SAP PP/QM

Questions & ANSWERS

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Consultants at SAPTOPJOBS
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Copyright 2005-06@SAPTOPJOBS

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1. What are the different manufacturing practices
supported in SAP PP module?

PP Module broadly contains the following

manufacturing practices,

Ø Discrete

Ø Repetitive

Ø PP-PI

2. What is the difference between discrete and repetitive

Manufacturing?

Discrete manufacturing:-

Ø Deals with lot size manufacturing.

Ø More varieties are made in small lots.

Ø Frequently settings are changed to accommodate

various types and lots.

Ø Sub assemblies are made in small lots of different

sizes of components.

E.g. for Discrete manufacturing industry, valve

manufacturing industry, Battery manufacturing
industry etc,

Repetitive manufacturing:-

Ø Used in manufacturing of similar product of large

quantities for longer duration with least or no
change in the setup.
 E.g. Automobile assembly, Bottling unit.

3. What are all the essential master data in PP?

Following are the essential Master data in PP

Ø Bill Of Material

Ø Work center,

Ø Routing

Ø Production Resource Tool.

4. What is Production Resource Tool (PRT)?

All that tools which are required during production is

known as PRT.

E.g. Jigs and fixture, dies, Allen keys etc

5. What is Bill Of Material?

It contains the list of components which are required

to manufacture a parent component or finished
product.

6. What is BOM group?

BOM group is to identify the group of BOM for any

similarity or for any identification purpose.

When creating a BOM it will be assigned automatically

if not mentioned externally.

7. What is an Alternative BOM?

When there are two sets of list of components to make

a parent product or a finished product, then apart
from one BOM, another list of material will be created
as an Alternate BOM.

8. How many alternate BOM can one material have?

There is no limit for alternate BOM.

9. What is Base Quantity in BOM?

Base quantity is the quantity to which other

components of the BOM quantities are mentioned.
10. How many digits after decimal a BOM component
quantity can have?

Up to Three digits only.

11. What is lead time offset in the BOM?

It is the number of days a component can be delayed

or advanced in relation to the start date of the superior
assembly.

Positive number indicates the number of days it can be

delayed.

Negative number indicates the number of days a

component needs to be advanced.

12. How do you mention an item as alternate to another

item?

Through alternate item group at item level in the BOM.

Example:-

Assume component at item number 50 is an alternate

to the component number 25.

By mentioning the same alternate item group (say A)

in both item, the relation will be established.

Usage probability for each item may be maintained for

the above alternate combination.
13. When there are more than one alternate, which
alternate will be taken for MRP?

By default first alternate BOM will be considered by

MRP.

However through the IMG setting “Define alternate”,

specific alternate for any required period of time can
be mentioned.

14. What is Work center?

Any machine may be referred as Work center in SAP.

Apart from machine, other facilities which are

employed to perform work will also be termed as work
center.

Example:- group of people who may be employed to

move machines can also be treated as work center,.

15. What is Standard value key?

Important activities for any equipment are

Ø Setup time

Ø Machining time

Ø Labor Hours

Ø Consumption of utilities (Power or Steam)

Ø Depreciation
 Values of above activities are captured through the
standard value key.

Important: - One standard value key can have only six

activities.

16. Is there any validity period applicable to Work center?

Yes, validity period is applicable to work center.

It will be mentioned in the costing view of the work

center.

17. Is there any significant relation in Work center with

other module?

Yes.

Activity type and cost center are mentioned in each

work center.

Activity type (e.g. Labor) will have a rate, which will be

used to calculate the cost.

Cost incurred to a work center will be captured in the

cost center referred in the work center.

18. How do you map the different working hours for

different machine with in a company in SAP?

Through the interval of available capacity it can be

defined.

Provision to maintain this data is in the work center

capacity header screen.
19. What is normal capacity?

It is the time available between start time and end time

mentioned in the capacity header.

20. What is interval of available capacity?

Any capacity which is to be mentioned apart from the

normal available capacity is termed as interval of
available capacity.

Shift sequence may also be used to define the interval

of available capacity.

21. What is Routing?

Routing will explain the sequence of operation in

which the manufacturing of any product needs to be
executed.

22. What is control key in routing?

Control key defines,

Ø Whether to be confirmed or not,

Ø Scheduling is to be done or not

Ø Capacity requirement is to be calculated or not

Ø Automatic Goods Receipt on confirmation is to be

done or not

23. What is component assignment in routing and why it

is done?

