Question no 3909 : Purchasing Group

In SAP MM as at ECC6.0 EhP6, which of the following is TRUE about Purchasing Group ?

(more than one answers)

A)  It is assigned to a Purchasing Organization in the Enterprise Structure Configuration.
B)  Purchasing Groups are unique for each Purchasing Organization.
C)  A Purchasing Group is assigned to the User in the IMG.
D)  Purchasing Group in the Material Master is defaulted to the Purchase Order Header.
E)  Purchasing Group in the Material Master is defaulted to the Purchasing Info Record.
.

Answers: D, E

A, B) Purchasing Group is not Enterprise Structure related, it is independent of Purchasing Organization and Plant.

Purchasing Group is defined in the IMG path - MM - Purchasing - Purchasing Group

(the Purchasing Group is neither assigned to Company Code, Plant, or Purchasing Organization in the Customizing)

In the example below found in SAP IDES, looks like the configurator enter "People" as the Description, and there is even a field for Telephone of the Person/Buyer. BUT this does not mean that the Purchasing Group is assigned to the USERs in the IMG. (HOWEVER, you can use Authorization Object M_BEST_EKG Purchasing Group in connection to PR and PO via PFCG and then assign the Authorization Profile to the relevant SAP Users. 

Note: SAP DEFINEs the "Purchasing Group" as a 3 alphanumeric field to represent

a group of buyer
an individual buyer

who are responsible for procurement of material or service for day to day activities.

D, E) Purchasing Group can bet set in the Plant level data of the Purchasing data view in the Material Master and the field is Mandatory if the Procurement type is "Internal" in the MRP2 data view. This field can be initially defaulted to the Purchasing Info Record. 

The "Purchasing Group" field can be found in:

Material Master - Purchasing data view at the Plant level

Vendor Master - Purchasing Organization data view (last check only available in S/4)

Purchasing Info Record - Purchasing Organization data view (with or without Plant level)

Purchase Requisition - Item level

Purchase Order - Header level

RFQ/Quotation - Header level

Contract - Header level

Scheduling Agreement - Header level

**** the reason why SAP did not define Purchase Group at the Item level of RFQ/Quotation, PO, Contract, or Scheduling agreement is because they should be only ONE Buyer or Buyer Group responsible for these EXTERNAL Purchasing Documents. It is ILLOGICAL for MORE than ONE Buyer or Buyer Group to be responsible for each external Purchasing Document. Other then PR, all other External Purchasing Document Release Strategy are at the Header level; so using Header Purchasing Group for each External Purchasing Organization as Authorization influencing factor to determine the Authorization requirements will then also be correct. 

**** however, for Purchase Requisition which is an INTERNAL Purchasing Document, the Purchasing Group is at the ITEM level. This is acceptable because a USER/DEPARTMENT can request for different Materials and Services in a Single Purchasing Requisition. Purchasing Requisition ITEMs in the SAME Purchase Requisition can then have Material and Services that contain different Purchasing Groups. In the PR to PO conversion process, the Buyer or Buyer Group can then filter Purchase Requisition ITEMs that they are responsible to be converted to RFQ, PO, Contract, or Scheduling Agreement. AND since only ONE Buyer or ONE Buyer Group is responsible for EACH of these EXTERNAL Purchasing Documents; therefore, the Purchasing Group is at the HEADER of these EXTERNAL Purchasing Documents. 

**** if is IMPORTANT to ensure that each EXTERNAL Purchasing Document (RFQ, PO, Contract, Scheduling Agreement) contains Material or Service that belong to the SAME Purchasing Group which is recorded at the HEADER of the EXTERNAL Purchasing Document; then only the Purchasing Analytics for Purchasing Group will be correct. 

The Purchasing Group in the Material Master can also be defaulted to the Purchase Requisition item. 

However, the Purchasing Group cannot be found in the Purchase Order Document ITEM level "VIEW"; it is also sometimes confusing that there is also a Purchasing Group in the Purchase Order HEADER which is neither defaulted from the Material Master nor Info Record! In ME21N, the User can use the HEADER Default data to default the Purchasing Group for this HEADER Purchasing Group. 

So, the use of the Purchasing Group in the Purchase Requisition ITEM and Purchase Order HEADER is different. 

Example usage like below (but this is up to the Consultant and Customer discussion results):

Purchasing Group in the PR ITEM - since this is usually defaulted from the Material Master (one of the purpose is to represent the person/buyer or group of people/buyers responsible for the Material in the Plant). Review the use of Purchasing Group in ME5A (PR List Display).

Purchasing Group in the PO HEADER - since this is defaulted by USER default setting in ME21N or manually entered (one of the purpose is to represent the department or purchasing section responsible for the Material procurement in the Plant). Review the use of Purchasing Group in ME5L (PO List Display).

When using ME59N, Auto PR to PO conversion, use the "Purchasing Group" as a criteria to ensure only Material and Service that have the same Purchasing Group in the PR items are combined into the same Purchase Order. AND of course the correct Buyer or Buyer Group (Purchasing Group) is performing this task. 

**** Do note that in S/4HANA, there is also a Purchasing Group in the new Vendor Master which is the Business Partner, you can find the field in the Purchasing Organization data view in the Business Partner. Initial testing seems that the Purchasing Group is the Vendor Pur Org data view is higher priority than the Material Master for its default to the Purchasing Info Record or the Purchase Requisition item with Source Determination. (However, do test this again in the S/4 version you are working on).