Availability Check

Concept of availability check is to verify if the stock is available at the time of creation of sales order. If available, when it can be ready for delivery (as Packing, arranging for transportation, etc may have lead time) & if not available, when it would be available considering Packing, arranging for transportation, etc lead time. Availability check whether material is available on required delivery date (backward scheduling) or not. If not available on required delivery date, system will propose next available date (forward scheduling). The availability check and transfer of requirements can in principle be controlled independently of one another.When you create a sales document, the transfer of requirements and availability check can be carried out independently. The way in which these are controlled is dependent on the requirements class and schedule line category. When you create a delivery, the availability check can only be carried out in combination with the transfer of requirements. Requirements, however, can be transferred without the availability check being carried out. These control elements apply to sales documents and deliveries alike. The procedure and scope of the check can, however, be controlled separately for sales documents and deliveries, so that a different type of availability check is carried out in delivery processing as in sales order processing, for example. In sales documents, you can block order quantity confirmation (for certain delivery blocks), for instance. For controlling transfer of requirements, you have to carry out the following steps: 1. Each requirement type has to be allocated to one requirement class only. 2. The transfer of requirements must be switched on at requirements class level, the sales documents at schedule line level. 3. You must define a check group. It is possible to have this check group proposed for the initial creation of a material master record. 4. Note that a plant must exist for transfer of requirements to be carried out at document item level. 1. Define Checking Groups

Menu Path: SPRO>SD>Basic Functions>Availability Check and Transfer of Requirements> Availability Check with ATP Logic or Against Planning>Define 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. 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.

You define checking groups with which you specify the type of requirements records the system is to create when processing sales orders or deliveries

2. Define Material Block for Other Users Menu Path: SPRO>SD>Basic Functions>Availability Check and Transfer of Requirements> Availability Check with ATP Logic or Against Planning>Define 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.

3 .Define Checking Groups Default Value Menu Path: SPRO>SD>Basic Functions>Availability Check and Transfer of Requirements> Availability Check with ATP Logic or Against Planning>Define Checking Groups Default Value.
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.

4. Carry out Control for Availability Check Menu Path: SPRO>SD>Basic Functions>Availability Check and Transfer of Requirements> Availability Check with ATP Logic or Against Planning>Carry Out Control for 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.

5. Define Procedure by Requirements Class Menu Path: SPRO>SD>Basic Functions>Availability Check and Transfer of Requirements> Availability Check with ATP Logic or Against Planning>Define Procedure by Requirements Class. 6. Define Procedure for Each Schedule Line Category Menu Path: SPRO>SD>Basic Functions>Availability Check and Transfer of Requirements> Availability Check with ATP Logic or Against Planning>Define Procedure for Each Schedule Line Category. 7. Determine Procedure for Each Delivery Item Category Menu Path: SPRO>SD>Basic Functions>Availability Check and Transfer of Requirements> Availability Check with ATP Logic or Against Planning>Determine Procedure for Each Delivery Item Category. 8. Checking Rule for Updating Backorders Menu Path: SPRO>SD>Basic Functions>Availability Check and Transfer of Requirements> Availability Check with ATP Logic or Against Planning>Checking Rule for Updating Backorders.

9. Define Default Settings Menu Path: SPRO>SD>Basic Functions>Availability Check and Transfer of Requirements> Availability Check with ATP Logic or Against Planning>Define Default Settings.

Availability checks 1. Availability check is an integral part of the business process that determines if the required delivery quantity can be met on a required delivery date. For this purpose the system takes into account pre-delivery activities such as scheduling for picking or packing times and the time taken to produce or obtain the material. It also performs several background functions such as Backorder processing, rescheduling and ATP quantities. 2. Backorder processing: processing of a sales order that has not been fully confirmed or not confirmed at a certain delivery date. 3. Rescheduling: is a proposal of how confirmed quantities already assigned to a sales order can be reassigned to other sales orders that have a higher priority.

