Purpose

In SAP APO, you can plan externally procured products in the same interface as for products that are manufactured in-house. With the aid of planning tools and functions such as finite product scheduling and PO quantity optimization, you can efficiently plan critical externally procured materials in SAP APO. The fact that you can now also work with Scheduling Agreements, Contracts, Purchasing Info Records, and Quota Arrangements in SAP APO means that all necessary procurement functions are now available in Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling .

The planning and manufacture of externally procured products is carried out in SAP APO using a Materials Management component of an OLTP System (for example, an SAP R/3 system) and the procurement functions of the SAP APO system.

The OLTP system described in this process is an SAP R/3 system.

Prerequisites

SAP R/3 system (as of Release 4.0)

SAP APO system (as of Release 3.0A)

Process Flow

In the diagram below you can see in which systems the different functions are performed when a product that is to be externally procured with reference to a contract or purchasing info record is planned. For information on how to schedule deliveries using scheduling agreements, see Procurement Scheduling Agreement

You create info records and Outline Purchase Agreements in the SAP R/3 system.

You enter all the scheduling agreements, contracts, and purchasing info records to be transferred to SAP APO in the Integration Model of the SAP APO Core Interface . This master data is transferred to the SAP APO system in an initial data transfer. Subsequent changes to this master data in the SAP R/3 system are saved for the next transfer of changes.

The SAP APO system generates an External Procurement Relationship.

Scheduling agreements, contracts, and purchasing info records transferred from the SAP R/3 system are set up in the SAP APO system as external procurement relationships. An external procurement relationship is product-specific and is assigned to a Transportation Lane . Transportation lanes are created automatically in SAP APO when you transfer data from the SAP R/3 system. The external procurement relationship therefore contains the contractual details of the relationship between a source location (vendor or issuing plant) and a destination location (plant).

For more information, refer to: External Procurement Relationship Processing an External Procurement Relationship Automatic Creation of Transportation Lanes

You create Purchase Requisitions in the SAP APO system.

You can create purchase requisitions interactively or automatically:

Interactive planning

In SAP APO, you can create purchase requisitions interactively in the Product View , the Receipts View , or the Product Planning Table . During determination of sources of supply for the order, the system displays the contracts and purchasing info records defined in the procurement relationship, as well as all other possible Sources of Supply. If you select an OLTP scheduling agreement, contract, or purchasing info record, the system then generates a purchase requisition for the requested quantity with reference to the corresponding object. The number of the scheduling agreement, contract, or purchasing info record is displayed on the Periods tab page in the product view or in the product planning table.

You can also create a requisition without a source of supply. To do so, first create a requisition with a source and then remove the latter.

Information on the external procurement relationship is also displayed in the order view. To display this information, double-click on the number of the requirement/receipt element in the product view, then select the corresponding order object under Receipts in the order tree. Choose to display the data in the external procurement relationship.

If you have defined Quota Arrangements for a product, the vendors for whom the quota arrangements have been maintained are flagged accordingly in the Supply Source Determination dialog box . The dialog box also displays other information on the quota arrangements. The system automatically highlights the vendor to which the requirements should be assigned. However, you can also select a different source of supply from the list of permitted procurement alternatives.

For more information, see Source Determination in Interactive PP/DS .

Automatic planning

In Automatic Planning with Standard Planning Procedure 3 or Standard Planning Procedure 4 ), the system automatically generates an order when the planning is initiated. The system chooses the procurement alternative with the highest priority and the lowest costs that can deliver the goods on time or with the smallest delay. If an OLTP scheduling agreement, contract, or purchasing info record is selected, the system then generates a purchase requisition with reference to the corresponding object. If you have defined quota arrangements for a product, the system automatically assigns the requirements to the vendors according to these maintained quota arrangements.

For more information, see Source Determination in PP/DS .

Convert purchase requisitions.

If you set the conversion indicator for an order in interactive planning, a purchase order is automatically created for this order in the connected OLTP system.

For more information on the conversion of orders in interactive planning, see Setting the Conversion Indicator .

If you use mass conversion for orders, then you can either transfer or convert orders from a specific period.

During the mass conversion of orders, only those orders whose opening date is in the past are selected.

The opening date is calculated as follows:

Delivery date – planned delivery date – opening period

If you select the Convertible orders indicator in the mass conversion function, the system creates purchase orders in the OLTP system against all orders where the opening date is in the past.

If you select the Transferable orders indicator in the mass conversion function, then the system creates purchase requisitions in the OLTP system against all orders whose opening date is in the past.

For more information on converting orders using the mass conversion facility, see Executing Mass-Transfer or Mass-Conversion .

Purchase order is generated.

If the conversion indicator has been selected for a requisition, a purchase order is automatically generated in the OLTP system.

If the conversion indicator has not been selected for a requisition, a purchase requisition is generated in the OLTP system.Purchasing must then convert this requisition into a PO.

The purchase orders are transferred to the SAP APO System.

You create an Inbound Delivery in the SAP R/3 system.

You create an inbound delivery in the SAP R/3 system. The data pertaining to this inbound delivery is automatically transferred to the SAP APO system.

The SAP APO system reduces/cancels out the schedule lines.

In SAP APO, the scheduled quantity is reduced by the notified quantity.

Create a goods receipt.

You create a goods receipt in the SAP R/3 System. This goods receipt is automatically transferred to the SAP APO System.

The SAP APO system increases the stock figure and reduces the scheduled quantity.

In the SAP APO system (if used), the quantity of the inbound delivery is reduced or cancelled out by the goods receipt quantity. The schedule lines are also reduced accordingly.