Name: Introduce Product Availability Check Configuration
Uploaded: 2024-1-26
Duration: 392 s
Description: Learn how scheduling and product availability check work in SAP S4HANA Cloud. Understand how the system calculates available quantities and configure the scope of availability check.

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Configuring Product Availability Check

<div id="content"><p tabindex="0">In the following video, you will understand the purpose of the availability check, for example, when creating a sales order.</p><p tabindex="0">You will also learn how the system calculates the available quantity: in addition to stock, planned receipts and issues can also be taken into account. The scope of the availability check determines which stock type, receipt element, and issue element are taken into account when determining the available quantity.</p><p tabindex="0">You will also become familiar with the terms checking rule and checking group.</p><div class="kalturaVideoLessonWrapper"><div aria-label="" class="kalturaVideoLessonContainer" data-testid="video" id="1_vttf95ot"></div></div></div>

Introduction to Product Availability Check

<div id="content"><p tabindex="0">Watch the video below to learn more about the meaning of a checking group and how to assign a checking group to a material at the plant level.</p><div class="kalturaVideoLessonWrapper"><div aria-label="" class="kalturaVideoLessonContainer" data-testid="video" id="1_5j3ba8zw"></div></div><p tabindex="0">Run the following demo to learn how to create a custom checking group.</p><div class="simulationTile demo"><div class="content"><span class="simulationLabel">Demo</span><a href="https://learnsap.enable-now.cloud.sap/pub/mmcp/index.html?show=project!PR_899AAE517E6248A:uebung" target="blank" class="simulationButton">Watch Demo</a></div><div class="simulationImage"><img src="/illustrations/simulation-demo.svg" alt="This interactive demo shows you how to create a checking group." class="no-zoom"></div></div><p tabindex="0">Now that we have created a new availability checking group, you can assign it to the products of your choice in the product master records at plant level.</p><p tabindex="0">In the next step, you must check whether the scope of the availability check for the combinations of this new checking group and the checking rules meets your requirements. If not, we will adjust it.</p></div>

Checking Groups Definition

<div id="content"><p tabindex="0">Watch the following video to understand the scope of the availability check. You will be able to configure it to meet your customers' needs.</p><div class="kalturaVideoLessonWrapper"><div aria-label="" class="kalturaVideoLessonContainer" data-testid="video" id="1_3cei3ckp"></div></div><p tabindex="0">Run the following demo to learn how to maintain the scope of availability check:</p><div class="simulationTile demo"><div class="content"><span class="simulationLabel">Demo</span><a href="https://learnsap.enable-now.cloud.sap/pub/mmcp/index.html?show=project!PR_A29195C9B28F43B3:uebung" target="blank" class="simulationButton">Watch Demo</a></div><div class="simulationImage"><img src="/illustrations/simulation-demo.svg" alt="This interactive demo shows you how to configure the scope of the availability check." class="no-zoom"></div></div><p tabindex="0">Now you know how to configure the scope of the availability check based on business processes, as well as products and plants.</p></div>

Scope of Availability Check Configuration

Configuring Supply Chain Business Processes in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

Learn how scheduling and product availability check work in SAP S4HANA Cloud. Understand how the system calculates available quantities and configure the scope of availability check. 

