Your Path from LO-VC to IPC - Gottipati Blog Path from LO-VC to IPC Lawrence Matusek ... (LO-VC) One BOM per material. A material can have several alternative BOMs for different lot

Your Path from LO-VC to IPC

Lawrence Matusek

EVP and CTO, eLogic

2015 North American CWG Conference

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Why use IPC?


IPC provides a far more flexible and usable

UI with more features (e.g. conflict solver, search/set, snapshot, and comparison)

Where use IPC?


SAP CRM Internet Sales Web Apps Mobile Apps More?

Apps that Require IPC

SAP ECC* hybris CPQ

Apps that Can Use IPC

SAP S/4HANA

Apps that Will Use Something Closer to IPC than LO-VC


LO-VC came first Companies needing IPC switched over Many companies find switching difficult

Installation is still challenging Model incompatibilities exist

IPC is not Deployed as Widely as LO-VC

The Delta List(s)

How IPC is Different from LO-VC

SAP is the best source for these details To improve performance and scalability To discontinue obsolete VC constructs To remove discouraged modeling practices

Why IPC is Different from LO-VC

IPC Differences from LO-VC

Delta List #1 – Help


SAP Help – Multiple Versions Exist – Use the Latest (CRM 7.0)!

Delta List #2 – Notes


Note 837111 - Composite SAP note on the IPC-VC delta list

Delta List #3 – Messages


Message Class VSCE used in Runtime Version Consistency Checker (see Help Text)

How to Determine Incompatibilities


Create knowledge base (CU31) Create runtime version (CU34) Click the consistency button

Info messages Warning messages Error messages

General Process

So you have IPC Incompatibilities…


Let’s Discuss Some IPC Deltas…


Stuff you will need to convert

Stuff you need to understand

May no longer be possible

Stuff I need to understand

Delta #1


• New runtime version (or build) is needed to introduce any modeling change into the runtime

General Differences: Maintaining master data

Configuration Engine Variant Configuration (LO-VC)

The master data is write-protected in the knowledge base.

Master data is edited in the ERP data base.

Knowledge bases form the basis of every configuration carried out using the Configuration Engine.

For the configuration, LO-VC accesses the master data directly.

What it means

Delta #2


• Configuration of everything but materials will continue to be done in LO-VC

General Differences: Configurable objects

What it means


Only configurable products (for example, materials and services) can be configuration objects.

Different objects can be configured; in addition to configurable materials, these include task lists, service specifications, or standard networks.

Delta #3


• No characteristic value assignments can be made to a configurable material that has no valid configuration profile

• Any object dependencies allocated to BOM items read $PARENT as the lowest ancestral instance with value assignments

General Differences: Configuration profile

What it means


Configurable materials without a valid configuration profile cannot be used.

Without a valid configuration profile, materials are regarded as not configurable.

With profile W/o profile

KMAT 1

KMAT 3

MAT 4

KMAT 2

$PARENT is KMAT2

Delta #4


• LO-VC can stop a configurable BOM explosion one level deep but IPC cannot

• Single level BOM explosion setting is rarely used in LO-VC

General Differences: Settings for the configuration profile

What it means


The setting for single-level BOM explosion is not supported

See SAP Note 148778 for the permitted combinations of configuration profile.

Delta #5


• Organizational areas are not supported in the IPC

General Differences: Setting application views for the configuration profile

What it means


Application views defined in the configuration profile do not have any effect.

In the configuration profile, you can determine which application views are to be active.

Delta #6


• No BOM is exploded in IPC under a configurable material with an Order BOM profile

• Note that you have to navigate to the Order BOM explosion in LO-VC unless you have implemented a modification to automatically explode the Order BOM

General Differences: Scenario setting for the configuration profile

What it means


The BOM is not exploded if the order BOM scenario is configured.

No restrictionsOnce the configuration result has been transferred to an ERP system, the BOM can be exploded in this system.

Delta #7


• The IPC generally works the opposite of LO-VC

• If you have only plant specific variants in LO-VC you will need to copy them to cross plant variants

• There are function modules to read and write material variant configuration

General Differences: Plant-dependent material variants

What it means


Only cross-plant variants are found.

