There are key points of difference between SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) and SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO) functionality from a location substitution standpoint. Different rule types, such as inclusive, exclusive, and alternate rules, can be combined in a rule strategy sequence. When combined, these rules offer a wide range of flexibility in managing the substitutions in a rules-based Available-to-Promise (ATP) environment.

I describe a step-by-step approach on how to set up such a complex environment inside SAP APO based on my implementation experience in the chemical industry. The setup of inclusive and exclusive rule strategies with inclusive and exclusive rules is confusing with a lot of similar-sounding names. Setting up this strategy requires a real-life example to clarify and demystify the concepts and the data that is required to support it. I explain the concepts and guide you through a step-by-step approach in setting up the location substitution functionality in a time-sensitive way with the use of inclusive and exclusive rule strategies.

The Consolidation Scenario

As previously explained in the SCM Expert article “Accurate Order Promising through Global ATP in a Consolidation Environment,” in an export scenario in which products are shipped in containers across the ocean with different manufacturing sources, the products are usually consolidated near a port location to be shipped to the customer. In some chemical industries, the consolidation locations also perform some value-added packaging operations in addition to receiving some of the products shipped from other manufacturing locations.

This example deals with the following scenario: Bulk is moved from the manufacturing location to the consolidation location (which is the port plant itself) in containers that are loaded onto a ship and then shipped to the customer. The usual source of supply for a particular bulk material is manufacturing plant 1 as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

A supply chain scenario

I cover some key configuration steps, including the setup of rule strategy sequence, the rule strategies to be included within the rule strategy sequence, how the rules itself need to be set up, and the sequence in which the rules are determined in the system in a Global ATP check for a sales order to achieve the desired functionality.

Configuration Overview

Inclusive Rule Strategy

Exclusive Rule Strategy

Configuration Steps

Now I describe the configuration steps in the system. Step 1 is to create a condition table. In the screen shown in Figure 2, enter a value in the Table field (e.g., 902 for location/product). In the Selected fields section, enter Internal Location Name and Internal Product Name.

Figure 2

Create a condition table

Step 2 is to create an access sequence that includes a condition table. In my example, after you create the condition table, go to the screen shown in Figure 3. Enter Z002 in the Access Sequence field and 10 in the field under the AcNO (access number) column. In the T… (condition table) field, enter a value (e.g., 902).

Figure 3

Create an access sequence

Now if you double-click the Fields subfolder, the next screen (Figure 4) shows the two fields included in the condition table being pulled into the access number.

Figure 4

Fields within the access sequence

Step 3 is to create new condition types ZE01 and ZA01. To complete this step, execute transaction code SPRO and follow menu path Advanced Planning and Optimization > Global Available-to-Promise (Global ATP) > Rules-Based Availability Check > Maintain Condition Type.

This action opens the screen shown in Figure 5. In that screen, click the New Entries button. Now define condition types ZA01 (alternate) and ZE01 (exclusive) and assign them to the same access sequence (e.g., Z002) by populating the fields shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5

Create a new condition type

Step 4 is to create an exclusive rule strategy. To complete this step, execute transaction code SPRO and, follow menu path Advanced Planning and Optimization > Global Available-to-Promise (Global ATP) > Rules-Based Availability Check > Maintain Rule Strategy.

In the screen that appears (Figure 6), define a new rule strategy called ZEX01.

Figure 6

Create rule strategies

Enter ZEX01 in the field in the Strategy column. In the Rule Strat. Ty… (rule strategy type) column, select E (Exclusive) from the pull-down list of options. In the Short Text column, enter Loc and Prod Excl/Alt strategy. In the field in the EffLocExcl (effect of location exclusions) column, select a value of S, which corresponds to Only Exclude Substitute Locations, from the options in the pull-down menu.

The other choices are K, which implies that only the Consolidation location is affected with the exclusive rule strategy, or a blank value, which implies that it affects both the consolidation location as well as the substitute locations. The rationale for the selection of S is that the exclusive rule strategy only affects the location for substitution — that is, whether it is X301 or X3SX. It has no impact on the consolidation location itself. The consolidation location is always X304. Therefore, the value of K and the value of blank do not apply for the consolidation scenario in my example.

