| # Alternative materials in BOMs This topic introduces the concept of alternative materials. Often, multiple items are interchangeable. Sometimes, you purchase these items from various vendors. You can use any of these items as material in a bill of material (BOM). If a shortage of a standard material is expected to delay a production order, LN can automatically select one of the alternative materials. You can define up to nine alternative materials for any material in a BOM. The use of alternative materials has the following advantages: LN can handle material shortages for some items without user intervention. The use of alternative items can reduce the average inventory level. Important! This functionality is available only if the Use Up and Alternative Materials check box is selected in the Implemented Software Components (tccom0100s000) session. For information about the setup of alternative items, refer to Defining alternative materials. Restrictions Use-up materials and alternative materials have the same net quantity as the standard material. Use-up materials and alternative materials have exactly the same values of characteristics such as the scrap and yield as the standard material. Use-up materials, alternative materials and the corresponding standard material can have different warehouses, but these warehouses must belong to the same cluster. Use-up materials and alternative materials have the same material-routing relationships as the standard item. If a component on a BOM line is a standard item, that is, an item with an empty project segment, the associated use-up and alternative materials must also be standard components. If a component on a BOM line is a project item, that is, an item with a filled project segment, the associated use-up and alternative materials' project segments must be either: Filled with the same project as the main item's project segment Empty (the alternative is a standard item) If a component on a BOM line is a phantom, you cannot define a use-up material or alternative material for that component. Priority of an alternative material You can specify the priority of each alternative material. If the standard material is out of stock, LN first tries the highest-priority alternative. If that material is also unavailable, LN tries the alternative that has the next priority, and so on. To distribute a material requirement over multiple items If, on a BOM line in the Bill of Material (tibom1110m000) session, the Allow Multiple Items check box is selected, LN can split a material requirement over multiple alternative materials. Checks for alternative materials At one or more of the following points in a production order's life cycle, depending on parameter settings, LN can check whether an alternative material must be used: When you generate planned production orders in the Enterprise Planning package. When a production order is created in the Shop Floor Control (SFC) module. When you release a production order. When you run the Generate Alternatives for Estimated Materials (ticst0216m000) session for existing production orders. When you generate an outbound advice in the Warehousing package. For more details, refer to the Searching for alternative and use-up materials. topic. Alternative material or alternative item You must distinguish the alternative materials, described in this topic, from the alternative items that you define in the Alternative Items (tcibd0505m000) session. The following table shows the differences between alternative items and alternative materials.
| Alternative items | Alternative materials
Specificity | If item Y is an alternative item for item X, you can use Y anywhere you can use X. | If item Y is an alternative material for item X, that alternative only applies to specific BOMs. In other BOMs that use item X, you cannot replace X by item Y.
Automatic use | LN displays the alternative items for an item on request. Next, you can manually select an alternative. In case of a shortage of X, LN does not automatically use an alternative item. | In case of alternative materials, if the standard material is out of stock, LN can automatically take an alternative material.
For more information, refer to the To define alternative items and replacement items topic. Cost price The cost-price calculation does not take alternative materials into consideration. Related topics Defining alternative materials Searching for alternative and use-up materials. Use-up materials and alternative materials in Enterprise Planning Using up remaining stock of outdated items To define alternative items and replacement items Use up and alternative materials and customized items |