0

Materialdetermination / Product Selection and

Material Lists

SAP AG

(C) SAP AG TASD40 23-1

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Material Determination and Listing / Exclusion

Unit Contents:

Material determination and

Product selection

Material listing and

Material exclusion

SAP AG 1999

(C) SAP AG TASD40 23-2

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Material Determination: Objectives

At the conclusion of this unit, you will be able to:

Use the functions for material determination and

product selection as well as material listing and
material exclusion
Explain how to configure Customizing so that these
functions meet your needs
Create master records
Understand and analyze the settings for these
functions in the sales document

SAP AG 1999

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0.4
Determining materials

Determining materials

Substitute
Order
Material entered Item Material
material
10 4711
4711 M1
M1

SAP AG 1999

Material determination provides you with a tool for automatically exchanging materials in the sales
document.
The condition technique provides you with greater flexibility in material determination. When you
process a document, the system automatically searches for valid master records that you created
previously in material determination.
You can assign a substitution reason to every master record in material determination that defines
how the material should be determined. You define the substitution rules in Customizing. Examples
in the standard system include:
Reason for substitution 0002: Customized material
Reason for substitution 0003: EAN number
You do not need a material master record for the material number that you are replacing.
During order entry, the material ordered by the customer is replaced by the substitute defined in the
master record. The system now continues processing with the substitute (for example, in the
availability check, pricing, delivery, billing, and so on).
Note: The item overview for Sales A contains information about the material that was originally
entered as well as the reason for substitution.

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Selecting Products Manually

Customer Customer
Miller Smith

Customer
group
Customer: Miller Customer: Smith
Product: 4712 Product: 4711

1. 4714 1. 4711
2. 4711 2. 4716 Wholesalers
3. 4712 3. 4712

Customer group: GH
Product: 4711

4712 1. 4712
4711 4713 2. 4716
Materials
Master records
for Determining
4714 4716 materials
4715
SAP AG 1999

In some sectors of industry, the same products are sold in different packaging materials (for example,
packaging for standard and promotion articles). Material master records exist in the system for
managing these stocks. When you enter an order, you can use different material numbers for the
same product.
We have extended the functions in manual and automatic product selection so that material
determination can support this business practice:
Reason for substitution 0005: Manual production selection (list of default values)
Reason for substitution 0004 / 0006: Automatic product selection (depending on availability
in order and delivery)
In manual production selection, (reason for substitution 0005), the system does not automatically
replace the product. Instead, it displays a list of all of the substitution materials and other information
in the master record. You can then select the required material from this list.
To simplify selection, the system displays the material quantities that can be confirmed on the
customer's requested delivery date. If a material cannot be confirmed fully for the requested delivery
date, the system displays the date on which the material can be completely delivered.

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Master data

For material determination/product selection

02/01 - 05/01
Product 4711

1. Easter version Product 4713

2. Standard product Product 4711

09/09 - 12/31
Product 4711

1. Olympic version Product 4714

2. Christmas packaging Product 4715

3. Standard product Product 4711

SAP AG 1999

Maintain the master records for material determination in the master data menu for Sales and
Distribution under Products.
You can use the condition technique to define the master data for material determination at any level.
For example, you can create data records using the material number or a combination of the material
and customer numbers.
When you process master records, you can:
Restrict the validity period of a record
Maintain separate entries for each key combination
Determine reasons for substitution
Save one or more substitutes per master record
If there is more than one material defined in the master record for material determination / product
selection, the sequence in which they appear defines the priority that they have.

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Automatic Product Selection

Order
April 01
Automatic
Product: 4711 10 PC selection
available 0 PC

Product 4712 10 PC

Outbound delivery
June 01
Automatic
Product: 4711 10 PC selection
available 4 PC

Product 4711 4 PC

Product 4714 6 PC
SAP AG 1999

In automatic product selection (reasons for substitution 0004 and 0006), the system replaces the
entered material automatically if it is not available.
If automatic product selection is being used, the system may display (based on customizing) the
entered and substituted material as main and sub-items in the sales order.
When you enter an order, the system tries to fill the quantity of the order with the first material in the
material determination master record. If there is not enough of this material, it fills the remaining
quantity with the next material.
You can choose whether or not you want to re-run material determination when the delivery is
created. If material determination is re-run, the result of the substitution may change due to the new
availability situation.
You can use the product attributes in the material and customer master records to exclude a particular
material from product selection. This means, for example, that all the materials that have been
rejected in the customer master will not be included by the system when it determines a substitution
material.
The Partial confirmation of product selection allows you to deal with shortfall cases (in which only
the available quantity is confirmed, and it is less than the order quantity) by passing the shortfall
quantity on to materials planning. In this case, an additional sub-item is generated with a specifically
defined material.

