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  Defining Dependencies for a Restriction

Use

When creating a restriction, you can define the characteristic or characteristic value or combinations of characteristic values for which the restriction is valid. You do this in the Dependency Editor in the form of Selection Conditions . In planning, the system checks if orders exist with the same characteristic value assignment and tries to respect the restriction.

Integration

Characteristics are objects in the class system. They are used to describe the features of products. The individual values of a characteristic are known as the characteristic values. A characteristic may be the engine of a vehicle, for example, and the characteristic values are the individual engine variants. The characteristics and characteristic values you use for the dependencies of the restriction must be the same as the ones you used in the orders to be scheduled.

You can define restrictions for individual characteristic values or for a combination of several characteristic values. This means that combinations of characteristic values are several linked characteristic values that you use to apply restrictions to specific products.

For example, you can define the following combination of characteristic values:

Prerequisites

You must have created a class (with the class type 300 for variant configuration) and the necessary characteristics in the DI system and transferred this data to the APO system via the APO Core Interface .

See also:

For more information on the definition of the characteristics and characteristic values, refer to the documentation CA Classification and CA Characteristics.

Features

  • Two different dependency editors are available for maintaining the dependencies for a restriction:

    • Dependency Editor (with SAP Syntax)

      This dependency editor is offered as a default in restriction maintenance , and is called via the Change Characteristic Values function key. See also: Creating Restrictions (Using the Old Editor)

      Caution Caution

      End of the caution.

      If you have created customer syntax in the Enhanced Dependency Editor, the system can automatically convert this syntax into SAP syntax. However, SAP syntax is not converted into customer syntax. When you have processed and saved dependencies for a restriction with SAP syntax, you can only continue processing the dependency of this restriction with SAP syntax.

    • Enhanced Dependency Editor (with Customer and SAP Syntax)

  • You can also work with the Enhanced Dependency Editor . When you have carried out the necessary IMG activities in Customizing for this editor, the system will display the Dependencies tab page when you access restriction maintenance . The Enhanced Dependency Editor is an easy-to-use editor which also displays the class with its characteristics and characteristic values. In this extended dependency editor, you can either work with your own customer syntax or use the SAP syntax . See also: Enhanced Dependency Editor (Dependencies Tab Page)

  • To combine the characteristic values, you can use the operators and , or , and not , or operators you have defined yourself in Customizing for the Enhanced Dependency Editor .

  • You can also define Restrictions for Product Numbers and for fields in the product master.

  • The values defined for the restriction in the dependency editor have no separate validity period. Only the validity period that you maintain for the restriction in the Start Date View or in the Vertical Period View is significant.

Example

You want to define a restriction for a vehicle that has air conditioning and a three liter gasoline engine. The combination of characteristic values can look as follows when using SAP syntax :

Air_conditioning = “YES” and Engine = “P30”

You want to define a restriction that has air conditioning but which is not right-hand drive. You could define the combination of characteristic values as follows:

Air_conditioning = “Yes” and Steering_wheel <> “Right”