Use

You useAPOto plan critical, externally procured products (subject to long replenishment lead times, for example), or to gain an overview of the total BOM structure within one system. You can use planning tools and planning functions, such as finite scheduling of products (including externally procured products) and heuristics of purchase order quantity optimization, inAPOto efficiently plan critical materials that are procured externally.

You can use the purchasing information now available in theAPOsystem to improve collaboration between plant and vendor. For example, when processing scheduling agreements, you can send releases by email directly to the vendor or allow the vendor to acknowledge the releases over the Internet. For more information, see also Procurement Scheduling Agreement .

Integration

You can transfer the necessary master data from the connected OLTP system. The orders created inAPOfor external procurement can be passed on to the OLTP system to be converted into purchase orders.This means that the system constantly contains the most current information.

For more information, see Mass Transfer and Mass Conversion of Orders .

Prerequisites

Before you can use the external procurement functions inAPO, you must transfer the relevant master data from the OLTP system using theAPOCore Interface (CIF):

Material master records (created inAPOas product master)

Vendor master records (created inAPOas locations)

Purchasing info records (created as external procurement relationships inAPO)

Scheduling agreements (created as external procurement relationships inAPO)

Contracts (created as external procurement relationships inAPO)

Features

An external procurement order inAPOcan cover both procurement from vendors (external suppliers) as well as procurement from another plant. Vendors and plants are both displayed as locations inAPO

If you want to procure a product externally, you can use scheduling agreements, contracts and purchasing info records from your OLTP system. The relevant data is made available in yourAPOsystem in the form of external procurement relationships.

The following special forms of procurement are possible inAPO

Subcontracting

Consignment

Stock transfer for stock transport scheduling agreements.

This means that all procurement functions and purchasing information are now available to you in theAPOsystem. You can also use quota arrangements to apportion requirements among different sources according to your wishes.

Another advantage of planning externally procured products inAPOis that resources can be used to schedule external procurement orders in Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling . This allows you to schedule goods receipt, transportation, and goods issue exactly, taking account of capacities.

You can also trigger conversion of externally procured orders into purchase orders directly inAPOThat is to say, you have complete control over the order in theAPOsystem.

In contrast to the otherSAPAPOapplications, Capable-to-Match (CTM) takes the resources for goods issue, transportation, and goods receipt into account as well when scheduling external procurement orders. This applies for every activity for which a resource is defined and whose duration is greater than 0 (null).

For more information, seeSAPNote 1383835.