Variant Configuration with SAP

Uwe Blumöhr, Manfred Münch, Marin Ukalovic

• Publisher: SAP PRESS
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781592294008
• eBook ISBN: 9781592297931
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Informatica
• Subtopic: Informatica generale

With this all-inclusive reference, you have everything you need to implement, customize, and use Variant Configuration with SAP. Whether you're a consultant, work directly with variant configuration, or are a manager, this book contains essential information you need in order to make key decisions on how Variant Configuration works best for your company. 1. Variant Configuration in ERP and CRM Understand how to integrate Variant Configuration in processes such as quality management and customer service, and explore the necessary Customizing steps. 2. Advanced Integration Topics Find extensive coverage on business processes for SAP ERP, including the Order Engineering Workbench, planning Variant Configuration, and more. 3. Industry-Specific Solutions Learn about unique configurations and enhancements that are possible within specific industries and how to manage them, accompanied by customer examples and practical suggestions. 4. Expert Knowledge Benefit from the authors' and SAP customers' notes on special challenges encountered when implementing and using Variant Configuration for product models. 5. Updated and Expanded This new edition covers integrated Product and Process Engineering (iPPE), Product Data Replication (PDR), the new PLM environment, and much more.

Highlights:

• Product Model (Configuration profile and scenarios)
• Business Processes in SAP ERP (Integrated process and product engineering (iPPE), Integration, Customizing)
• Product Configuration (Variant Configurator LO-VC, Internet Pricing and Configurator (IPC))
• Challenges (Performance optimization, change services, Product Data Replication (PDR))
• Project and Practical Reports
• (Industry solution DIMP reports, project managers, SAP customers and partners, Configuration Workgroup (CWG) and outlook on SAP Business ByDesign)

Without a doubt, there are things on this planet that the human mind cannot understand. Fortunately, the SAP solutions for product configuration are not among those things. This chapter provides the necessary knowledge and the required information to understand the basic principles of variant configuration.

1 Basic Principles of Variant Configuration

If you deal with the topic of variant configuration, you quickly come across specific concepts that, on the surface, seem to be self-explanatory. But if you take a closer look, it’s apparent that technical discussions of variant configuration are sometimes frustrating because they are impossible without a common basic knowledge of variant configuration. Without this knowledge, discussions usually end in confusion and misunderstandings.

Quite a few experienced business people suspect a secret science behind variant configuration after their initial impression—a science that is primarily characterized by an abstract, complex terminology.

This chapter describes the basic concepts of variant configuration. You’ll learn what’s behind the concept of product configuration. From there, we’ll discuss the specific features of SAP Variant Configuration and describe how business processes in your enterprise can benefit from it.

Regardless of why you deal with this topic, in this chapter, you’ll quickly gain the confidence to find your way around in technical discussions, and you’ll know the right questions to ask in important decision processes.

1.1 What Is Product Configuration?

Before detailing SAP Variant Configuration, let’s look at some of the higher level topics of product configuration and configuration tasks in general.

1.1.1 Terminology

This book has a very strong focus on the product configuration in logistic processes. The question about a general definition of configuration is therefore not only understandable but inevitably forms the starting point of discussions about configuration.

First, you should note that configuration is not limited to products. Many systems enable you to adapt certain parameters to your requirements. In a configuration task you make adjustments to the system parameters to find a suitable setting.

The following concrete examples illustrate what configuration tasks can entail:

• Setting parameters of a software system
  This enables a purpose-driven use, for example, in the Customizing of the Enterprise Resource Planning solution of SAP (SAP ERP) or in Business Configuration of SAP Business ByDesign.
• Calculating the annual income tax
  The income statement requires individual specifications as to income and costs.
• Concluding automobile third-party insurance
  Such a conclusion is based on individual specifications as to the car and the drivers. These specifications determine the insurance contributions and are defined together with the insurance contract.
• Purchasing a new car
  Prior to purchasing a car, you have to decide on properties such as color and equipment.
• Tailoring a custom-made suit
  The tailor measures his customers to make perfectly fitting suits.
• Maintaining a cable car
  Maintenance work generally depends on many factors, such as the operating hours passed, the age, and the operational demand of the object to be maintained.
• Project planning for a conference
  Among other things, this planning depends on the number of participants expected.
• Submitting a road construction measure
  Type and length of the road are characterizing factors here.
• Supplying an open-plan office with office furniture
  Such a supply is associated with a number of dependencies (e.g., for adjacent desks).

A Sudoku puzzle also is an example of a configuration task (see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Sudoku Puzzle as a Configuration Task, Including Solution

Solving a Sudoku puzzle requires you to fill in a 9 × 9 grid. Each column, each row, and each box bordered in bold contain the digits from 1 to 9 only one time.

Configuration tasks are versatile and can occur in many different contexts. From the examples we just mentioned, the car purchase and the tailor-made suit are obviously associated with the specification of products. The insurance contract is also a product that is individualized by specifications. In the office furniture example, the individual specification of the furniture is determined not only by the properties of an individual table or cabinet but also by the composition of an open-plan office.

Let’s take a closer look at the car purchase and tailor-made suit examples. In both cases, a product is specified according to individual requirements. A car can be described very well using parameters, such as color, number of doors, sunroof, and air-conditioning. Many customers inform themselves on the Internet before the purchase and analyze different equipment settings by changing the known parameters.

People who buy their clothes at renowned tailors are usually unfamiliar with regular sizes. The purchase of a tailor-made suit requires a face-to-face meeting in which the tailor measures typical parameters, such as length of leg and chest size, and discusses specifics and wishes, which he may not have anticipated. The tailor may draw sketches that he discusses with the customer and uses for cutting the cloth later on.

Product Specification

A product specification involves the determination of all requirements made regarding a product, that is, the features that characterize the product and must be considered for its provisioning.

The form in which the agreed product features are specified can be manifold. In most cases, you will use textual and graphic descriptions, and frequently you’ll use well-defined parameters. A product specification can include the adaptation of the product to individual requirements. But standard products also usually have an underlying specification that is explicitly formulated.

If adaptations of or deviations from an otherwise identical product are part of the specification, then the specification describes a product variant (or variant for short). If these adaptations are at least partly described in formal parameters, then the individualized specification includes the determination of these parameters and, in turn, the solution of a configuration task.

Product Configuration

The product configuration deals with a special ty...

Table of contents

• Notes on Usage and on the Screen Presentation
• Table of Contents
• Dear Reader
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Basic Principles of Variant Configuration
• 2 Creating a Product Model for SAP Variant Configuration
• 3 Business Processes in SAP ERP
• 4 Customizing SAP ERP for Variant Configuration
• 5 Special Features of Product Configuration in SAP CRM
• 6 Challenges in Variant Configuration
• 7 Enhancements in SAP Industry Solution DIMP
• 8 Enhancements and Add-Ons in the SAP Partner Environment
• 9 Project Lead Reports on Projects and Project Structures
• 10 Customer Reports on the Introduction of SAP Variant Configuration
• 11 Configuration Workgroup
• 12 Outlook for SAP Business ByDesign
• A Database Tables of Variant Configuration
• B APIs of Variant Configuration
• C User Exits of Variant Configuration
• D Comprehensive Examples of Variant Functions
• E The Authors
• Index
• Service Pages
• Legal Notes