admin
- Mar 23, 2016
- 5 min read

SAP Costing Variant – Part V (Quantity Structure Control)

Quantity Structure Control

We have been going through various components of Costing Variants. As explained earlier all these components constitute to the Product Costing in Controlling Module.

The Quantity Structure Control is a component which controls parameters of Quantity Structure like Bill of Material (BOM) and Routing/Recipe.

Definition

Used in cost estimates with quantity structure to specify for each plant how the system searches for valid alternative BOM and alternative routing to create a quantity structure for multilevel BOM.

Implementation Consideration

System will navigate you to the screen as shown in the image 1.01 For understanding the structure we will select Quantity Structure “PC01″ and double click on the same to navigate further to screen as shown in image 1.02

On the above screen, we can see the configuration is divided into two parts i.e. BOM and Routing. We will first go through the BOM tab.

Bill of Material Tab (BOM)

The BOM tab has option to select the BOM Determination application as per our requirement. Refer image 1.03 below

Given below is the list of available BOM Determination applications:

Inventory Management
Configuration Control
External Batches
Plant Maintenance
Costing
Process Manufacturing
Production – General
Sales and Distribution

On the above screen, if we click on Create button next to BOM Application, system navigates us to the configuration of each of the above BOM Determination Application as shown in the following image 1.04

In order to understand configuration of every Application, double click on the application and the system will navigate us to the detail configuration of the application.

For our understanding, we will try to look into “PC01 – Costing” which looks as shown in image 1.05 below:

This screen is divided into three parts as explained below

BOM Application

Part I – Selection ID

The Selection ID is a strategy provided by SAP for identifying the BOM stored in the system. This is in other words access sequence to determine the BOM.

Go to the Selection ID and press F4 and the system will provide us the detailed information on Selection procedure available for the said Selection ID (Refer Image 1.06).

Now for our understanding purpose we will try to understand the Selection ID “05” used in the BOM Application PC01.

Before proceeding further we must understand various fields available under BOM Application with their meaning

Part II- Override alternative selection from material master

This is the next section in BOM Application. This section has following two Radio buttons available to use as explained below:Part II- Override alternative selection from material master

Alternative Determination for Multiple BOMs

When alternatives are selected automatically according to application, this indicator determines that the SAP System is to select a specific alternative as of a certain date. This means the system will use alternative BOM as maintained using Transaction Code OS32 (IMG Path: Production ® Basic Data ® Alternative Determination ® Define Alternative Determination for Multiple BOMs) based on the dates as appearing in the image 1.07

Production Version

This indicator shows that, when alternatives are selected automatically according to application, the production versions maintained in the material master record are used as selection criteria.

In the MRP 4 view of the material master, in the requirements explosion data, the indicator for selecting alternative BOMs is maintained. When you explode the BOM, only the alternatives for which selection by production version (2 – “Selection by production version”) is defined are taken into account for selection. Refer the Image 1.08 to understand where this value is to be maintained

With this we finish the options available under Override alternative selection part.

Part III – Minimum BOM status requirements

This part has various options available to mark which make them as requirement while exploding the BOM for product costing. We will try to understand all the options below:

Note: IMG Path for maintaining BOM Status is Production => Basic Data => Bill of Material => General Data => Define BOM Status. Different statuses are to opted under different scenarios, hence it is requested to go through all the BOM Application to understand which status is required under which circumstances.

Note: IMG Path for maintaining BOM Status is Production => Basic Data => Bill of Material => General Data => Define BOM Status

Rounding for Component Quantities

This indicator is provided by system to determine if the quantity calculated by the system by exploding BOM is to be rounded off or not. The standard system comes with Do Not Round option. Also it is requested to clearly identify the repercussions of the option on material quantities if rounding up is to be opted for.

Routing Tab

This tab contains configurations to determine Routing/Recipe to be used for costing a product.

First let us see how this tab looks like, please refer Image 1.10 for the same.

SAP has made two options available in this tab for configuration viz. Routing Determination and Alt. Sequences. We will look into both one by one

Routing Determination

Here we have to click on the create button near Routing Selection to go ahead in the Routing Determination to understand how and what configurations are to be done at this level. Refer Image 1.11 for the same

Here again if we see SAP has provided access sequences. For our understanding purpose we will discuss about Routing Selection ID “01” here.

We will try to look into every field and its relevance in the following table:

If we take the above instance of ID “01” while product costing the system will work as below

Sequence 1 – Find Routing (Task List N) with Plan Usage 1 i.e. Production having status 4 i.e. Released General, if available. If not available, will go to the next combination

Sequence 2 – Find Routing (Task List N) with Plan Usage 1 i.e. Production having status 2 i.e. Released for Order, if available. If not available, will go to the next combination

Sequence 3 – Find Master Recipe (Task List 2) with Plan Usage 1 i.e. Production having status 4 i.e. Released General, if available. If not available, will go to the next combination

Sequence 4 – Find Master Recipe (Task List 2) with Plan Usage 1 i.e. Production having status 2 i.e. Released for Order, if available. If not available system will show an error about non availability of Routing/Recipe.

Alternative Sequences

Apart from the Routing determination, SAP has provided a radio button to select for Alternative Sequences. This specifies that alternative sequences can be transferred from the routing into the order.

This completes the general configuration of Quantity Structure Control. This configuration becomes applicable to all the plants based on Costing Variant assignment.

Plant specific assignment

But SAP has also provided an option to assign different Quantity Structure Control to different plants. For making this assignment click on “Qty Struct. Control/Plant” button and the system will navigate you to the screen as shown under Image 1.14. Click on New entries and the system will navigate you to the screen as appearing in Image 1.15. Here enter the plant and select the relevant configuration. But this step should be done with due care, as this may have impact on valuation of FG/SFG etc.