Knowledge Management

Question:
Hi SAP MM experts,
This is reagrding physical inventory cycle counting method in SAP 4.6C. I have a material (MAT1), for which the cycle count indicator is set as D in the storage view. The indicator D means that, this material needs to be counted only once for a year or do the physical inventory only once year. We counted this material yesterday. For this year it is fine but we want to count this same material(MAT1) or do a physical inventory for this material in next year in May itself and not in December month nexy year. The reaosn is we have a lot of other materials for which the the cycle cout indicator is set as D. We are unbale to count all the materials at the end of the year. So we want some materials to get counted well before December month of each year. But all these materials need to be counted only once in year so we do not want to change the cycle count indicator for these materials and need cycle count indicator D all the time. So the question here is becuase we counted this material yesterday and posted the physical inventory document for this material yesterday that is 12/06/2002 (12 is the month here), will system allow us to count this material (MAT1) in May next year or
will system allow to count this material only i n next december? Here will system look into last count date of the material (MAT1) that is yeareday 12/06/2002 and allow us to count this material (MAT1) only next year.
Which scenario is correct here?
Thanks.
Answer:
Using MICN Cycle Counting next count date is December next year as long you dont change the CC indicator for your material.
But you can always count the material as often as you want via MI01 or MI31.
Answer:
Hi Svetja,
Thanks for your reply. We do not want t ocount as often as possible as it is mentioned before, we do not have tat much time to count so many times and also this material (MAT1) needs to be counted only once in year.That is why the CC indicator 'D' is selected for this material. Either MICN or MI31, will system allow us to count this material (MAT1) in May next year, the reason is we counted and posted the physical inventory document very recently in december. So whether system looks for the last count date and allow only in next december becuase of the CC indicator 'D' set in the material master?
or is it that eventhough the material is set with the CC indicator 'D' and eventhough the material is counted and posted recently in december, still system will allow us to count and post for this same material (MAT1) in May next year?
Which is correct here?
Thanks
Answer:
Hello,
we exactly had the same when we started CC and very quickly found a way to "smoothen" the counting efforts over the year: In transaction MICN you can import a textfile with part numbers with CC indicator "D" for example. Then enter planned count date 010103 to 311203 (of course do not do it now, do it next year). After creating the counting document you can change manually the count date to whatever date you want. This procedure is only necessary in the first year in order to balance your counting workload.
Try that, bye
Ralf
Answer:
If you enter only 1st of May to 31st of May in transaction MICN you will not get a document for a D-item with last count date from this December.
MI31 looks as well for last count date, but only checks if it was already counted in the actual year. If already counted, then you need to select the incl. already counted materials/batches to be able to count it again in the same year.
If you carry out a physical count via MI01 or MI31 before the material is due to count via MICN it gets a new last count date e.g. May (from your example) and since it is a D-item which only needs to be counted once a year it will not appear on Decembers counting document for Cycle Count.
Thats how we smoothend the counting effort in the first year after go live.
I like Ralfs approach as well, first time I see a second solution.
Answer:
Hy,
we have the same smoothing problem and we just developped a specific program to smooth the inventory during the year.
1. In a specific table we enter per warehouse the % of capacity for
inventory per mounth.
ex : JAN : 5 % FEB : 10 % MAR : 10 % .... DEC : x % SUM=100%
2. We analyse all the items due for cycle counting and compute the total
number of inventory we have to do in the year.
3. With the table (1) we compute the number of counting we have to do
per mounth.
4. We compute a 'LAST DATE of INVENTORY' for each item in order that
the cycle counting will purpose us inventories 'checking' to the profile.
This program must be scheduled at the end of the year, after the last inventories.
The problem is that we have to change the Last date of inventory in MARD.
So we extended MARD with a save of this field at the moment whe change it. We can then allways give the real last date of inventory.
But this date is false in the standard SAP reports which use the original MARD Field.
We'll use this program for the first time at the end of this year and don't have a real experience of it.