Rules-Based Availability Check

The availability check in the sales order includes rules-based availability check (rules-based ATP check, or RBA).

Rules-based availability check can be used 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.
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 SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO).

You create the rules in SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM) on the SAP Easy Access screen under Start of the navigation path Advanced Planning and Optimization Next navigation step Master Data Rule Maintenance End of the navigation path .

For information on rules-based availability check, see SAP Library for SAP Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM) on SAP Help Portal at http://help.sap.com/scm/. Choose a release. In SAP Library, choose SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO):

Master Data Integrated Rule Maintenance
Global Available-to-Promise (Global ATP) Rules-Based Availability Check

For information on customizing rules-based availability check, see Customizing as follows:

SAP APO under Advanced Planning and Optimization Global Available-to-Promise (Global ATP) Rules-Based Availability Check
SAP CRM under Customer Relationship Management Basic Functions Availability Check Availability Check Using SAP APO Rules-Based Availability Check Settings for Rules-Based Availability Check

Prerequisites

You use SAP APO 3.0A or a higher release.
The sales order item is relevant for rules-based availability check. For information about how to set this in the item, see Customizing for Customer Relationship Management under Basic Functions Availability Check Availability Check Using SAP APO Rules-Based Availability Check Settings for Rules-Based Availability Check .
Availability check and planning both take place in SAP APO. For more information, see Availability Check and Planning in SAP APO.
If you want to implement your own logic so that the system can copy manual data from existing subitems to new subitems, you must make the settings in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management under Basic Functions Availability Check Availability Check Using SAP APO Business Add-Ins BAdI: Data Copy for Subitems . Otherwise, when the system executes a new rules-based availability check and the system deletes existing subitems and creates new subitems, none of your manual changes to subitem data (for example, conditions) are copied to the new subitems.

Features

You use rules-based availability check to check availability in several locations or find substitute products. You can carry out rules-based availability 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 availability check does not take place.
- If the product is not available, either in the default location or in the requested quantity, rules-based availability check takes place.
This option allows for better system performance if the product is available, since under these circumstances rules-based availability 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 availability check always takes place.
This option can be useful, for example, if you want to substitute one product for another.

Restrictions

Certain restrictions apply when changing sales order items for which rules-based availability check has taken place. For more information, see Changing Sales Order Items Relevant for Rules-Based 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 availability 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 SAP CRM, rules-based availability check is carried out in SAP APO.

In the Subitems

The results of the check are transferred to the sales order in SAP CRM 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 Note

If you need to change the quantity, change the quantity in one of the subitems. The system automatically adjusts the quantity in the higher-level item.

End of the note.

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 SAP CRM can react in different ways (depending on your settings in Customizing in SAP APO), for example as follows:

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 SAP CRM.
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 SAP CRM. The system automatically creates a subitem for the remaining quantity and sets the confirmed quantity for this subitem 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.
End of the note.

For more information, see Customizing for SAP SCM under Start of the navigation path Advanced Planning and Optimization Next navigation step Global Available-to Promise (Global ATP) General Settings Maintain Check Instructions End of the navigation path .

Example

Rules-Based ATP Check: Schedule Lines

Rules-Based ATP Check: Unconfirmed Quantities