I recently had someone ask me the question, if I’m stuck deep in the world of make to stock, can I still use VC?  For me, the case was usually pretty simple.  Even when I worked in a company that converted everything to a material variant, it was still an easy business case to use VC.  Of course, every business is different, but here’s what I look for when I try to decide if it’s a good candidate.  In my opinion, a product is a good fit, regardless of MTO or MTS.  Now, don’t get me wrong, MTO is so much easier because you don’t have the residual master data, but in general the BOM and routing maintenance is still worth the trade off.  So here’s what I look for when I evaluate a product for VC.
1.  are there clear rules defined for the product?  by this, I mean are the rules pretty stable?  this is common when you deal with products with a variable length or variable qty of something.  My first job worked heavily with cable lengths, interchangeable connections, and boxes of different sizes.  These attributes make it worth while, even if you make MV’s.  But, if you are constantly changing rules, adding new characteristics, MV’s quickly become unwieldy.  Keep in mind, a material variant is a snapshot of a configuration.  If you change the rules and a new value is added or determined, you need to “refresh” all of your material variants in order to make sure your BOM rules fire appropriately.  While this isn’t impossible, as your number of MV’s increase, so does your effort level for even simple changes.
2.  is there a “relatively” static BOM?  By this I mean are you adding a new component every time you make a new part?  or is the BOM the same, just changing quantities or swapping A for B?  if you fall into the second category, you passed my second test.  However, if you will need always alter the BOM for ever new configuration, you really need to look more at ETO (engineer to order).  If you are using ETO, MTS is pretty much out the window.
3.  The next thing to factor in is if it really needs to be MTS.  Now, in general, many companies are used to dealing with MTS, so MTO seems scary, cumbersome, or just “Not a fit”.  Many times, this is just a lack of understanding.  In a lot of places I’ve worked, you can make a small piece of the VC puzzle MTS, and then just add that MTS component as one of the components of your configurable BOM.  IN this way, you can still handle the quick turn around you accomplish with make to stock, without creating thousands of materials that will never be ordered again.
4.  Another big concern is returns.  My first job, we went down the path because it was an old version of SAP (3.0F) and there is now good way to perform a return on a configurable item.  Now, this has improved over the years, but it will still be a hassle.  Typically, to perform a return, you either need to bring the stock back as customer stock, and it lives on the original sales order.  Or if you want to put it into stock, you can create an MV.  In general, to me, this is still a better approach than making a MV for everything.

Now, the specific case for handling VC in a MTS environment.  The easiest way to justify still using VC is in the engineering drawings needed to produce the material, the BOM and routing work necessary for every new material, and the engineering change group (if applicable).  I had a recent client where we needed to make configurable materials into MV’s whenever they are needed for service.  The process takes about 5 minutes to create a new material and it’s ready to roll.  Can you make a normal material that fast?  at my first job, we built an entire VC function to do it all auto-magically in the background (we even added rules to help define the MV values).  So…  I hope that helps you out.

Thanks for reading,

Well, let me apologize for being MIA for the past couple of weeks.  I’ve been so consumed making sure I’m ready for the conference (and oh yeah, working through a go-live), that I just ran out of energy.  Speaking of the conference, it was an experience.  First off, let me just say that the logistics were amazing.  With the exception of a last minute hotel bump (I guess 2.5 months isn’t enough advanced booking), everything went smoothly.  The number I heard was somewhere between 18,000 and 19,000 people attended the huge SAP expo.  The interesting thing is, except for lunch and some of the keynote presentations, it never felt like there were that many people there.  If you haven’t been to the Orlando Conference Center, it is quite amazing.  The size of it is incredible, the logistics were mind boggling.

At no time did I have to wait in long lines for lunch, coffee or snacks.  There was always plenty room to sit down and do a little work (of course, I had my booth, so that wasn’t an issue for me :> ).  Then of course seeing all the crazy booth designs were quite impressive (and expensive from my understanding).  From a logistical perspective, it was great.

Now one of the things that surprised me was the traffic.  Obviously, you pay a chunk of cash to get yourself a booth at this massive conference.  In general, the amount of traffic flowing was a bit disappointing.  Now of course, the areas front and center had no issue…  plus they had booths 5 times the size of mine (probably a lot bigger in some instances).  However, at the SAP Insider MFG conference, traffic never seemed to be a problem.  I’m sure it’s due to the layout of where the sessions are held and the conference center itself.

Now the flip side is that when traffic came through, it was often high quality traffic.  So overall, I think I hit my goal of quality leads.  Now it’s up to me to work to make my product fit for these leads.  I got some great feedback, and have a good direction of where I need to take my stuff in order to improve my chances of closing some sales.  I was very happy to hear that most people liked what I had, and weren’t really looking for a lot more than what I was providing…  that doesn’t mean I won’t be providing a lot more…  but getting feedback like that really made me feel good.

