Simply head over to the account section in settings and click on “Cancel Subscription” - it’s as simple as that. After you cancel, your membership will stay active for the remainder of the time you’ve paid for. Learn more here.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlego’s features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan you’ll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes, you can access Variant Configuration with SAP by Uwe Blumöhr, Manfred Münch, Marin Ukalovic in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Computer Science & Computer Science General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
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
