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  Extended Confirmation Management

Use

A confirmation is a document that refers to a customer purchase order or scheduling agreement release and that suppliers use to inform customers in advance that they expect to be able to deliver on a certain date. Customers need reliable confirmations that are as exact as possible so that they can plan up to the arrival of the delivery more exactly. With Extended Confirmation Management (ECM), the customer can help the supplier to create confirmations for scheduling agreement releases or purchase orders in SAP Supply Network Collaboration ( SAP SNC) that take into account a changed demand situation (caused by new releases or changed purchase orders) and the delivery progress (represented by a new advanced shipping notification ( ASN )).

ECM processes both scheduling agreement confirmations and purchase order confirmations to a detailed degree at request schedule line level. For purchase order confirmations, the main difference between this process and confirmation processing in purchase order collaboration is that in purchase order collaboration, purchase order confirmations "only" refer to one item according to international message standards. For more detailed processing of confirmations at request schedule line level, ECM links purchase order confirmations with request schedule lines. However, this link only affects SAP SNC internal processing and display of purchase order confirmations. The message exchange between the customer back-end system and the supplier back-end system in purchase order collaboration is not affected. Scheduling agreement confirmations, on the other hand, always refer to a specific request schedule line. During message exchange, confirmations here are also only linked to the request schedule lines at scheduling agreement item level.

ECM extends the classic confirmation processing in release processing and purchase order collaboration.

Prerequisites

  • You have activated ECM. To activate ECM, you must set the Use Extended Confirmation Management indicator in Customizing for Supply Network Collaboration under Start of the navigation path Delivery Next navigation step Supplier Confirmations Next navigation step Extended Confirmation Management (ECM) and Location Product Confirmations Next navigation step Set Up ECM and Location Product Confirmations End of the navigation path .

  • In the confirmation control, you have set that scheduling agreement confirmations or purchase order confirmations are optional or mandatory (see Confirmation Control ). You can make the setting dependent on customer, supplier, and product.

  • You have set up number ranges for confirmations. You set up number ranges on theSAPSNC Web UI under Start of the navigation path Master Data Next navigation step Number Ranges Next navigation step Supplier Confirmation Number Range Intervals End of the navigation path .For more information, see Number Assignment .

Features

Central Functions of ECM

These are the central functions of ECM that enable a more transparent and realistic confirmation processing:

  • The customer can use confirmation requests to force the supplier to create confirmations for specific request schedule lines. In supplier delivery performance rating (only available in Service Parts Planning), the customer can monitor the delivery reliability of the supplier on the basis of confirmation requests. For more information, see Generation and Update of Confirmation Requests .

  • ECM determines the delivery progress for confirmations by assigning ASN quantities to the confirmations with a specific algorithm and then updating the status of the confirmations on the basis of this assignment as follows:

    • Current confirmations receive the status Partially Shipped or Shipped depending on the assigned ASN quantity.

    • Confirmations in the past that are not covered by ASNs receive the status Closed .

      For closed confirmations, ECM generates confirmation requests that the supplier must respond to with new confirmations. For more information, see Update Confirmations Based on ASNs .

  • When a new release or a changed purchase order arrives, ECM closes confirmations for changed schedule lines automatically and sets the status of the confirmations to Closed . For more information, see Closing Scheduling Agreement Confirmations Based on Releases and Closing Purchase Order Confirmations Based on Purchase Orders .

  • On a special confirmation screen on the SAP SNC Web user interface, the supplier can create scheduling agreement and purchase order confirmations referring to the request schedule line (see Confirmation Screen ). The confirmation screen is especially relevant for purchase order confirmations since the supplier can only create purchase order confirmations at item level on the purchase order collaboration Web UI. If you use ECM for purchase orders, you can display purchase order confirmations on the Web UI for purchase order collaboration but you cannot process them. For the supplier, the confirmation screen acts as an inbox and a worklist of request schedule lines for which the customer expects confirmations by confirmation requests. The customer can display and review confirmations on the confirmation screen and set the relevant status. The customer can use the review status to organize the worklist of the confirmations to be reviewed.

    Note Note

    The confirmation screen also enables the display and editing of location product confirmations. Location product confirmations are only relevant for the Service Parts Planning shortage analysis inSAPAdvanced Planning and Optimization (SAPAPO). For more information, see the documentation forSAPAPOunder Start of the navigation path Service Parts Planning Next navigation step Analysis, Monitoring, and Reporting for Service Parts Planning Next navigation step Shortage Analysis Next navigation step Shortage Monitor Next navigation step Processing Location Product Confirmations End of the navigation path .

    End of the note.

  • If the supplier sends a purchase order with confirmation schedule lines via EDI to SAP SNC, SAP SNC automatically assigns each confirmation schedule line to exactly one request schedule line when a message is received. For more information, see Assigning PO Confirmations to PO Schedule Lines (EDI) .

Web Screens in ECM

The SAP SNC confirmation screen is the central screen for displaying and processing confirmation requests and confirmations. The following screens are also available for various tasks:

  • Confirmations tab page in release details

    In Customizing for Supply Network Collaboration under Configure ECM and Location Product Confirmations , you can define whether the supplier can also use the Confirmations tab page in the release details in ECM to edit scheduling agreement confirmations, or whether the confirmation screen must be used instead. For more information, see Confirmations Tab Page .

  • History

    The history displays old versions of confirmations. You can call the history on the confirmation screen, on the Confirmations tab page, or in the Web application menu under Start of the navigation path Delivery Next navigation step Supplier Confirmations End of the navigation path .

  • Receipts/Requirements List

    The receipts/requirements list displays published confirmations as receipts. For more information, see Receipts and Requirements .

Creating and Processing Confirmations

The supplier can create scheduling agreement and purchase order confirmations manually in the supplier view of the confirmation screen. The supplier can also send purchase order confirmations from his or her back-end system to SAP SNC via EDI (see Sending Confirmations from the Supplier System to SAP SNC ) and, if necessary, edit the confirmation schedule lines manually on the confirmation screen.

You can define the following in Customizing for Supply Network Collaboration under Set Up ECM and Location Product Confirmations :

  • Whether the supplier can also create scheduling agreement confirmations in the release details on the Confirmations tab page

  • Whether the customer can also manually create and publish confirmations in the customer view of the confirmations screen

Notes and Note-Only Confirmations

The supplier can create a note for a scheduling agreement confirmation or for a purchase order confirmation. The note can consist of a note reason predefined in Customizing and a manually-created text. A standard note is a note that only consists of a note reason. For a note for a scheduling agreement release or a scheduling agreement confirmation, SAP SNC generates alert 7105. For a note for a purchase order or a purchase order confirmation, SAP SNC generates alert 7059.

The supplier can create a scheduling agreement confirmation that acts purely like a note and has a quantity of zero. The supplier can use a note-only confirmation to inform the customer as to they delivery is not currently possible.

Send Confirmations to Customer

On the confirmation screen there is a publishing function for purchase order confirmations, as in purchase order collaboration. When the supplier or the customer publishes a purchase order, SAP SNC sends the purchase order to the customer back-end system. For more information, see Purchase Order Collaboration: Standard Process .

Sending scheduling agreement confirmations is only relevant for the service parts management scenario in which the customer generates scheduling agreement releases in SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization ( SAP APO ) and sends them to SAP SNC. The supplier can send scheduling agreement confirmations only in the release details on the Confirmations tab page to collaborative management of scheduling agreement releases (CMDS) in SAP APO .

Validation

To ensure that the supplier or the customer only creates confirmations with valid data, SAP SNC puts confirmations through a validation check. For more information, see Validation of Supplier Confirmations .