The Future of Customization with SAP Variant Configuration – Precision Meets Efficiency
Empower your sales teams, customers, and channel partners to interactively configure your products. Utilize your expertise in SAP variant configuration to model your products and apply them universally.
Today the variant configuration process is critical to business almost everywhere: not only in enterprises, but in small and medium sized businesses as well. The SAP Variant Configuration (LO-VC/AVC) product is a sophisticated tool designed to manage and handle the complexity of customizable products. It goes beyond IT, involving areas such as supply chain management, product lifecycle management, and customer relationship management. The configurator is vital for businesses that need to manage numerous product variants efficiently.
The primary purpose of SAP Variant Configurator is to allow businesses to provide highly customizable products tailored to individual customer requirements. It supports the entire value-added process, from sales configuration to production, ensuring that customers receive precisely the variant they ordered.
SAP Variant Configurator (LO-VC/AVC) is used to support logistical processes for multivariant products, integrating seamlessly with integrating seamlessly with other ERP modules. It allows for precise product configuration without direct ERP access, making it valuable for both B2B and B2C applications. The configurator enables enterprises to manage a wide range of product variants efficiently, ensuring that customers can customize products to their specific needs.
Key Features
Advanced Variant Configuration (AVC) Features in SAP S/4 HANA:
- Customization in Key Areas: AVC supports customization across design, sales, and production for scenarios such as Make-to-Order (MTO), Make-to-Stock (MTS), Configure-to-Order (CTO), and Engineer-to-Stock (ETO).
- Complex Product Management: Simplifies the handling of complex products with numerous variables, like different colors, models, and sizes.
- Updated "Configuration" Screen: Provides a user-friendly interface for quickly viewing and editing configuration features.
- Quote/Offer Phase Integration: Allows configuration tasks to be performed during the quotation phase, improving the customer experience
- Automated Pricing Calculation: Calculates the sales price based on selected features, integrating smoothly with the order entry process.
- Feature-based Pricing Simplification: Facilitates the process of defining and linking prices to specific product features
- Efficiency in Order Management: Increases productivity by streamlining order configuration tasks.
- Improved Product Customization: Allows customers to configure and verify product compatibility and feasibility while estimating costs and lead times, thus growing revenue.
- Leverages SAP HANA: Utilizes SAP HANA functionalities to enhance the performance and reliability of the configuration process.
- Consistency through Confirmation: Ensures consistent product configurations with advanced confirmation functions
Classic Variant Configuration (LO-VC) Features:
- Customizable Items: Supports the creation of items that can be tailored to meet specific customer requirements, enabling multiple variants or features.
- Super Bill of Materials: Manages all necessary components for production, including those specific to variants and those used across all variants.
- Defining Material Features: Establishes key features for materials, with various options for characteristic values such as model, engine type, or color.
- Class Management: Uses classes to manage and maintain material characteristics, ensuring alignment with the class-wide characteristics.
- Storage of Combinations: Maintains different combinations of material characteristic values and manages dependencies among characteristics.
- Dependency Management: Defines interdependencies between characteristics and characteristic values, controls BOM component selection, and modifies value fields for BOM items.
- Dependency Management: Defines interdependencies between characteristics and characteristic values, controls BOM component selection, and modifies value fields for BOM items.
- Pricing Adjustments: Assigns surcharges or discounts to specific configurations of variants.
- Stock Efficiency: Allows production and stocking of material variants without immediate sales orders, facilitating efficient manufacturing and delivery.
- Customization Modules: Enables users to utilize custom function modules to check and infer characteristic values, offering more configuration options.
Key Benefits
Manufacturers and Producers: Particularly in high-tech, automotive, and electronics industries, where product customization is key.
Sales and Distribution Teams: Optimize sales processes and enhance customer interaction by providing accurate and prompt quotations and configurations.
Engineering and Design Teams: Facilitate the translation of customer requirements into precise specifications, ensuring manufacturability and quality.
Automation of Recurring Processes
By automating repetitive tasks, SAP LO-VC/AVC reduces the need for manual intervention, thereby saving time and reducing errors.
Documentation of Expert Knowledge
It systematically records and documents expert knowledge, making it accessible and reducing reliance on individual experts.