Recently, I’ve been playing with the DIP (Dynamic Item Processing) Profile. The first thing I quickly came to remember is to start slowly. The thing with the DIP profile is that it takes a lot of inputs, and then spits out some materials with their costs. But if you don’t have everything setup properly, you will only get the dreaded message of no items found. So, here are some good guidelines for testing your DIP profile and getting it working the way you need.
- Find the cost elements you care about. The easiest way to do this is to find a few sample service orders. Looking at the cost tab, and then press the rep/plan cost button. This will show you the cost elements that are being hit. With a few examples, you should be able to see the initial costs elements you will need to track.
- Create Cost Element Groups – KAH1. Why? this is a nice easy way to quickly add more elements to the list of what you want to track. In general, I usually have one for labor, one for materials, and one for subcontracts/third party stuff. You can assign these to the material determination screen in txn ODP1. Then, you can just update the master data as you find elements you missed.
- Keep the source simple. For me, especially in the early phases, do not add any conditions to the sources. Simply setup one with 100%, either planned values or actual values.
- Create your service materials for the material determination. Make sure that the materials are setup in the correct plant/orgs. Be sure that the item category determination (SEIN/SENI) are setup for your materials and item category groups. If you can’t add the materials to the sales orders, you will never get the DIP working.
- In the material determination, add your service materials (keep it simple). one line for labor, one for materials, one for third party/subcontract costs. You can always add more later after it’s working. Be sure not to check any boxes for service materials that should be added to the sales order. For example, I tend to create a DIEN called labor. Make sure that material direct is NOT checked. This checkbox should only be checked for actual materials that are both issued to your service order AND should be placed on your sales order. Be sure that you assign your cost element groups to the criteria below material determination.
If you follow these guidelines, you should be able to get a working model in no time. Once it’s working, then you can begin to fine tune it.
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike