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Function documentationRoute Determination in Service Parts Planning

 

You can use this function in the following components of Service Parts Planning (SPP):

  • Deployment

  • Inventory Balancing

  • Inventory Balancing for Unserviceable Products

These components schedule stock transport orders (STOs) according to transportation lanes. As of enhancement package 1 for SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM) 7.0, the system can schedule STOs using the route determination logic. This means that route information is determined and stored in your SAP SCM system. When the system transfers the STOs to ERP, it does so by means of the core interface (CIF).

To choose between the scheduling modes, select the Use Routing Guide for Scheduling of STOs checkbox 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 Make General Settings for Deployment End of the navigation path if you are using Deployment, or under Start of the navigation path Supply Chain Planning Next navigation step Service Parts Planning (SPP) Next navigation step Inventory Balancing Next navigation step Make General Settings for Inventory Balancing End of the navigation path if you are using Inventory Balancing.

If you select the Use Routing Guide for Scheduling of STOs checkbox, the system takes the first timestamp for each STO and carries out forward scheduling according to routes, during which it calls the scheduler with the appropriate scheduling scenario. If no route can be found for an STO the system writes a warning message to the application log and schedules the STO according to lanes.

If you want to specify additional parameters for calling scheduling according to routes in Service Parts Planning, you can do so by implementing the Business Add-In (BAdI) BAdI: Define Routing Guide Parameters.

To use route determination in Service Parts Planning (SPP), you must activate the business functions SCM-APO-SPP, Service Parts Planning 1 (SCM_APO_SPP_GEN_1) and Service Parts Management: Innovations in ERP (SPE_CI_1). For more information, see SCM-APO-SPP, Service Parts Planning 1.

Features

Scheduling

  • Scheduling scenarios

    SAP delivers scheduling scenarios for scheduling STOs according to routes. For more information about the scheduling scenarios, see Calc. of Lead Times in Depl. and Inventory Balancing.

  • Scheduling explanation program

    The scheduling explanation program (transaction /sapapo/spp_schd_exp) displays information about routes.

User Interface

You can view the route information when approving STOs in the SAP Easy Access screen, 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 in the following fields in the STO Appoval view, on the Deployment STOs and Inventory Balancing STOs tab page:

  • Route

  • Geography Group

  • Export Relevancy

  • Transportation Service Provider

  • Next Cross Docking Location

You can also view the route information in the Start of the navigation path Customer's Worklist Next navigation step STO Approval End of the navigation path screen under Start of the navigation path Advanced Planning and Optimization Next navigation step Service Parts Planning (SPP) Next navigation step Reporting / Monitoring Next navigation step Web UIs for Service Parts Planning Next navigation step Customer's Worklist End of the navigation path and in the Planner's Worklist in the SAP NetWeaver Business Client.

Features Specific to Deployment

  • Replenishment lead times used by Deployment and Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP)

    Deployment uses DRP to calculate the demands to be covered by STOs. At minimum, it tries to cover the demands inside the replenishment lead time DRP uses. Therefore, the STOs Deployment creates must have a shorter replenishment lead time than the replenishment lead time DRP uses. For more information, see SAP Note 1139313Information published on SAP site). If the replenishment lead time used by Deployment is longer than that used by DRP, the system might create multiple STOs to cover the same demand.

    If you are using scheduling according to transportation lanes, the procurement lead time components available for this method of scheduling ensure that Deployment's replenishment lead time is shorter. When you are using scheduling according to routes, however, the system checks the length of the replenishment lead times to make sure that they are equal or shorter than the replenishment lead times according to transportation lanes. If this is not the case, the system raises alert type 7898 and uses the replenishment lead times according to lanes.

  • Deletion of alerts

    Deployment deletes alerts created during the STO creation by previous runs for the location products of the current run.

More Information

For more information about route determination in SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM), see Route Determination