Follow-Up Activities

In Advanced Returns Management, you must specify what you want to happen to the returned goods when you are creating the initial returns document and after the goods have been inspected. You do this by selecting a follow-up activity.

Features

The follow-up activity determines which documents the system creates automatically. For more information, see Automatic Creation of Follow-Up Documents.

Only certain follow-up activities are relevant for the different types of return at different points in the process. Therefore, only those that are relevant in a given situation are available for selection.

The following table explains all of the follow-up activities available in Advanced Returns Management and where they can be selected.

Follow-Up Activity	Description	Available in Returns Document
Receive into Plant	Returned goods are posted to the appropriate stock type (for example, blocked stock)	Customer returns order
Immediately Move to Free Available Stock	Returned goods are posted to the appropriate stock type (for example, unrestricted-use stock).	Customer returns order
Immediately Move to Scrap	Returned goods are posted to the appropriate stock type.	Customer returns order
Ship to Other Plant	Returned goods are sent to another plant. If you select this activity in a customer returns order, the goods are posted to own stock first.	Customer returns order, returns stock transport order, material inspection in the warehouse
Ship to Vendor	Returned goods are sent to an external vendor. If you select this activity in a customer returns order, the goods are posted to own stock first.	Customer returns order, returns purchase order, material inspection in the warehouse
Ship to Vendor Via Other Plant	Returned goods are sent to an external vendor via another plant. If you select this activity in a customer returns order, the goods are posted to own stock first.	Customer returns order, returns stock transport order, material inspection in the warehouse
Direct Shipment to Vendor	Returned goods are sent directly to an external vendor without being posted to own stock first.	Customer returns order
Inspection at Customer Site	You select this activity on a preliminary basis until you have received the results of the inspection and you can specify a definitive activity.	Customer returns order
Delivery into Plant — Bulk Returns	You select this activity when the exact volume of the returned goods is not yet known. An inbound delivery can be posted and when the goods are physically received, you can update the returns order.	Customer returns order
Transfer to Free Available Stock	Returned goods are posted to the appropriate stock type and storage location.	Material inspection in the warehouse
Transfer to Scrap	Returned goods are posted to the appropriate stock type	Material inspection in the warehouse
Material Remains at Customer Site	The goods remain at customer site, where they are scrapped. The customer receives credit.	Customer returns order
Immediately Move to Specified Stock	Returned goods are posted to the appropriate stock type, (for example, quality-inspection stock.	Customer returns order
Transfer to Specified Stock	Returned goods are posted to the appropriate stock type and storage location.	Material inspection in the warehouse
Send Back to Customer	Returned goods are sent back to the customer.	Material inspection in the warehouse
Send Back to Last Plant	Returned goods are sent from the receiving plant back to the supplying plant.	Material inspection in the warehouse
No Further Activities	You select this activity if you want to stop logistical follow-up completely.	Material inspection in the warehouse

Note Note

All of the above follow-up activities are activated by default in the system. You can deactivate any follow-up activities that you don't want to use and you can also change their default names in Customizing for Advanced Returns Management by choosing Start of the navigation path General Settings Next navigation step Activate and Rename Follow-Up Activities End of the navigation path .

End of the note.