Process documentationDeployment

 

In this process the system determines the distribution of goods within a bill of distribution (BOD). Based on the current demands determined by distribution requirements planning (DRP), deployment decides how to distribute the goods and, if necessary, initiates this within the BOD. Goods that are not distributed by deployment stay at the parent location.

Deployment is either triggered by goods receipt at a parent location (push deployment), or by current demand during the replenishment lead time of a child location (pull deployment). For more information, see Deployment Modes.

Another type of redistribution of goods is inventory balancing.

Prerequisites

  • You have set up the master data for deployment.

  • You have configured all distribution requirements planning (DRP) services.

  • You have made the following settings in Customizing for Advanced Planning and Optimization, under Start of the navigation path Supply Chain Planning Next navigation step Service Parts Planning (SPP) Next navigation step Deployment End of the navigation path.

    • Define Service Profile for Deployment

    • Make General Settings for Deployment

    • Define Priority Tiers and Sequence Rules

    For more information about these settings, see the Implementation Guide (IMG).

  • You have defined a planning profile for deployment and a planning profile for push deployment from supplier in the Customizing for SCM Basis, under Start of the navigation path Planning Service Manager Next navigation step Define Planning Profile End of the navigation path.

    For more information, see Use of the Planning Service Manager in SPP and PSM Services for Deployment.

Process

  1. Ensure that demand is available at the parent locations and that a distributable quantity is available at the parent locations.

  2. The system divides the BOD into sub-BODs, since the deployment decision only ever reaches from one level of a BOD to the next. Sub-BODs are extracts of a BOD that consists of one single parent location and its immediate child locations. When the system has made a deployment decision for a sub-BOD, it then considers the next sub-BOD, and so on.

  3. The system calculates the net demand of each location in a sub-BOD

  4. The system then adds up the net demand of the locations during the replenishment lead time and during the demand horizon of virtual child locations (VCL), and checks whether the demand is greater or less than the distributable quantity.

    Note Note

    The deployment run only considers demand during the demand horizon of virtual child locations if you have specified a demand horizon in Customizing for Advanced Planning and Optimization under Start of the navigation path Supply Chain Planning Next navigation step Service Parts Planning (SPP) Next navigation step Deployment Next navigation step Define Service Profile for Deployment End of the navigation path.

    End of the note.

    If the net demand is greater than the distributable quantity, the system distributes this quantity according to priority tiers that you can define in Customizing. The system then performs fair-share distribution.

    If the distributable quantity is greater than the net demands of the locations, the system immediately performs fair-share distribution.

  5. The system rounds to pack sizes during demand determination. In doing so, it determines the demand while considering the smallest permissible pack size. After fair-share distribution, the system rounds once again. The aims of rounding are to obtain order and delivery quantities that make processing easier at the supplier, when packaging, during transportation, and for storage, and to achieve pack sizes that are as large as possible. The deployment algorithm calculates the optimum rounded quantity for distribution to the individual child locations. During this distribution the system considers the sequence rules that you defined in Customizing.

  6. Deployment distributes the remaining quantities. If rounding to a certain pack size occurred, remaining quantities may be left over. For more information about distributing these remaining quantities, see Distributing Remaining Quantities.

  7. If the net demand of a location contains prioritized net demands, deployment uses certain criteria to decide whether the goods should be delivered using express shipment.

  8. Deployment creates stock transport requisitions.

  9. You can see the results of the deployment runs that the system has carried out in the background on the SAP Easy Access menu under Start of the navigation path Advanced Planning and Optimization Next navigation step Service Parts Planning (SPP) Next navigation step Planning Next navigation step Deployment and Inventory Balancing Next navigation step Deployment and Inventory Balancing End of the navigation path under STO Approval. On this screen, you can also release stock transport requisitions if you have defined manual approval for them in the master data.