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Automatic Product Selection - Master Data

Master
Master records
records for
for
Determining
Determining materials
materials
Examples
Material entered: A
I If material A isn't
available, it is
automatically replaced 1. A
with material B.
2. B

II The customer orders Material entered: C

material C. You want to
clear out material D. 1. D
Material D is selected 2. C
automatically as long as
it is available.

SAP AG 1999

The sequence of the substitution materials in the master data influences the result of the automatic
product selection in the order.
If you want the material that is first entered in the order to be included in the substitution, then you
must enter it in the substitutions list.
Case A: The original material is in the first place in the list, and its available stock is included in
the substitution. The system then refers to the available stock for the next material in the master
record.
Case B: First, the system uses up the available stock for the materials that appear in the master
record before the material that has been entered. Only when these stocks have been used up, does
it include that material in the substitution.

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Material Determination - Condition Technique (6)

Sales doc. type OR Procedure A00001

10 0 A001 Material entered
Order 20 0 ...

Condition type A001

Document type: OR
Sales organization: 1000 Access seq. Valid from To
Dist. channel: 10 A002 01/01/98 12/31/02
Division: 00
Customer: C1 Access sequence A002

Access:10 2 SlsOrg/DistCh/Ent.mat.
Material: M-10
. . . Access:20 1 Material entered
...
Table 2 No record available

Table 1 Successful access

Material determination master record
Entry: MAT-10 Subst.reason: 0002
Valid from . . . To ...

Substitution material: M-10

SAP AG 1999

The condition technique provides more flexibility in material determination and product selection.
You can assign a material determination procedure to each sales document type. The procedure
contains all of the Customizing information that the system needs for material determination. The
procedure includes one or more defined condition types
One access sequence (search strategy) is assigned to each condition type.
Each access sequence consists of one or more accesses.
Each access contains exactly one condition table. This represents the search key that the system uses
to search for a valid master record.
You can activate an analysis of the material determination in the sales document. The system then
displays detailed information on how the materials were determined.

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Material Listing

Payer P1

Sold-to party S1 Sold-to party S2 Order

Sold-to party:S1
Master Payer: R1
Master records
records for
for
Material
Material Listing
Listing Item Material
10 4711
Customer: 20 4713
S1 30 4714
material:
4711 Order
4712
Sold-to party:S2
Customer: R1 Payer: R1
material: Item Material
4711 10 4711
4713
20 4712
30 4713
SAP AG 1999

Target: You want to ensure that your customer only receives CERTAIN MATERIALS.
You enter these materials as a material listing.
The material listing is controlled by the condition technique.
In the above example, you have created master records with a key for the customer and material
numbers. This key is delivered in the standard system. The access sequence for the condition type
guarantees that the system searches for valid master records both for the sold-to party and the payer.
If the sold-to party is different than the payer in the sales order and if both partners have master
records, the system first searches for the sold-to party's master record (first access). If it finds a valid
master record, it stops searching even if the material you have entered is not listed. Any records
listed for the payer are not taken into account. It the first search is unsuccessful, the system searches
for the payer's master record.
You can also define your own keys, for example:
Customer group/material
Customer/product hierarchy
You define in the sales document type whether the system checks the material listing or not.

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Material exclusion

Payer P1

Sold-to party S1 Sold-to party S2 Order

Sold-to party:S1
Master Payer: R1
Master records
records for
for
material
material exclusion
exclusion Item Material
10 4711
Customer: 20 4713
S1 30 4714
material:
4711 Order
4712 Sold-to party:S2
Customer: R1 Payer: R1
material: Item Material
4711 10 4711
4713
20 4712
30 4713
SAP AG 1999

Target: You want to ensure that the customer does NOT receive certain materials.
You enter these materials as a material exclusion.
The material exclusion is also controlled with the condition technique.
In the above example, you have created master records with a key for the customer and material
numbers. This key is delivered in the standard system. The access sequence for the condition type
guarantees that the system searches for valid master records both for the sold-to party and the payer.
If there is a material exclusion, the access sequence has a different effect than for material listings. If
the sold-to party is different to the payer in the sales order and if both partners have master records,
the system first searches for the sold-to party's master record (first access). If the system finds a valid
master record, the reference to the material is prevented and the system stops searching. It does not
check the payer's master record. It the first search is unsuccessful, the system searches for the payer's
master record. If the system finds a valid master record, the reference to the material is prevented.
You can define whether the material exclusion is checked in the sales document type.

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Material Determination: Summary

You are now able to:

Use the functions for material determination and

product selection as well as material listing and
material exclusion
Explain how to configure Customizing so that these
functions meet your needs
Create master records
Understand and analyze the settings for these
functions in the sales document

SAP AG 1999

(C) SAP AG TASD40 23-12