Configuring Direct/Drop Shipment in APO

[srinivas_krishnamoorthy]

We have a situation where the normal physical flow of goods as A>B>C can sometimes occur as A-->C, based on certain business conditions. Direct Shipment can be configured as a distribution channel in R/3. In R/3 world Drop and Direct shipment may be semantically different based on how billing is done. I wanted to know how the drop/direct shipment situation can be configured in APO, particularly in context of Heuristics and CTM. We want system to propose direct shipment, say based on cost to meet a demand. Is this possible at all with CTM or Heuristics? Is Optimizer the only tool to meet the requirement ? Will be great if someone can help me understand the implications/configurations of Drop/Direct Shipment in APO.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Have you you tried this: -

In transportation lanes there is a flag for direct delivery

"In order that the system can plan direct deliveries via flagged transportation lanes, you must specify the value Consider Direct Delivery via Transportation Lanes in the Heu: Direct Delivery field in Customizing for SNP under Basic Settings -> Maintain Global SNP Settings.

This parameter is valid for the SNP heuristic. It specifies whether the SNP heuristic considers direct deliveries from one location to another (such as from a production location to a customer location) via a transportation lane flagged for direct delivery. There is thus no detour via a distribution center.

If you choose Consider Direct Delivery via Transportation Lanes, the system first checks if product quantities can be delivered via flagged transportation lanes. Then the system covers any remaining quantities using the standard source determination.

The default value is No Direct Delivery."

[srinivas_krishnamoorthy · Accepted solution]

Harish..is that a 5.0 statement ? I dont see such a flag in 4.1

I am little confused with the help note. A business condition when one would want to do direct delivery could be like meeting the demand with very little implication on cost. It looks from the help note that direct delivery will be a preferred way of doing delivery and system will ignore all alternative t lane chains. Is this correct ? It looks there is no way to configure a business condition to use the lane for direct delivery.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

dont know if its 5.0 - cant find it in the release notes for 5.0

but if you say its not in 4.1 i suppose so (dont have a 4.1 right now)

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

This is the masterdata part of the drop shipment

if you are able to build a process (or development) around the way your business dynamically shifts from one transportation lane to another (from DC route to Drop ship) you might be able to use this

...for example if you update priority

also you can build in product specific means of transport and isolate the drop ship for a few product....