Components are assigned at operation level.

 By assigning the component at appropriate operation,
it will be more precisely planned at right time.

Example: - An operation number 0050 might start only

on 10th day from the commencement of process. All the
components assigned to operation 0050 will be
planned as required on 10th day.

Advantage of above is to avoid unwanted piling up of

inventory.

24. Scenario: There are about four to five operations to be

performed for rework. The required machine hours will
be known only after the work is done and is not known
now. How do we map this process to SAP?

Through Reference operations set.

Reference operation set is similar to routing but it

contains only the work center reference and the
sequence of work to be carried out.

It will be created without any reference to material, but

with some group name.

At the time of production processing, this reference

operations set group can be referred and it will be
copied in to the production order operation screen.
25. Which is the mandatory view of material master from
PP point of view?

Work scheduling view. Without this view, no

production order or process order can be created.

26. What are the different types of planning?

Ø Material Requirement Planning MRP

Ø Consumption Based planning

Ø Sales and Operation Planning & Flexible

Planning.

27. What is MRP?

Materials Requirement Planning ensures the right

quantity of required material at right time.

Ø MRP first calculate gross requirements,

Ø Considering stock and receipt elements,

calculates the net requirements.

28. Will MRP consider the capacity?

In MRP, capacity is assumed as indefinite.

System can only calculate the capacity requirement.

29. What is consumption Based Planning?

Items are planned based on their consumption.

Once its stock reaches its reorder point, procurement

proposal will be triggered during MRP run.

30. What is SOP (Sales and Operations Planning)?

Following are the important steps in SOP

a) SOP is to plan at broader organizational level and

then pass on those planning details to the
material level.

b) There will be product groups with different level.

Lowest level of product group member will be
material.

c) While creating product group % of distribution to

the next level member will be maintained.

d) Planning will be done at top most product group

level.

e) Disaggregation process will transfer the

requirements to the material level.

f) Requirement at material level may be transferred

to Demand Management.

Note:-

Initially it will be planned in inactive version and

before transferring to the Demand management,
Inactive version has to be converted into active
version.
31. How many active version can be there?

Only one active Version A00 is suggested by SAP.

However one can transfer from any active version to

another.

32. Can the product group at various level can be

disaggregated or aggregated together?

Yes. Through mass processing, it can be done.

33. Do you know any other method of planning other than

the standard SOP?

Flexible planning is a kind of component of SOP.

One can plan for any organizational combination with

flexible planning.

Example: - Planning for sales organization,

distribution channel and customer combination.

34. What are the steps of flexible planning?

Ø First there should be a info structure

Ø Planning type has to be created with reference to

the info structure

Ø Then Planning hierarchy has to be created.

Ø Then planning will be done on the basis of

planning type and planning hierarchy in different
version.

Ø Inactive version will be transferred to active

version
 Ø Material will be transferred to Demand
management.

35. Have you worked on Flexible planning or any non

standard SOP process?

Interviewer might ask you this question, prepare

yourself for this. It is no harm to say NO.

36. What is a characteristic planning?

Characteristic planning is used with variant

configuration to plan the components.

Usage probability of component according to the

characteristics values are maintained for planning.

It is used with strategy 56.

37. What planning strategies you know about in SAP?

Important Planning strategies are

Ø Make To Stock and Make To Order.

Ø Make To Stock strategies are 10,11, 40

Ø Make To Order strategies are 20

Ø Variant configuration uses 25, 26

Ø Assembly type strategies are 80, 81

38. What is the difference between strategy 10 and 11?

Strategy 10 Net Requirement Planning

Ø Reduction of PIR will be during Sales order

delivery according to the consumption mode
maintained in the MRP 3 view of material master.

Ø Stock will be considered while planning

Strategy 11 Gross Requirement Planning

Ø Reduction of PIR will be during posting GR for

production order according to the consumption
mode maintained in the MRP 3 view of material
master.

Ø Stock will not be considered during planning.

39. What is the use of Strategy 40?

It will consider both PIR requirement and Sales order

requirement.

40. Where will you suggest these strategies?

If the products are made irrespective of market

fluctuations and it is always a demanding product,
Make To stock strategy of 10 or 11 may be used.

