned into constraints
• Reduce the amount stored values on data base • SDCOM_VKOND with $set_pricing_factor
• SCREEN_DEP-INVISIBLE
• Do not use actions
• Reduce the amount of values, may be check tables/function modules
• Do not use Overwritten characteristic
• Do not use class hierarchies / intersections
• Use class items instead of many selection conditions
• Make use of SAP_PRICNG
• Avoid empty fields in variant tables
• Do not assign small variant tables to data base tables (10chars*10000lines)
• Use Dependencies instead of manual conditions to set values SDCOM-VKOND
• Note 736268

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