Source Determination (Heuristic) (SAP Library

Source Determination (Heuristic)

Use

When the heuristic is run in Supply Network Planning (SNP), the system determines the source automatically. You use the following parameters to control this supply source determination:

· Quota arrangements for locations, external procurement relationships, production process models (PPMs) and production data structures (PDSs)

· Procurement priorities for transportation lanes and PPMs/PDSs

Features

Source Determination Using Quota Arrangements

You can use quota arrangements to determine which percentage of the demand should be covered by which supply sources. You can create the following types of quota arrangement:

· Quota arrangements for locations

· Quota arrangements for external procurement relationships

· Quota arrangements for in-house production (PPMs/PDSs)

You can define quota arrangements for in-house production by specifying a PPM/PDS. For example, you can specify that locations A and B will each fulfill 30% of the demand and PPM/PDS Y will fulfill 40%.

You can create quota arrangements in the Supply Chain Engineer or in master data. For more information, see Quota Arrangement Maintenance in the Supply Chain Engineer documentation.

Note

If you do not define any quota arrangements, you must determine a procurement priority on the transportation lane, or in the PPM/PDS. If both quota arrangements and procurement priorities have been defined, the system takes into account the quota arrangements.

Source Determination Using Procurement Priorities

You can define priorities for specific supply sources by specifying a procurement priority at the transportation lane or in the PPM/PDS. The following prerequisites have to be met for the SNP heuristic to be able take this priority into account:

· The transportation lane or PPM/PDS must be valid.

· The order must fall within the lot size parameters defined at the transportation lane or in the PPM/PDS (the “From” and “To” lot size).

· The Aggr. Planning indicator must be set for the means of transport.

· There must be no transportation cycles defined; this means, the transportation lane is only permitted to go in one direction and cannot return to the source location. If the system detects one of these transportation cycles, it does not take into account the procurement priority and instead uses the quota arrangements that were defined.

If more than one means of transport have been defined for a transportation lane, the system chooses the means of transport with the lowest costs. If all sources of supply have the same costs, the general guidelines for source determination apply (see Determination of Source of Supply Ranking List).

System Action if Source Cannot Be Found

If there is neither a valid transportation lane (for procurement type F; external procurement) nor valid PPM/PDS (for procurement type E; in-house production), the system creates an SNP stock transfer or SNP planned order with no reference to a source of supply. The same applies if there is no product at the source location of the transportation lane.