Configuring Availability Check Through Checking Groups

1. The checking group + checking rule determine how the availability check is to be performed.

2. The checking group determines whether and how the system checks the stock availability and generates requirements for material planning. The checking group defines what type of requirements will be passed on i.e. summarized requirements (daily/weekly) or individual requirements for each sales order.

3. The checking rule applies to how the availability check is to be carried out at the transaction level. Note that you must define checking rules for each individual application such as for production orders for example. In Sales and Distribution, the checking rule is specified internally within the system and cannot be changed.

4. The checking rule, in conjunction with the checking group, determines the scope of the availability check for every business operation; that is, which stocks, receipts and issues are to be included in the availability check and whether the check is to be carried out with or without the replenishment lead time.

5. Briefly explaining the above checking group determines which type of requirement to be passed on to MRP whether it be individual or summarized and checking rule which is at the transaction level and can be configured independently for each application module, determines which stocks, receipts and issues to be taken into account. For performing an availability check checking group has to work in conjunction with checking rule.

6. Advantages of individual processing over summarized processing Backorder processing is possible.

You can access (MD04) order, line and schedule line individually which gives a greater control on available stock and requirements placed on stock. The system automatically uses individual requirements in case of special stock items.

7. Required data for the Availability check to be carried out The Availability check must be switched on at the requirement class level. The Availability check must be set at the schedule line level. A requirements type must exist by which the requirements class can be found. A plant must be defined in the sales order for each schedule line item (in other words plant must be defined for every material in MMR). A checking group must be defined in the material master record in the MRP3 screen in the availability check field.

8. Configuring Availability check and defining Checking Groups Checking groups are introduced into the sales order based on the setting in the material master record. SAP standard checking groups are 01 summarized requirements and 02 individual requirements or you can create your own by copying the standard ones. Total sales and total deliveries columns are there to configure a checking rule to sum up requirements to post to MRP either individually or by day or week. Block quantity required can be set if you want several users to be able to process the material simultaneously in different transactions without blocking each other. The no check indicator is CHECKED when you DO NOT want the system to carry out ATP check.

9. Defining material block for other users the block check box is an indicator that enables you to block material master records of a particular material during the availability check and restrict other users from accessing same master record and reserve the material. If the block is not set, two users can confirm the same material at the same time for two different orders, not knowing if the stock is available or not. If you select this field, the material is blocked during the availability check and other users cannot: a) Make changes in the material master record. b) Create purchase orders for the material. C) Create orders for the material.

10. Defining default values for checking groups - Checking groups are introduced into the sales order based on the setting in the material master record. However if there is no entry present in the material master record for the checking group, a default value can be set here, depending on material type and plant. This default value will be used by the system depending on the material type mentioned in MMR and plant in sales order. If an entry exists, this default value is over written by MMR.

11. Controlling Availability Check in this section, you tell the system what stock on hand and what inward and outward movements of stock it must take into account when performing the availability check in addition to whether or not to consider the replenishment lead time.

12. These settings are based on the checking group that is assigned to the material master record and the checking rule that is predefined and assigned to the sales and distribution transaction.

13. These settings carry out control both for sales order and delivery as well. This is due to the fact that you may want to include specific stock or incoming stock for the sales order, yet at the time of the delivery only include physical stock on hand waiting to be shipped.

14. It is possible to indicate to the system that you would like the availability check NOT TO CHECK the stock at the storage location level. This indicator is used to set the scope of the availability check.

15. It is used to switch off the check at storage location level. You create a reservation for a particular storage location. However, the scope of the availability check is set in such a way as to exclude the storage location. In this case, the system carries out the check at plant level only and does not take the storage location into account that is specified in the reservation.

16. Should you not want the system to automatically check RLT, you may indicate so here. RLT is the time taken for a material to become available. It is only used when doing an ATP check and is taken from MMR.

17. Defining the elements in the availability check entirely depends on the business needs, but a few tips are given under When controlling the Availability check at the time of the sales order, a purchase requisition does not necessarily indicate by it is going to come into the plant. A shipping notification on the other hand - a confirmed purchase order is a good indicator of receiving stock on a specified date. It is always recommended not to select the shipping notifications for the delivery requirements type as you may not actually receive the stock into plant or warehouse for which you are creating a delivery.

