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Alternative materials in BOM & Production Order

November 26, 2013 | 5,193 Views |

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed

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MAN Production Planning (PP)

Manufacturing

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Dear All,

I would like to share knowledge regarding alternative material’s concept and their
usage in BOM & Production Order.

Basic knowledge

Normally, Bill of material (BOM) is maintained for HALB & FERT materials.The
materials against which BOM is maintained contains components at different levels
along with their quantities, basic unit of measure and production storage location.
Once the BOM is defined for material then it further comes into use of production
order, MRP and so on. BOM is defined as per instruction of engineering
department.

Alternative materials

In BOM, such type of components may also use which are alternatives. For
example, there are two materials lets say A & B. Alternative materials have
normally almost same description. At a time one material can be activate and other
inactive OR both alternative materials may be used with different usage
probabilities.

How to define Alternative Materials in BOM?

If you need to add alternative materials in BOM, add them like normally other
materials. Alternative materials are differentiated with rest of materials through
Group Number ID. As you can, given below is the BOM of FERT material which
contains alternative materials. Alternative materials can be combination of ROH &
HALB, ROH & ROH, HALB & HALB. Please have a look

Hence it shows that, 1-315 and 2-292 materials are alternative together along with
their consumption quantities 2 EA and 1 EA respectively . Group number 1 is
assigned to both.

NOTE : For the same nature of materials, same group number is used for
making them alternative materials.

But how to see their usage probabilities? Lets have a look

DOUBLE CLICK on item column numbers after selecting these materials.

Lets have a look on material 1-315 material

1-315 material is assigned 100 usage probability means this material is active with
100% usage probability. It is the 100% of the BOM quantity of its component which
is 2. If i kept usage probability 70, the resultant quantity which will be used is 1.4. I
hope its clear to you now !

Lets have a look on 2-292 material

As you can see, 2-292 material has no usage probability. After this analysis we
come to know that, when production order will be open for Fert material
500000000302 for 100 quantity, the component 1-315 will be active with 200
quantity in order, and material 2-292 will be having zero quantity( as this component
is having priority less than 1st material and zero usage probability).

Lets have a look on production order of 5-302

As defined earlier in BOM, material # 1-315 is active ( at priority 1 with 100% usage
probability) and material # 2-292 is inactive( priority 2 with usage probability zero). If
your temporary requirement is to use material 2-292 which is inactive in BOM, You
can use it in order by assigning usage probability here in production order.

Double click on item numbers after selecting these materials

The resultant screen is

2-292 has 1 consumption quantity in BOM of 5-302 so when production order

for 5-302 is opened for 100 quantity, the quantity of 2-292 is 100.

:: if we kept usage probability of 2-292 –> 50%, then there would be 50 EA

quantity in production order for 2-292 material !

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 37 Comments
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Muhammad Umar

November 26, 2013 at 7:04 am

Dear Mr. Raheel,

Great work done.. Please for sharing. Its really helpful for those which are using alternative
material scenario.

Regards

Muhammad Umar

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed Post author

November 26, 2013 at 10:07 am

Thanks Umer

Aditya S

November 26, 2013 at 9:16 am

Hello ahmed,

That means the “Usage Probability” of a component mentioned in the Production Order
overrides that indicated in item level of BOM?. Pls confirm.

Thanks for sharing this.

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed Post author

November 26, 2013 at 10:07 am

yeah ..whatever usage probability you defined there for alternative material in BOM,
you can switch their usage probabilities in production order as per your
requirement! but, by default only that material will come with quantity in production
order as well as in MRP run which is active in BOM i.e. which has usage probability
defined!
 Aditya S

November 26, 2013 at 10:14 am

Thanks Ahmed for confirmation and sharing this document.

sandeep praharaj

November 26, 2013 at 9:31 am

Hi Raheel,

Nice document for sharing.

