Deployment - maintaining container loads

[Former Member]

We are investigating changing our SNP network, and adding a location to represent the inbound port for ocean shipments. At this location, we will run deployment to determine which DC to send product to from the port. We will not be breaking container loads at this port, so a deployment rec needs to be for an entire container.

Is there any way to do this within SNP?

Background:

Currently, we determine at the time of outbound shipment which DC the product will go to. The product is then on the water for 4 weeks, then arrives at the inbound port and is forwarded to the DC. During this 4-week time, demand at the DCs may have changed such that product that was intended for DC1 should now go to DC2.

We want SNP to recommend this destination change. I can envision setting up the port as a location, and running deployment from there, but I don't know how to "tell" SNP that it is dealing with containers that can't be broken (rather than deploying individual units).

Thanks for your guidance!

[Former Member]

you can investigate the use the TLB profile i suppose

if you define the rules here you will be able to define the exact container load

foe eg if your container has to carry 10,000m3 then you set this profile up so that the min and max are 10,000 and run the TLB. This will ensure your loads are build this way

if you dont have a full load your next tlb run should be able to take the lesser limit

also look at TLB procedures for remaining quantities for this

you might have to maintain the UOM conversion correctly

[srinivas_krishnamoorthy]

I did not follow how deployment came into picture. I think based on the requirement, SNP by itself should be sufficient. I am assuming that the container load is valid for just one product in entirety. This means you can always play with the Minimum Lotsize in Product Master (make it equal to container load) and have a rounding of container load. You may also need to have a lot size profile in your T Lane with the container load. ( need to explore if it is the Min and max lot size in product specific t lane or the T Lot prof on the product specific means of transport). I agree that if the frequency of SNP run is not comparable with Tlane leadtime, then you would need to configure deployment to run as frequently as required.

If your design requires deployment to run anyways, then these settings of lot sizes can be taken again into consideration.

The suggestion will not work if a container load has multiple products as then you would need TLB. cross-product lot sizing is not possible in SNP.

[Former Member]

Srinivas,

Thanks for your response.

Our question is not so much in regard to lot sizing - ie, how to determine what to put on a container. Rather, the containers are already loaded and in-transit, based on our upstream planning process.

What we want to do is determine which DC should receive that container. That's why I was thinking of Deployment - the question is really how to deploy product from the port, while maintaining the container load.

[srinivas_krishnamoorthy]

OK. I hear what you are saying.

You may want to explore the deployment user exit, since what you are looking for is not standard. I understand you are trying to make the supplies as reactive as possible, but I am afraid this calls for development.(BADI /SAPAPO/FS_USER)

[Former Member]

Hi,

I wanted to confirm in case of demand at both the location what will be your approach?

I think you can use real time deployment to solve your problem, in addition to this you should also configure Push deployment based on Demand at Product-Location and also rounding value profile (In case number of products in a container is fixed) to ensure that a single container is deployed for a DC location.

Thanks,

Sanjog