what functionlity to use for this business requirement ?

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

We have following requirements in our system

1. PRODUCT A will have component that are interchangeable. lets say components X, Y and Z.

2. PRODUCT B will also have the same component which is interchangeable (X, Y, Z)

X. Y and Z componets will appear on alternative BOM of A and B.

3. Product C has component X. This means that unlike the first two cases, C can only have X

4. There is a generic code W which actually just mapped to X, Y and Z.

5. All demands of X, Y and Z should sum up to generic code W

6. Procurement knows that generic code W pertains to X, Y and Z and thought that X, Y and Z are interchangeable so he can order any of these 3 components in any quantity.

7. Problem is on Product C because unlike in Product A and B, Product C is using component X exclusively. So if procurement ordered only lets say component Z, then Product C will noy have component X to use.

We thought of using FORM FIT FUNCTION of product interchangeability with components X, Y, Z and generic code W as part of one class and generic code W as the leading material but we end up with the problem we have in item #7.

I hope you can help me brainstorm what fuctionlaity we can use in order to meet above requirements. Thanks.

Regards,

Mylene

[Former Member]

Dear Meylene

if you want the mentioned brakup to be available to the purchase manager. It can be made possible through A ABAP report.

All the quantities of X,Y, and Z would be pegged to the header material. For a particular time period, quantities or Prchase reuisition the system can eaily determine from what header materials the demands are comming from.

W = X(A) + X(B) + Y(A) + Y(B) + Z(A) + Z(B) only.

-regards

Virender S Thakur

[Former Member]

Mylene,

You have created your own problem. By your own statement, X/Y/Z are not interchangeable in all cases, and yet you are telling your Purchasing people to treat them like they are.

I don't know what is a 'generic code', but it sounds like 'W' is outside of your A/B/C BOMs, and you are buying something for which there is no MRP PrReq.......Tsk Tsk.

What business benefit are you getting by using "W"?

If you don't want to change any of your Bills of materials, then make X the primary component on A, B, C. Forget about W, just buy X every time. Manually issue Y & Z to the permissable orders as requirements permit. Once the stock of Y, Z is used up, there is no further issue.

Or, perhaps X is the more expensive of the three. Then, turn W into a real part in your BOMs, and stock it as such, separately from X. The Purchasing specs of W remain: 'either X or Y or Z'. Put W into your boms for A and B. Leave X in the BOM for C.

Regards,

DB49

[Former Member]

Hi DB49,

This is the business requirement so we need to model it. The reason why we have W is because procurement would normally order in generic code since this component (which comprises of X,Y,Z) has high demand and supplier can sometimes dictate which components it will deliver.

Anyway, we also cannot use multilevel BOM since this will forece us to always make procurement type of generic or specific codes equal to "E" which should not be the case.

Thanks,

Mylene

[Former Member]

Mylene,

Virender has kindly proposed a solution to the problem of giving visibility to the purchasing manager.

If you use this solution, you should also think about developing a procedure to 'protect' the X(C) stock from being appropriated by A and B orders.

Rgds,

DB49

[Former Member]

Dear Meylene

i think till the time you have the Generic code in place (W) the problem will be there as your puchase manager wont know how much of that qty is comming from Product C which can only use X. No matter what interchangibility you use till the time one is not able to differentiate between the contribution from Product A,B.C to generic code W there will alwys be room for error. What i suggest is

1. Give the purchase manager a visibilty of the volumes of Product C which only uses X so that he can be sure whats the min X he has to order for the stipulated period of planning.

2. Remove the generic code W itself if sharing volumes is not possible, then use FFF which will have X as the leading Material. In this way any manual PO created or stocks of Y, Z will get netted off and PR will always be for X.

-Regards

Virender S Thakur

[Former Member]

Hi Virender,

Thanks for your reply. Actually, thats the problem W can only see X, Y and Z.

I am hoping if theres a way that W can see upto the relationship of X, Y and Z to A and B. Then we can have somehitng like

W = X(A) + X(B) + Y(A) + Y(B) + Z(A) + Z(B) only

and there will be a separate quantity for X(C) which will not be included in W.

Mylene

[Former Member]

Hi Mylene,

I suggest to make your scenario more simple and workable, you can

create product interchangeability between products A & B which

uses X, Y & Z leaving aside Product C.

Product C procurement needs to be dealt alone separately which

involves only X.

This will add the requirement for A&B which can comprise the

requirements as either A-X or A-Y or A-Z & B-X or B-Y or B-Z

+ C-X

Regards

R. Senthil Mareeswaran.

[Former Member]

Hi Mylene,

If you use a forward interchangeability instead of a full interchangeability it should help.

Thisd means W can be interchanged by X Y or Z, but the opposite is not true.

The BOM for A and B link to W, whereas the BOM for C link to X directly.

Another solution will be to use a 2 level BOMs:

Product A and B have in their BOM W only.

Procut C have directly X

Then add 3 BOM for product W. one for each components X Y Z.

Your procurement can then replenish X, Y, Z as they will; or you could the SNP optimiser doing the work for you. (depending of your integration with suppliers...)

I hope it helps...

Julien

[Former Member]

Hi Mylene,

Thinkong about it, I am not sure solution 1 works... this is a functionality for supersession and not for FFF...

I don't know how the system will work with more than 1 "forward" product

Have a look anyway, and let us know

Or if somebody have experience here...

Thanks and Regards

Julien