Only plant-specific variants are found. Possible corrections for this delta are as follows:• Definition of the material variant as cross-plant• Plant-specific variants of the same configurable

material with identical configuration

Basic Data 2

MRP 3

Delta #8


• It sounds like numbers that do not have the same number format cannot be matched

• Anyone know?

General Differences: Search for product or material variants

What it means


For product variant searches, a string comparison is used for numeric characteristics.

When searching for material variants, LO-VC uses a tolerant comparison for numeric characteristics.

To achieve variant matching similar to Variant Configuration (LO-VC), you must make settings in Customizing.

Delta #9


• IPC matches variants if all values of a multi-value characteristic match (e.g. Anchovies and Bacon as the ONLY toppings)

• LO-VC matches variants if any value matches (e.g. Anchovies or Bacon as ONE of the toppings)

• Where is the LO-VC setting to make it match multi-value characteristics like IPC?

General Differences: Search strategy for multi-value characteristics

What it means


The interactive variant search returns only variants that correspond to the requested configuration with regard to all values of a multi-value characteristic.

By default, the interactive variant search also returns variants that correspond with the requested configuration in at least one value of a multi-value characteristic. Note that you can change the search strategy using the settings for variant matching.

Delta #10


• You cannot explode a sales BOM under a material variant in IPC

• You can explode a sales BOM under a material variant in LO-VC if you make the correct item category settings

General Differences: Product and material variants and BOM explosion

What it means


No BOM explosion for material variants because they represent single-level products.

Material variants can be created in such a way that the BOM explosion is copied to the sales order as a list of sub items under the relevant order item.

Delta #11


• You must add dependencies to such configurable materials to set default values in IPC

• Variant profile is automatically selected

General Differences: Configurable material as a variant

What it means


A configurable material that is defined as a plant-independent variant of itself is treated as a configurable material without default values.

A configurable material that is defined as a plant-independent variant of itself is assigned default values from the value assignment of the variant when you access the configuration.

MRP 3

Delta #12


• IPC starts in characteristic value assignment screen regardless of configuration profile setting

General Differences: Definition of the initial configuration screen

What it means


Not required In the configuration profile

Delta #14


• IPC provides much more intuitive and easy-to-use guidance for resolving conflicts by novice users

• LO-VC conflict handling is more cryptic and best suited for well trained users

• LO-VC conflict handling provides additional details that can be useful for modelers doing debugging

General Differences: Conflict handling

What it means


Detailed conflict resolution help for occasional users and conflict explanation for experts

Technical conflict handling for modelers and experts.

Delta #15


• Is this Print Relevant characteristics from the class?

• Or is this the Print Groups from the Interface definition?

General Differences: Attribute sets for printing quotations and orders

What it means


The function for printing quotations and orders does not take the print-relevant attribute sets into account.

The function for printing quotations and orders uses the print-relevant attribute sets.

Delta #16


• Tracing of object dependency processing is available to all users in LO-VC configuration screens

• Tracing of object dependency processing is available to administrators in IPC

General Differences: Trace, troubleshooting

What it means


Tracing is available in the virtual machine container (VM container) logs and on the configuration user interface.

Trace is available in the configuration simulation and when a sales order is created.

Delta #17


• If you use multiple BOM alternatives for various lot sizes, you will need to consolidate all alternatives into a single alternative and then add object dependency logic that will produce the correct explosion based on lot size

Bill of Materials: Multiple BOMs

What it means


One BOM per material.A material can have several alternative BOMs for different lot sizes.

Delta #18


• Only material and class items (categories) will explode in the IPC

Bill of Materials: BOM items

What it means


Objects that can be used:• Materials• Classes

Objects that can be used:• Materials• Classes• Documents• Texts and images

Delta #19


• IPC ignores all but quantity and sales relevance indicators

• LO-VC considers all BOM item fields

Bill of Materials: Data for BOM items

What it means


A BOM item contains:• Component quantity• Sales relevance indicator

A BOM item contains data that is relevant to all application areas.

Delta #20


• You cannot use the same BOM item number and component in more than one item in a given BOM

• The example at the right is not permitted in IPC and BOM items must be renumbered to avoid the duplicate key

Bill of Materials: Key for BOM items

What it means


BOM item keys must be unique and they must not occur more than once in a BOM.

