Location Determination Procedure 

Use

You save information about location substitutions in a location determination procedure.

Features

Type of Procedure

You assign a procedure type to each location determination procedure. The procedure type cannot be changed subsequently. The procedure type restricts the possible combinations of source and substitute locations, but it improves the clarity within the procedure.

The following table contains all procedure types, including examples.

Type of Procedure	Description of Procedure Type	Example
Chain (0)	Serial determination	LOC01 à LOC02, LOC03 à LOC04 (The arrow à designates that the location in front of the arrow is substituted by the location after the arrow.)
Network (1)	Unrestricted determination	LOC01 à LOC02 à LOC03 LOC01 à LOC03
Fan-shaped structure (2)	Only single-level determination allowed	LOC01 à LOC02 LOC01 à LOC03 LOC01 à LOC04
List (3)	Serial determination for initial location determination for an SAP CRM system, for example. You cannot use the procedure type List (3) with substitutions. It is currently only used for initial location determination if no location is transferred from the connected system.
Alternative (4)	Only single-level determination allowed You may only use the procedure type Alternative (4) in alternative rules, since it does not define any substitutions for the input location. The procedure type Alternative (4) defines alternative locations for excluded substitute locations. In contrast to the procedure type Fan-shaped structure (2), in the procedure type Alternative (4), the same locations are allowed in different groups, but no validities (the alternative locations inherit the validities of the original locations).	LOC04 à LOC06 LOC04 à LOC07 LOC04 à LOC08

Costs

You can assign penalty costs to prioritize location determinations. Note the following:

●      The prioritization is not cross-procedural.

●      Sorting is carried out in ascending order.

You cannot assign any costs in the case of the procedure type Chain (0), since the substitution sequence is fixed.

Location Determination Activity

In a location determination activity you determine a sequence of actions that the system executes during location determination. Actions include, for example, transportation and production.

Validity Period of Product Substitutions

You can define the time periods in which substitutions are valid. For further information see Defining Validity Periods in Rules.

Activities

Creation of a Location Determination Procedure

To create a location determination procedure, on the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Advanced Planning and Optimization → Master Data → Rule Maintenance → Integrated Rule Maintenance. In the Overview frame, choose  (Maintain Location Determination) and then Create New Procedure.

List

To display location determination without a graphic, choose the  List tab page.

System Activities

The availability check determines a substitution group in a location determination procedure of a rule using the input location from the OLTP system. If an override input location is transferred from the OLTP system, the availability check includes this location at the beginning of the substitution group. In this instance, the system first checks the availability at this location.

The availability check uses the input location to determine suitable substitution groups in the location determination procedures of all rules found. However, the availability check only includes the override input location in the substitution group of the first inclusive rule from the first inclusive rule strategy.