VMS Material

Let us create a material master which is to be used in VMS

Before we start building data though, lets do some calculation to figure out how many materials we need.

Example Suppose a car comes in
4 exterior colors (white, black, red, blue)
2 interior colors (beige, slate)
2 fabrics (cloth, leather)
2 engines (4 valve, 6 valve)
2 transmissions (standard, automatic)
2 wheel sizes (16 inch, 17 inch)
2 wheel materials (steel, chrome)

 (4 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2)

 In SAP, this would be modeled by creating 7 characteristics (with values) and one variant class.
That’s the easy part.  But the tricky part is figuring out how many material masters you need.

Assuming every combination of options is valid, there are exactly 256 unique combinations.
 (4 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2).256 material masters in this example.

Include some more options by adding more characteristics, and the number of combinations
continues to explode.

Let’s take a quick look at some alternatives to creating the material master data file.

At a minimum, all you need is one material in VMS.  This would be the generic CAR, and any
combination of options would be allowed.

At a median, you could create a material for a package set of options.
In this example, this would require 4 material masters.

At a maximum, you could create a material for every allowed combination of options. 
When you create each material, you would specify in the Classification view every characteristic
that the that material called for.   256 material masters in our example.

The first option (1 material) requires the least amount of master data.  One material master, one configuration profile and you are done.  However, the user would need to specify all the
configuration values in every vehicle record

The second option (4 materials) requires a bit more data (one material master and one
configuration profile for every package).  The user would still need to specify some options,
but a few would be pre-defined.

The third option (256 materials) requires the most master data (one material an done configuration
profile for every combination).  The user wouldn’t need to specify any options as everything
would be pre-defined.

Keep in mind you need to maintain existing material masters, or create new ones if new characteristics/values are defined in the system.  This is much easier with fewer materials.