SAP Displaying Release Documentation for Contract using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

The release (order) documentation comprises details of ordering activities relating to a contract. The data supplies the following data on each release order:

• Number of the release order
• Order date
• Order quantity
• Order value

Procedure

Select the item in the item overview and then choose Item ® Statistics ® Release documentation.

For further information on the release order (i.e. on the purchase order), choose Goto ® Release details.

If you wish the goods receipts and values of invoices received to be displayed for the item, choose Goto ® PO history. All GR and invoice documents are then listed.

SAP Scheduling Agreement using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

Definition

A scheduling agreement is a form of outline purchase agreement under which materials are procured on predetermined dates within a certain time period.

Structure

A scheduling agreement consists of a number of items, for each of which a procurement type is defined. The following procurement types exist:

• Standard

• Subcontracting

• Consignment

• Stock transfer

Delivery of the total quantity of material specified in a scheduling agreement item is spread over a certain period in a delivery schedule, consisting of lines indicating the individual quantities with their corresponding planned delivery dates.

For scheduling agreement items involving subcontracting, you can specify the materials or components to be provided to the subcontractor with respect to each scheduled delivery of the ordered item.

Conditions can apply to the entire scheduling agreement. Conditions at item level apply specifically to the material to be supplied in each case.

Scheduling agreement releases (comprising a header and the actual delivery schedule) are issued to the vendor, instructing the latter to effect deliveries of the relevant material on the dates shown.

Costs can be apportioned among various Controlling objects via the account assignment.

Vendors can issue confirmations to the relevant purchasing organization indicating their compliance or non-compliance with scheduled delivery dates.

If you are using scheduling agreements, you can work with or without release documentation. This is controlled via the document type. Working with such documentation affords the advantage that you can display the valid scheduling agreement releases transmitted to a vendor over a certain period whenever necessary.

Note on the term "release": In MM Purchasing, this term is used A) as a generic term covering various kinds of order document issued against outline agreements (these may be release orders issued against contracts or - as here - scheduling agreement releases, i.e. types of rolling delivery schedule issued against scheduling agreements), and B) in connection with an internal approval or expenditure authorization process for purchasing documents. In both cases, "releasing" can be regarded as equivalent to "giving the green light" to go ahead with a certain action (e.g. to the vendor to deliver a certain quantity of materials, to Purchasing to create or issue a PO for items requested by a user department).

• With release documentation (in the standard system, document type LPA)

The schedule lines in the system have internal character. This means that you can change them in any way you wish. They are not transmitted to the vendor until you explicitly create a scheduling agreement release (technically, such a release consists of a header and the current version of the delivery schedule and may take one of two forms: a forecast delivery schedule or a JIT delivery schedule).

The release documentation allows you to display the releases transmitted to a vendor over a certain period in order to establish exactly when you transmitted which information to the vendor.

• Without release documentation (in the standard system, document type LP)

The schedule lines immediately have official character. This means that they are transmitted to the vendor as soon as you save the schedule. There is no release documentation in this case.

SAP Procurement Using Scheduling Agreements using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

Purpose

Working with scheduling agreements can shorten processing times and reduce the amount of paperwork you are faced with. One delivery schedule can replace a large number of discrete purchase orders or contract release orders.

Inventories can be reduced to a minimum. You can carry out your manufacturing operations on the Just-in-Time (JIT) principle.

Your vendors require shorter lead times. Smaller deliveries are required, which can be spaced out over a longer period. Delivery scheduling enables vendors to plan and allocate their resources more efficiently.

In repetitive manufacturing involving large quantities, it is desirable for releases to be generated against a scheduling agreement automatically. In the SAP System, you can use the application component PP Material Requirements Planning for this purpose.

Recommendation

SAP recommends working with scheduling agreements with release documentation. In this case you can make use of the scheduling agreement (SA) release types Forecast (FRC) delivery schedule and Just-in-Time (JIT) delivery schedule.

Prerequisites

• Use a document type for scheduling agreements with release documentation. In the standard system, document type LPA is provided for this purpose.
• To work with JIT delivery schedules, you must set the JIT delivery schedule indicator in the material master record (Purchasing or MRP 2 view). The indicator must also be set in the scheduling agreement item.
• If scheduling agreement releases are to be generated automatically via planning runs, Purchasing must designate a certain scheduling agreement as the unique source using the source list facility.

Procurement Process Using Scheduling Agreements with Release Documentation

A planning run takes place for the required materials at regular intervals. This automatically generates delivery schedule lines for scheduling agreements.

Scheduling agreement releases are created on the basis of these schedule lines. These are then issued to the vendor.

• The materials planner/inventory controller can first check the schedule lines and then manually create a release (FRC or JIT delivery schedule) from within the scheduling agreement.
• Alternatively, the releases (FRC or JIT schedules) can be generated automatically by the system. This is normally done directly after the planning run.

You have the option of working with both forecast and JIT schedules or only with forecast schedules.