BOM item keys may occur several times.

The BOM item is identified by an internal number (the Item ID).

Delta #21


• Order BOM configuration can only be performed in the LO-VC using transaction CU51

• Transaction CS62 can also be used for non-configuration changes

Bill of Materials: Creating or deleting BOM items

What it means


Not possibleYou can create or delete BOM items belonging to an order BOM.

Delta #22


Bill of Materials: Explosion of BOMs in connection with constraints

What it means


By default, the BOM is exploded once in a simple breadth first sequence. For this reason, selection conditions at level N that depend on constraints at explosion level M > N cannot be analyzed correctly. Alternatively, the explosion strategy can be changed to depth first. See SAP Note 879202.

The BOM is exploded several times in a breadth first sequence in connection with constraints. Constraints that are at a lower explosion level may trigger a re-explosion of the BOM.

• The IPC does not explode BOMs multiple times like LO-VC may do

• If you have selection conditions at higher BOM levels that depend on constraints at lower BOM levels, you may need to refactor your model

Delta #23


• The IPC will explode the BOM structure in a single plant only

• If the BOMs of your configurable assemblies differ by plant, you may not get the correct BOM explosion in cross plant scenarios

Bill of Materials: Change of plant in BOM explosion

What it means


The knowledge base generation ignores special procurement keys (MARC-SOBSL) or user exits for the change of plant in the BOM explosion. The plant specified for the knowledge base runtime version is used for all materials.

A change of plant can be controlled by maintaining a special procurement key (MARC-SOBSL) and using corresponding user exits in the function group CUKO.

Delta #24


• Not sure what the IPC description means• Not sure that the LO-VC description is correct

(a conflict is raised if class is required and multiple matches are found)

Bill of Materials: Class items

What it means


Class items are only replaced automatically by materials during the configuration if a unique specialization can be found. For this purpose, the class item characteristics must be assigned a value manually, or the valuation must be derived from the original material by means of object dependencies.

The first material that matches the configuration query is used automatically to replace the relevant class item.

Delta #25


• In LO-VC it is often desirable to manually specialize a class node when no match was found automatically (for example, to provide a higher spec component than what was requested)

• This manual specialization is most common in Order BOM processing but is not possible in IPC

Bill of Materials: Manual specialization of class items

What it means


A class item cannot be replaced manually by a material (specialized).

Class items can be specialized manually.

Delta #26

37

• You must exclude an optional class item via selection condition to avoid an incomplete class item in the IPC

• Any instance is incomplete in LO-VC if it has an unspecialized required class node; see the OSS note to get this behavior in IPC

Bill of Materials: Mandatory specialization of class items

What it means


A configuration is only considered complete if every class item is replaced (specialized) by a material. Therefore, the replacement is obligatory.

In the case of class items, you can specify whether the specialization is optional or mandatory.

For information about removing this delta, see SAP Note 1083650.

If there are no specialized class items in a multi-level configuration, the configuration is only considered incomplete if there are mandatory specializations below it.


Delta #27


• Like variant matching, all values of a multi-value characteristic in a class node must be matched for IPC to consider the characteristic matched

• In LO-VC, if any value of a multi-value characteristic in a class node is matched then the characteristic is considered matched

Bill of Materials: Class nodes, searching multi-value characteristics

What it means


Specified multi-value characteristics are taken into account during the class search. If all assigned values of the characteristic in the configuration are contained in the domain of the classification, the characteristic is considered for specialization. See Note 1564395.

Specified multi-value characteristics are taken into account during the class search. If at least one assigned value of the configuration is contained in the domain of the classification, the characteristic is considered for specialization.

Delta #28

39

• IPC can search for non-specified characteristics in classified objects (e.g. search where characteristics not specified and find object where characteristic not specified)

• LO-VC will not find objects that have a non-specified characteristic in the classification of a class node

• There are users exits in LO-VC to change the standard class node search behavior

Bill of Materials: Class nodes with non-valuated objects

What it means


Objects that do not have any classification values for a characteristic of the search query can be found in the class search.

Objects that do not have any classification values for a characteristic of the search query are filtered out of the search result.


