Material Determination
In SAP Sales and distribution When a product is under engineering change or there is a bug and you have another product, which is acceptable as replacement, then material determination can be used to set this scenario. Old product can be replaced by new product as per the launch date of the product. Material determination is also called as “Product selectionâ€.
It uses condition technique for material. Material determination procedure is based on the sales document type. With condition technique, criteria can be defined and condition records can be maintained. Standard material determination procedure for order type OR is A00001. Standard material determination condition type is A001.
With standard setup, condition record for swap materials is maintained for “material enteredâ€. It means in standard SAP, material determination is triggered when material is entered in the sales order. Additional criteria can be added by customizing condition type A001. Material condition records are maintained in the main transaction menu in master data.
Swapping can be based on certain business conditions. These are called as Substitution reasons. For each substitution reason, you can define substitution strategy. SAP System will automatically replace product as per material determination record after carrying out availability check or can give list of substitute products for users to check and select or replace material without availability check.
It can also control whether both substituted and substitute material can be displayed in the sales order or only substitute material is to be displayed in the sales order. It controls printing of substituted or substitute material on output types like order confirmations. In delivery, no material determination is carried out for items copied from the order. Material determination in a delivery is carried out for new items if material determination has been activated for the corresponding sales document type.
Master data of Material condition record
Material is HT-1037 Substitute material is HT-1137
Scenario 1 – Substitution reason 0001, Advertising campaign Menu path is as below. Transaction code is VB11
Click on 
Click on 
Click on 
Enter Substituted material as HT-1037 and Substitute material as HT-1137. Put substitution reason as 0001.
Click on 
At the bottom of the screen, you will get message
Now, Let us create sales order
Click on 
Transaction code is VA01. To use this, type VA01 as shown below in the space at the left hand side, top corner.
Enter the details as below
Enter Sold-to, Ship-to, PO number as shown below.
Enter material, HT-1037 in the sales order line and order quantity as 1.
Press “Enter†key on the keyboard.
HT-1137 replaces HT-1037 directly w/o giving warning as configuration for substitution reason 0001 is set for no warning. There is only one line with substitute and not 2 lines each for original and substitute because “outcome†for substitution reason 0001 is set for the same.
Scenario 2 – Substitution reason 0004, Availability
If we use substitution reason, 0004, outcome will show substitute as sub-item.
Let us change in material condition record, substitution reason.
Menu path is as below. Transaction code is VB12
Click on 
Click on 
Click on 
Click on 
Click on 
At the bottom of the screen, you will get message
Let us create Sales order
Enter the details as below
Enter Sold-to, Ship-to, PO number as shown below.
Enter material, HT-1037 in the sales order line and order quantity as 1.
Press “Enter†key on the keyboard.
It shows material entered, HT-1037 in the 1st line.
For determination of sub-item, IM Configuration of “Assign item categories†should be as below.
Please note TAX is item category for Non-stock item.
Item usage for higher level item should be
Item usage for sub-item should be 
Scenario 3 – Substitution reason 0005.
User is given pop-up for selection of substitute material on the sales order screen.
Change condition record – Put substitution reason as 0005 and add alternative materials, which you want to be available to user in pop-up. In scenario 1, even though such alternative materials are maintained, they will not appear for selection. System will replace the material 1st in the list and if available replace it automatically.
Transaction code is VB12.
Put the material entered as HT-1037
Once inside the change screen, select line with material HT-1037 and from Menu – Go To – Alternative materials.
Enter the alternative materials, example – HT-1070.
The list will now show 1st material as HT-1137, for which record already existed.
2nd line shows new material added.
Create Sales order (As done in the 1st 2 scenarios) Transaction code is VA01
Once you enter HT-1037 in sales order line item, it gives pop-up as per the list of materials.
Select the material from the list, which you want to substitute. So here, control lies with the user. Select HT-1070 and
Click 
HT-1070 is now determined as selected by the user.