If it is difficult to forecast and the demands are always

fluctuating, then strategy 40 may be used.
41. What is the configuration setting involved in Planning
strategy?

Planning strategy is the combination of Customer

independent requirement type and Planned
Independent requirement type.

42. What are the independent requirement types for

strategy 10, 11 and 40?

Ø VSF for 40

Ø LSF for 10

Ø BSF for 11

43. What is MRP list?

MRP will generate the exception message according to

the situation for each material.

This will be generated at the time of MRP run and it is

available in the system till the next MRP run.

It can be viewed through MD05 transaction.

44. What is stock requirement list and what is the

difference between stock requirement list and MRP
list?

Stock requirement list MD04 will show the present

situation of any given material.

It is a dynamic one, where as MD05, MRP list, which

will show the result after the MRP run.
45. What are exception messages?

When MRP run is over, according to the stock and

requirement situation for each material, system will
propose action through the message, which is known
as exception message.

There are eight major groups.

Message of group 8 is the termination message, which

needs to be attended immediately.

46. Can you say some message reference or message

number?

Ø 10 Reschedule IN

Ø 20 –cancel process

Ø 30-Plan process according to schedule

Ø 25 – excess stock

Ø 96- stock below safety stock

Ø 50 – No BOM exist

47. What is MRP group?

MRP group contains important settings of

Ø Planning strategy,

Ø Consumption mode

Ø Procurement proposal document type etc.,

All parameters are grouped together under one MRP

group and that can be assigned to materials.
48. What is Planned Order?

Planned order is the proposal to produce a product or

to purchase any items.

It is created by MRP run. It can be created manually

also.

49. What are all the essential settings for production?

Ø Order type parameter

Ø confirmation parameter

Ø scheduling parameter

Ø Availability with checking rule parameter

50. What is configured with order type parameter?

Order type dependant parameter settings contains

Ø How to pick up Production version

Ø what type task list is to be used

Ø Which BOM application is to be used

Ø which costing variants are to be used

The transaction code is OPL8.

51. What is checking Rule?

Checking rule is to check the availability of

component/capacity during production order creation
and release.
 Ø Availability check is maintained in the material
master MRP3 view

Ø Scope of Checking for the combination of

availability check and checking rule is
maintained in the configuration

Ø Checking rule will be mentioned in the order

checking control.

Result for each component: -

When the production order is created or released, from

material master Availability check will be picked up.
E.g. 02

From the order type, checking rule PP will be picked

up. E.g. PP

Scope of checking ATP will be checked for the

combination of availability check and checking rule.
I.e. for the combination of 02 PP.

52. What is scheduling and how it is done?

Scheduling is to determine the start date and end date

of any production order or for planned order.

During scheduling operation timings are picked from

routing and the start and end dates will be
determined.

Most commonly backward scheduling will be done. I.e.

from the requirement date, system will work in
backward.

If the start date lies in the past, then system will start
the forward scheduling from the current date and
arrive at the possible finish date.
53. What is capacity leveling?

Capacity leveling is to distribute the over load in some

period in any machine to other machine or to evenly
distribute to other period.

54. Certain production order start date and end dates are
already finalized and it should not be allowed to
reschedule after release. How do you map it?

Through the user status profile, it can be handled. I.e.

in the user status profile, it has to be set that after
release of production order, capacity leveling should
not be allowed.

55. What is backflush?

It is to issue the components required / used during

manufacturing process at the time of confirmation.

To do the backflush, there are three places to indicate,

Ø Material master

Ø Work center

Ø Routing.

Hierarchy of priority is as below

First at Routing

Second at Material master

Third, if setting material master as “work center

decides”, then work center
56. How do you correct errors occurred during Backflush?

Through the transaction COGI, errors can be

corrected.

57. What is user exit?

User exit is provided by SAP in order to impart any

extra checking or control during the execution of SAP
program.

58. Have you come across any User exit in your previous
projects?

Prepare for this question with your project experience.

Normally below are the places where user exits may be

used in PP process

a. During Release of order, it will be checked for the

release of standard cost estimate

b. During GR, checking for issue of component in

proportionate quantity

59. Do you recommend more user exit, why?

User exit will increase the system load, should be

minimal and should be used where it is essential.

60. There is a requirement to transfer the requirements

from one plant to another plant where the production
process is carried out, how it is done?

Through special procurement key maintained in the

material master in MRP 2 view.
61. What is direct production?