Delta #29


• You must refactor any BOM with a base quantity other than 1 piece (each) to have a base quantity of 1 piece (each)

Bill of Materials: BOM base quantity is not equal to 1 piece

What it means


BOMs with a base quantity that is not equal to one piece lead to an incorrect quantity in the Configuration Engine for the items contained. The base quantity is not taken into account.

The base quantity for the BOM header is taken into account for the calculation of the resulting item quantities.

Delta #30


• IPC doesn’t “do the math” for BOM item quantities – you must set such quantities via object dependencies

Bill of Materials: Accumulation of quantities in the configuration

What it means


Quantities in multi-level BOMs are not accumulated during the configuration.

Quantities can be converted and accumulated.

The configuration indicates the relative quantity of a sub item as defined in the BOM. This is also the value assigned to the field STPO-MENGE.

In dependencies, the relative and the absolute quantity can be differentiated.

Example: A vehicle with four wheels, each of which has five wheel nuts, the quantity of wheel nuts is indicated for each wheel (5), but not the total quantity of nuts that belong to the vehicle. The total quantity (20) is only shown in the order.

The configuration result indicates the number of subordinate objects in a multi-level BOM.

Delta #31


• BOM item quantities must be integers in IPC (e.g. configurable dough)

• I don’t see a workaround, does anyone know one?

Bill of Materials: Quantity number format

What it means


Only integers allowed.No restrictions (e.g. an item quantity of 1.674 liters is possible)

Delta #32


• Do not use this setting with IPC

• Choose another means of selecting the item (e.g. selection condition)

Bill of Materials: Selecting components by classifying materials

What it means


Not possible Possible

Delta #33


Bill of Materials: Plant specific BOM explosion

What it means


When creating a runtime version, you must specify exactly one plant. Therefore, you can only choose a different plant-specific BOM by choosing a different runtime version.

PossibleThere is no explicit plant field in the Configuration Engine data model. However, you can encode the plant in the version string and use that information for runtime by using the SET_KB method in Customizing for SAP CRM

• Like Delta #23, IPC will explode the BOM structure in a single plant only

• If the BOMs of your configurable assemblies differ by plant, you may not get the correct BOM explosion in cross plant scenarios

Delta #34


• You must find all reference characteristics in your model and assign them to a class

• You may want to create a separate class for reference characteristics and allocate that class to all models

• We don’t recommend letting IPC assign reference characteristics to all classes – this could lead to some unexpected results

Objects of the Class System: Class assignment of characteristics

What it means


Characteristics that are not assigned to a class are automatically assigned to all classes.

Reference characteristics do not have to be assigned to a class.

Delta #35


Objects of the Class System: Inheritance, class networks, class hierarchies

What it means


A unique list of predecessor classes must be available for class networks. This list is necessary to determine inheritance logic for default values of characteristics.

Class networks are completely flexible.

If a list with superior classes cannot be created when the runtime version is generated, an error message is displayed. For example: CLASS_01 is assigned to CLASS_02, which, in turn, is assigned to CLASS_03. CLASS_01 is also assigned directly to CLASS_03. The second assignment is superfluous and inconsistent.

The class network in the error message example for the Configuration Engine would be accepted in LO-VC.

• For IPC, each class must appear only one time in a class hierarchy

Delta #36


• You need to replace type CURRENCY or TIME characteristics with characteristics of type NUM if you need them in object dependencies

• We rarely see these characteristic types• Are they just not valid in object

dependencies?

Objects of the Class System: Data types DATE, CURR, and TIME

What it means


Characteristics with the data type DATE can be used in object dependencies. The CURRENCY and TIME data types cannot be used.

All data types can be used.

Delta #37


• Replace user defined characteristics with non-user defined characteristics

• We discourage and rarely see the use of user defined data types

Objects of the Class System: User-defined data types

What it means


Characteristics with user-defined data types (UDEF) cannot be used.

No restrictions

Delta #38


• IPC removes the value nodes• We discourage and rarely see

the use of value hierarchies

Objects of the Class System: Value hierarchies

What it means


In the case of characteristics, value hierarchies are not copied; the values are output in a simple list.

