Rules-Based Availability Check (SAP Library

Rules-Based Availability Check

Use

The availability check in the sales order, which can be carried out in Internet Sales, Telesales, and CRM Enterprise, includes rules-based availability check (also known as rules-based ATP check).

Rules-based availability check can be used in Internet Sales, Telesales and CRM Enterprise for the following event:

· If the required product is out of stock in one plant, check to see if it is available in another plant.

For example, if the product is not available in Plant A, check Plant B.

In addition, rules-based availability check can be used in Telesales and CRM Enterprise for the following events:

· If the required product is out of stock, check to see if another product can be substituted. This product could be an upgrade, so that the customer will be happy.

For example, if product 1 is not available, check whether product 2 is available.

· If a product is packaged differently for a short period, for example, it now comes with a free sample, availability should not be checked for the product number entered in the sales order item. Instead, product substitution should be carried out automatically.

For example, for the month of April, product 1 should be replaced by product 2.

Integration

Rules-based availability check takes place according to a set of rules which are predefined in the SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO).

You create the rules in SAP APO in the SAP Easy Access menu under Advanced Planning and Optimization ® Master Data ® Rule Maintenance.

For information on rules-based ATP check, see the SAP Library for SAP Supply Chain Management under SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO) under

· SAP APO Master Data® Integrated Rule Maintenance

· Global Available-to-Promise (Global ATP) ® Advanced Availability Check Methods ® Rules-Based Availability Check

· Global Available-to-Promise (Global ATP) ® Settings for Global ATP ® Settings for the Rules-Based Availability Check.

For information on customizing rules-based ATP check, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) in

· SAP APO under Advanced Planning and Optimization ® Global Available-to-Promise (Global ATP) ® Rules-Based Availability Check

· CRM Enterprise under Customer Relationship Management ® Basic Functions ® Availability Check ® Availability Check Using SAP APO ® Settings for Rules-Based Availability Check

Prerequisites

You need an SAP APO 3.0A or a higher release.

The sales order item must be relevant for rules-based ATP check. For information about how to set this in the item, see the Implementation Guide for Customer Relationship Management under Basic Functions ® Availability Check ® Availability Check Using SAP APO ®Settings for Rules-Based Availability Check.

Availability check and planning must both take place in SAP APO. For more information, see Availability Check and Planning in SAP APO.

Features

You use rules-based ATP check to check availability in several locations (plants) or find substitute products.

You can carry out rules-based ATP check in the following ways:

· Check whether the product is available in the default location.

¡ If the product is available in the default location in the requested quantity for the requested date, rules-based ATP check does not take place.

¡ If the product is not available, either in the default location or in the requested quantity, rules-based ATP check takes place.

This option allows for better system performance if the product is available, since under these circumstances rules-based ATP check does not need to be carried out.

· Check immediately according to predefined rules, regardless of whether the product is available in the default location. In other words, rules-based ATP check always takes place.

This option can be useful, for example, if you want to substitute one product for another.

For information on specifying one of these options, see the IMG in SAP APO under Advanced Planning and Optimization ® Global Available-to-Promise (Global ATP) ® General Settings ® Maintain Check Instructions.

Restrictions

Certain restrictions apply when changing sales order items for which rules-based ATP check has taken place. For more information, see Changing Sales Order Items Relevant for Availability Check.

Rules-based availability check cannot be carried out for a bill of material.

In SAP APO availability check during backorder processing is carried out for all sales order items independently from each other. Since the results of the rules-based ATP check are saved in the sales order as subitems (see below), availability check is carried out for each subitem, and not for the higher-level item to which the subitems belong.

Capable-to-promise (CTP) is not supported.

Activities

In the Item

When you enter a sales order item in the sales order in CRM Enterprise, rules-based ATP check is carried out in SAP APO.

In the Subitems

The results of the check are transferred to the sales order in CRM Enteprise and displayed there as subitems.

The item you originally entered is now classified as a higher-level item. The item number of the higher-level item is displayed in the Higher-level item field for each subitem. This ensures that there is a relationship between the higher-level item and the subitems.

Note

If you need to change the requested quantity, change the requested quantity in one of the subitems. The requested quantity will automatically be adjusted in the higher-level item.

For more information on changing sales order items, see Changing Sales Order Items Relevant for Availability Check.

In the Schedule Lines

Each subitem has its own schedule lines:

· Request schedule line, with the requested quantity and delivery date

· Confirmation schedule line, with the confirmed quantity and confirmed delivery date

The confirmed quantities in the schedule lines are accumulated. The total quantity and the latest confirmed delivery date are displayed in the item overview in the higher-level item.

Unconfirmed Quantities

If not everything can be confirmed by SAP APO, the sales order in CRM Enterprise can react in different ways, depending on how you have set the customizing in SAP APO. For example,

· The remaining quantity is not saved as a requirement in SAP APO.
In this case, the remaining quantity is not transferred back to the sales order in CRM Enteprise.

· The remaining quantity is saved as a requirement in SAP APO.
In this case, the remaining quantity is transferred back to the sales order in CRM Enterprise. A subitem will automatically be created for the remaining quantity; the confirmed quantity for this subitem will be set to zero.

At a later stage, you can carry out availability check manually or with backorder processing in SAP APO to have the remaining quantity in this subitem confirmed.

Note

We recommend that the remaining quantity be saved as a requirement, otherwise the remainder of the requested quantity can never be confirmed or sent to the customer.

You can also control for which product and which location the requirement should be saved in SAP APO. That is, the requirement could be for the requested product or location or for the substituted product or location (see Example 4).

For more information, see the IMG in SAP APO under Advanced Planning and Optimization ® Global Available-to Promise (Global ATP Check) ® General Settings ® Maintain Check Instructions.

Examples

Example 1 shows a sales order on item level. It has one item for which rules-based ATP check has been carried out.

Example 2 shows the schedule lines for the sales order in Example 1.

Example 3 shows the effect on the sales order when not everything can be confirmed by SAP APO. In this example, Customizing in SAP APO is set so that the remaining quantity is not transferred back to the sales order in CRM Enterprise.

Example 4 also shows the effect on the sales order when not everything can be confirmed by SAP APO. However, in this example, Customizing in SAP APO is set so that the remaining quantity is saved as a requirement in SAP APO and transferred back to the sales order in CRM Enterprise.