Availability Check 

Use

If you generate a direct outbound delivery order and have defined an availability check in Customizing, Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) automatically performs an availability check in one of the following ways, corresponding to your Customizing settings:

●      Call availability check in SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO)

●      Call availability information in SAP ERP

●      Call availability check in EWM

Integration

●      When SAP APO executes an availability check, SAP APO generates pre-persistent temporary quantity assignments (TQAs), which first reserve the quantities temporarily. As soon as EWM saves the associated outbound delivery order, SAP APO changes these pre-persistent TQAs to persistent TQAs. SAP ERP then later converts these persistent TQAs into reservations for the delivery quantities.

●      If SAP APO is not available and is able to perform the availability check, EWM continues with the outbound delivery process. Here, EWM confirms the requested delivery quantity and sends the data to SAP ERP. SAP ERP sends this data to SAP APO as soon as SAP APO is available again. If backorder processing is required due to this current data, SAP APO triggers this.

●      If you are using neither the availability check in SAP ERP nor the availability check in SAP APO, you can perform an availability check in EWM. However, this only works on the basis of the availability known in EWM, and only considers stocks that do not refer to a delivery.

●      If you are using the availability check in SAP APO and have defined scheduling in Customizing for SAP APO, SAP APO also performs scheduling. EWM copies the results of the scheduling into the direct outbound delivery order. If you are not using SAP APO, EWM sets all relevant dates/times to the availability date/time (see section “Scheduling“).

Prerequisites

●      If you generate an item manually and want to perform an availability check, you must specify the product, quantity and stock type for the item. If you fail to specify a batch for a product that is subject to batch management, or if EWM is unable to determine one, EWM performs a batch-independent availability check. If you enter the batch at a later time, EWM performs the availability check again, but batch-independently.

●      You have performed Customizing for the availability check in EWM. For more information, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) for EWM under Interfaces → Availability Check.

●      If you want EWM to set the picking and loading dates, you have defined a corresponding data profile in Customizing for EWM, under Cross-Process Settings → Delivery Processing → Dates/Times. You have assigned this data profile to an item type in Customizing for EWM under Goods Issue Process → Outbound Delivery → Manual Settings → Define Item Types for Outbound Delivery Process.

Features

●      If SAP APO, SAP ERP, or EWM are able to confirm all quantities and do not change the inspection type automatically, you can check this confirmation by using the status or the additional quantities. In the detailed view of the item, choose the tab page Status. For the status type DAV Availability check, the status value is Confirmed. In the detailed view of the item, choose the tab page Additional Quantities. EWM shows you the quantities in the role for the quantity. For example, you have requested 10 pieces of product A for a delivery item. The reduced quantity is 10 pieces, the open quantity is zero, and the requested quantity is 10 pieces.

●      If SAP APO, SAP ERP, or EWM can only partially confirm the requested quantities or change the inspection type automatically, EWM displays a dialog box. Here you can find information such as:

○       Check status, for example Partially Checked

○       Item

○       Product

○       Stock type

○       Inspection type, for example Availability Check in EWM

○       Requested quantity

○       Available quantity

○       Confirmation date/time

For a partial confirmation, EWM also shows you the following:

○       Reduced delivery quantity in the relevant item

For example, you requested 10 pieces for an item but only 8 pieces are confirmed. EWM reduces the delivery quantity to 8 pieces.

○       Status value of the checked items as Confirmed

In the detailed view of the item, choose the tab page Status.

○       Quantities in the role for quantities Availability Check

In the detailed view for the item, choose the tab page Additional Quantities. For example, you have requested 10 pieces of product A for a delivery item. However, only 8 pieces were confirmed. The reduced quantity is 10 pieces, the open quantity is zero, and the requested quantity is 10 pieces.

●      You can display the available stock for a product. In the view for the item on the user interface for the outbound delivery order, choose  Availability Information.

●      EWM does not perform an availability check in EWM for the following delivery items:

○       Delivery items that belong to a scrapping process

○       Packing items

●      For the availability check in SAP APO or SAP ERP, EWM also considers the case where ERP carries a product in a different unit of measure to EWM. For example, you are using Catch Weight in EWM. In Catch Weight, you can work with multiple units of measure. In this case, EWM converts the delivery quantities into the unit of measure used in SAP ERP.

If the delivery quantity is only partially confirmed, or if you call the availability information, EWM also shows you the delivery quantity in both units of measure in a dialog box.

Scheduling

EWM can set the following dates/times based on the results of the availability check:

●      Dates/times at delivery header level:

○       Delivery date/time

●      Dates/times at delivery item level:

○       Picking start and finish

○       Loading start and finish

○       Goods issue start and finish

EWM only sets the picking or loading dates/times if you have specified them in the corresponding date profile in Customizing for the item type used.

EWM performs scheduling based on the type of availability check it finds:

●      If EWM finds A Availability Check in SAP APO as the type of availability check, and you have defined scheduling in Customizing for SAP APO, EWM copies the results of the scheduling into the direct outbound delivery order.

●      If EWM finds a different type of availability check, the system sets the dates/times of the direct outbound delivery order - such as the delivery date and goods issue start and finish – to the confirmation date of the availability check.

For more information, see the Implementation Guide (IMG) for EWM under Interfaces → Availability Check.