No restrictions

Delta #39


• You cannot specify an interval value to a characteristic in the IPC

• Create an upper and lower bound characteristic if you must specify intervals

Objects of the Class System: Intervals for numeric characteristics

What it means


Numeric characteristics can be assigned only discrete values during the configuration process. Although numbers can originate from an interval defined in the model as a value range, intervals themselves are not permitted as value assignments.

Allows manual assignment of an interval value if the corresponding flag is set in the characteristic master (CT04). This value cannot be used consistently (for example, the system only uses the lower bound of the interval in dependencies).

Delta #40


• A characteristic can appear on multiple tabs in LO-VC but only one tab in IPC

• If you require the same characteristic on multiple tabs, then you may need to create multiple characteristics and constraint their equality

Objects of the Class System: Characteristic groups relevant for display

What it means


A characteristic can be assigned to a maximum of one characteristic group relevant for display.

A characteristic can be assigned to several characteristic groups relevant for display.

Other assignments are ignored.

Delta #41


• SCREEN_DEP-RESET is rarely used• If used, you must change your

dependency logic to utilize the supported facets in IPC

Objects of the Class System: Reference characteristic SCREEN_DEP

What it means


Restrictions must be observed. The following reference characteristics are supported:• SCREEN_DEP-INVISIBLE• SCREEN_DEP-NO_INPUTThe reference characteristic SCREEN_DEP-RESET is not supported.

No restrictions

The facets of a characteristic can be created in such a way that they behave dynamically during the configuration process, that is, they change depending on which characteristic is valuated, and how. You use the reference characteristic SCREEN_DEP during the modeling process.

Delta #42


Objects of the Class System: General handling of reference characteristics

What it means


The table fields for which the context information is automatically transferred to the configuration engine depend on the application environment in which the Configuration Engine is running. See Reference Characteristics and the Configuration Engine. The tables present in SAP ERP

can be used.If you have defined a reference to any other table field or if the table field is not populated, you may use a BAdI implementation to populate the reference characteristic by using the SET_CONTEXT method or SET_VALUES method in Customizing for SAP CRM

• Reference characteristics read different tables depending on the application that is running the IPC

• You can add additional reference characteristics via BADI

Delta #43


Objects of the Class System: Changing reference characteristics

What it means


The following fields are always changeable:• STPO-MENGE• SDCOM-VKOND

A standard set of reference characteristics can be changed (structures SDCOM and VCSD_UPDATE, for example, for sales).

In a CRM scenario, additional fields can be changed by the Configuration Engine. For more information, see SAP Library for SAP CRM on SAP Help Portal at http://help.sap.com/crm-core. Choose a release and then Application Help.

• Uncommon reference characteristics require customizing before they can be changed using IPC

Delta #44


• You must create separate characteristics if overwriting of these facets would be required for a characteristic in IPC

Objects of the Class System: Class-specific overwriting of characteristics

What it means


The attributes Not Ready for Input, No Display and Additional Values Allowed must be edited in the characteristic itself.

You can overwrite the characteristic attributes Not Ready for Input, No Display and Additional Values Allowed based on specific classes.

Delta #45


• You need to create separate characteristics if overwriting of these value properties would be needed for a characteristic in IPC

Objects of the Class System: Class-specific overwriting of cstic values

What it means


Class-specific overwriting of characteristic value descriptions and assignment of documents to values are not supported.

You can overwrite characteristic value descriptions based on specific classes. Class-specific assignment of documents to characteristic values is possible.

Delta #46


Objects of the Class System: External value check

What it means


Not possibleYou can use external value checks that are defined by means of a table or an ABAP function module.

• Check Table can be replaced by variant function used in a constraint

• Function Module can be replaced by a variant function for the value check only• No custom F4 functionality• No custom description functionality

Delta #47


• Put your reference characteristic to SDCOM-VKOND in a class

Objects of the Class System: Variant condition keys

What it means


If you want to assign variant condition keys, you must create a reference characteristic with reference to the table field SDCOM-VKOND. This is checked when the knowledge base is generated.

If you only assign variant conditions directly to characteristic values, you do not need to enter a reference characteristic for table field SDCOM-VKOND.

Variant conditions can be assigned directly to characteristic values or assigned via dependency to the reference characteristic SDCOM-VKOND.

