what is the difference between BOM & configuable material

[Former Member]

hi,

what is the difference between BOM & configuable material?

can I maintain BOM for a configurable material (KMAT) ????

and what about the stock in the plant for both of these material???means do they act as stock item???

and what about the senario for sub items for both of them.

plz give me details on that.

regards

aniruddha

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Configurable material is useful if you have a large number of combination of parts that go into a product. That is if you have different permutations and combinations of the parts for same material. If you maintain a unique material code for each combination, you require a large number of material numbers. KMAT may be used in such a case where you maintain just one generic product code.

For example a car with different colors, steering wheels etc.

A bill of material (BOM) describes the different components that together create a product. A BOM for a bicycle, for example, consists of all the parts that make up the computer: CPU, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse etc

Yes you can use configurable material as BOM (Transaction CS40).

In BOM, you use BOM usage as 5. Stock Item is L.

In configurable BOM, you use BOM usage as 1.

In configurable material, you create characteristic values & class. The requirments are passed on to production planning. On explosion of bill of material, system selects components assigned to characterstic values in the order. After prodcution, the materials are assigned as sales order stock for delivery to customer.

[Former Member]

Dear Aniruddh,

The main difference between BOM and Configurable material is

In BOM we have to Create all the Materials ie Main item as well as Subitem.

Example: If we are creating Computer as a BOM item

*Header Item *

Computer

Sub Items

Monitor

Key Board

Mouse

Cabinet

Hard disk

etc......

For all of the above we should have Material Master and also Stock.

But when we are creating a Configurable Material we will have a single Material master with Material type KMAT.

Under this Configurable Material we will have many Variants for which there will be no Material Master and Stock.

The Other Important difference in BOM we can sell the Sub items Seperately.

But in Configurable Material we cannot sell the Items other than the Configurable Material.

Revert back if you have any doubts.

Reward if helpful,

Regards

PAVAN.

[Former Member]

Hi,

BOM

A bill of material (BOM) describes the different components that together create a product. A BOM for a bicycle, for example, consists of all the parts that make up the bicycle: the frame, the saddle, wheels, and so on.

Process Flow

When you enter the material number of a bill of materials that is relevant for sales order processing, the system displays the material that describes the whole bill of materials as a main item. The individual components are displayed as lower-level items.

There are two ways to process a bill of materials in Sales. Once you have entered a bill of material in a sales order, the system runs pricing, inventory control, and delivery processing at:

- Main item level if the material is assembled, or

- Component level if the material is not assembled

The type of processing used by the system is determined by the item category group that you enter in the material master record for relevant materials.

Processing at Main Item Level

If you want the system to carry out pricing, inventory control, and delivery processing at main item level, enter ERLA in the Item category group field of the Sales: sales org. 2 screen in the material master record of the finished product. This means that the components only function as text items and are not relevant for delivery. The following graphic shows how a bill of material is processed at main item level.

Processing at Component Level

If you want the system to carry out pricing, inventory control, and delivery processing at the component level, enter LUMF in the Item category group field of the Sales: sales org. 2 screen in the material master record of the finished product. In this case, only the components are relevant for delivery. During processing the system automatically creates a delivery group. The latest delivery date among all the components becomes the delivery date for the entire delivery group.

Configurable Material

Configurable material is useful if you have a large number of combination of parts that go into a product. It means different permutations and combinations of the parts for same material. If you maintain a unique material code for each combination , you require a large number of material numbers. KMAT may be used in such a case where you maintain just one generic product code. A super BOM is maintained for such a material consisting of all possible alternatives. A routing is also maintained consisting of all possible operations that could be used. Typically configurable material is used in Made To Order (MTO) environment. However frequently ordered configurations may be planned with a material variant which needs to have a material master record. Thus Material variants may have stock and value. Depending upon characteristic values chosen at sales order entry Sales Order BOM is created. Routing operations are also chosen depending upon which BOM components are assigned to them.

Plz reward points if helpful.

Regards,

Vinod Palli

[Former Member]

Hi,

I will give you an example of computer, though its a common practice but for explanation its very good...

Lets say we have a material "Computer"

this has BOM items as CPU, Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor.....and we maintain the stock in the plant... this is about the BOM....

and say Configurable material

we have computer which has the BOM items as shown above...

Lets take CPU:

CPU has RAM card, Hard disk and so on....

if we take RAM card it has different memory like 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 Gb and so on... lets say these are maintained as characteristics...

here we define a material as CPU and has following characteristics as 256 MB, 512Mb and so on...(these are characteristics).... Only if the CPU is a configurable material then only we can have characteristics displayed..

So we can maintain the configurable materials for BOM, and stock is maintained for BOM items but the characteristics are no way the materials...

Regards

Bageerath