If you work with both types of schedule, the advantage is that the vendor receives more detailed delivery data from you at shorter time intervals in the form of JIT schedules, plus a rougher indication of your delivery requirements at longer intervals in the form of forecast delivery schedules.

After the scheduling agreement releases have been created, they are transmitted to the vendor via the message control program RSNAST00.

The releases can be transmitted either directly they are saved or at a later point in time.

It is sensible to carry out the planning run daily and generate releases (delivery schedules) automatically once a week, for example. You can set up the system in such a way that releases are generated for changed scheduling agreement items (materials) only.

SAP Creating a Scheduling Agreement using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

Use

You can create a scheduling agreement as follows:

• Manually

You enter all data on the scheduling agreement manually.

• Using the referencing technique

As reference document (the document you copy from), you can use:

• Purchase requisitions
• RFQs/quotations
• Other scheduling agreements

You can also combine the two options. For example, you can copy data from a reference document and then change or supplement this data as required.

If you wish to set up a scheduling agreement not with one of your vendors but with one of your own plants, you should create a stock transport scheduling agreement (scheduling agreement for longer-distance stock transfers).

Prerequisites

Before you create a scheduling agreement manually, you need the following information:

Account assignment

For each item to be posted to a consumption account, you need the account assignment category and the account assignment data (for example, the number of the cost center to be charged). (See also Account Assignment.)

MPN material number

If you wish to order a material with a manufacturer part number (MPN), you need the MPN material number. See also: Manufacturer Part Number (MPN)).

Purchasing organization/purchasing group

You must assign the scheduling agreement to a purchasing organization and a purchasing group. The release (delivery schedule) must then contain the same purchasing organization as the corresponding scheduling agreement.

See also:

Creating a Scheduling Agreement Manually

Creating an Outline Agreement by Copying or Using the Referencing Technique

SAP Creating a Scheduling Agreement Manually using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

1. From the Purchasing menu, choose Outline agreement
® Scheduling agreement ® Create.

The initial screen appears.

2. Enter the necessary data. Any data you enter under the group heading Default data will appear as default data in each item.

In the Agreement type field you specify whether you are creating a scheduling agreement with or without release documentation, for example.

3. Press
ENTER.

The header data screen appears.

4. Enter the duration of the scheduling agreement. Check the other fields on this screen. Make any necessary changes (e.g. the terms of payment) and define the header conditions (see
Maintaining Conditions).
5. Press
ENTER.

The item overview screen appears.

6. Enter the necessary data for each item (material number, target quantity, price, receiving plant, account assignment etc.).

Material without a master record: leave the field for the material number empty and enter the following:

– Short description of the relevant material or service in the Short text field

– Material group to which the material belongs

– Account assignment category (column A)

– Target quantity and the order unit

7. If you specify an account assignment category, you must enter the relevant account assignment data for each item of the scheduling agreement. To do so, choose Item
® Account assignments.

(See also Account Assignment.)

8. If necessary, review the details for each item. Select the item(s) to review. Then choose Item
® Details to call up the item detail screen.
9. Enter the desired conditions for the item (discounts, surcharges etc.). To do so, select the item and choose Item
® Conditions.
10. Enter further text for the item if any additional instructions to the vendor or to Goods Receiving are necessary. Choose Item
® Texts ® Text overview.
11. Save the scheduling agreement.

Result

The scheduling agreement is created in the R/3 System. In order that the information in the scheduling agreement can be transmitted to the vendor, the system generates a message for the agreement. How to transmit the message to the vendor is described under Outputting Messages.

SAP Defining the Firm, Trade-Off, and Planning Zones using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

Use

Rolling delivery schedules created under scheduling agreements are divided into different time zones indicating the degree to which the lines of the schedule are binding. You can define the following time zones:

• Firm zone (zone 1) (go-ahead for production).

The schedule lines within this zone count as firm and thus as fully binding. If you cancel a schedule line that falls within the firm zone, the vendor is entitled to charge you with both production costs and the costs of procuring input materials incurred by him as a result of the cancellation.

• Trade-off zone (zone 2) (go-ahead for procurement of input materials)

This is the "semi-firm" zone, giving the vendor the go-ahead to procure necessary input materials to manufacture the item ordered. If you cancel a schedule line within this semi-firm zone, the vendor is only entitled to charge you the material costs. Schedule lines falling within this time zone are thus less binding that those falling within the firm zone.

• Planning zone (zone 3) (forecast)

All schedule lines that lie beyond the first two zones (that is, delivery is tentatively scheduled for quite a long way into the future) fall within the planning zone.

The firm and trade-off zones are printed out in the schedule for the user’s information. For each schedule line that falls within a certain zone, it is assumed that the relevant material is procured in accordance with the conditions that apply to this zone (e.g. schedule lines falling within the firm zone are fully binding).

You can specify whether Materials Planning may change schedule lines that fall within the firm or trade-off zones.

