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  Product Substitution Orders

Definition

Order in SAP APO that maps the substitution of one product by another product.

Structure

A product substitution order consists of the following elements:

  • A receipt element for the product to be substituted

  • A requirements element for the substitute product

The following graphic shows the order symbol for a product substitution order:

Since a product substitution order does not have any activities, it does not use any resources.

Use

If a requirement for an interchangeable product has to be partially or entirely covered by the predecessor or successor product in the supersession chain, Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS) automatically creates a product substitution order in procurement planning. Depending on the situation, the product substitution order is used to:

  • Create a receipt for the successor product for surplus stock or for a surplus fixed receipt of a discontinued product

    This means that the successor product can consume the stock or the fixed receipt of the discontinued product.

  • Create a requirement for the successor product for an uncovered requirement of a discontinued product

Therefore, the product substitution order forwards stock, a fixed receipt, or a requirement to the successor product. Procurement planning for the successor product takes the requirement of a product substitution order into consideration, meaning that the requirement of a product substitution order triggers procurement of the successor product.

Receipt and Requirement Quantity

The requirements element and the receipt element in a product substitution order have the same quantity. The system only ever creates a product substitution order for the required quantity, in other words, for the quantity to be substituted. Lot-sizing procedures and other parameters for calculating procurement quantities (such as scrap), are not relevant for product substitution orders.

Availability Dates/Times and Requirements Dates/Times

As a rule, the availability date/time and the requirements date/time of a product substitution order are the same as the dependent requirements date/time. There could be an exception if the dependent requirement for an interchangeable component is already in the past at the planning time. The system can schedule a product substitution order – that the system creates to cover the dependent requirement – at the planning time at the earliest. The availability date/time of the product substitution order lies after the dependent requirement date/time in this case.

Validity Period

On creation, the system automatically determines the validity period of the product substitution order from the product interchangeability master data. The validity period reaches from the validity start of the substitute product to the use-up date. For more information, see Date/Time Changes when Planning with Product Interchangeability .

Pegging Relationship to a Product Substitution Order

The system automatically links a product substitution order and the requirement – which you want to replace partly or entirely – with a pegging relationship. If you set the conversion indicator for a planned order, the system uses the pegging relationship to the product substitution order to adopt the substitute component in the planned order. The product substitution order is then no longer needed.

Fixing

To allow PP/DS, during procurement planning with a product heuristic, to delete product substitution orders that are no longer required, or substitute them with adjusted product substitution orders, the orders are not fixed. This means:

  • You cannot manually fix a product substitution order.

  • A product substitution order in the PP/DS horizon is not fixed.

Changing a Product Substitution Order

Only the system can adjust the quantity or the date/time of a product substitution order. You cannot change the product substitution order manually. You cannot perform an ATP check for a product substitution order.