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed Post author

November 26, 2013 at 10:08 am

Thanks Sandeep

Jazib Tariq

November 26, 2013 at 11:51 am

Nice Document

Keep sharing

Shoaib Tasleem

November 27, 2013 at 9:30 am

Hi Qazi,

Good to see informative material about alternative items.

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed Post author

 November 28, 2013 at 9:31 am

Thanks Shoaib

vijith kumar

December 10, 2013 at 11:29 am

hi Qazi,

thanks for shring its really hepful for me 2 understand .keep on posting these kind of
documents may appreciated thanks.

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed Post author

December 11, 2013 at 9:08 am

HI Vijth,

Thanks for appreciation. Inshallah i will keep posting such documents

Regards

Qazi Raheel

Jawad Akhtar

December 12, 2013 at 5:57 am

AOA Raheel,

Happy to see you sharing your expertise and knowledge with SAP community. Keep up the good
work, and please do keep sharing!
Wish you good luck.

Jawad

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed Post author

December 16, 2013 at 3:38 am

w/salam

Its an honor for me that you people appreciate like this. Thanks alot. Inshallah i ll
keep posting more posts in easy words so that beginners may also get benefit
 Regards

Qazi Raheel

Jimmy Wang

December 12, 2013 at 7:10 am

Hi Raheel,

Thank you for sharing. It’s really helpful.

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed Post author

December 16, 2013 at 3:38 am

Thanks dear Jimmy

Vikas Koul

December 17, 2013 at 7:48 am

Dear Raheel,

Simple & effective.

Thanks for sharing……

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed Post author

December 18, 2013 at 4:25 am

Thanks Vikas

Milind Kulkarni

December 18, 2013 at 5:29 am

Hi Raheel,

Thanks for nice document on this subject.Keep it up.

Thanks

Best regards,

Milind

G Nagesh

December 18, 2013 at 7:05 am

Very Useful information Raheel.

Keep it up !!

Cheers,

Nagesh

Rakesh Sehgal

December 20, 2013 at 5:53 am

Useful information for alt material usage probabilities,But what will happen to the
closing stocks of a particular material components whose Unit of measurement is
Nos.If we maintain usage prob as 50% & 50 % for both components(Like Bulbs) &
suppose the confirmation qty of Header during production is in Odd nos say 131
then the closing stock of both components will be in decimal places what is the
solution for that.

Regards

R Sehgal

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed Post author

December 20, 2013 at 9:34 am

Dear Rakesh,
Thanks Dear. It’s Interesting question. It depends on material to material
and its as per company requirements to maintain different usage
probabilities for materials. Let’s take an example against your question.
Our header material is bicycle & the BOM of bicycle contains 1 Blue light
and 1 white light and we are maintaining 50 % prob. usage for both
materials in BOM. System will took 0.500 EA requirement for both
materials in production order if you have allowed decimal points with unit
of measure EA at back end. Although its illogical to use half qty. of both
lights. In such situation, don’t make these materials alternative and just
enter required qty. in BOM.
Regards
Qazi Raheel

Rakesh Sehgal

December 23, 2013 at 5:57 am

Dear Raheel,

Thanks For the reply,

then how can i use the standard functionality of SAP

usage of alt. items in BOM with probability %age ,My
customer is giving me allowance & to use both the
components of same specifications but of diff make &
diff.supplier) with 50-50 qty usage.

Regards

Rakesh

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed Post author

December 23, 2013 at 11:11 am

Dear Rakesh,

Thanks for your concern dear. As you know

BOM is part of master data & by definition
Master data is the data which remains
unchanged over long period of time. So,
when BOM is maintained it doesn’t get
changes frequently. Alternative items
probability usage is an extra feature by SAP
where it come into use in different scenarios.
For example, in Refrigerator making
industry, Compressor is the part of
refrigerator. For example, one vendor is
panasonic and other is denfoss & you have
inserted both materials as alternatives in
BOM. Sometimes production of refrigerator
is carried out with panasonic compressor
and sometimes with Denfoss compressor as
per requirement.