Delta #48


• Numeric values are sorted in IPC regardless of how they are sequenced in LO-VC

• You will lose long texts and exponents in IPC if defined in LO-VC

Objects of the Class System: Presentation of numeric characteristics

What it means


Values and value intervals are sorted in ascending numerical order.

Values and value intervals are sorted based on the way they are created in the model.

Long texts for values and exponential representations are not supported.

Long texts for values and exponential representations are supported.

Delta #49


Objects of the Class System: Templates for characteristic values

What it means


Templates for characteristic values are supported only to a limited extent. Value templates defined in Customizing are not supported at all.

During the interactive configuration process, characteristic values entered using the keyboard are checked to determine whether they match the template for the characteristic value.

In the case of numeric characteristics where the format has been specified (and a value template derived automatically from this), language-dependent decimal separators as well as the number of digits before and after the decimal point are checked when they are entered on the keyboard.

• Value template don’t work in the IPC

• Decimal and thousands separators are interpreted

Delta #50


• A variant table is included in a knowledge base only if it is used in object dependencies in said knowledge base

• If a variant table is read only by variant functions, add the variant table to an object dependency so that it becomes part of the knowledge base

Objects of the Class System: Variant tables

What it means


You can access variant tables or database tables only if these are referenced in the object dependency.

You can access variant tables or database tables by means of function modules without explicitly using object dependencies.

TABLE X (...) OR

NOT TABLE X (...)

Delta #51


• If you have 100,000 rows, then your variant tables are too damn big =)

• Split them up

Objects of the Class System: Variant table size

What it means


Variant tables cannot contain more than 100,000 rows.

Variant tables can contain more than 100,000 rows, but only if they are defined using a database table.

Delta #52


Objects of the Class System: Characters outside 7-bit ASCII character set

What it means


Language-neutral fields can contain 7-bit ASCII characters only (for example, no umlauts).

Characters outside the 7-bit ASCII character set can also be used in language-neutral fields.

• For example, ü becomes u in IPC values

Delta #53


• Used for classification (i.e. the only place to allocate procedures) but discouraged for VC• Ignored in IPC and must be refactored and moved to the configuration profile of each

configurable material where that characteristic is used• Refactoring consists of adding the implied IF statements for allocations to all

characteristics and values (the more allocations, the more complex)• Sequencing of refactored procedures in configuration profile is important to ensure

inputs are specified (i.e. at end of configuration profile in order of characteristics/values)• Must be removed/locked where currently allocated (or will still processed in LO-VC)

Object Dependencies: Object dependencies to characteristics

and characteristic values

What it means


All procedures (and actions) must be assigned to a configuration profile or a BOM item.

Procedures (and actions) can be assigned to characteristics and characteristic values, as well as configuration profiles and BOM items.

Delta #54


• Does anyone know?

Object Dependencies: Assigning preconditions to intervals

What it means


Preconditions that are assigned to an interval of the value area are ignored.

No restrictions

Delta #55


• IPC automatically changes Actions to Procedures• Ensure proper sequencing of new procedures in

configuration profile and the required implied “IF” refactoring if allocated to characteristics or values

• See dependency processing sequence (next slide)

Object Dependencies: Actions

What it means


Actions must be converted to procedures. If the appropriate option is chosen, this takes place automatically when the runtime version is created.

Processing of actions does not depend on a sequence. Actions, in contrast to procedures, are processed after the data has been changed (until no more values can be derived from the existing information).

In this case, the procedures generated in this way are set to position 0 in the Configuration Engine processing sequence. Actions are processed once every time data is changed.

Delta #55


Delta #56


• LO-VC models with a wide array of conditional assemblies each with constraint nets may perform better in LO-VC than in IPC

Object Dependencies: Loading constraint nets

What it means


All constraint nets are loaded at the start of the configuration process.

Constraint nets that are assigned to a configuration profile are loaded only if the material was selected during the configuration.

Delta #57


• You have to redevelop your ABAP variant functions in JAVA for use in IPC

Object Dependencies: Programming variant functions and user exits

What it means


Needs to be written in Java.The functions of the Java Library cover those of the ERP function group CUPR.

Variant functions are written in ABAP.

