Optimize TLB Lane Means of Transport based on Least Cost & Delay Costs

[Former Member]

Hi,

Want some help in SNP & TLB in APO with respect to selection of Least Cost of Means of Transport.

I have Lanes in my Supply Chain Network of 1 Plants and 6 DCs, 2 of which are Regional DCs (Mother DCs). The 2 Mother DCs supply to the 4 Local DCs. In each Lane, I have the Option of sending Loads by Multiple Modes by Rail, Road and even Vessel on some Lanes. I want SNP to select the Least Cost to the Organization by normally selecting the Means of Transport with Least Costs (say Rail), but if the Delay and Non-Delivery Costs at Destination are higher, then even suggest a Costly Means of Transport (Vessel or Road).

Assume that Delay & Non-Delivery Penalty Costs are Higher than all the Lane Costs after say 3 days on Non-Delivery. (i.e : If Stock is not available today then I can wait for 2 days for still choosing Rail Transport, but after that the Delay Penalty and Non-Delivery is so high, that I must choose the Road Means of Transport).

Can this be done in SNP ? Is it a Functionality of normal Heuristic, or Optimizer or CTM or none of above ?

(I was thinking Optimizer may do this .. but am not very sure. The documentation I am reading can select between alternate sources to the same destination based on Costs, but I was not sure if APO can select in the same Lane between Multiple Means of Transport based on Transportation Cost balancing with Delay / NonDelivery Penalties).

Can we distinguish in R/3 and APO between a Purchase Req created between different Means of Transport on the same Lane ?

How can this business need be met in APO ? I would be very obliged if someone with SNP Knowhow could guide.

Thanks,

Ambrish Mathur

[Former Member]

APO Experts,

Can you Please respond to this Business Process need to confirm which Portion of SCM-APO functionality will meet these Business Needs ? Has anyone experience in this area ?

I have already tested the SNP Heuristc without success. Would the SNP Optimizer work or would I need to look at TP/VS (I am hoping not) ?

Even if you have done Business Process workarounds for this Business Need ... Please advise.

Regards,

Ambrish Mathur

[Former Member]

Hi Ambrish,

Were you able to achieve this business scenario using SNP?

I have a similar requirement to provide optimized route and means of transport.

Can you please share any links on the same or the configurations you did to achieve the same

Thanks

Vijay

[Former Member]

I did a Test with the SNP Heuristic run on a TLB Lane with 2 MOTs defined with 1 Higher in Cost & lower in Transportation Time than the other.

The Results of the Heuristics are that it always chooses the MOT with the Least Cost ... even if the Demand cannot be Met by Shipping faster.

This is not what I want. I expect earlier Demands to be Met by a Higher Cost Means of Transport to attempt to meet the Target Demand Date.

EXPERTs ... any Suggestions from your Experience ?

[Former Member]

Srini,

Thanks for your reply. Have a question. I thought 'Cost' based optimisation of Transport with Delay/Non-Delivery costs was an SNP Optimizer feature & not of Heuristic or CTM which is based more on 'Priorities' ?

Also if there are tranport and lot size constraints should it be the discrete optimizer ?

I was not sure how Heuristic does Least Cost based selection.

Can you describe the setup you have done to do this selection in terms of master data ? (if possible business process).

Also if APO selects a mode of Transport such as Rail over a Truck, how does this reflect in R3 execution system in the STO or PR created between 2 DC/Plant Locations ? How will the executional Guy doing shipping know

Would this need TP/VS to be setup ? I am actually not wanting to use TP/VS if this can be done via SNP. I am just not sure.

I invite all SCM-APO Specialists to this SDN Discussion Forum. If you have experience around this or can do a quick mini test with your findings I'd be really obliged and we can give a interesting contribution back to SDN.

Regards,

Ambrish Mathur

[srinivas_krishnamoorthy]

Transport and Lot Size constraints are respected by CTM and Heuristics as well.

Optimizer looks at penalty and control costs to propose a solution. CTM and heuristics solvers only do priortization of mode of transport based on costs per unit maintained in T Lane for the modes of transport. I have been working with this feature since 3.x days in both the solvers. there is no setup other than maintaining the Tlane and Mode as I mentioned.

You would however need to do some lite development to ensure that the means of transport gets transported to R/3 in appropriate field (user exits). I dont think there is any default functionality in that space unless someone else can throw a light on that. We however do not use that feature in our system due to some other considerations. (Our BW reporting on 9AMALA backup of SNP takes care of means of transport) No TP/VS setups are required.

I hope you find the information useful.

[Former Member]

hI All,

I just wanted to add few points to the discussion, we have used both Heuristic and Optmizer in our implementation, so as long as cost consideration goes between different means of transport I think only optimizer can give you proper results (Stock transfer with appropriate MOT) based on cost consideration.

In Case of heuristic it considers cost only in case their is no quota and multiple source can meet the demand on time, it will consider least cost lane.

The STR CIFed from APO will not have MOT info in ECC, if you are not intending to use TPVS then you have to select the MOT manually based on availability and cost during execution (creation of shipment).

To decide on MOT based on cost and other consideration the best option is combination of SNP and TPVS, SNP optimizer will suggest you the least cost MOT but it will not consider factors like penalty for early delivery, multi pick, multi drop and manual intervention is required to execute the PReqs.

This is what i can share based on my expirience, please do correct me if I am wrong

Thanks & Rgards,

Sanjog

[somnath_manna]

I have no comments on the choice of "optimiser" or "heuristic" or "CTM" in case of multiple MOTs.

Maybe TLB can do this since there Shipments are created at MOT level ... but have not checked.

In any case integration of mapping of MOT in APO to route / shipping condition in R/3 is an issue and not standard SAP feature. However a complex set of enhancements can do this mapping.

APO Side:

1. Enhance APO outbound CIF structure /SAPAPO/SMOY_PU_DOC_APP_TAB for STO with means of transport (TTYPE) field

2. Use outbound user exit APOCFPEP to populate TTYPE field in STO upon transfer from APO

R/3 side:

1. R/3 inbound CIF structure CIFPUOROUA for STO needs to be enhanced with means of transport (TTYPE) field to accept MOT value from APO

2. Have mapping table with TTYPE (means of transport)-VSBED (shipping condition) mapping

3. Use SD route determination user exit 0VRF0001 to overwrite shipping condition field with TTYPE value extracted from mapping table mentioned above.

Somnath

[srinivas_krishnamoorthy]

Mode of Transport selection based on least cost per unit is a default feature in Heursitics and CTM based on my experience. In a situation where demand needs to be met without fail, both Heuristics and CTM can propose a costlier means of transport. Not sure if that answers your Q.