Product Substitution Procedure You save information about product substitutions in a product substitution procedure.
You must assign a procedure type to each product substitution procedure. The procedure type defines how the product substitution is to be done, and can no longer be changed later.
The following procedure types are valid for the product substitution:
Chain (0)
Defines a serial determination.
Example: A → B → C → D
Network (1)
Defines a free determination.
Example: A → B , A → C , B → C
Fan-shaped structure (2)
Defines a single-level determination.
Example: A → B , A → C , A → D
You can assign costs for the procedure. You can prioritize product substitutions by assigning
costs
. Note the following:
The prioritization is not cross procedural.
Sorting is carried out in ascending order.

In substitution procedures of type 0 (chain) you cannot enter any costs because the sequence of the substitutions is fixed. Instead, you can set a
Selection end
indicator.
You set this indicator to reflect a technology change within a selection of products. The indicator selects the processing start of the product list.
You can set the selection end indicator for substitution procedures with type 0 (chain) only. In addition, this indicator can be valuated for access strategies 01 and 04 only.
You can specify a reason for the product substitution under
Profiles & Parameters
. The product substitution reason explains the necessity of the substitution (such as a missing part). The product substitution reason is for explanatory purposes only.
You can define the time periods in which substitutions are valid. For further information see Defining Validity Periods in Rules .
The graphical display of a product substitution procedure is based on the assigned procedure type.
To view a graphical display, select the product substitution procedure you require on the
Overview
subscreen. Choose
Product substitution plan
in the
Details
frame.
To create a product substitution procedure, on the
SAP Easy Access
screen, choose
Advanced Planning and Optimization
→
Master Data
→
Rule Maintenance
→
Integrated Rule Maintenance.
In the
Overview
frame, choose
Maintain Product Substitutions
and then
Create New Procedure
.

In the first instance, you start with requested product P4. According to access strategy 1 (start from top of list), P1, P2 and P3 are defined as predecessors and P5 as the successor. The results list appears as follows: P1→P2→P3→P4→P5.
In the second instance, you set a selection end indicator for P2. You start with requested product P4. P2 and P3 are defined as predecessors; P5 is defined as the successor. The results list appears as follows: P2→P3→P4→P5.