Step 5 is to include the exclusive and the alternate condition types in the definition of the exclusive rule strategy. To complete this step, click the Control Data subfolder under the Rule Strategies folder. In the screen that appears (Figure 7), define the two condition types previously defined in step 3. In the fields under the Level column, enter 10 and 20. In the Cnt. (condition type) column, enter ZE01 for level 10 and ZA01 for level 20. Enter simple descriptions for these levels as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7

Control data within rule strategies

Step 6 is a final step in the configuration, to define a rule strategy sequence that includes both the inclusive rule strategy and the exclusive rule strategy as successive steps. To complete this step, execute transaction code SPRO and follow menu path Advanced Planning and Optimization > Global Available-to-Promise (Global ATP) > Rules-Based Availability Check > Maintain Rule Strategy Sequence.

In the screen that opens, click the New Entries button, configure a new rule strategy sequence as ZRS1, and enter a simple description for the rule strategy sequence as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8

Create a rule strategy sequence

Now click the Control subfolder , and in the next screen (Figure 9), click the New Entries button to define the two rule strategies: inclusive (ZIN01) and exclusive (ZEX01) as two successive steps (namely, 10 and 20). Then click the save icon to save the entries.

Figure 9

Define rules within a rule strategy sequence

Global ATP Master Data

The first two steps in setting up Global ATP master data are defining a location determination procedure and maintaining rules. To define a location determination procedure, follow menu path SAP Menu > Master Data > Rule Maintenance > Integrated Rule Maintenance. This action opens the screen shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10

Create location determination procedure — exclusive

In Figure 10, you define the following location procedures (by going to the tab with the yellow circle with a black dot and clicking the create icon, which is circled in Figure 10):

•    X3ALTLOC1 (Figure 11), which defines the alternate as X3SX when the location to be excluded is X301 with a procedure rule type as 4 (this value corresponds to an alternative). Note that when a rule type is defined as an alternative, it can only be used in an alternate rule.

Figure 11

Create location determination procedure — alternate

To maintain rules for the location determination procedures, follow the main SAP APO menu path SAP Menu > Master Data > Rule Maintenance > Integrated Rule Maintenance or use transaction code /n/SAPAPO/RBA04. In the screen that appears (Figure 12), click the Rule tab and define the following rules by clicking the create icon:

Figure 12

Create rules within integrated rule maintenance — exclusive

•    X3ALT01 (with the description as X3SX Alternative for X301 as shown in Figure 13). This rule is defined as a rule type alternate (again it is executed as a second step within my exclusive rule strategy, when X301 is determined that it cannot be a substitute location). The location determination procedure is determined as X3ALTLOC1, which was defined in the previous step.

Figure 13

Create rules within integrated rule maintenance — alternate

Now the two rules X3EXC01and X3ALT01 that you created in step 2 have to be put in the condition tables ZE01 and ZA01. To complete this step, follow menu path Master Data > Rule Maintenance > Create Rule Determination (or go through the transaction code /n/SAPCND/AO11). In the screen shown in Figure 14, define the master data records by choosing the condition type as ZE01 and pressing Enter.

Figure 14

Maintenance of condition type — exclusive

Now in Figure 15 enter X304 in the field below the Int. Loc (internal location) column (the location where the sales order is received and also the consolidation location). In the field below the IntProdNam (internal product name) column, enter 1021553 (the product for which the sales order is received and for which time based substitution is desired). Then assign the rule as X3EXC01. Note that the validity period is assigned by clicking the calendar icon highlighted in red and assigning the validity dates in the pop-up screen. In my example, all sales orders that have a material availability date that falls between 12/05/2014 and 1/10/2015 exclude X301 as a substitute location. Click the green arrow icon to save your data.

Figure 15

Maintenance of condition type-exclusive — validity periods

Note that a similar entry is made in the ZA01 condition table with the same validity periods by going back to Create Rule Determination initial screen (Figure 14) and selecting ZA01 for the condition type. After you press Enter, you enter the alternate rule X3ALT01 (this rule was defined in step 2) in the field under the Rule column in Figure 16. Now click the calendar icon and enter the same validity dates as in Figure 15 in the pop-up screen. Click the green arrow icon to save your data.

Figure 16

Maintenance of condition type — alternate — validity periods

Now that I have shown you how to make the relevant configuration settings and how to define the Global ATP master data required to support the process, I go through a couple of examples to show how it works when a sales order is created to achieve the time-sensitive location substitution functionality.

Example 1: Sales Order Created for 12/29/2014

In this example, a sales order is created at X304 for the product 1021553 for the first date of 12/29/2014 (Figure 17). The material availability date is also determined as 12/29/2014. This falls within the validity period of 12/05/2014 to 1/10/2015 that was defined for both the exclusive and alternate rule. With the inclusive rule strategy, X301 is determined as the substitute location for X304. With the first step within the exclusive rule strategy, which is an exclusive rule, X301 should be excluded. With the alternate rule, which is the second step within the exclusive rule strategy, the system determines the alternate location as X3SX when X301 is the excluded location.

