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 Third-Party Order Processing (TPOP)

Purpose

In third-party order processing (also known as third-party direct ship ), you can transfer responsibility of the product ordered by the customer to the supplier. This process supports direct shipping between a vendor/supplier and a customer. Your company is not responsible for delivery of the product because you forward the purchase order to the dealer or supplier. The latter then sends the goods directly to the customer.

In other words, service parts can be shipped from an external supplier to the dealer rather than from an internal warehouse. The advantage of this is that you do not need to provide intermediate storage space for goods. A sales order can consist entirely or only partly of third-party items. From time to time, you may also wish to process certain items, which you would normally deliver yourself, as third-party items.

The third-party order processing (TPOP) process starts with a customer sales order in SAP CRM and sourcing in SAP APO. SAP CRM then triggers the creation of a purchase order in SPM.

The following figure illustrates the process overview from a business point of view:

The key steps can be outlined as follows:

  1. A sales order item is created in SAP CRM.

  2. During sourcing/ATP check, SAP APO assigns an external supplier (or another dealer) as the source of supply.

  3. After a certain time interval, APO releases the sales order item for procurement.

  4. SAP CRM triggers the creation of a purchase order in SAP SPM ( Materials Management - Purchasing : MM-PUR).

  5. Order confirmations may be received from the vendor and update the confirmation information in the purchase order.

    The information is sent to the sales order in SAP CRM and SAP ICH.

  6. The vendor sends an advanced shipping notification (ASN), which leads to the creation of an inbound delivery and posting of statistical goods receipt in SAP SPM, and an update of the delivery information in the purchase order in SAP SPM and the sales order in SAP CRM and SAP ICH.

  7. The vendor sends an invoice or is paid using the evaluated receipt settlement (ERS) procedure.

  8. In SAP CRM, the customer invoice is issued.

For information about redirection of scheduling agreements, see redirection of scheduling agreements

Supersession in TPOP

Supersession is a process where a material in a purchase order or a sales order is substituted by another material based on some definite criteria such as availability check or obsolescence. In TPOP, the suppliers can substitute the material in two ways:

  • Supplier sends a PO confirmation/change using IDocs

  • Supplier sends an ASN.

The following figure illustrates the process overview:

The key steps are as follows:

Supplier Reports Supersession in PO Confirmation/change using EDI

  1. The system checks if the supersession is valid by checking the schedule lines date against the interchangeability master data in SAP APO.

  2. The system changes the PO by creating sub line items and confirmation entries for the sub line item.

  3. The system sends the PO data to SAP CRM so that SAP CRM can update the sales order.

  4. System sends the updated PO information to SAP ICH by an IDoc.

    SAP ICH displays the sub items that contain the new material in the PO . In SAP ECC, the PO displays both the original and new material in the PO .

  5. The system sends the acknowledgment to the supplier using EDI and sends the information to SAP ICH. The information to the supplier is sent by an IDoc.

Supplier Reports Supersession in ASN using EDI.

  1. The system checks if supersession is allowed in ASN and validates the supersession. The delivery date is used to check the validity of supersession against the interchangeability master data in SAP APO. If supersession is not allowed the system passes the error information to SAP ICH.

  2. The system automatically changes the PO that is referenced by the ASN by creating sub line items in the PO containing the superseding material. The changed PO information is passed to SAP ICH using the IDoc. System passes the changed PO information to SAP CRM so that the sales order in SAP CRM can be updated with the new material.

  3. The system creates the inbound delivery for the superseding material. The system automatically posts a statistical goods receipt for the superseding material.

  4. The system passes the delivery information to SAP ICH using an IDoc.

Integration

The steps involved in third-party processing take place in the following systems:

  • SAP CRM: this system is mainly responsible for the entry of sales orders and the update of document flows, but also for invoicing.

  • ERP System : this system is mainly responsible for the entry of advanced shipping notifications and invoicing

  • SAP SCM : this system is responsible for determining sources and scheduling. These two activities take place in the global availability check (ATP: Available-to-Promise). You can also maintain confirmation and advanced shipping notifications in the Inventory Collaboration Hub (ICH) of SAP SCM.

    Note Note

    A variant of third-party order processing is dealer-to-dealer sales (DTDS), where the part is usually sourced from an internal location but is redirected to another dealer due to lack of availability.

    Supersession cannot be reported through confirmation or ASN from SAP ICH.

    End of the note.

Features

SAP SPM is involved in the following TPOP process steps:

Purchase Order Creation from a Sales Order in CRM

Receipt of Supplier Confirmation

Creation/Receipt of Advanced Shipping Notifications and Inbound Deliveries

Update of Purchase Order

Posting of Statistical Goods Receipt

Invoice Creation and Generation (ERS)

Update of Accounts Receivable

Update of Billed Quantity

Update of Accounts Payable

Offsetting Accounts