Material Listing / Exclusion with RBA

[Former Member]

Hey Gurus,

We have GATP active with Allocation check, then Availability then Product Substitution (using GATP RBA conditions and rules).

This scenario is working fine, but we have a problem when the substitution occurs and the new material is listed. SAP allow us to save Sales Order with the listed material.

I.E:

Material A (listed for sales) - 0 stock.

Material B (not listed) - 200 stock

Sales Order with 100 peaces

Material A (listed for sales) - 0 stock

Substitution Occurs
Material A (listed for sales) - confirmed 0
Material B (not listed) - confirmed 100

The problem is because Material B is listed, substitution should not occur, or VA01 should shown error message (Material B is not listed and therefore not allowed).

Can you guys please help me?

Best regards

MT

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you very much for your help.

We are going to treat this issue with the exclusive substitution rule.

[babu_kilari4]

Hello MT APO,

To the best of my knowledge, Material Listing and Exclusion is more of a concept that is limited to ECC ATP component. So, I believe once you interface the product to do the ATP checking in APO, I am not sure if the R/3 ATP relevant errors pop-up to restrict the user from saving. I have not explored the option, but you could try to see if the rule type ( Inclusive or exclusive ) helps you achieve what you're looking for.

Babu Kilari

[Former Member]

Thank you for your reply Babu,

When i input Material B (not listed) directly on sales order, VA01 shows error message Material B is not listed and therefore not allowed before any ATP check.

But if i input Material A (listed for sales) due to unavaillable stock, substitution occurs for Material B (not listed) but this Material B is not checked again in Listing / Exclusion on ECC system.

Thats why system allow us to save the order with the not listed material.

[babu_kilari4]

Hi MT,

I guess the reason for that behaviour is due to the fact that the substitute product is a resultant line item that is derived as part of ATP check in APO. And, APO doesn't know if the material has already been excluded in ECC. But, when you enter the product B as a separate line item, system checks the preconditions and go to APO to execute the ATP check.

Hope this helps to set the context.

Babu Kilari

[sourabh_jain66]

Hi MT,

I would agree with Babu here on this, When you are entering material A in sales order it checks for whether it is allowed to be used in a sales order or not, when it finds that material A is allowed, then it does further activities ATP is one of them.

When system is doing ATP check it switch to APO system for same and in APO it finds that there is no stock for entered material. Since you have RBA activated in your check instruction system then goes for ATP check for substitute material. It finds stock there so it confirms from substitute material.

You need to somehow let system know that this material is not allowed to be used.

At the same time you also have to let the system know, what it needs to do, if you are not allowing substitute material.

Best thing is not to use those materials, which are not allowed to be sold in substitution rules. I would be interested to know the business requirement driving this.

Rgds

Sourabh

[Former Member]

Thanks Sourabh and Babu!

I agree with you guys. Material Listing works for entered material, substitution is another process and take place in SCM system.

What do you think is the best manner to work with this issue?

I think something like:

- When the user set Material as Not Listed

- User need to create a new RBA condition (in SCM) and a new product substitution rule Excluding this product.

I made a test and it's working... Do you guys its a valid solution?

[sourabh_jain66]

Hi MT,

Sounds good to me. I believe frequency with which products are set as not listed should not be very high, otherwise it would sound like lot of work to users.

Rgds

Sourabh

[babu_kilari4]

I think that could be a reasonable solution assuming you had done all the relevant testing.

Babu Kilari

[Former Member]

Hi All ,

I don't know if i am being too out of box here but ,

A small recursive program to check the listed material for second (substituted) line item  can be discussed .

Regds,

Love