In engineering/design, it may be specified that a material is to be replaced by another material at a certain point in time. Such changes may be necessary due to one of the following reasons, for example:
Therefore, the aim of the 'discontinued parts' procedure is to replace one component by another component at a certain point in time. This means that the dependent requirements for the current component are to be reassigned to another part (the follow-up material), once you have exhausted the stocks of the current material.
The material that is to be discontinued must be defined as a part to be discontinued in the material master record.
A distinction is made whether;
In the simple discontinuation procedure, the indicator for simple discontinuation is set in the material master record for the part to be discontinued. You must also enter the follow-up material and the date from which no further order proposals are to be created for this material. From this date, the existing stocks of the material to be discontinued are used up. Once no more stock is available, the system reassigns the dependent requirements to the follow-up material. This means that from this date, dependent requirements are only created for the follow-up material.
In the parallel discontinuation procedure, the parts to be
discontinued are also recorded in the material master record. One of the
materials is selected as the main part to be discontinued. When the stocks of
this particular material have been exhausted, the dependent requirements are
also reassigned for the rest of the group of parts to be discontinued. The
main part to be discontinued receives the indicator parallel part
to be discontinued and the rest of the group of materials to be
discontinued receive the indicator, dependent parallel
discontinued part/material.
You must also enter the date from which the system is to start the consumption
of the stocks.
The relationship between the parts to be discontinued and the follow-up up parts is determined in the BOM. For more information on this subject, please refer to the release note, "BOMs: New Functions in Item Maintenance".
Prerequisites for this function is that both the material to be discontinued as well as the follow-up material are planned using MRP techniques.
In the planning run, the system checks the discontinuation indicator and the discontinuation date in the material master record.
Starting from the discontinuation date, the system creates no new order proposals for the materials to be discontinued. If no more stock exists, the dependent requirements are reassigned to the follow-up material. If there is enough stock to cover a part of the dependent requirements, this part is still covered by the material to be discontinued and the rest is reassigned to the follow-up material.
In the parallel discontinuation procedure, the indicator in the material master record and the allocation in the BOM create the situation where all materials in the group are discontinued as soon as the main part to be discontinued runs out. As the name suggests, the dependent parts 'depend' on the stock of the main part to be discontinued and are replaced as soon as its stock is exhausted. And then the dependent requirements are reassigned to the follow-up materials.
If manual reservations are created for a part to be discontinued after the discontinuation date, the planning run still created order proposals.