When there is a shortage of any product, directly

production order will be created for that required item.

It is collective order.

62. What is collective order?

Through collective order, directly production order will

be created for any requirement of child material.

That child material will be directly consumed by the

superior order.

Child material order will be settled with superior order

so that the costs are carried over.

63. What is withdrawn from alternate plant?

During goods issue, there may be a situation where in

materials are issued from one plant through pipeline
or as a continuous supply.

Component can be directly withdrawn and issued to

production order through special procurement key.

Material will not be put into the stock of receiving

plant.

64. What is stock transfer?

Getting material from another plant, In this case,

material will be put in the stock at the receiving plant.
65. What is planning horizon?

Planning horizon is the period to which entire

requirements will be planned by the system.

E.g.90 days meaning, future requirement of up to 90

days will be planned.

66. PP is integrated with which modules?

PP is closely integrated with

Ø CO – Controlling

Ø MM – Materials Management

Ø QM – Quality Management

Ø SD – Sales and Distribution Module

67. In what way PP is closely integrated with CO?

Mainly through

§ Standard cost estimate with quantity structure

which requires BOM and Routing from PP side

§ Costing variant and valuation variant are

assigned at order type.

68. What is costing variant and valuation variant?

Valuation variant:-

It is the one which defines the sequence in which the

price of each component is to be picked. Valuation
variant is assigned to the costing variant.
 E.g whether to take the moving average price, planned
price …

Costing variant:-

It is the one which holds the valuation variant for

planned cost and actual cost. Costing variant will be
assigned to the order type.

69. What is the frequency of running the standard cost

estimate?

Normally it is run once in a year.

70. What is MRP type?

Ø MRP type defines the way of planning.

Ø PD refers to MRP type of planning,

Ø VB refers to lot size planning,

Ø ND refers to No planning

71. What is the significance of lot size?

Lot size is to determine how the requirements are to be

grouped, whether monthly, weekly or biweekly.

MB is to group the requirement monthly.

EX is lot for lot, i.e. no grouping.

72. An item is stored in Liter, but production is carried out
in Drums. Can it be mapped in SAP?

Yes.

In the work scheduling view, production unit is to be

mentioned

The relation between drum and Liter unit to be

maintained.

73. A material is used in five plants. Only in one plant it

has to be blocked. Can it be done, how?

Yes, it can be done.

In MRP view, plant specific material status can be

used to block material in particular plant.

74. What is production version?

Production version is the combination of BOM and

Routing.

75. There are four production version, it is required to

automatically distribute the quantity in some
proportion to each version, how can it be done?

By quota arrangement.

76. What is the transaction code to maintain scheduling

parameter?

OPU3

77. How can the bottleneck in capacity planning be

checked?

Through Rough cut profile.

78. How do you find Table in sap?

Normal way is

Ø Click cursor on the field where it is required

to find the table

Ø Click F1 key in the key board

Ø Click Technical info

79. What is planning time fence?

Planning time fence is the time during which existing

procurement proposals are not disturbed.

Any new proposals or requirement falling within the

planning time fence, either system will create that
proposal only after the planning time fence or it will
ignore that proposal.

Above point is depending on the MRP type. MRP type.

P1 to P4 MRP type are used to this purpose.
Quality Management:-

1. What are the QM master data?

Ø Sampling scheme

Ø Sampling procedure,

Ø Inspection Method,

Ø Codes and Code group,

Ø Selected Set

Ø Master Inspection Characteristics and

Ø Inspection Plan

2. What is codes and code group?

Codes are used for the following activities:

Ø To indicate the attributive characteristics result

Ø To indicate the usage decision

Ø Notification processing

Codes are grouped according to the functionalities.

Example:-

Ø Codes for Attributive results recording,

Ø Usage decision,

Ø Defects,

Ø Corrective action etc.

3. What is inspection plan?

Inspection plan contains characteristics which are to be

inspected for a particular material.

4. Can the specification be changed at inspection plan

level?

Yes.

5. There are five Inspection characteristics in a inspection

plan, result of fourth MIC is to be calculated based on
some other MIC , can it be done?

Yes.

Fourth MIC has to be defined as a calculated MIC in its

control indicator.

6. Can a MIC be optional in any inspection plan?

Yes.

MIC at inspection plan level can be defined as optional

MIC in its control indicator.

