Registration of packaging (for example glass, plastic, aluminum, metal)

Question

Dear Experts,
Could you please exchange some idea's on how we could deal with (for us in the Netherlands) mandatory registration of the amount of glass, plastic, metal etc that houses the the finished materials we have in stock in our warehouse for our customers.
We are a logistical service provider and one of our customers is requesting this kind of registration.
So at inbound of a new material, not only the logistical parameters are being registered, but also the amount of waste-packaging if you will.
We could of course create different units of measures to capture these characteristics, but I am wondering how and if it could be done differently.
I had a look at the waste management module, but that is I think not really covering the requirements.
Thanks a lot for your contribution.
Edited by: T. Van der Zwan on Jul 13, 2010 10:46 AM
Edited by: T. Van der Zwan on Jul 13, 2010 10:47 AM

Answer 1

Hello Tim
I am not a "guru" in material classes. but this is my knowledge:
The SAP System provides regarding several purposes standard classes (or more precisly standard class types).  Classes fo classtype "100" are EH&S classes, 023 are charge classes and 001 are material classes etc..  There is a tabstrip available in MM01/02/03 which is called "Classifciation".  Here you would see later the corresponding values.(and with mm01/02 you would maintain the values). I believe you need to do some customizing to get the class assigned It is possible to assign more than one class to the material type. I found by a quick research only the link to the old docu:
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_46c/helpdata/en/7a/e9d5cb2faf11d4b2e40050da4ceab0/content.htm
Normally you would generate a class lets call it "Z_WASTE". Then you would assign characteristics.
Here you would use one charactersitic to maintain data regarding "Glass", one regarding "Metal" and one regarding" plastic"
Further option is to generate per "topic" one class and assign that to the material. What is important: you can create only one "instance" per class on material level and not too or more (same class!)
The characteristic would be generated e.g. like this:
a.) type would be numeric with UoM
b.) you need to define which UoM you would like to use
c.) then you need to define format e.g. x.xxx,xx Would mean you can maintain a number like "1.000,00" togetzher with "%" (meaning weight %).
d.) You can force the SAP system that if you would like to generate a class that some values are mandatory on characteristic level
e.) you can define the characteristic in such a way that you can manitain "interval" like "1.0 - 2.0"
etc. So anything which is allowed in the class/characteristic system can be used here (not discussing the options that you could use customer specific function modules as check functions of the content of the characteristic).
Normally the story is like this;
You generate on material whcih describes the unpacked material"
Then you create a "packing" (further material number)
And then you copmbine both to a "package" material number.
So to my understanding the material class would be asigne do the "packing" material. I know that hierarchies are supported in SAP standard too (regarding analysis etc.)  but you need to do a research here on SAP help.
Hope that these options cna be sued regarding your demands
C. B.
Edited by: Christoph Bergemann on Jul 17, 2010 6:01 PM
Edited by: Christoph Bergemann on Jul 17, 2010 6:04 PM
Edited by: Christoph Bergemann on Jul 17, 2010 6:13 PM
Edited by: Christoph Bergemann on Jul 17, 2010 6:13 PM
Edited by: Christoph Bergemann on Jul 17, 2010 6:14 PM
Edited by: Christoph Bergemann on Jul 17, 2010 6:14 PM
Edited by: Christoph Bergemann on Jul 17, 2010 6:15 PM