Availability Check Flashcards
Basic Information About Availability Checks
When you create an order, you normally need information about the available quantity of the ordered materials. Without this information, you cannot confirm a sales order with certainty.
You can influence the scope of the availability check within the material master data.
Material Availability Check for Material Availability Date
Using delivery and transportation scheduling (calculating backwards from the customer’s required delivery date), the system calculates several dates for each item in the sales order. The relevant date for the availability check is the material availability date. On this date, enough material has to be available in stock to meet the confirmed customer delivery date.
Check at Plant Level
material availability check in sales orders is performed at plant level for the corresponding item.
During automatic determination, the system looks for a valid default value for the plant in the relevant master data using the following sequence:
- Customer-material info record
- Ship-to party customer master record
- Material master record
Control of Availability Check
You can influence the scope of the availability check with entries in certain customizing control tables. Among other things, you can configure which information should be included in the availability check.
Transfer of Requirements
When a customer orders material and you create the appropriate sales order, the procurement of the corresponding material quantities has to be ensured. To achieve this goal, the material requirements arising from the material quantities of the sales order items are automatically transferred and made available for material requirements planning (MRP).
Based on this information, the responsible employee can decide how to procure the material (purchase orders, production orders).
Complete and Partial Deliveries
You can maintain the corresponding parameter for each sales area in the business partner master data.
Partial Delivery Agreement
maintain the corresponding parameters within the customer-material information record and/or within the business partner master data.
The main options for partial deliveries on item level are:
- Multiple partial deliveries are allowed
- Only one delivery should be created (even if the ordered quantity can’t be fulfilled)
- Only a complete delivery (per item) is allowed
- No limit to subsequent deliveries
Availability Checks - Scenario 1
we assume the following situation for a certain material:
- There are 100 pieces in stock
- Purchase orders exist with quantities of 50 and 60 pieces
- Sales orders exist with quantities of 100, 40, and 50 pieces
Now we want to see what the result of the availability check will be when a new sales order with 10 pieces of the material is entered. The system carries out delivery scheduling (backward scheduling) based on the customer’s requested delivery date, and determines the material availability date. It then executes the availability check for this date. The result is that the system can confirm the 10 pieces in the new sales order for the requested delivery date. The ATP quantity on the material availability date is 10 pieces.
Availability Checks - Example Scenario 2
We have the same initial state with the following information:
- There are 100 pieces in stock
- Purchase orders exist with quantities of 50 and 60 pieces
- Sales orders exist with quantities of 100, 40, and 50 pieces
A new order arrives for our material again, but now with other properties, as follows:
- The order quantity is 20 pieces
- The customer requires a complete delivery
- The requested delivery date is earlier than in scenario 1
the requested delivery date cannot be confirmed by the system. The 100 pieces that we have in stock have to be used for the first sales order (quantity 100 pieces), so the quantity is insufficient on the material availability date (the ATP quantity is 0).
The system now uses the availability information and the delivery scheduling (forward scheduling) to determine the next possible date on which the goods can be confirmed for the customer.
Due to the delivery agreement (complete delivery required), the quantities cannot be split up. This means that the new material availability date in this case will be the date when the quantity for the second purchase order arrives
Availability Checks - Example Scenario 3
he third scenario is very similar to the second one. The main difference is that the customer now allows partial deliveries.
So again, we assume the following initial state:
- There are 100 pieces in stock
- Purchase orders exist with quantities of 50 and 60 pieces
- Sales orders exist with quantities of 100, 40, and 50 pieces
The incoming order has the following properties:
- The order quantity is 20 pieces
- The customer wants to have at least a partial delivery as soon as possible
- The requested delivery date is the same as in scenario 2
As in the second scenario, the requested delivery date cannot be confirmed. Now, however, because partial deliveries are possible, the new material availability date for the first 10 pieces is the date on which the 50 pieces for the first purchase order arrive. With the arrival of the 60 pieces for the second purchase order, the system has the material availability date for the remaining 10 pieces.
This means that the system calculates two delivery dates for the customer, based on the two new material availability dates.
In the sales order, the system creates two new schedule lines for the new delivery dates. That makes three schedule lines overall, including the first one with the unconfirmed requested delivery date.
Availability Checks - Example Scenario 4
the scope of the availability check and additionally takes the replenishment lead time into account. The replenishment lead time can be specified for each material, for example in the following ways:
- For trading goods: replenishment lead time = planned delivery time + goods receipt processing time
- For finished products: replenishment lead time = in-house production time
- The system assumes that the material will be available by the end of the replenishment lead time at the latest.
This means that all material demands with a material availability date that lies after the expiration of the replenishment lead time will be confirmed by the availability check.
Apart from the change in the scope of the availability check, we have the same initial state as in the other scenarios:
- There are 100 pieces in stock
- Purchase orders exist with quantities of 50 and 60 pieces
- Sales orders exist with quantities of 100, 40, and 50 pieces
We receive an additional order with the same restrictions as in scenario 2:
- The order quantity is 20 pieces
- The customer requires a complete delivery
- The requested delivery date is earlier than in scenario 1
Because the system now also considers the replenishment lead time as part of the availability check, and the material availability date lies after the expiration of the replenishment lead time, the requested delivery date can be confirmed.
Backorder Processing
times when you cannot confirm a sales order. Such sales orders
- the quantity of an order item is not completely confirmed
- the required delivery date for an order item cannot be kept
Backorder Processing — Confirmation Strategies
change existing material confirmations.
- Win - Confirm as requested. Shall be fully confirmed
- Gain - Improve if possible. Shall at least keep the confirmation and should gain.
- Redistribute - Redistribute. Should gain but may lose.
- Fill - Delete confirmation, if required. Shall not gain anything, should keep confirmation, but may also lose.
- Lose - Delete confirmation. Shall lose everything.
BOP Segment:
A BOP segment contains criteria which identify a set of requirements that are handled similarly during a BOP run.
BOP Variant
contains a collection of settings that defines which requirements are checked (BOP Segments) and how they are handled (confirmation strategies). Each BOP run is based on a BOP variant.
