VSS Vehicle Life Cycle Management

You use this function to influence how the life cycle of a vehicle changes when you execute an action. When you create a vehicle, you specify a business transaction type. The business transaction type describes the vehicle with regard to the business process required and reflects the different vehicle sales scenarios and life cycle phases, such as new, owned by customer, used, or replacement car. During the vehicle's life cycle, the business transaction type might change, for example from New Vehicle to Used Vehicle.
You can use the following business transaction types to cover phases of a vehicle life cycle:

• NEC (New Vehicle)
  A vehicle owned or to be owned by the dealer which should be sold as a new vehicle
• USC (Used Vehicle)
  A vehicle owned or to be owned by the dealer which should be sold as a used vehicle
• CUS (Customer Vehicle)
  A vehicle that belongs to a customer. This can be either a vehicle which was never owned by the dealership and is only in the system because the dealership services the vehicle, or it is a vehicle that the dealership sold to a customer.
• RPL (Replacement Vehicle)
  A vehicle that is used in the service process as replacement vehicle.

In Customizing for Vehicle Sales and Service you can define additional business transaction types.
Business transaction types are usually assigned to different valuation classes. You can specify how valuation data is handled for vehicles. This allows vehicle stock values to be posted to the same, or different, G/L accounts depending on the material type.

Integration

Certain business process steps for vehicle actions have been moved into the life cycle management so that you can control the behavior of these actions in the system. You see the vehicle actions in the Customizing for Vehicle Sales and Service (VSS) > Vehicle > Vehicle Master > Vehicle Life Cycle Management > Define Life Cycle Control, where you link the vehicle actions to so-called vehicle life cycle acts.
A vehicle life cycle act is not a complete or standalone vehicle action but part of a vehicle action. It can precede or follow the vehicle action to which it is linked. A life cycle act can be considered as an encapsulated business process step such as creating an internal order, changing valuation class, changing business transaction type or even deleting sales organization data.
The vehicle life cycle acts are never executed for their own sake. They are always assigned to a certain action and therefore to a certain step in the vehicle life cycle.

Prerequisites

You have made the settings in the following Customizing activities:

• Vehicle Sales and Service (VSS) > Vehicle > Vehicle Master > Vehicle Life Cycle Management > Define Life Cycle Control
• Vehicle Sales and Service (VSS) > Vehicle > Vehicle Master > Define Business Transaction
• Vehicle Sales and Service (VSS) > Vehicle > Vehicle Master > Vehicle Control > Define VMS Action

• Logistics Execution > Vehicle Management System (VMS) > Control Data > Define Action Controls and Define Action Matrices
   

Features

In the following the most common changes of business transaction types and the relevant data changes in the system are explained. This reflects the standard settings.

Creation of Vehicle
If you create a vehicle, you can only use one of the following business transaction types:

• NEC (New Vehicle)
• USC (Used Vehicle)
• CUS (Customer Vehicle) (created in services)

You cannot create a replacement vehicle initially.

New Vehicle to Customer Vehicle
The business transaction type changes from new vehicle to customer vehicle at the end of the sales process (for example at outbound delivery creation time). And from now on the vehicle is in its service life cycle. The system performs the following data changes:

• Change business transaction type from NEC to CUS

New Vehicle to Used Vehicle
After action QTIP (Prepare Repurchase) the system performs the following data changes:

• Change business transaction type from NEC to USC
• Change the vehicle options to not purchase order relevant
• Change the vehicle options to not sales order relevant
• Create new batch and valuation type if not available in trade-in plant
• Create new CO internal order
• Delete vendor/supplier
• Delete customer/debitor
• Delete sales organization
• Delete distribution channel
• Delete sales date
• Delete vehicle partners

Customer Vehicle to Used Vehicle
The business transaction type changes from customer vehicle to used vehicle, when a used vehicle is bought from a customer (before the purchase order is created). The system performs the following data changes:

• Change business transaction type from CUS to USC
• Create new batch and valuation type
• Create new CO internal order
• Delete vendor
• Delete debitor
• Delete sales organization
• Delete distribution channel
• Delete sales date
• Delete partner
• Delete margin taxation indicator

Used Vehicle to Customer Vehicle
The business transaction type changes from used vehicle to customer vehicle, when a used vehicle is sold to a customer (for example at goods issue time). The system performs the following data changes:

• Change business transaction type from USC to CUS

New Vehicle to Replacement Vehicle
When a dealer is purchasing a new vehicle and is using it as replacement vehicle (the vehicle is not primarily for sales) the business transaction type changes to replacement vehicle. The system performs the following data changes:

• Change business transaction type from NEC to RPL

Replacement Vehicle to Used Vehicle
When a dealer stops the usage of a vehicle as replacement vehicle, for example because the vehicle is for sale now, the vehicle changes to a used vehicle. The system performs the following data changes:

• Change business transaction type from RPL to USC
• Delete sales order relevance of options

Activities

In the VMS Vehicle History view of the vehicle you can see the different phases in the vehicle life cycle grouped via the business transaction type. In this overview the system shows you which action took place in which business transaction type of the vehicle.

Example

During the vehicle life cycle the business transaction type can change as follows:

1. Initial -> NEC
   A vehicle is created and purchased as a new vehicle by the dealer.
2. NEC -> RPL
   After the vehicle has arrived, the dealer decides to use the vehicle as a replacement car. It is not planned to sell the vehicle yet. The vehicle is transferred to asset management.
3. RPL -> USC
   After some time the vehicle should be sold. As the vehicle was used as a replacement car for some time, it is now a used vehicle.
4. USC -> CUS
   The vehicle was sold. When it is invoiced and handed over, its service life cycle has started.
5. CUS -> USC
   Some years later, the vehicle is traded-in as a used vehicle again. It is prepared for sale again.