Seasonal Stock 

Use

You can specify that certain materials be valid only for a given season. This restricts when the materials can be ordered, produced, or shipped to customers.

The allocation run performs a release check for seasonal stock. If a delivery date for a material is beyond the season end date, the system does not allocate stock to the requirements.

The season function in MM, PP, and IM is similar to that in SD with the following exceptions:

·        SD uses a delivery program to determine season and delivery date and to group sales orders by delivery date

·        MM and PP use a simple season assignment based on the date (in case there are multiple seasons for a given material).

Integration

Season Determination for Manually Created Documents

When you enter a material and delivery date in a document (purchase order, production order, goods movement, and so on), the system automatically determines the relevant season. Unlike in SD, the system does not propose a delivery date based on the season.

If there is only one available season for the material and delivery date, the system copies it into the document. If there is more than one valid season, the system displays a list so that you can select the one you want. Once a season is entered, it becomes the proposed season for all items in the document having that combination of material and delivery date.

Season Determination for Automatically Generated Documents

The system reacts in a similar way for automatically generated purchase requisitions (for example, from MRP, IDoc or BAPI). If  there is more than one valid season, the system selects the season with the latest delivery start date.

If a purchase order is generated with reference to a purchase requisition, the system copies the season, collection, and theme from the purchase requisition.

Validity Check for Changes to Season Data

If you change a season, collection, or theme in a document, the system triggers a new season determination. If the new season data is not valid, the system displays a list of valid seasons, collections and themes. If any of the schedule lines do not match the new season (for example, some grid values are not valid for that season), the system generates an message.

If you change a delivery date, the system checks the season, collection, and theme. If they are not valid, the system generates a message. (You can define a message type for each interval in the stock season master data.) The system does not automatically change the season to a new valid value.

Restrictions

·        Seasons in MM,PP and IM are only supported at the item level. You cannot have different seasons for different schedule lines in a document. One item is assigned to one season, and schedule lines that do not match that season must be entered in a separate purchasing item or production order.

·        Since you assign seasons in the material master in one view for requirement and stock, you can only use this function with plant-independent category structures.

·        Seasons are not supported for subcontracting items.

·        MRP does not consider seasons, collections, or themes during calculation or stock selection.