Release Creation Profile (APO Scheduling Agreement)

Use

The release creation profile is used to specify the following for operative and forecast/planning delivery schedules issued against APO scheduling agreements :

How the horizon of the scheduling agreement (SA) release (delivery schedule) is determined
How schedule lines from the past are handled in the SA releases
Which event triggers the release creation process (changes to schedule lines and/or the next transmission date being arrived at)
Whether a tolerance check is carried out for releases that are created due to changes
Whether and how many “last deliveries” the vendor is informed of in the SA release
That tolerances are to be checked and, if necessary, SA releases stopped in the event of changes in the overall delivery schedule situation.

Example
The settings in the release creation profile can have the following effects for an external procurement relationship for a scheduling agreement item:

Your vendor receives operative delivery schedules on a weekly basis. Each schedule contains lines covering the next three weeks. In addition, the vendor receives a forecast/planning delivery schedule at the beginning of each month, which covers the following three months.

If the scheduling agreement schedule lines have changed significantly, updated SA releases can be sent to the vendor.

End of the example.

Note
The release creation profile that you maintain in the APO system is only valid for APO scheduling agreements.

For releases against an OLTP scheduling agreement, which are created in the OLTP system, it is the release creation profile in the OLTP system that is applicable.

End of the note.

Prerequisites

For more information on the prerequisites, see Prerequisites for the APO Scheduling Agreement .

Features

You can define the following in the release creation profile:

Area	For each SA release type (operative or F/P schedule) you define:
Layout	Whether backlogs and immediate requirements should be determined Whether schedule lines should be added together so that all schedule lines with a date in the past or present are added to the current day’s schedule line Whether all schedule lines are issued just as they are maintained in the system For which release horizonrelease quantities are displayed
Modes of creation	Whether (and if so, under which conditions) an SA release is created (creation strategy)
Tolerances	Whether a tolerance check is carried out for releases that are created due to changes In this way you can define that releases are only created when significant changes occur
Last Deliveries	Whether and how many “last deliveries” the vendor is informed of in the SA release
Dynamic stopping	Whether a tolerance check is to be carried out for an SA release and whether a release is to be stopped if it differs too greatly from the last release transmitted.

You assign the release creation profile to an external procurement relationship for an APO scheduling agreement and in this way you define how SA releases are generated for this SA item.

Note Note

When scheduling agreement data is transferred from your OLTP system to the SAP APO system via the SAP APO Core Interface (CIF) , the release creation profile is not included in the data transmitted. You must create a new release creation profile for APO scheduling agreements in your SAP APO system and assign it to the relevant SA item (of procurement category APO scheduling agreement ) in the external procurement relationship.

End of the note.

If you wish to use forecast/planning (F/P) delivery schedules in addition to operative delivery schedules, you must specify this in the external procurement relationship (in the Scheduling Agreement with Forecast field on the Scheduling Agreement tab page).

The settings for F/P delivery schedules from the release creation profile are only taken into account in the SA release creation process if you have specified in the external procurement relationship that F/P delivery schedules are to be created.

Example Example

You wish to provide your vendor not only with data on your concrete short-term product requirements (using operative delivery schedules) but also with data on your more tentative longer-term requirements (using forecast/planning delivery schedules). Therefore, you select the Scheduling Agreement with Forecast indicator for this item in the external procurement relationship.

End of the example.

Activities

You define the release creation profile in Customizing for Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO), under Start of the navigation path Supply Chain Planning Next navigation step Collaborative Procurement Procurement Scheduling Agreement Maintain Release Creation Profile. End of the navigation path

You then assign this release creation profile to the external procurement relationship for the scheduling agreement item on the Scheduling Agreement tab page.