Configuring FERT's & using Thresholds on Paper Machines

[andy_yeri]

Hello Experts,

We've been working in the Paper industry for a couple of years now & use the IS-Mill DIMP functionality ONLY to the extent of being able to configure our Orders in ECC & in allowing combined Orders in ECC. We, as most of the industry does, use an external trim tool that optimizes the making of Sales Orders using a Trim Sheet. We use enhancements in the APO system to combine orders at the planned order level. Below are a couple of topics that seem peculiar to me in this environment & was wanting to understand how others in the industry handle these constraints -

• Configuring FERT BOM's: Given that we are majority MTO & that are a uncontrollable production over-runs, it would have made sense to have some functionality that would enable us to use up the configured (KMAT) products (the over-runs that otherwise lie on the floor as unused inventory). We know, only the KMAT BOM's can be configured, while the FERT's cannot.
• Production Threshold: Once a Paper Machine starts production, it is sub-optimal to produce below a certain threshold quantity. Based on the run & the machine lets take for ex: 1500sft of paper is the minimum that will have to be made. This is a hard constraint. I did not however see any provision in APO to use these constraints during the Planned Order creation.

It would be interesting to hear comments from experts in this area.

Cheers

[alfred_becker]

HI Andy,

What do you mean by "enhancements in APO to combine orders"? The (standard SAP)  trim order in APO that can take the result from external trim - or have you created something on top?

To answer your questions (as much as I can 🙂

You call it "configured KMAT" and I want to make sure I understand correctly: In this scenario it means real stock, which is carrying product specification, and resulted from excess production. If this was put to stock, it is visible to a gATP check of a subsequent sales order. A sequence of first ATP then CTP check in the sales order (this is standard function) could help you get rid of remainders.

Not sure why you want to use FERT, as you can stick to what you call configured KMAT (I'd call it a -partly- specified material variant). If you use batch management this stock can be found by ATP in inventory based on its specification. Of course, for ATP the stuff has to use an account assignment which is ideally "free available" and not a special stock. If you worked in special stock segments (because of MTO) think of changing to MTS segment, but still trigger individual requirements per sales order. If you afraid someone else will consume the material then use pegging.

I'm not saying this is an ideal solution but it helps. It comes with restrictions: The ATP can check on finished goods level only which may not be applicable as you still need to pack the goods you have found as remainder (and this is often a production step). This would mean that the goods to be found are intermediates which won't be visible to ATP. And the material availability for production orders is not as powerful as the one for sales orders.

To your second question: Why not use the function of lot-size calculation in PP/DS? SAP may not offer the right calculation method out of the box (depending on machine, run, product) , but I remember there were some user exits....

Regards,

Alfred

[andy_yeri]

Hi Alfred,

You are correct.

Our FERT's are fully configured, while we have partially configured materials with a separate material type. Our FERT's are created & forecasted to stock, coz they are fast moving & it makes most sense for us to carry 'em in open inventory. We have a "sell from stock" category Sales Orders to which we normally sell the FERT stocks, however, occassionally, we do fulfill such Sales Orders using the partially configured stocks (from over-runs).

Now, if we still have more over-runs (in the Open segment) to use up to fulfill other orders in the MTO segment, will have to use a custom program?.

Also, yes, we do use fixed pegging to prevent the dynamically pegged batches from being re-routed to other orders.

I am aligned on the 2nd question of mine with you.

BR

[alfred_becker]

The requested scenario from (gATP point of view) is known as mixed MTO/MTS/MTO – let me explain what I mean:

It starts with a sales order carrying a custom-specific material configuration. Usually the material needs to be produced, but you may have some of it on stock (e.g. due to remainders out of other production runs).

There are two main scenarios we could think of: you need to use MTO (e.g. for accounting reasons) or not, which means it can be processed in MTS segment only. Please note that this MTO or MTS term doesn’t say anything about orders being triggered by custom requirement or not.

In case MTO needs to be used, the requirements class in ERP will determine the special stock type E and all ATP checks will fail to find material as ATP looks only into the special stock segment (which is empty, of course, as you just created the sales order…). In standard SAP offering there is no solution for this.

