Work Order Collaboration with Batch-Managed Products

You, as a customer, use this process if you want to track which subcontracting component batches (provided by you to the supplier) the supplier has used to produce a particular finished-product batch (primary-product batch or co-product batch). This process requires that the subcontracting components and finished products are batch-managed materials in your ERP system.

The supplier provides the batch usage data (in addition to consumed and produced quantities) when reporting actual data in the work order. SAP Supply Network Collaboration (SAP SNC) can transmit this data to your ERP system. Follow-up processes in the ERP system, such as inventory management or controlling, can evaluate and consider this data.

The process described here deals with the SAP SNC part of a batch tracking scenario. To run a complete batch tracking scenario, including the ERP part, your ERP system must be able to send, receive, and evaluate the relevant SAP SNC data.

Example Example

If you use an SAP ERP system, you must have activated the following business functions available with enhancement package 4, to send, receive, and evaluate the relevant data in the various ERP predecessor processes and follow-up processes:

LOG_MM_OM_1
LOG_ESOA_OPS_2 (with prerequisite business function ESOA_OPS01)

End of the example.

Note Note

The main purpose of this SAP SNC process is to obtain a correlation between actual primary-product batches and the component batches actually used in production. Consider the following details and restrictions:

Batches and batch characteristics are not subject to negotiation and agreement between customer and supplier. This means that for a particular subcontracting component, the supplier can use all of the batches that the customer has allowed for use in the work order (see Determination of Customer Batches Available for a Work Order). The subcontracting component batch that the supplier confirms in the negotiation phase or actually uses in the execution phase can therefore be different from the batch that the customer proposes.
Product configuration (possible for the primary product) is likewise not subject to negotiation.
Projection of quantities and dates and determination of deviations between planned data and projected data or planned data and actual data do not consider batches.
The subcontract order in SAP SNC (which is the basis for the work order) and in the customer’s ERP system is not updated with the subcontracting component quantities that the supplier has actually used, nor is it updated with batch usage data.

End of the note.

There is no error handling and business process monitoring in the case where the supplier enters incorrect data.

Prerequisites

See Master Data for WO Collaboration with Batch-Managed Products

Process

The customer sends a subcontract order from the ERP system to SAP SNC. For each of the batch-managed subcontracting components, the co-products, and the primary product, the customer can transmit the customer batch number and the batch characteristics. If the batch for a finished product or a subcontracting component is not yet known, the customer can send the data at any time later on, with an updated subcontract order.
Note
- Whether and at which level a purchase order message can transmit batch numbers depends on the customer's ERP system and on the purchase order messages used.
- To enable batch tracking, the customer batch number is not required in SAP SNC for a finished-product batch. Instead, the supplier can assign the batch number that he or she uses for a particular batch (called “supplier batch number”). The supplier batch number is the batch number that the supplier plans to use to identify a finished-product batch produced in the corresponding production run. The supplier can enter the supplier batch number, for example, when reporting actual data. In the work order configuration, the customer can make the supplier batch number a mandatory field.
End of the note.
Based on the subcontract order, SAP SNC creates a work order. The work order copies the batch numbers from the subcontract order to the Customer Batch Number field of the relevant products (subcontracting components, primary product, or co-products). If the customer has not sent subcontracting component batches or co-product batches with the subcontract order, or has sent wrong subcontracting component batches or co-product batches, he or she can add or correct them manually in the work order in SAP SNC. However, he or she can only use allowed batches.

Note
On the work order Web screens of SAP SNC, the customer cannot manually add or change the customer batch number for a finished product.

End of the note.
The customer publishes the work order in SAP SNC, thus starting the negotiation with the supplier.
The supplier checks the work order and creates a work order confirmation. During this process, he or she can do the following:
- The supplier can propose different dates and quantities for the deliveries of the primary product. To do so, the supplier creates confirmation deliveries with the corresponding data. In particular, the supplier can split a delivery proposed by the customer into multiple deliveries. If the customer has not sent a customer batch number for the primary product, the supplier can assign different supplier batch numbers to the different primary product deliveries.
  
  Note
  A particular batch is uniquely identified by one customer batch number or one supplier batch number. Therefore, you cannot use the same supplier batch number for different customer batches.
  
  End of the note.
  
  Recommendation
  We recommend that you only use splitting if the customer has not sent a customer batch number for the primary product.
  
  End of the recommendation.
- For the subcontracting components, the supplier can also create confirmation phase inputs with different quantities and dates. In particular, the supplier can assign a different customer batch number, meaning that he or she plans to use a different subcontracting component batch than the batch proposed by the customer in the planned phase input for the subcontracting component. For the subcontracting components, the supplier can only choose among the allowed batch numbers.
The supplier can create confirmations either manually in SAP SNC or by sending a work order confirmation from the supplier back-end system to SAP SNC.
When the customer and the supplier have agreed on the content of the work order, the work order gets the status Content in Agreement (CIAG).
During publication of a work order with the status CIAG, SAP SNC automatically updates the subcontract order item for which the work order was created and sends the updated subcontract order to the customer's ERP system. Updating the subcontract order item means that SAP SNC copies the quantity and dates for the agreed deliveries in the work order as (identical) request and confirmation schedule lines to the subcontract order item. In the confirmation schedule lines, SAP SNC also updates the component consumptions for the subcontracting components with the actual component consumptions.

Note
Since batches and characteristic values are not subject to negotiation and agreement, SAP SNC does not update batch numbers in the request schedule lines.

End of the note.
As of production start, the supplier reports the actual data in the work order as follows:
- When reporting a phase output for a batch-managed primary product or co-product, the supplier can specify the supplier batch number (mandatory if required by the customer in the work order configuration). If the subcontract order transmitted a customer batch number for the primary product, the supplier must also enter this exact customer batch number
  For a batch-classified finished product, the supplier can also specify the characteristic values of the finished-product batch.
- When reporting a phase input for a batch-managed subcontracting component, the supplier reports the batch number of the subcontracting component batch that he or she actually used in the Customer Batch Number field. In addition, the supplier can provide the batch usage information for the subcontracting component batch, that is, the finished-product batches that use this subcontracting component batch.
The supplier can provide the batch data either immediately when reporting actual phase inputs or phase outputs, or at a later time. He or she can enter the data manually in the work order in SAP SNC or by sending a ManufacturingWorkOrderWorkInProcessNotification from his or her back-end system to SAP SNC. For more information, see Reporting Batches and Batch Usage Manually.
To update the customer's ERP system with actual data and batch usage information, SAP SNC sends a production progress notification or work order information to the customer's ERP system. For more information, see Update of the Customer Back-End with Work Order Data.