Product Substitution Procedure 

Use

You save information about product substitutions in a product substitution procedure.

Features

Type of Procedure

You must assign a procedure type to each product substitution procedure. The procedure type defines how the product substitution is to be done, and can no longer be changed later.

The following procedure types are valid for the product substitution:

●      Chain (0)

Defines a serial determination.

Example: A  →  B  →  C  →  D

●      Network (1)

Defines a free determination.

Example: A  →  B , A  →  C , B  →  C

●      Fan-shaped structure (2)

Defines a single-level determination.

Example: A  →  B , A  →  C , A  →  D

Costs

You can assign costs for the procedure. You can prioritize product substitutions by assigning costs. Note the following:

●      The prioritization is not cross procedural.

●      Sorting is carried out in ascending order.

In substitution procedures of type 0 (chain) you cannot enter any costs because the sequence of the substitutions is fixed. Instead, you can set a Selection end indicator.

Selection end indicator

You set this indicator to reflect a technology change within a selection of products. The indicator selects the processing start of the product list.

You can set the selection end indicator for substitution procedures with type 0 (chain) only. In addition, this indicator can be valuated for access strategies 01 and 04 only.

Product substitution reason

You can specify a reason for the product substitution under Profiles & Parameters. The product substitution reason explains the necessity of the substitution (such as a missing part). The product substitution reason is for explanatory purposes only.

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.

Graphical Display of the Product Substitution Procedure

The graphical display of a product substitution procedure is based on the assigned procedure type.

To view a graphical display, select the product substitution procedure you require on the Overview subscreen. Choose  Product substitution plan in the Details frame.

Activities

To create a product substitution 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 Product Substitutions and then Create New Procedure.

Example

In the first instance, you start with requested product P4. According to access strategy 1 (start from top of list), P1, P2 and P3 are defined as predecessors and P5 as the successor. The results list appears as follows: P1 → P2 → P3 → P4 → P5.

In the second instance, you set a selection end indicator for P2. You start with requested product P4. P2 and P3 are defined as predecessors; P5 is defined as the successor. The results list appears as follows: P2 → P3 → P4 → P5.