See The Scope of ATP Check

How to see the scope of ATP check?

When we creat a sales order, we can only confirm the delivery of goods, for the required delivery date if the goods are available for all the necessary processing activities which take place before delivery.

Types of availability check: There are 3 types of availability checks in sales document processing: 1. Check on the basis of ATP quantities (Available To Promise) 2. Check against Product Allocation 3. Check against planning.

Check on the basis of ATP Quantities

The ATP quantity is calculated from the ware house stock, The planned inward movements of stocks (purchase orders, planned orders, production orders, etc) and The planned out ward movements of stock (Sales orders, delivery documents, etc.)

This type of check is performed dynamically for each transaction with or without replenishment lead time (RLT).

RLT : It is the time that is needed to order or produce the requested material, the system determines the RLT according to specific times maintained in the material master record. Depending on the material type RLT can be calculated according to various time periods. For ex: In the case of trading goods it is determined according to the planned delivery time, purchase processing time and the goods receipt processing time.

Availability check including RLT:

Availability is checked up to the end of Replenishment Lead Time. If the material availability data is calculated on the basis of current date to lie after the RLT, item it self can be confirmed despite insufficient stock being available. In this case the system assumes that any quantity requested by the customer can be procured by the material availability date and consider the goods to be available.

Controlling availability check in sales document processing. We need to customize SD Specific settings and General Settings

General Control Features: The following control elements need to be maintained in customizing and in the material master record.

1. Strategy group: The allowed planning strategies i.e. the main strategy and further possible strategies are combined in a strategy group. It is specified in the Material Master Record in MRP3 view.

Note: In customizing, the strategy groups are assigned to MRP groups depending on the Plant so that the strategy group is automatically proposed in the Material Master.

2. MRP group: The MRP group combines the material from the point of material requirements planning which is specified on the MRP1 view in the Material Master Data.

SD Specific Control Features:

1. Requirements class: It controls all control features for planning and is also specifies whether the availability check is to take place for materials in the SD documents on the basis of ATP quantities and whether the requirements are to be passed on.

SPRO Sales and distribution Basic functions Availability check and transfer of requirements Availability check Availability check with ATP planning or against planning Define procedure by requirement class

Checking groups: Checking group controls whether the system is to create individual or collective requirements in sales and shipping process. In addition a material block for the availability check with transfer of requirements can be set here. The checking group can also be used to deactivate the availability check.

SPRO Sales and distribution Basic functions

Availability check and transfer of requirements Availability check Availability check with ATP planning or against planning Define checking groups

Checking rule: We use the checking rule to control the scope of availability check for each transaction the SD process.

Checking rule in the combination of checking group determines the scope of availability check

Creating checking rule

SPRO Material management Purchasing Purchase order Set up stock transport order Create checking rule

Scope of availability check

SPRO Sales and distribution Basic functions Availability check and transfer of requirements Availability check

Availability check with ATP planning or against planning Carry out control for availability check Go to New Entries and define the scope of check in the combination of checking group and checking rule.

The following elements can be involved in the availability check

STOCKS: []Include safety stocks: Minimum stock at plant/ware house []Stock in transfer []Include quality inspection stock []Include

Inward movement Purchase orders

Out ward movement Sales requirements

Purchase requisitions Deliveries Planned orders Production orders Release orders etc.

If we do not check the field [] check without RLT the system considers RLT while checking the availability of the material Note: Blocking the material for availability check

SPRO Sales and distribution Basic functions

Availability check and transfer of requirements Availability check Availability check with ATP planning or against planning Define material block for other users

If we check the field Block [] during the availability check of a material the users cannot make changes in the Material Master, cannot create PO, cannot create sales orders.

Note: During the Material Master creation the system automatically proposes the checking group. Further the following setting is required.

SPRO Sales and distribution Basic functions Availability check and transfer of requirements Availability check Availability check with ATP planning or against planning Define checking groups default values. We need to assign the checking group to the combination of material type and plant.

