Third party drop ship - change material once Preq/PO is issued

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

     We are using third party drop ship process to place spare part orders with our vendors. At times, the vendor could send an exception message (EDI) to correct the material being used as we could've initially sent incorrect material number. So ideally we would want to update the existing sales order line item with the new/changed material that the vendor has sent. This is not allowed as there is a subsequent Purchase requisition and PO linked to the Sales order.

  Is there a standard way of handling this? I know we could instead delete the PO and Preq line and reject the sales order, then add a new sales order line with the new material and let the new Preq and PO be created. Since all this is handled automatically via EDI, we would want this automated and hence I was looking for standard options. Also, we would like to use the same PO number that is sent to vendor instead of generating a new one.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Nanda

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you all for the quick response.

Once the EDI message is sent to the vendor, if there is a subsequent change in the delivery date or quantity, this can be easily handled by changing the sales order directly and  this updates the third party PO automatically and sends the vendor an updated message. In this case we can retain the same sales order line and PO line item.

However we run into an issue with material change. The vendor uses the same materials as we do, sometimes we might send the vendor an order with material A and the vendor might change it to material B (because both are same, or no stock available, superseded etc). In such cases we will need to update our sales order appropriately with the new material number. Since date/quantity change was allowed on the preceding document, I was hoping the material could also be changed.

Deleting the PO and Preq line does not make the material field on the sales order editable. I could only think of rejecting the sales order line and creating a new line items, which in turn creates new Preq and PO. We wanted to retain the same PO and line as this will be used as the reference on our vendor's sales order.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Material superseded - This situation should be addressed. There should be internal procedures when this situation arises, what is the communication flow and result in material being flag off for use in SAP.

No stock available - Procedure changes is required, would not recommend automatic system change.

When new SO item is created, a new po is created. You can reject the new PO. Copy the PR and item number, put it back to your old PO. There is a purchase requisition number and item number field in PO overview screen. Here you can link back to old PO under another new item. If you have EDI, your user will have to do idoc corrections, unless your vendor can change the PO item mapping, this saves your user's headache in ammending idoc.

[Former Member]

Closing this thread.

Since most of our process was automated, I would have liked to fix this issue without any user intervention but I've decided to bite the bullet and go ahead with the longer route - once the vendor sends the exception message to change the material then delete PO line, Preq line, reject sales order, then add new sales order line, before the auto PReq to PO convertion takes place add a new line on the existing PO with reference to the new Preq, re-trigger the message to the vendor to send an alteration message.

Thanks for your useful responses, appreciate your time!

[Former Member]

Hi Nanda,

When ever a subsequent  document is created you can not edit the preceding document to an extent. That applies in Third Party Sales Order. As PR is created in the background automatically when you save the sales order, it is not advisable to change the SO.

You have to create a new SO with right material and quantity.

I completely agree to Alan's point. Understand the problem & try to create SO with right material in case of third party sales.

Regards,

AKN

[former_member183879]

Hi,

As you have rightly said, the material cannot be changed in the PR as it is linked to the sales order item. The only possible way is to delete the PR and then delete the SO followed by the addition of new line item in the SO, which will create a new PR.

I assume that the option of adding another line item directly in PR and setting the first item with deletion indicator does not serve the purpose. This is because in third party process, the PR will have only one line item which represents a sales order line item. Anyway you can check this once and then conclude.

[Former Member]

Hi Nanda,

In third party order once we save order PR is created automatically, meantime if we want to add or modify sales order PR will not get updated, as you also said rightly it is better to create new order for the right maerial.

Thanks

VSA

[Former Member]

Is there a study why orders are created with wrong material numbers?

It will be better if we understand this problem first.