Availability Check

The following sections describe configurations for the availability check . For every item of a sales order or delivery, the SAP system checks availability if the appropriate configuration is set in sales order processing and shipping. The availability check procedure depends on several factors and varies according to the configuration. It is possible to control the availability check for sales documents and deliveries separately. You can,for example, control the scope of the checks or whether the replenishment lead time is taken into account, for example. The availability check is controlled by means of the same elements as the transfer of requirements:

Requirements class Requirements type Checking group Checking rule Schedule line category Strategy group Planning strategy

For more information on strategy groups and planning strategy, see the 'Planning strategy' chapter under Production Planning in the Implementation Guide. Requirements Process the following points to control the availability check: 1. For the sales document types you must determine for each schedule line type whether an availability check should be carried out or not. 2. The availability check should be switched on at requirements class level and at schedule line level for sales documents. 3. You can define a checking group which can be proposed, depending on the material type, when a new material master record is created. 4. The requirements types used must each be allocated to a requirements class. 5. Note that a plant must be available if an availability check is to be carried out at document item level.

Define Checking Groups

In this IMG section you define checking groups with which you specify the type of requirements records the system is to create when processing sales orders or deliveries. Sales order requirements and delivery requirements can be controlled separately. You can create the following requirements records:

Individual requirements records In individual requirements records, a requirement is created for each SD document. The respective entry in the stock/ requirements overview identifies the order quantity and the document which gave rise to the requirement.

Summarized requirements records Summarized requirements records group together or update several requirements under certain conditions in the material master record (plant, date, procedure, requirement class). There are two types of summarized requirements records:

o o

Summarized requirements records for each day Summarized requirements records for each week

Monday of the current week or Monday of the following week is regarded as a requirement date. Availability check taking cumulated confirmed quantity into account If confirmed quantities are not cumulated, the following problem may occur: Starting from the delivery date of the sales order and working backwards, the system checks whether ATP quantities exist. If such quantities do exist, the new sales order will reduce these ATP quantities. Here, sales orders can only reduce the ATP quantities if they lie before the delivery date. In this logic, the system does not take the confirmed quantity of sales orders that have already been created into account. If, in the past, receipts were either moved forward or backward and/or they were reduced, it is possible that the ATP quantity of the receipt that lies directly before a sales order which has already been confirmed is no longer sufficient to cover the requirement. The following example should clarify this point:

MRP elemt Stock SALES ORD 1 PLND ORD SALES ORD 2

Recpt/Reqmt ATP qty Cumul. ATPqty Confirmed qty 100 -200 100 -100 0 -100 0 0 0 -100 0 0 -200 100

In this example, the first sales order was completely confirmed when the planned order lay before sales order 1 on the time axis. Then, the planned order was rescheduled out so that it now lies after the delivery date of sales order 1 on the time axis. For the new sales order 2, the ATP check comes up with an ATP quantity of 100 as the rescheduled planned order is now completely available again and according to the ATP logic, sales order 1 cannot be covered by this receipt. In this particular example, the confirmation situation is no longer up-to-date as the planned order has been rescheduled. Therefore, the sum of all the confirmed quantities exceeds the sum of all receipts. To solve this problem, you have the following options:

carry out the planning run reschedule carry out backorder processing

With the cumulation of quantities, you can avoid such inconsistencies asyou can control exactly how the system is to carry out the check:

Availability check taking cumulated confirmed quantity into account

When creating/changing a new sales order, the system includes all the quantities confirmed to date when calculating the cumulated ATP quantity. This means that the new sales orders can only be confirmed if the sum of the receipts exceeds the sum of the confirmed quantities.

