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  Update Confirmations Based on ASNs

Use

You can use the /SCA/SCON_CLOSE_BY_ASN_N_ALERT report to update the status of the following confirmations:

  • Scheduling agreement and purchase order confirmations in Extended Confirmation Management (ECM)

  • Location product confirmations

    Note Note

    Location product confirmations are only relevant for the Service Parts Planning shortage analysis in SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO). For more information, see the documentation for SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO) under 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.

You perform the report daily. The report assigns ASNs whose shipping date is on a specific date to confirmations with the following characteristics:

  • The confirmations have the status Published or Partially Shipped .

  • The confirmations lie in a certain time interval.

Based on the assignment, the report sets one of the following statuses for a confirmation:

  • If a confirmation is partially covered by ASNs, it receives the status Partially Shipped .

  • If a confirmation is completely covered by ASNs, it receives the status Shipped .

  • If a confirmation is overdue, it receives the status Closed . A confirmation is overdue if the shipping date of the confirmation falls on the shipping date of the ASNs but the confirmation is not covered by ASN or is only partially covered.

You define the shipping date of the ASNs in the report settings.

The report generates the following objects for overdue confirmations.

  • Alerts of type 7812

    This alert type is only relevant for the shortage analysis in Service Parts Planning in SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO). You can display the alerts in the shortage analysis monitor. For more information, see the documentation for SAP APO under 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 Alert Monitor End of the navigation path .

  • Confirmation requests of type Overdue Confirmation

    The report generates the confirmation request for a purchase order schedule line or a scheduling agreement delivery schedule line with an overdue confirmation. The report does not generate confirmation requests for location product confirmations.

Prerequisites

Settings in Customizing for Supply Network Collaboration

You have made the following settings in Customizing for Supply Network Collaboration:

  • You have set that the report can generate Overdue Confirmation confirmation requests.

    You make the setting in Start of the navigation path Delivery Next navigation step Extended Confirmation Management (ECM) and Location Product Confirmations Next navigation step Set Creation of Confirmation Requests End of the navigation path .

  • You have defined the following data that is relevant for assigning ASNs to confirmations:

    • Relevant date

      With this you define whether the report considers the shipping date/time or the delivery date/time when assigning ASNs to confirmations. From now on, the term “shipping/delivery date” is used to denote the settings you make here.

    • Assignment interval

      With this you define how long before and after the shipping/delivery date a confirmation can lie so that the report can assign the ASN to the confirmation.

      You make your settings under Start of the navigation path Delivery 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 .

Settings in Customizing for Advanced Planning and Optimization

In Customizing for Advanced Planning and Optimization , you defined that the report can generate alert type 7812. You make this setting under Start of the navigation path Supply Chain Planning Next navigation step Service Parts Planning (SPP) Next navigation step Monitoring Next navigation step SPP Alert Monitor Next navigation step Make General Settings for Alerts End of the navigation path .

Features

Confirmations Processed by the Report

The confirmations that the report processes depends on which indicator you have set in Customizing for Supply Network Collaboration under Set Up ECM and Location Product Confirmations .

  • If you have set the Use Extended Confirmation Management indicator, the report processes scheduling agreement and purchase order confirmations.

  • If you set the Allow Creation of Location Product Confirmations indicator, the report processes location product confirmations.

Selecting ASNs that the Report Processes

In the report settings you define the ASNs that the report is to assign to the confirmations. You can perform the report for ASNs with various ship-from locations and products. However, the ASNs must contain the same customers. The report only considers ASNs that do not have the status Draft , Closed, or Canceled .

Defining the ASN Shipping Date

To define the shipping date of the ASNs that the report is to assign to confirmations, you have the following options in the report settings:

  • Current Local Date

    You choose this option if you want to perform the report and assign ASNs (whose shipping date falls on the current local date [“today”]) on a daily basis; for example, shortly before midnight.

  • Previous Local Date

    You choose this option if you want to perform the report and assign ASNs (whose shipping date falls on the previous local date [“yesterday”]) on a daily basis. This is the option that we recommend.

  • Specific Date

    You choose this option for test purposes or to repeat jobs (that possibly contain errors).

Since the report only processes ASNs with the same shipping date, you can only include ship-from locations in a job in which the local date is the same. For more information, see the “Example” section.