Explain the different types of Availability check. By: Johnson There are two types of availability check: 1) Availability check for the various stock types in Inventory Management. 2) Check for the available stocks in Materials Planning (MRP). Availability check of the stock types is carried out automatically and cannot be manually set in the system. Non-availability results in an error message.

The available stocks check in MRP is activated in the material master record and can be configured in Customizing for MRP. Your system administrator can define: -> Whether an availability check is to be carried out -> Whether non-availability is to result in a warning message or an error message In Customizing for Inventory Management, you can configure the dynamic availability check for goods movements. In the step Define Checking Rule, you determine for each checking rule which stocks, receipts, and issues should be included in the availability overview (transaction code CO09). Remember that the system does not update the consumption statistics in the material master record if you post goods movements using the special stock types Sales order stock and Project stock.

Checking Availability of Stock Types For every material movement, the system automatically performs an availability check of the stock types if this has been defined for a material. The availability check prevents the book inventory balance of the various physical stock types (for example, unrestricted-use stock) from becoming negative. If several withdrawals of material are entered in a single document (for example, for different account assignments), the system checks the availability of the material for each item entered. It checks whether the desired quantity can be withdrawn. The system takes into account those items of the document that have already been entered, but not yet posted. If there is not enough stock to cover the withdrawal, the system issues an error message. The availability check includes the stock in question at plant, storage-location, and special-stocks level, for the current month and, if necessary, for the previous month. Different stocks are checked, depending on the movement type: => In the case of a withdrawal for consumption, unrestricted-use stock is checked. => In the case of a release from stock in quality inspection, quality inspection stock is

checked. => In the case of consumption of consignment material, consignment stock for unrestricted use is checked.

Checking Available Stocks In addition to checking the various types of physical stock, you can also check available stock from a Materials Planning perspective. With this type of availability check, you can, for example, prevent a quantity already reserved from being used for another purpose. There are 100 pieces of a material in unrestricted-use stock. 70 pieces of these 100 have been reserved for a particular requirement date. You want to withdraw 50 pieces for a different purpose. If the availability check is active, depending on how the system is set, you will receive: => A warning message => An error message => No message

About This Program SDV03V02 or V_V2

Give more insight about this program SDV03V02 or V_V2. We run this program every night at our company to reschedule the sales orders which is pushing back some of the orders that are to be delivered in the next few days too. This is causing some problems.

When you reschedule (transaction V_V2), orders that contain items determined in product selection are reevaluated. If the substitution settings have changed, or there is more product available, the system may determine other substitutes. This may result in products being promised to the customer other than those agreed to at the time of order entry. To avoid this, you can set the fixed date and qty

indicator in the order (choose Goto --> Item --> Schedule lines). The system will not take the order account when rescheduling.

Items determined in product selection are only considered in a rescheduling run when you have set the input parameters to include all materials. If you specify only certain materials, main and sub-items from product selection are excluded.

The fixed date and quantity indicator does not influence product selection in the delivery.

If a product selection item has been partially delivered, the system does not take it into account in rescheduling runs.

You have the options to set the Delivery Priority in the following areas:-

1) In Customer Master Sales Area Data, under Shipping tab, you have the option of setting Delivery Priority.

2) In Customer Material Info record (VD51), after entering the material code, just click on the blue lens so that you can set the delivery priority for the combination of customer and material

So, to consolidate, we can only prioritize in V_V2 depending on :

1. Customer priority set in shipping tab under delivery priority;

2. Customer - Material info record;

3. Date of order creation;

4. Delivery date on the schedule line level;

5. Document Number and

6. Document Date.

Generally, it gives more priority to standard sales document type which is OR even though there are other sales document types, it gives more priority to OR then other STO document types like NLCC. etc.

The system takes the delivery priority first from Customer - Material info record, if Customer - Material info record is not maintained then it checks the CMR delivery priority .

Tell me the difference between CO06 and V_V2. Both seem to be backorder rescheduling transactions.

V_V2 -> It is a Rescheduling process of backorders.

CO06 -> It is also backorder processing but based on material .