7. How do you address the self certified or green channel

vendor in SAP?

Through dynamic modification rule it can be mapped.

Basically it updates the quality level according to the

results in lot processing.
8. What is quality info record?

Quality info record is defined for the combination of

Ø Material,

Ø Vendor

Ø Plant.

It governs the vendor supply at plant level.

9. What are all the other functions available through

quality
info record?

Ø Blocking of vendor with blocking reason,

Ø Source Inspection

Ø Quality certificate inspection control

10. There is already a PO with a vendor, Who has

completed supply of 30% the PO quantity.

It is required to stop the supply from that vendor. Is it

possible?

Yes,

it is possible through blocking reason to be maintained

in the quality info record.

Further GR from a vendor can be blocked.

11. How do you set source Inspection?

Ø Quality info record contains

1. source inspection type

2. Number of days ahead of lot to be

created.

Ø Tick the check box “source Inspection No GR” in

the quality info record.

Ø Through transaction code QI07 run the manual

program to create a lot.

Ø Control key contains the control on GR if source

inspection lot is rejected.

12. Where Vendor quality certificates are used?

While receiving the GR, certificate from vendor can be

monitored through quality certificate.

Lot can be skipped using QMINFO system.

13. What is the master data required for Customer

certificate?

Certificate profile is the master data for customer

certificate.

14. What are the essential data for quality notification?

Codes, code groups are the essential master data

required for Notification process.
15. Briefly explain about Notification process?

Notification is the process to

Ø Informing the deviation to another responsible

department

Ø Tracking the status of the issue.

There will be Author, coordinator and end user roles in

Notification.

Ø Author is the person who creates notification.

E.g. Quality Technician / supervisor. He will fill

the all general details and about the complaint in
the notification header and item details.

Ø Coordinator is the person responsible to

coordinate.

E.g. Department head. Coordinator will maintain

the corrective task and put the user responsible
at item level.

Ø End user or user responsible is the person who

has to attend the issue.

E.g. Production or maintenance department

persons. User responsible will maintain the cause
and corrective action done.

16. Can we create own notification type?

Yes.

Can create any number of notification type.

17. What are the major types of Inspection types?

Inspection types are

Stock relevant

E.g 01 inspection for GR from vendor

04 inspection for GR from production
08 inspection for Transfer of goods

Non stock relevant.

E.g 89 Manual Inspection

09 Recurring inspection

18. What is recurring inspection?

There are some product which needs to be inspected

periodically to check its shelf life validity.

This is mainly applicable to the product which has got

shelf life.

Inspection type is 09.

19. What is physical sample?

Physical sample is to keep the sample of a product till

its shelf life expiry date.

E.g. In case of any shelf life applicable product, the

inspected sample will be retained till its expiry date.

If any customer complaints are received, on inspecting

the complaint, result may be compared with the
existing physical sample.
20. Can you brief the cycle of physical sample managing?

Material master should have inspection type 15

To create physical sample, sample drawing procedure

has to be created and attached to the header of
inspection plan.

With this set up when the lot is created, physical

sample will also be created.

Result recording should be done for physical sample.

Physical sample storage information has to be updated

through transaction code QPR2

21. What is the important setting for in process

inspection?

Ø Material master should have inspection type 03

activated
Ø Inspection point should be mentioned in the
Routing
Ø Inspection characteristics are to be assigned in
the operation of the routing.

22. Can the storage location be changed during stock

posting at UD?

Yes.

23. During inspection, always some quantity is consumed

due to destructive sample. How the stocks are getting
adjusted?

While stock posting during Usage Decision,

appropriate quantity may be posted as sample usage.
24. Can Usage Decision be taken automatically?

Only for accepted lot system UD can be taken

automatically.

However following conditions must be met to make

auto UD.

§ All required MIC must have been accepted and

closed

§ Required elapse time mentioned in the plant

level setting must have elapsed

§ Inspection type should have automatic UD

check box ticked.

25. Can own inspection type be defined?

Yes

26. Can own Inspection lot origin be defined?

No.

27. What is the inspection type for test equipment

calibration?

Inspection Type 14.

28. Can we change the result recording after making UD?

No, Once UD is taken, we can not change the result.

29. What is Long term characteristics?

Long term characteristics are those characteristics,

whose inspection activity takes more time to confirm
the result.
Result of those Long Term characteristics can be
changed even after Usage Decision.