Tracking of wip material in externally processed operation

Question

Hi All,
As part of production process, most of the operations would be processed internally in the manufacturing plant and some of the operations would be
performed by vendor at his own premises (outside the manufacturing plant). Material will be called as WIP (work in process) material if it completes some of the operations (two operations completed out of four operations) in production process without forming its final product shape
WIP (work in process) material will be sent out to vendor against externally processed operation in production order. We’ve a business requirement to track the WIP (Work in Process, No inventory yet in system) material status details such as when was the WIP material shipped out to service provider by purchasing department or returned back to production floor from stores after receiving from vendor for externally processed operation in production
order
The scenario is explained below and the process in SAP would be as follows.
1. Production order would be created for
respective header material (semi-finished/finished) with required quantity with five operations to be processed, for example: OP10 (turning), OP20 (drilling), OP30 (milling), OP40 (shaping), OP50 (powder coating). OP10, OP20, OP40, OP50. would be processed internally in the shop floor of the manufacturing plant
2.After finishing the internal processing at OP10 and OP20,  Operation no 30 (OP30-milling) for the respective header
material would be processed externally by sending the partially processed part(WIP) to vendor outside the manufacturing plant. In SAP, the partially processed part doesn't have any material code and will not be updated in the inventory and will be treated as WIP (work in process) and automatic purchase requisition for external processing through production order is generated as follows
For OP30 Milling (Externally processed operation), from PP module perspective, we would be maintaining a control key which supports external
processing in the Operation 30 (OP30, external processed operation - An externally processed operation is not carried out within own organization, but is assigned to a vendor, who then does the work) with relevant information such as material group, purchase group, description of operation, cost element to track costs in the production order.
When the respective production order is saved, system creates a purchase requisition for external processed operation 30. We can see
the number of the purchase requisition on the external processing tab of operation details screen of OP30 in SAP Production order.
Purchasing department generates a purchase order against the automatic purchase requisition generated in production order, which informs the
vendor which service is required.
With reference to the purchase order – service oriented, the WIP material (no material code exists in SAP) is sent out to vendor. After the material has been processed, the vendor delivers the material back to manufacturing plant. When a goods receipt against purchase order is posted at manufacturing plant, the system displays the received quantity on the external processing tab of operation details screen of the operation - OP30 in production order and also displays in order information system reports. It also possible to track the cost incurred for external operation. However, Goods receipt against production order does not cause an increase in the quantity and value of the warehouse stock of header material of production order.
The above mentioned process is not a subcontracting process - where in we send raw materials and receive semi-finished/finished materials from vendor
3. The respective partially processed part (WIP) received from vendor is sent to shop floor to complete the rest of the process
in OP40 (shaping) and OP50 (powder coating).
4. After OP50, the respective header material (semi-finished/finished) of the production order will be received (goods
receipt against production order) as inventory in respective storage location.
With reference to the above process, we can track the status of receipt of WIP material from vendor after processing at his premises;
however, we can’t track when WIP material ( after completing processing at OP20) was sent out to vendor for external processing by purchasing department and when WIP material was returned back to production shop floor for further processing at OP40 after receiving from vendor by stores.
   Please provide your feedback for the possibility to track the details of WIP material (no material code exists in SAP system) sent out to
vendor and received back at shop floor from stores for external processed operation of production order
Thanks for help in advance.
Regards,
Rajesh

Answer 1

Hi Rajesh,
Process what ever you have explained is the right process with respective to operation wise subcontracting as per SAP Best practice. As you rihtly said in operation wise subcontracting PR is created with any material code. Once PR is created after PO and GR actual cost of that particular operation will be seen on the order. I believe sub contact operation after GR can be confirmed through confirmation transactions. Since it is subcontract operation specfic to peration seperate inventory is not tracked instead cost is reflecting directly on order
If you to want to track the inventory of the intermdiate product then you need to have a seperate material code for intermediate product (Eg A) received after second operation and do seperate subcontacting PR for seperate new material (Eg B) by issuing the intermediate material (Eg. A). Upon receivng GR for PO inventory will be updated for the new material (Eg B).This new material can be issued to your final product which has operation 0040 and 0050. Here two different material codes will be required.
Else follow the suggestion given by expert Caetano.
Thanks & Regards,
Ramagiri