Load Building 

Use

Load building is used to:

·        Minimize transport costs by making best possible use of the means of transport (for example, ship, rail freight container, truck)

·        Minimize the merchandise in the warehouse by placing a purchase order at the latest possible moment.

·        Achieve the best purchase prices, for example, by ordering complete truck loads.

To this end, if possible, SAP Retail optimizes quantities for procurement, converts existing purchase requisitions to purchase orders, groups purchase orders together and, if necessary, also generates new purchase orders (for example, if the range of coverage is increased). Several purchase orders are combined using a collective number.

When performing calculations, load building does not take into account scales, free-goods discounts, and target quantities and values defined in contracts. For example, although the target quantity in a contract is 50 boxes and the target value is 10,000 euros, these restrictions will be exceeded if the load building calculation for the range of coverage results in higher quantities.

For more information on how load building is integrated into the order optimizing process, see Ordering: Order Optimizing and the first diagram in Ordering.

Prerequisites

·        Load building is part of the business function Retail Enhancements (ISR_RETAILSYSTEM) that you usually activate with the Retail business function set.

·        The vendor for whom the system is to perform order optimizing is an external vendor.

·        A restriction profile is assigned to the vendor. This includes information on the minimum and maximum loading capacity for the means of transport used.

A truck must transport a minimum load of 300 kg, but can only carry a maximum of 27 pallets.

You maintain restriction profiles in Customizing for Materials Management under Purchasing ® Order Optimizing ® Load Building.

Think about the restrictions you want to use (such as minimum or maximum quantities, multiple quantities, weight or value).

·        For automatic load building, the Automatic Purchase Order indicator must be set in the purchasing data in the vendor master and the Automatic Purchase Orders Allowed indicator must be set in the master records for the articles involved.

·        For load building to be used properly, article dimensions, weights and volumes have to be maintained in the master data (see Articles: Basic Data).

·        If you use load building, you should also use forecasting so that the system can calculate the range of coverage of the stock and determine the additional items and quantities required. You have to decide which forecasting method to use for each combination of article and site.

For more information on this topic, see MM – Consumption-Based Planning: Forecast Parameters.

·        Load building is based on the purchase requisitions and purchase orders created in requirements planning. You have to decide which planning method to use for each combination of article and site.

Alternatively, you can configure the control parameters for automatic load building so that instead of accessing existing requirements elements, the system generates requirements directly from the forecast values.

For more information on this topic, see Requirements Planning.

·        For many articles, it is better to place orders in a larger logistical unit (such as 3 pallets) rather than forecasting your exact requirements in the base unit of measure (such as 288 pieces). In this case, you should use dynamic rounding profiles. Rounding profiles make it easier for you to fulfill restrictions, for example, to fill an entire truckload. You have to decide how to define your rounding profiles and to which unit of measure the system should round off the quantities.

For more information about this topic, see Dynamic Rounding Profiles.

·        When you implement load building, you should begin with a smaller selection of vendors and one distribution center to gather initial experience with the effects of load building. You can then include further vendors and distribution centers as time goes on.

Decide on the vendors and distribution centers for which you want to use load building. You can use vendor sub-ranges as splitting criteria for purchase orders. The system then optimizes documents for each vendor subrange.

Procedure

Load building can be run automatically or manually. Both methods differ in terms of the prerequisites that apply and the functions that are available. They can also be used in different combinations:

·        You allow the system to simulate automatic load building and you then manually convert the result in the results list (if necessary, without the purchase order being flagged as optimal through the assignment of a collective number) to purchase orders.

·        You always allow the automatic load building program to generate purchase orders. You can optimize and flag optimized purchase orders (achieved by assigning a collective number) further in manual load building.

·        You only allow load building to create purchase orders when the system can flag the purchase order as optimized. You optimize quantities using the automatic load building program. You only use manual load building in cases where the automatic load building program cannot find an optimal solution.

The following process variants are useful:

Variant 1

...

...

       1.      Starting automatic load building as a simulation run

See Order Optimizing: Automatic Load Building

       2.      Controlling results in the results list and convert to purchase orders.

See Order Optimizing: Results List from Automatic Load Building

       3.      Flagging optimized purchase orders by assigning a collective number

See Order Optimizing: Manual Load Building

       4.      Using additional quantities to enhance purchase orders that have not been optimized

See Additional Planning

Variant 2

...

...

       1.      Automatic load building with immediate creation of purchase orders

See Order Optimizing: Automatic Load Building

       2.      Controlling results and flagging optimized purchase orders by assigning a collective number

See Order Optimizing: Manual Load Building

       3.      Using additional quantities to enhance purchase orders that have not been optimized

See Additional Planning

Variant 3

...

...

       1.      Automatic purchase order creation from purchase requisitions, no automatic load building

See Automatic Generation of Purchase Orders from Purchase Requisitions

       2.      Controlling purchase orders, optimizing by combining several purchase orders and flagging the optimized purchase orders by assigning a collective number

See Order Optimizing: Manual Load Building

       3.      Using additional quantities to enhance purchase orders that have not been optimized

See Additional Planning

Variant 4

...

...

       1.      Creating purchase orders manually

See Creating a Purchase Order Manually (Vendor Known)

       2.      Controlling purchase orders, optimizing by combining several purchase orders and flagging the optimized purchase orders by assigning a collective number

See Order Optimizing: Manual Load Building

       3.      Using additional quantities to enhance purchase orders that have not been optimized

See Additional Planning

 

The following special cases are only of minor importance in load building or cannot always be completely valuated when load building is performed:

·        Achieving better scaled conditions

·        Discounts such as free-goods discounts

·        Additional packaging

·        Reduced packaging

As a result, and due to the impact this would have on performance, the system does not take these factors into account.

Result

Purchase orders that fulfill all restrictions are bundled logically through the assignment of a collective number and are flagged as optimized.