Batch determination during picking for Make to Order

[Former Member]

I have a question on batch determination for Make to Order scenario.

If I do not determine the batch at the time of delivery creation, can the system identify the batch against the order number by itself? I may have many orders for a day with multiple batches and when I go to pick for the delivery for a certain sales order will the system identify the batch created as part of the process order?

For eg. Sales Order A, triggered Process Order B and created the batch C stored in Bin X

            Sales Order D, triggered Process order E and created the batch F stored in Bin X

Now when I create a delivery A1 for sales order A, will it be able to pick the batch C systematically? Since the forklift driver cannot go on scanning all the HU's to see which has the correct Sales order number, we will need the system intelligence to perform the correct batch determination for the Sales order stock and create the TO.

In the Make to Order scenario, is it advisable to have batch determination during Picking or should it be always in the delivery? We have deliveries created by batch job so has a concern around the batch determination in the delivery.

Thanks & Regards

Bis

[JL23 · Accepted solution]

I just informed myself today about our approach. unfortunately we do not really have the case you described. All materials we have under  sales order stock is configured material only,and here  the specifications are so unique that that I cannot find more than 1 batch with the selection criteria, as they equal to the configuration.

an alternative approach could be to add the order number as a characteristic to your batch classification as well as to the batch selection.

using object dependencies could help to get the number automatically into the batch classification.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Jurgen. Thats the direction I was thinking on too. To add the order number in the characteristics of batch classification.

Will try this option too. Thanks a lot for the inputs.

[Former Member]

In my opinion batch determination should be at delivery level because you need to pick exactly the same batch you have in your SO.

For this, create the delivery with reference to the SO, it will adopt the batch.

As for picking, SAP will create the TO for the right batch. That means that your picker needs to check the batch or you need not to mix batches in the same bin.

I hope I have answered your question

[Former Member]

Thanks a lot for the reply Paul. Will the config around Batch determination for SD documents, adopt the batch at the time of delivery creation?

I cannot have the batches at the sales order level, since I do not have the batches created until the processing of finished product is done. And the process order is triggered by the Sales order in Make to order scenario. So I can only think of batch determination at the time of Delivery or TO.

[Former Member]

In that case you need to link the production order with your delivery.

Option 1

If you want to use standard a very simple solotion is to receive production in an isolated bin.

For this (a) you confirm the production order and manually create and confirm TO in this bin or (b) if you want to automate it you can setup a WM movement type directing the putaway to this bin

Easy: Create the TOs against delivery (LT03) where you point to the new bin.

Also, you can configure a differet picking strategy and assign it to this particular material.

Option 2

Use pre-allocation table (LT51) where you specify material-batch and "exact" quantity

[Former Member]

Thanks again Paul.

The problem with first solution is there can be many customer stock for a single material and single bin. How does a specific sales order delivery look for the specific batch manufactured for that specific order. I see an issue while trying to pick the batch during picking. It needs to be determined in the delivery.

As for the pre-allocation table (LT51) where we specify material, batch, exact quantity, even the special stock category and special stock number, will it pick the exact batch while doing an LT03? So, you are saying whenever we receive a process order for a batch, we should go and update the pre-allocation table and that should be good enough?

[Former Member]

Hi,

For Option 1, the easiest thing I am thinking is:

1) Confirm Production

2) Manually update sales order with the batch created in the previous step

3) Create delivery with reference to the sales order. It will copy the batch from the sales order. So, you will pick the right batch

For Pre-Allocation table:

You are right. If you do LT03 (in foregroung) you can direct the TO to the Pre-allocation area.

If you are creating the TOs in the background you will need to include the pre-alloc storage type (926) as the first storage area in the picking strategy. Then you assign the picking strategy to the material.

In brief. Depending on the volume (number of transaction) I would go with option 1. It is easy. It does not require any additional setup.

[Former Member]

Paul,

The option is out of the question since the volume of Sales Orders will be really high and most of the orders are EDI orders and the customer service is not allowed to touch them using VA02.

I will test around preallocation table and will let you know how it works. And for the storage type, did you mean Storage type 916 (Shipping Area for deliveries)?