Backorder processing 

Purpose

You can use backorder processing to override the results of the availability check and redistribute confirmed quantities in certain or all sales orders, for example, if customer demand for a product exceeds the supply. That is, previously confirmed quantities are added to the available quantity and taken into account for the sales orders. You can set criteria such as priority or importance of the customer to specify which sales orders get which quantities.

You can carry out backorder processing in batch or interactively.

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites apply:

·        You carry out backorder processing in SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO) Release 3.0A and later releases.

For information on backorder processing, see the SAP Library for SAP Supply Chain Management under SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO) under Global Available-to-Promise (Global ATP) ® Backorder Processing.

·        Availability check and planning must both take place in SAP APO. For more information, see Availability Check and Planning in SAP APO.

Process Flow

The sales orders can be transferred from CRM Enterprise to SAP APO in the following ways:

·        Initial transfer of sales orders from CRM Enterprise to SAP APO (for example, when you set up a new SAP APOsystem). You carry out initial transfer with the report CRM_APO_INITIAL_LOAD.

·        Online transfer of individual sales orders when you create them in CRM Enterprise via Telesales or Internet Sales

The following illustration shows the process flow for backorder processing:

 

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       1.      You start backorder processing for a product in SAP APO. For this purpose, the confirmed quantities of the sales order items are added to the available quantity.

The system carries out availability check for all sales order items separately. If a sales order item has subitems originating from rules-based availability check, the planner can control if the original customer request (that is, the higher-level item) or the existing substitutes (that is, the subitems) should be checked.

The results of the backorder processing are transferred to the sales order in CRM Enterprise.

See also Customizing in SAP APO under Advanced Planning and Optimization ® Basis Settings ® Integration ® Publication.

       2.      The sales orders are automatically changed in CRM Enterprise, that is, confirmation schedule lines are changed, deleted or created. Changes in the confirmation schedule lines can include confirmed quantities and dates.

For each item that has been changed or created due to backorder processing, the status rescheduled is set automatically. This allows you to locate sales order items that have been rescheduled or reconfirmed and to inform the customer about those changes.

The saved changes are transferred back to SAP APO.

If a sales order in CRM Enterprise cannot be changed, then CRM Enterprise discards all changes for this sales order and the errors are written in a log. For example, a sales order is blocked by a user, or a sales order has been changed after backorder processing has started.

       3.      Just as when you change a sales order manually, the changes in the sales orders are transferred from CRM Enterprise to SAP APO and SAP R/3.

Result

Using the report CRM_APO_LOG_DISPLAY in CRM Enterprise, you can display

·         Details on the transfer of the sales orders from CRM Enterprise to SAP APO

·         Possible errors that occurred during the transfer of the results from SAP APO to CRM Enterprise

Using transaction /SAPAPO/C3 in SAP APO, you can display in the application log possible errors that occurred during the transfer of data from CRM Enterprise to SAP APO.