Like everyone there, I think it was a good conference, and I got exactly what I was hoping for out it…  so far at least.  Now the hard work begins…

Thanks for reading,

In my recent project, my friend Dave found something new.  If you assign an equipment record to a sales order as a technical object, then go back and change the serial number within the equipment record, the sale order doesn’t update.  I know… what a mouthful, and an obscure situation.  Now, this is probably not a real common thing, but if you need your serial number updated in existing documents, you need to do a little work for it.

First off, SAP covers a lot of this in note 94769.  But Dave found an extra little piece that wasn’t orignally expected.  If you want the documents to get updated, you need to add some code.  When you make the changes the processing is executed by a case statement. Unfortunately, the case that is true for the new value of the variable contains no code.

WHEN mode_upd_user. “user defined update

WHEN mode_upd_none. “no update

WHEN OTHERS.       “undefined

ENDCASE.

mode_upd_user is our new value. It does the same thing as mode_upd_none (nothing at all).

This change also disables the standard update (service contracts) that was happening in the portion of the case statement now deactivated.

In order to do what we need, we would have to copy the code in the case “WHEN mode_upd_serv. “update of service contracts”, insert it into the case mode_upd_user and modify it to select sales orders in addition to contracts. That is accomplished by changing this IF statement:

IF ( ser02-vorgang = ‘SDW1’ OR ser02-vbtyp = ‘G’ )

AND ( NOT ser02-sdaufnr IS INITIAL ).

To

IF ( ser02-vorgang = ‘SDW1’ OR ser02-vbtyp = ‘G’

OR   ser02-vorgang = ‘SDAU’ OR ser02-vbtyp = ‘C’ ) “update of service orders NEW!

AND ( NOT ser02-sdaufnr IS INITIAL ).

 

So, use this if you ever need to make sure that your serial number is always in sync within your sales orders.  Thanks Dave, and thanks for reading,

If you really want to be successful, you need to have a high level of self-esteem.  I know what you’re thinking… duh!!!  but there really is more to than that.  The first and most important thing is that you can literally manufacture your own self-esteem at will.  I’ve heard this before, but sometimes I get so caught up, that I need a reminder.  Listening to Brian Tracy kicked me in the pants again.  So if anyone can make self-esteem at will, why don’t they?  and why isn’t everyone a success?  Well, first let me explain, in my layman’s terms, how anyone can increase their self esteem.

First, and easiest…  like yourself.  I know…  duh again!!!  isn’t that part of the definition of self-esteem?  well, as obvious as it sounds, many people, for one reason or another, don’t like themselves.  They beat themselves up, they focus on their mistakes, they tell themselves they aren’t good enough.  All of these things sucker punch your self-esteem.  But there is an incredibly easy thing you can do to build it up.  Simple repeat (out loud preferably), “I Like Myself”.  Anytime you feel a little down a little deflated, just take a minute and repeat that simple phrase 5 or 10 times (or more).  Just by telling yourself this, you pump yourself back up.

Next up, is the more sophisticated method…  but even more powerful.  Visualization.  you may have heard how athletes play an entire game in their mind before they take the field, they see themselves doing everything perfectly, and they do it over and over again.  Well, this works because your brain can’t tell the difference between this visualization and real life.  So if you replay a past victory over and over again in your head, your brain sees it as 50 victories (now remember, the same thing is true for your defeats).  So simply by replaying your past successes over and over again in your mind, you literally build up your confidence because your brain sees that you have done this 50 times, so doing it again is no problem.  Self esteem is often related to accomplishing goals.  so if you see yourself succeeding over and over again, your self esteem grows…  even though you only visualized 49 of those successes…

So…  remember, you can build your self-esteem anytime you want.  you can also crush it.  Take control of your thinking and you can succeed 🙂

Thanks for reading,

Well, in my recent project, I quickly came to the conclusion that GUI script is an amazing tool, but it’s not the only tool.  Like so many of us, when we get a new “hammer” in the toolbox, everything looks like a nail 🙂  GUI Script has been my hammer.  I built lots of fun scripts to load data, only to find that scripting in a production environment is not always allowed (that was a setup back).

The next thing I quickly came to realize is that GUI Script is not nearly as efficient as a BDC program or better yet LSMW.  To give you a ballpark, I was attempting to create a bunch of equipment records.  It was very simple, just adding a description and a serial number and saving.  In GUI script, I could load about 3000 equipment in an hour.  Then, I put together an LSMW to do the same thing.  It processes through about 1000 records per minute 🙂  Now, don’t get me wrong, writing the GUI script is so much faster, it’s meant for small data loads.  If your doing anything of significant volume, you really do need an LSMW.

Short story, this was good to remind me that I have a hammer and a drill in my toolbox 🙂

thanks for reading,

well, I realized recently that I’m about due for a dose of self help :). Between the stress and trouble sleeping, I really should have figured it out sooner, but you know me. I have a few staples when it comes to focusing myself, and today was Brian Tracy. It’s funny, because his advice is so spot on for me, yet I still forget it and get caught up in bs of everyday life. Today, I thought I’d lock it in my own head by telling you.

