SAP SD SUPORTE

Purpose

Target readers for this document can be anyone who has basic knowledge in SAP SD and MM module.

Summary

Normal Sales Process involves, that Customers ordering certain quantity of general Material without any special requirements. Once these Materials are ready it will be shipped to the customer and the Invoice document will be sent to the customer for receiving payment. For these Customers one can sell the Finished Goods without any constraints.

However, there are few Customers who will have a specific Clause while placing the Order. The Clause could be like; they do not want the Finished Product made out of Raw Material imported from certain countries or in case of Chemical Products, the quantity of certain Chemicals used during Production of the Finished Product must not exceed a particular quantity.

These kinds of Customer clauses are really difficult to check manually while selling / shipping the Finished Products and somehow we need to have auto check before the Goods are shipped to the Customers to have repetitive business.

We will see how this Product Attributes Functionality in SAP helps us in achieving this requirement.

1. Master Data Settings

To achieve this functionality, we need to do the appropriate settings in Material Master Data and Customer Master Data. Also we have the Customization part, which we will be discussing below. Now let us see the Master Data setting involved enabling the complete business process flow.

2. Define Product Attributes in Material Master

Follow the below menu path to define Product Attributes in Material Master:

Logistics - SD - Products - Material - Other Material - Create or Change:

Or

Can use the Transaction Code - MM01 / MM02:

Here, you can enter the Material Number for which you need to assign the Product Attribute values. Go to Sales Org 2 view in Material Master Record and in that select appropriate Product Attributes as per requirement. For Example, Select "Product Attribute - 3" for materials with more than or equal to 1% of specific Chemical used (like Benzene related content) during its production.

3. Define Product Attributes in Customer Master

Follow the below menu path for defining the Product Attributes in Customer Master:

Logistics - SD - Business Partner - Customer - Create or Change:

Or

Use the Transaction Code - XD01 / XD02.

Here, you can enter the Customer Number, for which the Product Attribute value has to be assigned. Go to Sales Area Data in Customer Master and in that Sales View, Select the "Product attributes" field highlighted in the above screenshot and in that select the appropriate Product Attributes. For Example, Select "Product Attribute - 3" for materials with more than or equal to 1% of specific Chemical used (like Benzene related content) during that material production.

4. Required Customization Settings

Follow the below menu path to determine how the system has to behave if the Product Attributes of the Material and Customer is well matched:

SPRO - SD - Sales - Sales Documents - Sales Document Header - Define Sales Document Types:

Or

Transaction Code - VOV8:

Here, select the appropriate Sales Document Type for which you need this Product Attribute functionality. If needed for all the Sales Document types, then the following Customization has to be done in all the Sales Document Types.

Go to Transaction VOV8 or to the above said Menupath:

Here, let us take Standard Order Type for example. Select "OR" and then click on the details button to do the necessary customization.

Here, select the appropriate behavior for Product Attributes Field as per your requirement. In the Sales Order, for this Sales Document Type, the system will carry out a check on the compatibility of the Product Attributes selected in Customer Master (Ship to Party) and in Material Master. If the Product Attributes of the Customer and Material matches, then depending upon the indicator set in Sales Document Type for the Product Attribute Field, the system will behave. For example, the Product Attribute field in Sales Document Type can be set with the following available options:

None   -               No Messages will be displayed
A          -               Displays a Warning message.
B          -               Displays a Error message and blocks further processing.

5. Functionality Testing

Go to Transaction VA01 - Sales Order Creation and enter the Order Type, for which we have maintained the Product Attribute Field messages.

Enter the Product Attribute enabled Customer Number in Ship to Party field and the Material Number for testing this Functionality.

After entering all the required data in the Sales Order Creation Screen, select "OK" button. Now the system will check for the Product Attributes of the Customer Master (Ship to Party) and the Product Attributes maintained in the Material Master, if matches, then the System will behave as per the settings in the Sales Document Type.

The above screenshots displays the Warning Message, as the Product Attribute is compatible for the Customer (Ship to Party) - 7600012 and the Material - 1245 in the Sales Order created with Sales Document Type - OR. However, this functionality will not be working if the Product Attribute for Customer and the Material entered in the Sales Order is not compatible.

6. Advantage of Product Attribute Functionality over Material Exclusion

The material exclusion functionality gives only an option to exclude selling specific material to specific customers with condition technique, where as product attribute gives us the option of excluding sales of materials with particular attribute to the customers who did not accept the product with same kind of attribute.
Product Attribute functionality requires only minimal Configuration settings when compared to that of Material Exclusion.

Reference:

www.help.sap.com