NOTE: you can use one compressor in

refrigerator at a time.

So u have to give usage probability 100% to

one material and other material with zero
 usage probability. So one material will be
active at a time.

I hope it makes u clear where we can use

usage probability concept.

Regards

Qazi Raheel

Rakesh Sehgal

December 24, 2013 at 3:33 am

Thanks for the reply,

But changing of usage probability also

involves the changes in Master Data of
BOM(CS02)on every change in demand.

Regards

Rakesh Sehgal

Engr. Qazi Raheel Ahmed Post author

December 24, 2013 at 4:10 am

Dear Rakesh,

Yeah that’s what i am saying. If there is such

a requirement to change usage probabilities
frequently, u can change it in production
order & keeping the BOM unchanged.

Regards

Qazi Raheel

Ganesh Mote

December 24, 2013 at 10:25 am

It’s very usefull document.

Mohd Tallha Sonalkar

November 9, 2014 at 10:06 am

Dear Eng Raheel,

Excellent Document ,

Please keep on sharing with the SAP community

Regard’s

Tallha

Nassar fathy

November 9, 2014 at 8:49 pm

Dear

I want Know the answer of this issue “

I have known something about PP alternative Group and alternative item functions,

but i am not sure whether SAP whether SAP PP supports following business scenario. Anyone
‘s responses will be highly appreciated.

Here is the business requirement:

Material A is a component of FG,

And material B can be an alternative item for A when A is in a shortage.

let’s say the stock of A is 10, the stock of B is also 10.

And the requirement for A is 12,

Can system automatically suggest in production order processing that 10 pieces of A and 2
pieces of B should be used in the prod order?

PS: if A has enough stock, no reservation for B should be proposed by system.

Please help. and thanks in advance!

alternative materials in PP

i faced same problem now in my business

Muhammad Usman Raza

December 6, 2014 at 10:25 am

Good One!!
Keep it up dear!!!

swapnil rajane

August 5, 2015 at 9:18 am

Dear Raheel,

Thanks for sharing the doc.Its really important !!

Regards.

Swapnil

ASHISH SINGH

September 19, 2015 at 1:30 pm

Hello Qazi raheel ahmed

Thanks for sharing this document…its really helpful.

Regards

Ashish

Venkatesh Babu

September 21, 2015 at 7:19 am

Hi Raheel,

Nice document..

could you please suggest me how to upload a document in SDN. I mean which format system
will allow us to upload.

Regards,

Venkatesh.

Lahiru Fernando

November 3, 2015 at 2:20 am

Hi Raheel,

Great article. But I’ve one question…

Can we define alternatives in production BOM(co02) manually without define them in Master
BOM(cs02)?

Your fast response will highly appreciated.

Sarita Basnet

May 2, 2017 at 7:43 am

Excellent document, thank you for sharing and good document and details.

A bill of material is a complete, formally structured list of the components that make up a
product or assembly. The list comprises of the material number of each component, together
with the quantity and unit of measure.

Very informative… Thank you

sunil patil

May 3, 2017 at 9:49 am

Hi Raheel,

Nice document

Please share some more documents

Best regards

Sunil Patil

Rahul R

May 17, 2017 at 10:09 am

Dear Raheel,

Thank you for sharing the document. It is extremely well written and elaborately explained.

But I’ve a few queries WRT the planning aspect.

 I’d like to give my example itself –

FERT material A has 2 alternate components:

A1 (Pump 1) – has 100% probability (similar to #1-315; your example)

A2 (Pump 2) – has 0% probability (similar to #2-292)

Both are bought out materials and the quantity for both of them in the BOM is 1.

Now when there is a requirement for 100 Nos for A – and MRP is run then how will be
the Purchase Requisitions generated?

Will all the 100 numbers be raised for A1?

If yes, how do I ensure that PRs for both the materials are created.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Rahul R

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