Delta #58


• IPC and LO-VC dependencies interpret “SPECIFIED” differently when all allowed values are excluded

• Empty value ranges are generally inconsistent, so this delta affects processing of other dependencies

Object Dependencies: “Specified” outcome when all values excluded

What it means


The SPECIFIED condition is fulfilled for a characteristic with an empty value range, if a value is set.

The SPECIFIED condition is not fulfilled for a characteristic with an empty value range, even if a value is set.

Delta #59


• Very complex pricing logic may impact IPC performance more than LO-VC performance

Object Dependencies: Price determination procedures

What it means


All procedures are executed in the sequence defined in the configuration profile.

In contrast to normal procedures, procedures that are assigned to the dependency group SAP_PRICING are executed at the end of the configuration process. For more information, see SAP Note 917987.

Delta #60


Object Dependencies: Procedures in the configuration profile and BOM

What it means


If a procedure in a BOM derives a different value for a characteristic than a procedure on configuration profile, then a conflict occurs.

If a procedure in a BOM derives a different value for a characteristic than a procedure in the configuration profile, the system transfers the value that was derived by the procedure in the BOM. The system executes the procedures of the BOM again after the procedures of configuration profile. The procedures can overwrite values of a characteristic that has been valuated by another procedure.

Procedures in the configuration profile cannot overwrite values that have previously been derived by procedures in a BOM.

A procedure allocated to the configuration profile and one allocated to a BOM item infer different values for the same characteristic• In LO-VC, the BOM procedure takes precedence• In IPC, an inconsistency is raised (even if default?)

Delta #61


• IPC can automatically delete default values that raise a constraint conflict

Object Dependencies: Conflicts due to default values

What it means


If a constraint conflict due to a default value is detected, the default value can be deleted from the system and the conflict can be resolved automatically. You can switch to the Variant Configuration (LO-VC) compatible behavior (see SAP Note 1226629).

If a constraint conflict due to a default value is detected, the default value is not deleted automatically and the configuration remains inconsistent.

Delta #62


• (Re)name your variant tables with letters and underscores only

• No automatic renaming of variant tables (sorry)

Object Dependencies: Name conventions for variant tables

What it means


Only alphanumeric characters and underscores can be used.

No restrictions

Delta #63


• Design your variant tables so that they do not contain empty cells or intervals

• Program RCU_VC_PERFORMANCE will identify all variant tables with these issues (maybe not intervals)

Object Dependencies: Standardized variant tables

What it means


The tables must not contain any intervals or empty fields.

The rows of a variant table can contain multiple values, no values, or interval values for a characteristic, unless the variant table is linked to a database table.

Multiple values are supported.

Delta #64


Engineering Change Management: Change numbers

What it means


You can only use change numbers with a valid-from date.

You can use change numbers with a valid-from date or parameter effectivity.

• You cannot use IPC if your models require parameter effectivity

Delta #65


• You specify a configuration date in LO-VC and validity is calculated at runtime

• You choose a runtime version based on date (but there is no date specific differences with in a runtime version)

• Example: If you have daily date effective changes, then you need a runtime version per day

Engineering Change Management: Date of the validity of an object version

What it means


You determine the validity of an object version with the date that you specify for the relevant runtime version, together with the plant and the BOM application.

You determine the validity of an object version with the date that you specify when the material is configured.

Delta #66


• An IPC runtime version is a “snapshot” of a VC model; there are no date effective changes within it

Engineering Change Management: Object versions

What it means


A runtime version contains one version of each object.

The database contains various versions of each object that was changed with Engineering Change Management.

Delta #67


• Pushbuttons must be remodeled as tabs and XCM can be used for more control of the characteristic layout

• Custom pushbuttons must be added to IPC UI and redeveloped in Java to approximate LO-VC user exit behavior

Not on the List: Pushbuttons in UI

What it means


Not supportedUsed as dialog where characteristics and frames can be placed flexibly (or user exit)

Delta #67


• Multiple reference characteristic to same field in a single model results in an IPC runtime error

• One of these reference characteristics must be removed from each model

• Remove the reference characteristic that is “used” less

Not on the List: Multiple Reference Characteristics to Same Field


Only one reference characteristic to a given table field is permitted within a model

Any number of reference characteristics can be defined for a given table field in a model

What it means

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