Introduce Product Availability Check Configuration

Imagine you are showing your customer how to create a stock transport order, or a sales order. In the order item you enter the requested material, the requested quantity and the requested delivery date. Scheduling and product availability check run in the background, resulting in one or more schedule lines with confirmed quantities and dates. A customer speaks up and asks a question. Scheduling calculates the availability date backwards from the requested delivery date, right? That's correct. Backward scheduling is the first kind of scheduling that is performed for an order item. The system first checks if the requested delivery date can be met. But in our example, the requested delivery date could not be met, so the system switched to forward scheduling. Starting with the earliest material availability date to determine a new delivery date, the confirmed delivery date. To view the calculated dates of your sales order item, you can use the Display Sales Documents application. From the item data, select the Schedule Lines tab. Choose the schedule line with the confirmed quantity, and then choose Shipping. Okay, and what happens if the entire quantity cannot be confirmed for a date? If a partial quantity is available, a partially confirmed schedule line is created. Multiple schedule lines with different delivery dates and partial quantities are also possible. If the material is not available, an unconfirmed schedule line is created for the order item. This means that you need to run backorder processing before you can ship the order. You've answered your customers' questions perfectly. You can also remind them that scheduling is covered in detail in the course "Business Scenarios in SAP S4HANA Cloud Public Edition, Supply Chain - S4C44"   "Configuring Delivery Management", lesson "Adjusting Delivery and Transportation Scheduling". Let's recap. The Product Availability Check is a background function that provides information on when and in which quantity a requirement can be fulfilled. The result of the Product Availability Check is a confirmation. After the check is executed, the quantity is reserved and and unavailable for any other requirements. Now the following question may arise. Scheduling is now clear to me and I understand the purpose of the availability check, but how does the system calculate the available quantity? Not only the available stock, but also the planned receipts and issues would have to be taken into account if the demand is in the future. Here expertise is required because the scope of the availability check is configurable. Here is what you should explain as an experienced consultant. You are absolutely right. The availability check does not only consider the current stock. The product availability check compares a requirement with elements that influence the quantity of a material available at a given time, such as stock, sales orders, deliveries, purchase orders, and purchase requisitions. These elements determine the quantity of material available in stock today and in the future. The scope of the availability check determines which stock type, receipt element, and issue element must be considered when determining the available quantity. The scope of availability check is configurable and depends on two parameters. The business process via the checking rule. The business process refers to whether you are creating, for example, a sales order, a delivery, a stock transfer order, a production order, or a reservation. When you create a sales order, a delivery, or a production order, the scope of the availability check may be different. For example, for the creation of a delivery, you may decide to include purchase orders as receipts, but not purchase requisitions because they are too unreliable. For a sales order, however, you may decide that purchase requisitions should be considered. The checking rule assigned to a business transaction is fixed. The checking rule allows you to control the availability check depending on the business process. The material plant combination via the checking group. You assign a checking group and a product master record at the plant level. This means that you can assign different checking groups for the same product in different plants. In addition, different products in the same plant can have different checking groups. The checking group allows you to control the availability check depending on the material-plant combination. Did I understand correctly that when you enter, for example, a sales order or a stock transfer order, the system determines in the background a checking rule based on the process and a checking group based on the material/plant combination, and thus the rule according to which the available quantity is calculated. That's correct. Thank you very much. The idea is clear, but what do you have to configure? First you can define checking groups, which are keys that represent a material/plant combination. SAP provides checking rules and checking groups. While the checking rules are fixed, you can create new checking groups by copying existing ones. Next, you can specify the scope of the availability check for each checking group/checking rule combination. I suggest that I explain the options to you first. Then you can think about your needs and then we can configure your requirements in the system. That sounds great to me!

Learn how to control availability checks in SAP using checking groups and assign them to specific materials and plants. 

Learn about the availability checking groups

The checking group allows you to control the availability check according to the material and plant. You can assign a checking group in the Product Master Record at plant level. Please note the current image shows the Managed Product Master Data app. If you prefer using the Create Material app,  you can maintain the availability checking group in the MRP3 view or in  the Sales General Plant view. SAP provides a limited number of availability check groups. I recommend that you check whether the number of available checking groups, groups, which allows you to differentiate the availability check by material, is sufficient. If you find that this is not sufficient to differentiate the availability check according to your materials, you can create new checking groups in your configuration environment by copying existing ones. The number of available availability check groups is not sufficient. For certain high-value products that we sell, mainly to our key customers, I'd like to define a special handling for the availability check. Well, let's create a new checking group.

Learn how to adjust the scope of availability check for checking groups and rules to meet customer requirements. Explore considerations for stocks, requirements, and check horizon.<br><br><br>

Scope of availability check

Now that we have created a new availability checking group Z1, we will check whether the scope of the availability check for the combinations of this new checking group and the checking rules meet our customers' requirements and, if not, adjust it accordingly. Explain to your customer what the scope of availability is and then ask them to determine what adjustments they need to make, for example, for the newly created checking group. For each combination of business process checking rule and material/plant availability checking group, you can decide whether or not the following elements should be considered for availability check. Stocks. In addition to the physical unrestricted-use stock, which is considered available anyway, you can also decide to consider the following stocks as available: Safety stock, stock in transfer, quality inspection stock, blocked stock, restricted-use batch stock for batched managed materials, and subcontractor stock. Requirements. You can specify which of the following existing requirements should reduce the available stock: sales requirements, for example, sales orders, deliveries, stock transport requirements, reservations, and dependent requirements. As well as future supply. You can decide whether you want to consider the following receipt elements: Purchase requisitions, purchase orders and scheduling agreements, shipping notifications, planned orders, and production orders. It makes sense and I appreciate the flexibility, but what is the check horizon, please? You can decide how the system should handle requirements that are outside of the replenishment lead time. The replenishment lead time is the time required to procure or produce a material. You decide whether a requirement that is outside of of the replenishment lead time should be fully confirmed, not confirmed at all, or checked according to the specified checking rules regardless of the replenishment lead time. Okay, thank you. For our combination of our new custom check group and the process of creating a delivery, I need to have the scope of the availability check slightly changed. For future delivery, I want to include purchase orders, stock transfer orders, and release production orders. We also want all requirements that are outside the replenishment lead time to be fully confirmed. Then let's go to your configuration environment and make the adjustments.