Product Attributes SD Product Selection

Use

By defining product attributes, you can take into account customer preferences for product substitution. You can store information for up to ten product attributes in both the material master record and the customer master record of the ship-to party:

• In the material master, you can assign product attributes to the material, to indicate whether a product is available with different kinds of packaging, for example.

• In the customer master of the ship-to party, you can indicate whether a customer rejects materials with certain product attributes.

In product selection, the system ignores any material with a product attribute that the customer has explicitly rejected.

Activities

Evaluate your business to determine if there are situations where certain customers refuse products with special attributes. For example, some customers do not accept products produced abroad, while other customers do not want any product that contains a coupon.

If special circumstances exist where certain customers do not accept products with specific attributes, you can define up to 10 product attributes that the system checks during the product selection process.

Define product attributes in the material master

To assign product attributes to a material, choose Materials management ® Material master. Enter a material, choose Org. levels and select the Sales: Sales org. data 2 view. Mark the attributes that apply.

For example, attribute 1 could be defined as a material that is packaged with a visual coupon reference, while attribute 2 could indicate that the coupon is worth less than $0.50. If this material contains a coupon for $1.00, select attribute 1 only.

Define product attributes in the customer master

Select Sales and distribution ® Master data ® Business partners ® Ship-to party (if different from the sold-to party). Enter a customer and choose the Sales view in the sales area data. Choose Environment ® Product attributes. Mark the product attributes that the customer is not willing to accept.

For example, mark attribute 1 if the customer is not willing to accept any product with a visual coupon reference. Mark only attribute 2 if the customer is willing to accept a product with a visual reference to a coupon, but only if the value is greater than $0.50.

If you change the ship-to partner during order entry, the system redetermines product selection to ensure that the attributes of the product and the customer are compatible.

In Customizing for Sales (Sales Document ® Sales Document Header ® Sales document types in the ProdAttr.messages field), you determine how the system reacts when it checks the preferences of the customer against the product attributes assigned to the material. For example, the system may issue a warning, or an error that prevents further processing.

This function is for manual product selection only. It is not used for automatic product selection. In the case of automatic selection, if the attributes of the customer and material are not compatible, the system simply does not propose the product as a possible substitute. It does not issue error or warning messages.