With the Mill Industry Solution (=IS Mill) turned on, there is a way to work towards a possible solution. There is a way to allow creating MTO sales order items and then check ATP in MTS (for remainders), and then trigger creation of planned order for the remaining quantity in MTO segment again. Please be aware that all notes mentioned in this article (and especially the described enhancement concept of note 441502) are modification proposals, without any service or support. And due to the status "in work" some notes may not even be visible to you, but most are. The validity of notes is outdated, and for current releases you would have to find out how to implement in case your code should differ from the note's instructions.

Characteristic-based ATP-check is offered by standard SAP solutions, which can find stocks based on custom specification. Please note that this check can’t allocate several batches to one sales order item, because the sales order can’t perform batch split (this is available in the delivery later). It simply finds the stock quantities of those batches and pegging may be needed to allocate those quantities to the sales order. For correct processing of characteristic-based ATP check (means inheriting characteristics and / or the account segment to sub-items which are the result of such a gATP check), it needs additional coding. Unfortunately this scenario is not available in standard APO either (problem description in note 453683, release restriction in note 1284461 & 1233030). The required additional notes are 441502, 444656, 582435, 459793, 453921, and related notes. Those notes describe an enhancement concept including example code, but all notes are modification proposals and come without service and support - I have to emphasise this fact.

I hope this helps, but it is a sensitive area and should be handled with care. Unfortunately we don’t have the capacity to support any implementation in this area, so any step must be taken without guidance by SAP development or support. But the notes may give ideas at least how to approach this issue.

Regards,
Alfred

[andy_yeri]

These are some great insights. Thanks. We found out the custom part of what you've mentioned. I'll refer the notes advised.

I need to clarify my statements on my previous reply:

We do not directly sell the over-runs. Over-runs are used up to either make sheets or paper OR rewound into smaller sizes or Polycoated. This cuts down our turn around time to the customer (instead of making paper from the paper machines) & also frees up storage spaces, uses up what we call the "aging inventory". We have go ahead & implemented custom programs to keep the finished goods in a "E" stock/Customer segment, while the component (over-run material) is switched to "open segment" duirng the order creation. This way the over-run inventory gets used up. We control/alter the behavior at the component level using characteristics specified on the Sales Orders.

On the Lot-sizing question, I think we tried using the Min Lot Size on the Prod Versions/PDS to match what the machines can make at the minimum. However, it was our observation that the system would created tiny/unwanted quantities of planned orders on the machines, that could actually not be made. For example, if a customer needs 10000 Sheets of a particular paper & we have enough over-run batches to make, lets say, 9500 of them, we expect our Sales Order for 10000 Sheets to be confirmed, yet, we should not get a tiny quantity planned order on our machine (which we cannot make anyways). Say, to make 10000 Sheets, we need 5000lbs of paper rolls & we have 4990 lbs available as over-runs. We would like to confirm the Sales Order, but not want the system to create a Planned Order for 10lbs on the machine, coz that's too tiny for it to make.

We make up the shortage of 500 sheets, by using some other rolls of paper.

Thanks

[former_member151487]

Hello Andy, Hello Alfred,

Thanks for your great discussions with a lot of insights.

For the point of lot-sizing with generating tiny quantity of planned orders, do you think the mill product feature 'Underdelivery in Material Requirement Planning' could be help? For all materials in the customer individual segment (including multi-level) for which the under delivery tolerance indicator is maintained in the lost-sizing procedure, the system checks in MRP whether the open requirement quantity is within the under delivery tolerance. If yes, the system does create another procurement element for this sales order item. As prerequisites, you must define the under delivery tolerance in the sales order item (you can also define it in customer-material info record). However, an under delivery tolerance is defined by a percentage of the item quantity, rather than a absolute quantity by material.

Regarding the scenario MTO/MTS/MTO described by Alfred, I came across a test example which works in the following way (with mill products solution activated but without any modifications or developments): 1) with requirement type (e.g. KEK) user configures a sales order item according to customer's requirement. 2) user manually changes requirement type to e.g. KSL (KSL is available for selection for material strategy group 10-MTS or blank), and then user try to allocate MTS/free stocks via Batch Determination (also by characteristics values). 4) if no proper stock batch found, user changes back the requirement type to 'KEK', and thus back to MTO scenario. Do you think the above test scenario make sense or workable in real situation?

Best regards,

Lantao

[alfred_becker]

Hi Lantao,

in response to your comment about tiny quantities in planned orders: I totally agree that "underdelivery tolerance" should address most issues and it's available in both processes - the sales order and the planned order.

Regards,
Alfred