Sort and Vendor Ranking Criteria for the Source Allocation (SAP Library

Sort and Vendor Ranking Criteria for the Source Allocation

Definition

Using the sort and vendor ranking criteria, you specify for each source allocation the strategy according to which open purchase requisitions should be assigned to the corresponding vendors. The criteria determine

which purchase requisitions will be the first to be checked and then possibly assigned to a vendor during the source allocation run (sort criteria)
the selection criteria on which you will base the respective source allocation run (vendor ranking criteria)

Structure

Using the sort and vendor ranking criteria, specify the following strategy:

Sort Sequence of the Purchase Requisitions
Here you define according to which selection criteria or in which sequence the purchase requisitions should be checked and assigned to a vendor. The sequence of the purchase requisitions decides, for example, whether purchase requisitions with high or low purchase order quantities, or with early or late delivery dates will be the first to be selected, checked, and assigned. The selection can be also be carried out according to the item category or the alphanumeric key of the material (material number).
Using the sort sequence of the purchase requisitions you can store a preference structure for your purchase requisitions: large order quantities, order items for subcontracting, or purchase requisitions with an early delivery date can be given preference or assigned to a suitable vendor first.

Caution

You can only define the selection of purchase requisitions according to the sort sequence of the item categories if the vendor ranking is 100%.

Vendor Ranking
Here you define the percentage weighting of your vendor evaluation criteria. The evaluation criteria contain AFS and R/3 Standard-specific criteria: AFS-specific criteria are Factory Status, Complexity Factor and Lowest ‘FOB’. Evaluation criteria that are transferred from the R/3 Standard are for example: Quantity reliability, On-time delivery performance, shipping instruction or Variance shipping notification.
With vendor ranking you also weight your selection criteria:

If, for instance, partners or strategically important vendors should be given preference for receiving your orders, set the percentage quota of the Factory Status accordingly high.
You can make specifications depending on the market segment that you want to serve with the requested material quantities. For example, with the weighting of the complexity factor, you can specify which significance the production quality has compared to the purchase price (Lowest ‘FOB’).
If either the vendor’s quantity reliability or delivery reliability is crucial for the allocation, assign a high percentage in the field Vendor evaluation. If you have weighted the Vendor evaluation, you can weight the evaluation criteria of the R/3 standard individually (such as Quantity reliability, Shipping instruction )via Vendor Rating Level.

Note

The sum of the ratio of the vendor ranking criteria described above must be 100% before you can individually weight the R/3 standard evaluation criteria.

Fixed Criteria
In the group box Fixed criteria, you can check whether the Vendor Capacity, specified Quotas, or Political restrictions are considered in your source allocation run. With the help of the Fixed criteria, you control business relations long-term or for several value-added stages. For this reason you cannot set the check for capacities, quotas, and restrictions for each source allocation run individually, but rather you have to activate the corresponding indicators in Customizing (Materials Management ® Purchasing ® AFS Source Allocation ® Define Source Allocation Control).

Other Criteria
Using the indicators grouped here, you can influence the fixed criteria set in Customizing:

Set the indicator AFS single/sole breakp if only the fixed criteria Vendor Capacity, Quota, and Restrictions should be considered in the next source allocation run. An allocation only takes place if it is unique. If several vendors fulfill the criteria, the corresponding purchase requisitions will not be able to be assigned in that source allocation run.
Set the indicator Exclude quota restricted vendor if no vendors should be assigned for whom you have specified quotas. With this indicator you control at which time and for which purchase requisitions quotas should be consumed.
Set the indicator Include overload capacity to completely use up your vendor’s capacity. For instance, it might be necessary to set this indicator towards the end of a capacity period if the total capacity of your vendor is consumed and purchase requisitions can therefore no longer be assigned.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

The selection of the Sort and vendor ranking criteria can be saved as a variant. To do this choose Create, and assign a variant key and a description of the variant.

Various user exits enable you to base the source allocation on your own sort criteria and its own vendor evaluation.