Assigning ASNs to Confirmations

The report firstly determines the ASNs whose shipping date corresponds to the required shipping date. Depending on the shipping/delivery date/time of an ASN, the report then looks for confirmations whose shipping/delivery date lies within the assignment interval. The report can only assign one ASN to one confirmation in the assignment interval.

Note Note

Note: The assignment is not based on the shipping date, but on the delivery date/time or the shipping date/time depending on the Customizing setting

End of the note.

A many-to-many substitution is allowed: If the ASN quantity exceeds the confirmed quantity, the report can assign the remaining quantity to other confirmations. The report can also assign several ASNs to one confirmation if one ASN is not enough to cover the confirmation.

The report can only assign an ASN to a purchase order or scheduling agreement confirmation if the confirmation and the ASN item refer to the same purchasing document item.

Note Note

We recommend that the supplier uses either a document confirmation or a location product confirmation for a location product. If both a scheduling agreement or purchase order confirmation and a location product confirmation exist for a certain customer location product, the report assigns the same ASN both to the scheduling agreement or purchase order confirmation and to the location product confirmation. The ASN is then used "twice".

End of the note.

To prevent the report from being able to assign an (already completely) assigned ASN to other supplier confirmations, the report deletes the assignment indicator of this ASN. This also enables a faulty or terminated update run to be repeated. For more information, see the section entitled "Delete Obsolete Assignment Indicators".

Processing Note-Only Confirmations

A location product confirmation or a scheduling agreement confirmation can be a note-only confirmation. If an ASN with suitable characteristics (product, customer location, or document item) exists, the report closes all note-only confirmations whose shipping/delivery date lies before the shipping/delivery date of the ASN.

Defining the Daily Execution Time for the Report

For the following reasons we recommend that you specify the execution time of the report so that you do not update the confirmations too early or too late (in particular, do not close them too early or too late) and generate “incorrect” alerts.

  • The supplier must have an opportunity to respond to a confirmation that is open (and still up-to-date from your viewpoint) by creating ASNs. Planning for the day being evaluated should be completed. Before you execute the report, all the relevant XML messages (such as purchase orders with purchase order confirmations, scheduling agreement releases, and ASNs) must have arrived in SAP SNC. For this reason, you must not perform the report too early .

  • On the other hand, you must still inform the supplier early enough that there has not yet been any delivery for a confirmation. For this reason, you must not perform the report too late .

Activities

Calling the Report

To call the report for online processing, on the SAP Easy Access screen choose Start of the navigation path Supply Network Collaboration Next navigation step Delivery Next navigation step Supplier Confirmation Next navigation step Location Product Conformations and ECM Next navigation step Update Supplier Confirmations Using ASNs End of the navigation path .

Displaying an Assignment

You can display the ASNs that the report has assigned to a confirmation on the SAP SNC Web UI. You can find the data in the details of a confirmation on the Assigned ASNs tab. You can call the confirmation details on the confirmation screen or in the release details on the Confirmations tab.

Deleting Obsolete Assignment Indicators

SAP SNC sets an assignment indicator internally in the system for ASNs that the report can assign to supplier confirmations. Depending on the scenario, the database table with the assignment indicators can increase in size over time. To reduce the number of entries in this database table, you can delete old assignment indicators using the /SCA/SCON_ASNINDICATOR_DELETE report. For more information, see the report documentation.

Example for Selecting Ship-From Locations

The location in which you perform the report is in Washington DC. The time zone of your system is, therefore, GMT-5. You have several suppliers with locations in south-east Asia. If you start the report on July 5 at 14:00 and use the Previous Local Date option, you can include ship-from locations in the following time zones in the location selection for an update run:

  • GMT+7 (for example, locations in Bangkok, Hanoi, or Jakarta)

    When the report starts, the local time in these locations is July 6, 02:00.

  • GMT+9 (for example, locations in Osaka, Sapporo, or Tokyo)

    When the report starts, the local time in this time zone is July 6, 04:00.

As you have set the Previous Local Date option, the report processes ASNs whose shipping date is one day before July 6; that is, on July 5. It assigns the ASNs to confirmations whose shipping date is July 5 or later.

For the Previous Local Date option, you cannot include, in addition, a ship-from location in Mexico (time zone GMT-6) in the location selection. When the report starts, the local time in this location is July 5, 13:00. The report would, therefore, want to process ASNs with the shipping date July 4. With the current report settings, however, the report can only process ASNs with the shipping date July 5.