First step is to implement two SAP Notes on your SAP S/4HANA system (release 2021 or above), as follows:
There is one more thing to do before the actual synchronization, and that is to set up the cloud connector from SAP IPD to your SAP S/4HANA system in your BTP cockpit. For this, there are detailed instructions available on the Help Portal. You also have to have the ConfigurationPackageActivator role assigned to you, because this role allows you to perform the synchronization of property configurations between the systems.
After all of these prerequisites are done, you are ready to synchronize the property configurations from your S/4HANA system to your SAP IPD system.
Please bear in mind that the intended use for the hybrid specification management is that the leading system is the S/4HANA system, therefore any changes in the property configurations should be done there and synchronized to your IPD system. What’s more, the best is to have your SAP IPD specification management database empty before the synchronization, because if there are for example conflicting IDs, the mapping of the properties can’t happen.
Synchronization itself is always based on property trees. The reason behind this is that most probably your company doesn’t want to synchronize all items from your S/4HANA system, only the ones that will take part in supplier collaboration or other activities provided by SAP IPD.
Therefore the first decision point is: which property trees and underlying properties you would like to synchronize? When the property trees are decided, the next question is: what type of properties and fields does it contain?
What to Check in your SAP S/4HANA System
Before synchronization, review the value assignment types within your property tree. Here is a little help with that.
The hybrid specification management scenario supports the following types of value assignment types:
- Type A – these will be modelled as attribute properties on the SAP IPD side
- Type B, C, RMS-D and RMS-N – these will be modelled as composition properties on the SAP IPD side
VAT Type A
For type A value assignment types, only the following characteristics are supported:
- Character based
- Phrase enabled character based
- Numeric
- Date
Please consider when synchronizing, that time and currency type characteristic are not taken over currently, and also multivalue characteristics are not supported. This means that the mentioned property fields are excluded from synchronization.
For phrase enabled fields, please make sure that there is a phrase set assigned to the respective characteristic. The synchronization takes phrase sets into consideration and only these phrases included in the chosen property’s assigned phrase sets will be created on SAP IPD side.
VAT Type B and C
For B and C type composition properties, namely listings and standard composition, the values that can be added to the composition are specifications on the S/4HANA side. However, we don’t want to synchronize all specifications from the S/4HANA system, therefore the synchronization only happens if there are specific specification types set in the Customizing of the respective value assignment types. If there is no specification type set, then the respective property won’t be created on the SAP IPD side.
If there is a specification type set for B and C type value assignment types, then there is another decision to make: how should these items be created on the SAP IPD side?
Let’s go a little deeper into this.
In SAP Integrated Product Development, composition is modelled a little bit differently from SAP S/4HANA specification management. For the simplest of components, that only need a name and maybe translation, SAP IPD introduceda lean object called “composition items”. These always have a composition item type (for example nutrients or allergens), and they can be grouped arbitrarily.
When there is a composition property to synchronize, you as an administrator have to decide how to replicate the possible values of that property. You do that based on specification types, in the Synchronize Data app, with the Configuration for Composition Properties tile.
Here you have to add each specification type that is used as possible value for a B or C type property, and decide if the specifications within that specification type should be replicated as specifications or composition items.
Composition items are simpler objects than specifications, which can be a pro and a con, based on the need of your company.
If you choose composition item, there is no further setting to do.
If you choose specifications, then you’ll need a status profile set for them, and also determine a released status and an in work status for them. Remember that these have to have direct status transition between each other, since the updating of these items happens with the proper statuses.
Important: after setting this in the configuration and doing the first synchronization, the chosen setting in the Configuration for Composition Properties tile is not modifiable anymore. Why? Of course because it would lead to inconsequencies.
When synchronizing a C type composition property, component types also come into the picture. Here the synchronization creates all component types in the S/4HANA system, but creates a role in composition group on the SAP IPD side that will be assigned to the respective property, and it will only contain the component types (here named as roles in composition) that are set in the S/4HANA Customizing (Specify Context-Specific component types) for the given value assignment type. If nothing is set here, then all component types can be used as values, and the same will be set on the SAP IPD side.
VAT Type RMS-D and RMS-N
For RMS-D and RMS-N type properties, the decision is very similar. You need to decide if the specifications that can be the values in the qualitative or quantitative composition should be composition items or specifications on the SAP IPD side. Here however, there is another Customizing taken into consideration: you need to take the specification type from the respective recipe calculation, and make sure that is added to the configuration.
In the case of RMS-D and RMS-N type properties, it is also very important to mention that SAP IPD Formulation uses composition items for calculation, therefore if you plan to use Formulation with Specification management within SAP IPD, then you are recommended to create composition items for qualitative and quantitative composition.
For RMS-D type properties, exception values are also needed. It is handled similarly to component types: all exception values in the S/4HANA system are replicated to the SAP IPD system, and then a qualitative statement group is created for the given property, which only consists of the exception values specified in the customizing Assign Exception Values to Specification Types and Specify Context-Specific Exception Values.
Last but not least, for RMS-N type properties, both component types and exception values are needed, but they are handled in the same way as explained before.
Actual Steps to Take
The functionality is well documented on the Help Portal, please go through the topic and subtopics as well before starting the configuration process.
Integrating with SAP S/4HANA Specification Management | SAP Help Portal
So before synchronizing property trees from S/4HANA to SAP IPD, please take your time to design and review the above mentioned points, and decide when needed. Then, if you have composition properties, add the relevant specification types to the Configurations for Composition Properties tile. After all of those are ready, you can add the property trees and synchronize your systems.
Watch out for errors and warnings, and resolve them to be able to completely synchronize your property trees.
Remember, that the leading system is always the S/4HANA system, so modifying replicated objects on the SAP IPD side can lead to inconsistencies and even the impossibility of transferring values, therefore no modification is recommended on them.
Zsofia is a development manager at SAP IPD, working in the PLM area for 10+ years.