4. Available to promise (ATP): is a process of checking the available quantities of a material. The ATP quantity consists of warehouse stock + planned receipts (incoming stock) planned issues (outgoing stock). To examine stock on hand (CO09) proceed to logistics sales & distribution sales environment availability overview. 5. Replenishment lead time (RLT): is the time taken for the material to become available either internally (in house production) or externally (from a vendor). The most important things to consider during an external procurement are purchasing and MRP 2 (procurement) views of MMR where the processing time for purchasing, planned delivery time and goods receipt processing time are taken into account. On the other hand internal procurement is based on in house production time (MRP 2 view) goods receipt processing time or alternatively RLT time, which is found on MRP 3 view. 6. RLT (Replenishment Lead Time) is the time taken for the material to become available. RLT is only used when doing an ATP check (Available To Promise). The value of RLT for a material is specified on material master record. 7. There are three types of availability checks Check on basis of ATP quantities. Check against product allocation. Check against planning.

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. 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. 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. TRANSFER OF REQUIREMENT:

Prerequisites Transfer of requirements can be performed if the following prerequisites have been met:
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

Global and Fine Control in Customizing When the transfer of requirements is switched on at requirements class level, it can be switched off at schedule line level. However, you cannot switch on the transfer of requirements at schedule line level if it is switched off at requirements class level. You can make this setting at schedule line level. But the system ignores it and the setting for the requirements class applies. The settings for the requirements class are proposed at schedule line level. Settings for the transfer of requirements specific to schedule lines are only relevant for sales documents. In the shipping documents, the settings for the requirements class apply. The requirements class is determined from the requirements type of the material.

1. Availability Check How the availability check is carried out is influenced by various factors. Among other things, these factors also determine the scope of the check. The scope of the check can be defined differently in the sales documents and in the deliveries. You can also specify whether the availability check takes replenishment lead time into account. The following elements can be included in the availability check: Stock o safety stock o stock in transfer o quality inspection o blocked stock Inward/Outward movement of goods o purchase orders o purchase requisitions o planned orders o production orders o reservations o dependent reservations o dependent requirements o sales requirements o delivery requirements Requirements in sales and distribution (sales requirements and delivery requirements) result from all transactions which forward a requirement to Materials Management (MM) or to Production Planning (PP). For example, this could include sales orders or deliveries and quotations as well. Sales and distribution requirements reduce existing stock or inward movements of stock on the material availability date to ensure that other outward movement of stock elements cannot access the quantity reserved in this way. Requirements relevant for Sales and distribution are created in Sales and Distribution, whereas other elements in this list are created in Materials Management or in Production Planning. For further information on transfer of requirements, see Requirements in Sales and Distribution Processing.

Defining the Elements to be Included in Check

A checking rule is assigned to each transaction. This rule in combination with the checking group controls the scope of the availability check. You can use the checking rules in Customizing for Sales to specify for the various transactions which of the elements listed above should be included in the availability check. For trading goods it does not make sense to include planned or production orders, for example, in the availability check. However, for products manufactured by your company these orders should be included in the check.

For transactions such as make-to-order production, consignment or returnable packaging processing that create special stock, the availability check is performed against special stock. If it is defined by the checking rules that both sales and delivery requirements are taken into account in the availability check in sales documents but only delivery requirements are taken into account in the availability check in deliveries, there is a danger that quantities reserved in the sales documents are considered to be available by the availability check in the deliveries. This can lead to sales documents becoming backlogged.

Transfer of Requriements The following types of transfer of requirements exist: Transfer of requirements with individual requirements Transfer of requirements with collective requirements In the material master record, you specify on the Sales/Plant Data screen in the Availability check field whether each requirement is forwarded individually to planning or whether the requirements for one material in one plant are be combined.

Individual Requirements A line for individual requirements is created in the availability overview for each sales and distribution document and schedule line. This line contains the order quantity and the number of the document which created the requirement as well as the item number and the requirements class. Individual requirements have the advantage that the initiating document can be identified (the initiating document is displayed in the availability overview for each requirement).

Collective Requirements Collective requirements combine several requirements according to the following criteria: Plant Batch Storage location Date Transaction Requirements Class

Collective requirements can either be created daily or weekly. You can also use the checking group to control whether the requirements date for weekly created collective requirements is the Monday of the current week or the Monday of the following week. In contrast to the individual requirements, the documents initiating the collective requirements cannot be directly identified.However, it can be indirectly determined from the list of orders for the material In a later release, you will be able to break down collective requirements in the availability overview so that you can directly identify the initiating document for the requirements. The collective requirements function is useful for dealing with a large volume of sales orders, as you obtain a clearer list of requirements and the system response time is also better.

The system automatically creates individual requirements for transactions which create requirements for special stock (for example, made-to-order stock, returnable packaging, or consignment goods) even if collective requirements have been specified by the checking group in the material master record.