Take responisibility. Those simple words can really make a difference. Brian talks about the psychology of it, but I’ll give you the short version.  By the simple act of taking responsibility for everything in your life, you can’t blame anyone else for you problems. This takes anger, blame, etc out of the equation.  And let’s face it, when you’re honest about it, you are responisible.

Lets use yours truly as an example. I’ve been involved in projects where I’ve become very frustrated because I was being micromanaged. While I don’t deal well with style of management, I had to stop and take stock of myself. It’s hard to know where to start. First off, I accepted the contract. While I may have unaware of the exact players and how thing would unfold, it was still my choice. Next, and probably much more useful, I realized that if I was more open about exactly what I was doing, what my plan was, and how I was going to accomplish it, I wouldn’t have given any reason to be scrutinized. It didn’t hit me until the other day when my wife asked me about it, and I responded with “well, they never asked till now”. That’s a mistake on my part, as well as a huge learning opportunity for me.

All of. This and more didn’t sink in until I heard the phrase “take responsibility”.   Sothe next time you’re angry, frustrated, or start to blame someone else for your problems, step back and really look at it objector. It’s not always easy, but trust me when I say it’s a far more productive way to live your life.

Thanks for reading,

 

Well, like so many things, time has a way of getting away from.  I swear, I was just thinking that I have like 5 months before the conference, and now it’s like 3 weeks away.  While my day job still consumes a good chunk of my time, I’m working to find time to finish all my last minute preps for the conference.  To complicate things further, I’ll need to travel the 2 weeks before the conference.  So, this past week was a mad scramble to take care of all the last minute details.

Some of the things I never gave thought to include shipping anything I don’t want to ship on the plane, taking care of last minute reservations for my team, getting shirts for the team, and packing up all the little things like business cards and odds and ends, and all the other little details I never gave any thoughts to.

Let me tell you, there are so many things I didn’t factor in when it comes to conferences.  It’s interesting, and a bit scary.  If you have never exhibited at a conference, try to talk to someone who’s been there…  if you are thinking about it, feel free to ping me.  I’ll give you any pointers I can.

Thanks for reading,

Well, thanks to Deven who pointed out this next tip.  Since I didn’t want to forget it myself, figured I’d post it out here for everyone’s benefit.  If you are in the business of doing a lot of third party operations on a service order, you might quickly realize that purchasing dates often change.   While you vendor may quote you one date, often things slide.  This can become very troublesome if you do proper scheduling of your service orders.

Well, if you update your control key (SM03 is the common one), you need to make sure you select the scheduling checkbox.  This will help keep your service order dates in sync with the purchase order.  Keep in mind, I’m sure you still need to run rescheduling to keep things up to date (and for that, might I recommend looking at our Proximity application, which allows you to do mass rescheduling 🙂 ).

Thanks for reading…  and thanks to Deven for teaching me another new trick,

Wow, has this turned into a royal pain, with no good solutions I might add.  Here’s the situation, I have a RFC designed to extract some data to a new IOS app I’m building.  So far so good.  In my structure, I have one field that is NUMC (it’s the IBase number).  Silly me, I thought SAP would be able to cover any of the standard data type with the EDM data type.  Well, it turns out that NUMC isn’t really covered properly by any of their scenarios and will either throw an error in the Gateway designer (SEGW), or when the actual service is called.

I spent about 4 hours digging, experimenting, and swearing, to come to this conclusion.  At the end of the day, this post is the closest answer out there.:

http://scn.sap.com/thread/3712829

In a nutshell, it tells you that you have to remove the link to your structure (if you started with one) and redefine the NUMC data type to something else.  It’s not the end of the world, but it is still a hassle that SEGW or the OData can’t figure out a way to make this standard data type work.

Thanks for reading,

Well, for those of you that have followed me for a while, you know that marketing and sales are all new to me.  I’m an engineer/programmer at heart.  So I’m really good at building things… I busy learning how market and sell these items 🙂  Well, as I was on vacation, it hit me…  maybe I need to lower the risk for a new customer to try out my stuff.  So for that reason, I decided I’d do a monthly charge for my stuff, rather than forcing a big up front fee for the software itself, and then a yearly maintenance for each year afterward.  Maybe when I get big enough, I won’t have the same offer, but I’m just starting.  So for example

Product	Description		Yearly Maintenance	Monthly Maintenance
Broadsword	SAP Service management Reporting Dashboard		$6,000.00	$750.00
Renovation	Call Center/Customer Service Application		$11,250.00	$1,250.00
Proximity	Service Shop/Production Floor Application		$22,500.00	$2,250.00

Now of course, it’s a slight up charge from paying for the whole year up front, but you aren’t locked into any commitments.  If you decide after playing with with the software for a month that it won’t fit your needs, we part as friends.  As long as you pay for the monthly support, you will continue to receive all the updates and new functionality I add to everything.  Overall, I think it’s a pretty good deal.  And if you were interested in all 3 applications, I’m sure we could work out an even better deal. 🙂

so, my marketing experiment continues.  Thanks for reading,