SAP S/4HANA Product Cost Planning – Costing with Quantity Structure

2.1 Special procurement keys

Special procurement keys are part of the SAP Production Planning (PP) module. These are used to direct the standard behavior of material procurement in Material Resource Planning (MRP). Procurement type is used to determine whether a material is manufactured in-house, procured externally, or procured both ways. The Procurement type is defined on the MRP 2 tab of the material master (see Figure 2.1, section ).

Figure 2.1: Procurement definition on MRP 2 tab

There are three values that can be assigned:

• E—the material is produced within the plant. When the material is costed, the system looks for a BOM and routing to determine the cost.
• F—the material is procured from a source external to the plant. Special procurement determines the source. If this is blank, the material is assumed to be purchased from an outside vendor.
• X—procurement can either be internal to the plant or external. When the material is costed, the system looks for a BOM and routing first. If these are not found, it then searches for purchasing information for the material.

The Special procurement key defines a specific behavior for the procurement type and can be assigned to a material in two different sections of the material master. In the MRP 2 tab (see Figure 2.1, section ), it defines the default planning behavior of procurement. Because there are times that the requirements for costing a material can differ from those of planning, a separate definition can be made in the Costing 1 tab of the material master (see Figure 2.2, section ).

Figure 2.2: Special procurement key for costing

When a cost estimate is created for a material, the system first searches to see if a special procurement key is defined in the SpecProcurem Costing field of the Costing 1 tab. If one is found, the system uses that key in the cost estimate calculations. If no key is defined in Costing 1, then the system looks to the MRP 2 tab to determine processing. This search strategy ensures that planning requirements and costing requirements do not have to coincide with each other. For material H101 definitions, shown in Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.2, the resulting cost estimate uses the special procurement key 52 (in-house processing) from the Costing 1 tab (Figure 2.2) to generate the cost estimate. For MRP purposes, special procurement key LA (transfer from Los Angeles plant) is used to generate a stock transport order to satisfy demand. If the special procurement key for costing for the material is blank, then the system uses the one defined on the MRP 2 tab.

Special procurement key configuration is found under IMG menu path Controlling • Product Cost Controlling • Product Cost Planning • Material Cost Estimate with Quantity Structure • Settings for Quantity Structure Control • Material Data • Check Special Procurement Types, and it can also be found under production planning configuration menus. Figure 2.3 shows the initial window for the special procurement key configuration.

Figure 2.3: Special procurement key configuration

Configuration of a key is plant dependent, and the same key IDs can be assigned to multiple plants. The definition of an ID at one plant can be different than the definition of the same ID assigned to another plant, which could lead to confusion. If the implementation has multiple plants, a well-thought-out, standard process for defining keys should be used to prevent confusion over the meaning of each key.

Figure 2.4 shows the configuration of special procurement key (Sp.Pr.Type) 20 at plant UWU3. The definition of this key duplicates the behavior of Procurement type F (external) with the Special procurement field left blank on the MRP 2 tab of the material master. It is normally used as the special procurement key for costing on the Costing 1 tab to override the setting on the MRP 2 tab for costing purposes. Leaving the Special procurement key for costing blank on the Costing 1 tab indicates to the system that the special procurement key on MRP 2 should be used for costing purposes. Therefore, a specific definition needs to be made for outside purchases if used on Costing 1.

Figure 2.4: Special procurement key details

There are three sections associated with the configuration. The top section defines the name and procurement type relating to this special procurement configuration. Procurement type can either be F (external) or E (internal). The Special Procurement section determines a category of procurement. There are six possible values:

• Blank—indicates that the procurement is from an outside source, such as a vendor. This is only used with procurement type F.
• E—indicates that this is used for in-house production. This is only used with procurement type E.
• K—indicates consignment stock. This is only used with procurement type F and has no impact on costing.
• L—indicates that this is for subcontracting. This is only used with procurement type F. Subcontracting is covered in Chapter 3.
• P—indicates production in a different plant. The plant is entered in the Plant field. This is only used with procurement type E.
• U—indicates a stock transfer from another plant. The source plant is entered in the Plant field. This is only used with procurement type F.

The As BOM Component section further defines the behavior of the special procurement key when the material is used as a component of another material. Phantom item and Withdr.altern.plant impact costing when they are defined along with the configuration in the Special Procurement section. The specific behaviors are covered in the next sections.

Special procurement type 20 in Figure 2.4 has no special modifiers. Any material with this key assigned to it follows the standard raw material pricing procedures defined in the valuation variant to generate the cost estimate for the material.