Availability check taking cumulated requirements quantities into account

When creating/changing a new sales order, the system includes the sum of all open requirements quantities when calculating the cumulated ATP quantity. This means that new sales orders can only be confirmed if the sum of the receipts exceeds the sum of the requirements quantities. You can make the following settings for this new ATP checking logic when creating/changing a sales order:

cumulate the confirmed quantities when creating and changing cumulate the requirements quantity when creating, no cumulation when only making changes cumulate the requirements quantity when creating and cumulate the confirmed quantity when making changes no cumulation (old checking logic)

Determining the checking group The checking group is determined depending on the material type and plant and is proposed in the material master record. The section "Define the checking group for each material type" describes how to allocate checking group

to material type and plant. Together with the checking rule, the checking group determines the scope of the availability check. Note For procedures relevant to requirements which lead to special stock (e.g. make-to-order production), the system automatically creates individual requirements records, even if the configuration was set in the material master record or via the checking group for summarized requirements records. Warning You can use either summarized requirements or individual requirements for each checking group. Changing the method of summing up requirements results in a change in the information contained in the record. When you change from individual to summarized requirements, you lose the assignment to sales orders, for example. Actions 1. Check to what extent you can use the configurations set for the checking groups in the standard version of the SAP System. 2. Enter the method of summing up for each checking group when creating a sales order document or a delivery. 3. If necessary, activate the cumulation of confirmed quantities.

Carry Out Control For Availability Check

In this IMG step, you define checking rules for the availability check and allocate them to a checking group. The checking rule specifies the scope of the availability check for the respective transactions in sales and distribution by specifying precisely which stocks, receipt and issue elements should be taken into account during the availability check. Every checking rule is allocated to a checking group: together these two elements determine the final inspection requirements. In addition, the checking rule includes a specification whether or not an availability check should take into account the replenishment lead time . Currently, the checking rule is predefined in SD. When specifying the inspection scope for a certain checking rule, you can currently select the following receipts and issues:

purchase orders production orders purchase requisitions planned orders dependent requirements reservations

dependent reservations sales requirements delivery requirements

SD requirements (= sales requirements and delivery requirements) reduce an available stock or inward stock movement on the material availability date so that other issues cannot access the reserved quantity. When specifying the inspection scope for a certain check rule, you can currently select the following stock elements:

Safety stock (to be maintained in material master record, MRP data) Stock in transfer in the receiving plant Stock in quality inspection Blocked stock

Replenishment lead time The replenishment lead time specifies the time which is needed to order or produce a certain material. The system determines the replenishment lead time as follows:

For internally procured materials the replenishment lead time is determined from the in-house production time and the goods receipt processing time or alternatively from the total replenishment lead time, if it is specified. For externally procured materials the replenishment lead time is determined from the goods receipt processing time and the processing time for purchasing.

In this IMG step, you control whether or not the replenishment lead time should always be taken into account. If you select the field, the replenishment lead time will NOT be taken into account during the availability check. If the field remains unselected, the replenishment lead time will automatically be included in the availability check. If you carry out the availability check using the replenishment lead time, you should plan ahead in regular intervals (on a daily basis for individual and daily requirements, on a weekly basis for weekly requirements) to prevent a shortage and therefore a possible delivery block. This shortage could occur if the delivery date of a sales order, which was confirmed the previous day for the replenishment lead time, is already within the replenishment period on the current day and therefore results in a shortage. Note For transactions which create individual stocks, such as production-to- order, consignment stock processing or returnable packaging processing, the availability check is carried out for the individual stock depending on the respective special stock indicator. Actions 1. Check the configurations for the checking groups which are contained in the standard SAP R/3 System. 2. Make sure that the checking group is maintained in the material master records. Depending on the plant, you can specify a checking group for each material type (see section "Specifying a checking group for each material type").

3. Select the individual stock elements as well as the receipts and issues which should be taken into account during the availability check. 4. Select the field for replenishment lead time if you do NOT want to take the replenishment lead time into account. 5. If your release was updated after 2.0, you must check the indicators for sales and delivery requirements. Before, these sales requirements had to be maintained in a joint field and were first subdivided into two separate fields for Release 2.1. In the release update, a selected original field led to sales and delivery requirements being selected, an unselected field leads to unselected fields in the conversion program.