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 Definition of Compatibilities

Purpose

You can use compatibilities and incompatibilities to define the compatibility of planning data that the system is to take into account when planning shipments, for example:

  • The delivery is to occur within a certain period, with a certain means of transport, or via a certain transshipment location.

  • Orders with different Incoterms must not be transported together.

  • Refrigerated goods must only be transported in appropriate means of transport (refrigerated trucks).

  • A certain means of transport cannot be unloaded at a location, since the location does not have a suitable loading ramp.

In this way, you can control how orders are assigned to shipments and how shipments are assigned to means of transport, since compatibilities and incompatibilities are taken into account in both the optimizer and in manual planning (including multilevel planning).

  • Incompatibilities are considered as hard constraints in the optimizer.

  • If the system determines incompatibilities during manual planning, it simply displays a warning message.

You can also use compatibilities to model alternative itineraries in transshipment processes (see Definition of Transshipment Hierarchies ).

Prerequisites

  • You have defined a TP/VS field catalog in Customizing for the component Transportation Planning/Vehicle Scheduling (TP/VS) .

  • If you have already defined compatibilities or incompatibilities in a previous release, you must execute upgrade report /SAPAPO/VS_UPGRADE_SCM_41.

  • You have implemented SAP Notes 560, 661185, and 675126. These ensure that shipping data from SAP R/3 is updated in SAP APO .

Process

  1. You define compatibility types in Customizing for the component TP/VS . Compatibility types are combinations of object characteristics that you can define for compatibilities or incompatibilities. These object characteristics are order characteristics, for example, and come from the TP/VS field catalog.

  2. You define compatibilities or incompatibilities for the compatibility types that you have created. To do this, on the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Start of the navigation path Advanced Planning and Optimization Next navigation step Transportation Planning/Vehicle Scheduling Next navigation step Environment Next navigation step Current Settings Next navigation step Transportation Optimization Next navigation step Define Compatibility Types. End of the navigation path You can also define compatibilities and incompatibilities in the planning view (menu Edit ).

    Example Example

    You cannot deliver goods to your customer CUST01 using truck TR2, since the customer does not have a suitable loading ramp. In this case you first define the compatibility type Means of Transport – Destination Location . You then specify that means of transport TR2 is incompatible with destination location CUST01 .

    End of the example.

    Note Note

    A compatibility between two values means that all other combinations are incompatible (unless you have defined additional compatibilities). An incompatibility between two values means that all other combinations are compatible (unless you have defined additional incompatibilities). For example, if you define a compatibility between transportation group Hazardous Goods and means of transport Truck , the transportation group Hazardous Goods is incompatible with all other means of transport.

    Pay attention to the sequence. That is, a compatibility between means of transport Truck and transportation group Hazardous Goods , for example, is not the same as a compatibility between transportation group Hazardous Goods and means of transport Truck . In the first case, the truck can only transport hazardous goods. In the second case, hazardous goods cannot be transported by airplane.

    End of the note.

  3. You can restrict the validity of the compatibilities and incompatibilities to certain optimization profiles, if required. You can also define conditions to restrict the compatibilities and incompatibilities to certain orders.