Figure 17

Creation of a sales order for example 1

When the availability check is performed, the location determination first checks for product availability at X304 (highlighted in the first orange box in Figure 18). Because no product is found at X304 (shown by product availability of 0.000 at X304 in the red box), the system determines the substitute location as X3SX (highlighted in the second orange box.  The product is available at X3SX and the product is confirmed for the 40000KG (highlighted in the green box).

Figure 18

ATP check within the sales order for example 1

After you click the rule button (the button is circled in red in Figure 18), the next screen (Figure 19) shows a screen that displays the explanation of how the system determines the substitute location as X3SX. This screen shows the rules that are in play for this sales order LOCCONS, which is the inclusive rule (note that this is not the focus of this article), and the X3EXC01 (exclusion rule) and X3ALT01(alternate rule).

Figure 19

Rules determined within the ATP check for example 1

Now click the Rule Determ. tab in Figure 19. This action brings up the screen shown in Figure 20 that explains the sequence of the rules that the system goes through in determining the substitute location. First, it went through the inclusive rule strategy and used step 20 within the Inclusive rule. Remember the first step was Product Location specific rule determination. However, no product-specific rule determination is applicable for my scenario. The system determined the location as X301. Then it went through the Exclusive and Alternate rules within the Exclusive rule strategy based on the validity period and determined the substitute location as X3SX. This matches with the expectation of how the rule strategy should work based on the configuration settings and the master data defined.

Figure 20

Explanation of rules strategies determined in ATP check for example 1

Example 2: Sales Order Created for 01/12/2015

Now I explain how to create another sales order with a different first date – this time with a date of 1/12/2015 (material availability date is also the same) as shown in Figure 21. Because this date is outside the validity period of the exclusive and the alternate rules, these rules should not apply at all. The system should stop with the inclusive rule and determine the substitute location as X301.

Figure 21

Creation of a sales order for example 2

Now the availability check determines the substitute location as X301 (Figure 22).

Figure 22

ATP check within the sales order for example 2

Click the rule in Figure 22. The next screen (Figure 23) shows that this time the system only determined the inclusive rule – the exclusive and the alternate rules were not invoked at in the rule determination because of the material availability date falling outside the validity period of the exclusive and the alternate rule.

Figure 23

Explanation of rules strategies determined in ATP check for example 2

Above, I have covered the configuration aspects, the master data, and have finally shown with examples how the combination of inclusive and exclusive rule strategies can achieve the specific business conditions within a rules-based substitution location scenario.

Applicable SAP Notes

Comparison of ECC and APO Location Substitution Functionality

In ECC, no rules can be set up to determine the substitute location automatically, unlike the SAP APO functionality. Through rule determination and with the setup of inclusive, exclusive, and alternate rules, the setup of substitute locations can be very sophisticated in APO. ECC offers the functionality of doing a manual plant subsitution in a sales order. For example, consider a scenario in which a sales order is created for a plant UA07 as shown in Figure 24.

Figure 24

Example of ATP check within ECC

The system goes through the availability check as shown in Figure 25 and allows for a check of availability in the other plants where the product is extended.

Figure 25

ATP check screen within ECC

If you click the Other Plants button in Figure 25, the system shows the other possibilities for plants where the product may be available (Figure 26). You can select one or more plants and the check for availability can be performed at the other plants.

Figure 26

The Plant Selection pop-up screen within ECC

If you select all the plants above in Figure 26 and perform an availability check, the system shows the confirmation situation in all the plants and the confirmation date that is possible for all the other plants. Depending on the availability of material at the other plants, a particular plant can be adopted as the substitute plant by selecting one of the lines corresponding to the susbtitute plant desired and clicking the Plant button with the check mark icon highlighted in Figure 27. This also changes the plant in the sales order line item and the material is delivered from the substitute location.

Figure 27

Availability check for other plants within ECC

In SAP APO, the setup of substitutions can be rule based. The rules are predefined. The rules can be very flexible based on the fields chosen from the field catalog such as sales organization, distribution channel, sold to party, product , or plant. In ECC all those plants from which the product can be supplied show up in the Other Plants list. The user has the option to choose one of them. In SAP APO, the rules can be set up based on the correlation profile and based on the calculation profile of whether partial supply can be done from one or more plants.