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Introduction
In this blog, you’re going to read about how quantity changes when you edit sales BOMs (bills of material, also known as sales kits) in solution orders. You can always change the quantity or unit of subitems in a solution order and save it. However, recalculation based on master data will be triggered once you make changes to the quantity of a main item.
We’re going to explain the general rule and some special use cases about the recalculation. The result may be different from you expectation. But that’s how the system works. We hope you can benefit from our explanation and understand how the system works.
Determination Rules
The quantity of sales BOM subitems in solution orders is determined by your inputs in combination of main item quantity and subitems’ quantity and unit. It also depends on how you have maintained the default quantity attribute for your sales BOM master data.
General Rule
Changing main item quantity impacts the subitem quantity according to the master data settings when the BOM has exploded in solution order for the first time. The quantity of a subitem can be changed individually and that does not impact the quantity of other subitems in the same sales BOM.
Remember that any quantity changed on main item triggers the recalculation of subitems’ quantity based on master data setting at the first explosion. This recalculation discards the quantity change previously made to the subitem. Changes to master data settings after the first explosion don't have any impact to the sales BOM in the solution order.
Special Rules
Calculation of fixed quantity
Subitem quantity can be set to fixed, not subject to the change of the main item quantity. This is determined by setting the attribute Fixed Quantity in the basic details of a BOM component.
Special rounding up
Normally subitems quantity follows the ratio established by BOM maintenance: When the main item quantity changes, system rounds up the undividable quantity of the subitem.
Recalculation after unit change
You can change the subitem unit and quantity at the same time, but if the main item quantity is changed, the changed quantity of subitem will be recalculated as described in the section General Rule. The changed unit of the subitem is kept but the quantity is redetermined and displayed as the changed unit.
Manually added new subitem
For certain scenarios, additional subitems can be added to a sales BOM in a solution order. The quantity of those additional subitems has a ratio related to the main item quantity. That ratio when you change the main item applies to get the subitem quantity. It also follows the rounding up principle in section 2 if the quantity of the subitem is undividable.
You may feel these rules are still abstract to you. No worries! We're going to use an example to demonstrate the rules. The example is about a computer kit. We're going to show you how quantity of the main item and the subitems are determined in a solution order.
Example
Your company sells computer kits that consist of CPUs, motherboards, memories, thermal pastes and system licenses. You want to create a sales BOM to represent the computer kits and the components. Additionally, your company also sells game licenses separately. Subsequently the solution order specialists of your company can include this sales BOM when selling items via solution orders. Depending on the order with your customer, the solution order specialist can add game licenses. You want to see how the sales BOMs look in solution orders and how the quantity of the main item and the subitems are calculated when a change occurs.
Prerequisites
You need to have the following business roles to access the relevant applications:
- Use the business role for BOM Engineer (SAP_BR_BOM_ENGINEER) role to access the Maintain Bill of Material app
- Use the business role for Solution Order Specialist (SAP_BR_Soln_Order_Spclst) to access the Manage Solution Orders app
Procedure
Create a sales BOM
You have already created the material "COMPUTER_KITS" in your product master. You go to the Maintain Bill of Material app to create the Sales BOM based on the material "COMPUTER_KITS".
Create BOM
Add components to sales BOM and set base quantity
You have already created material for your BOM components: CPU, motherboard, memory, thermal paste and system license. Now you add the material as components to your sales BOM "COMPUTER_KITS".
Go to Header Attribute
From the Header Attribute tab, you set the base quantity of the main item COMPUTER_KITS. We set 2 PCs in this example. It means the calculation basis for the components is every 2 COMPUTER_KITSs. The component quantity is to be addressed in the next step.
Set Base Quantity
Set default component quantity and unit
Back to the Component tab, change components' quantity to 2, 2, 0.25, 3, 1. The quantity here is the default quantity of components based on the base quantity of the BOM header maintained in Step 2. It means every 2 pcs of COMPUTER_KITS contain 2 pcs of CPU_TYPE1, 2 pcs of MB_TYPE1, 0.25 KG of THERMAL_PASTE, 3 pcs of MEM_TYPE1 and 1 pc of SYSTEM_LICENSE.
Set Component Quantity and Unit
Set fix quantity for system license
Go to the basic detail page of SYSTEM_LINCENSE and maintain its quantity as fixed quantity. This means no matter how the main item quantity changes, the quantity of this component will not change.
Detail Page of Component SYSTEM_LICENSE
Set Fixed Quantity
Save settings
Save BOM Settings
Create a solution order, add the sales BOM COMPUTER_KITS, and check the general rule
Go to the Manage Solution Orders app and create a solution order. Add the sales BOM COMPUTER_KITS as a solution order item, quantity 2. After you press the Enter button, the system automatically determines the product is a sales BOM and takes its components out to become subitems of the solution oder item.
Since the sales BOM has a base quantity 2 in the master data, you can see that the quantity of the solution order item is 2 and the quantity of the individual subitems is editable.
Sales BOM in Solution Order
Test general rule, fixed quantity, and rounding off
Change the quantity of the main item COMPUTER_KITS to 1, the result should be:
- General rule: Subitem quantities should be reduced by half based on the base quantity of the sales BOM header.
- Fixed quantity: Quantity of SYSTEM_LINCENSE should not change because this component has a fixed quantity in the master data
- Rounding off 1: Quantity of MEM_TYPE1 is originally 3 and when being reduced by half, its quantity is rounded off to 2 instead of 1.5.
Main Item Quantity Changed to 1
- Rounding off 2: If we change the quantity of COMPUTER_KITS to 3, what will be the expected quantity of MEM_TYPE1? The answer is 5.
Main Item Quantity Changed to 3
Test general rule: changing quantity of individual subitem
Change the quantity of subitem CPU_TYPE1 and this does not change the quantity of any other subitems.
Change Subitem Quantity
Test unit change
First change the unit of subitem THERMAL_PASTE from KG to G and quantity to 600.
Unit Change
Secondly, change the quantity of the main item COMPUTER_KITS back to its base quantity 2 pcs. The quantity of THERMAL_PASTE should change back to 0.25KG because the system performs recalculation based on the BOM master data. But it displays as 250G because you have changed the unit as well.
Quantity Changed Back
Test newly added subitem
Add the product GAME_LINCENSE as a subitem to the COMPUTER_KITS. Make 2 pcs COMPUTER_KITS to have 2 pcs GAME_LINCENSE.
Add Game License
Then change the quantity of the main item to 4 pcs, the quantity of GAME_LINCENSE changes to 4 pcs as well. The quantity relation between COMPUTER_KITS and GAME_LINCENSE depends on quantity relation when the new subitem GAME_LINCENSE is added to the sales BOM COMPUTER_KITS for the first time.
Change Qty of New Subitem
Conclusion
In this blog, we explained how the quantity changes when you edit a sales BOM in the solution order in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. We also demonstrated different cases to show you how the rules are applied.
If you have any questions about the topic, feel free to ask questions in Q&A forum of SAP Community or leave your comments below.
Additional Information
For more information about solution orders and sales BOMs, go to SAP Help Portal with the following links:
