RBATP - is it possible to activate them only if certain conditions are met?

[Former Member]

Hello APO - RBATP experts!

I have a question that I hope you can help me with:

Is it possible to have rules that become active only in certain circumstances, for example, if the RDD of the sales order is today or tomorrow?

I have limited knowledge on the topic; so your help will be greatly appreciated.

This is my scenario:

A sales order is raised in plant A for Material X, if there isn't enought inventory of Mat. X, there will be a rule to look for inventory in plant B. If stock is found in plant B; then an ATP Tree structure is created, which is then turned into a purch req; and then into an STO from Plant B to Plant A. Then the shipment is sent to the customer from Plant A. This is good, however, this is not what we want for sales orders that are placed with too much time in advance; because by the time the sales order needs to be delivered, the inventory may be available in Plant A, and those requirements are meaningless at that point. Any ideas of how to handle this? Thanks in advance!

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Marta,

This scenario seems a bit odd to me. Before I consider a solution, can you explain how, if the requirement has been placed upon "B", how could it be that excess stock would subsequently appear in 'A', enough to satisfy the order?

Is there a reason why wouldn't ship directly from B to the customer? (instead of first moving the stock to A)

Is A a plant, depot, or both?

Is B a plant, depot, or both?

How is 'B' normally supplied?

Are you using MLATP? CTP?

Normally, the date of the order is not directly considered in the rules (not to say, though, that it can't be considered). For requirements far in the future, the system usually looks for the first item in the list that satisfies the requirements (requested delivery date = confirmed delivery date). From the perspective of the business, a business person almost always will prefer to ship from stock, rather that invest money in building/buying new material.

Anyhow, depending on your answers, I can think of a couple of ways to approach this problem.

Rgds,

DB49

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi DB:

Here are my answers:

If the requirement is placed upon B, how is it possible to later have excess inventory in A?

If the sales order was placed let's say 7 weeks in advance; during that time the whse could have received inventory from the plant.

This is mainly why I need to find a way for the rule to do the substitution and create the requirement in B, only if RDD is very close to today's date.

Is there a reason why wouldn't ship directly from B to the customer? (instead of first moving the stock to A)

Yes there is, the requirement of the business is that any sales order raised in A, must be shipped from A; but stock must be found in alternate locations to satisfy the order. If stock is not found, then the order is cut and shipped.

Is A a plant, depot, or both?

Is B a plant, depot, or both?

How is 'B' normally supplied?

Are you using MLATP? CTP?

Both are depots; and are supplied from different manufacturing plants across the country.

We are using MLATP.

Thanks again for your input!

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Marta,

You have blown my mind. If you are using MLATP, then the stock will not 'magically appear' in A, you will have to build it in one of your manufacturing plants, and then ship it to A. It is not often that a business will consciously decide to build new FGs, when existing FGs already exists in stock and is available for sale. Back when I was a planner, people would be fired for allowing that to happen. I must assume that someone in your company has thoroughly analyzed the costs vs benefits of implementing this scenario.

Mohan has made a very innovative suggestion. By all means, give it a shot. I hope that it works for you.

Off of the top of my head, though, I am doubtful that any standard setup will yield the exact results you seek if MLTP remains in the mix. I do believe that the exact solution is do-able, though, with some custom programming.

Sorry I can't be of more help. Please let us know how Mohan's solution works for you,

DB49

[Former Member]

Hii,

Why don't you consider the use of checking horizon to realize your requirement. If you can come up with the definite period for what you're calling 'too much time in advance', that period can be called as "Replinishment Lead Time" for plant A. If you use a Checking Horizon(RLT) at plant A and configure "Confirmation at Checking Horizon" , system will not substitute the plant A with plant B in case your requirement date falls after the lead time, instead it will confirm the order against the lead time at plant A.

To deal with the situation where there will not be any supply with in the lead time at plant A and to force the plant substitution, you can configure Rules Immediately option in check instructions and use a calculation profile for allowed delay. For more information on use of calculation profile within the RBATP, refer to SAP Help on RBATP.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Mohan

[Former Member]

Hello Mohan:

Thanks for your answer.

We are using checking horizon as our normal process; however, the scenario I'm describing; will be on the exception, not the rule; and this is why I'm trying to find a way not to create requirements too early. This is why I want the RBATP to be ignored if RDD is > than X days.

I will check the documentation to read about the rules immediately option.

Thanks for your response!