Process Flow

First create the product master data for Product 2. In general you can base the new product on the old one.

Create the necessary characteristic value combinations for Product 2. You must have previously decided if Product 2 is going to be introduced everywhere as a replacement for Product 1. For instance you may want to introduce Product 2 in a second location at a later date.

Create an interchangeability group of type supersession chain.

Create a discontinuation step with Product 1 as the predecessor product and Product 2 as the successor product. As the Valid from date set a date after the change has been completed, in the graph above period 12 or later.

If you set the Valid from date to a value before phase-in/out has been completed, any demand produced generated for product 1 is substituted by demand for Product 2 when you release the forecast to SNP or PP/DS and plan the location product. Setting the Valid from date to after the change means that the Interchangeability functions in SNP and PP/DS are only used as a safety measure to ensure that Product 1 is not procured or produced after this date.

The use-up settings have no influence on Demand Planning. You should make these settings according to the further processing.

To access the Interchangeability functions for DP, choose DP Profiles. You must first define the basic settings for the planning area. See Product Interchangeability in Demand Planning and Setting Up Lifecycle Planning .

When creating the basic settings consider whether you want to restrict the selection of like profiles and phase-in/out profiles by defining values for other characteristics than location and product. For instance, you may wish to restrict the changes to a particular sales organization. In this case you must include the relevant characteristic.

Create a like profile for the discontinuation step. In our case the reference product is Product 1, the action S, and the factor 100%. The system automatically proposes these values. The system also automatically proposes the profile assignment. If you have selected the Location Dependent indicator in Interchangeability for DP, the location is proposed, otherwise only the successor product. You can also restrict the selection with values for the other characteristics at this stage.

When you save the assignment, you return to the Product Interchangeability – Demand Planning screen . Create a phase-in profile (see Creating Phase-In/Out Profiles ). After you have created and assigned the phase-in profile, use the Generate Profile function to automatically generate and assign the phase-out profile.

For both the phase-in and the phase-out profiles remember to set the Before start date, apply constant factor and the After end date, apply constant factor indicators together with the factor 0 or 100%. You thus ensure that before the start of the phase-in or after end of phase-out no demand is created. Similarly you ensure that the demand before the start of phase-out and after the end of phase-in is 100%.

The necessary profiles now exist. When you execute a forecast, the system uses the historical data from product 1 to make the forecast for product 2. The forecast results are multiplied by the factors in the phase-in/out profiles.