Activities

1. On the scheduling agreement item overview screen, select the item for which you wish to define delivery schedule time zones.
2. Choose Item
® More functions ® Additional data.
3. In the Firm zone field, enter a number of days (calculated from the current date) defining the period after whose expiration the firm zone ends and the trade-off zone begins.
4. In the Trade-off zone field, enter the number of days (calculated from the current date) defining the period after whose expiration the trade-off zone ends and the planning zone begins.




If the firm zone is to cover one month, enter the value 30 (days) in the Firm zone field. If the trade-off zone ends one month after the firm zone, enter the value 60 in the Trade-off zone field.

5. In the Binding for Materials Planning field, specify whether Materials Planning may change schedule lines that fall within the firm or trade-off zones.
6. Save your data.

SAP Creating Delivery Schedule Lines for SA Item using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

Prerequisites

To create delivery schedule lines for a scheduling agreement item, you need the following information:

• Scheduling agreement number and the number of the item to be scheduled
• List of the delivery dates, times, and quantities you have negotiated with the vendor

Procedure

1. Choose Outline agreement
® Scheduling agreement ® Delivery schedule ® Maintain.

The initial screen for creating/maintaining delivery schedules under scheduling agreements appears.

2. Enter the document number of the scheduling agreement and press
ENTER.

The item overview screen for the scheduling agreement appears.

3. Select the item you wish to schedule. Then choose Item
® Delivery schedule.
4. Enter the following for each schedule line:

- Date category ( M onth, W eek, or D ay) and the corresponding date

- Delivery time-spot (if applicable)

- Quantity to deliver (the unit of measure is the same as in the scheduling agreement)

Referencing a purchase requisition: Choose Sch. agmt. schedule ® Create w. reference ® To purchase req. to adopt the delivery data from an existing requisition.

5. Save the delivery schedule.

Result

The scheduling agreement delivery schedule is created in the R/3 System. In order that the information in the delivery schedule can be transmitted to the vendor, the system generates a message for the schedule. How to transmit the message to the vendor is described under Outputting Messages.

SAP Generating Scheduling Agreement Releases: Process using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

Purpose

This process takes place in the case of procurement using scheduling agreements.

Process Flow

1. Materials Planning generates delivery schedule lines for scheduling agreement items. You can also create schedule lines manually.
2. You create scheduling agreement (SA) releases (delivery schedules) comprising the schedule lines for a certain scheduling agreement item. These are snapshots of the overall delivery schedule stored in the system at given points in time. In creating such releases, the system proceeds as follows:
1. If a creation profile exists, it aggregates the release (i.e. scheduled) dates and quantities.
2. It generates an SA release (forecast or JIT delivery schedule) in accordance with the creation strategy and the entries on the initial screen for SA release creation.
3. If a creation profile exists, it determines any backlogs and immediate requirements.
4. If a creation profile exists, it checks any applicable tolerances in the case of SA releases created due to changes to the overall schedule in the system.
3. The releases (delivery schedules) are transmitted as messages to the vendor.

See also:

Materials Planning and Scheduling Agreement Release

Scheduling Agreement Releases (Forecast or JIT Delivery Schedules)

Creation Profile

Example: Creation Profile/Creating SA Releases.

Messages for Scheduling Agreement Releases

SAP Materials Planning and Sched. Agreement Release using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

Use

The planning run continually changes the overall delivery schedule for a scheduling agreement as a result of new or changed material requirements (e.g. dependent requirements). The quantities and dates in the current schedule stored in the system thus directly reflect current requirements of materials. Snapshots of the current overall schedule are transmitted to the vendor as SA releases (FRC or JIT schedules).

The purpose of using SA releases is for the desired quantities of the relevant materials to be delivered on the dates they are required.

Requirements with regard to delivery and production lead times in connection with procurement via scheduling agreements are usually addressed as follows: The vendor first receives forecasts enabling him to plan and initiate his procurement and production operations. Subsequently, a more detailed breakdown is provided, showing the exact quantities required by the buying entity plus the corresponding delivery dates.

You send the vendor scheduling agreement release in the form of a forecast delivery schedule, advising him how many tons of the material Steel 1 you are likely to need over the next nine months: e.g. 1000 tons in January, 900 in February, etc. You then specify the exact dates and quantities in a JIT delivery schedule (the second form of SA release). For example you need 30 tons of Steel 1 on 10 January, 20 tons on 14 January, etc.

Prerequisites

SAP recommends the following settings:

• Material Master Record

• Deterministic planning procedure (e.g. PD).
• Exact lot-size calculation (e.g. EX).
• Separate MRP group for materials you wish to procure by means of scheduling agreement releases (see below: MRP Group for Materials Ordered via SA Releases).
• If you wish to work with JIT schedules, set the JIT delivery schedule indicator in the Purchasing view.

• Source List and Quota Arrangement

Create a source list record for each scheduling agreement item and set the indicator for relevance to materials planning to 2. Materials Planning then continually updates the overall delivery schedule.

If you have several scheduling agreements for a material, use the quota arrangement to apportion the requirements among the different vendors.

• Customizing Materials Planning

Plant Parameters

Choose one of the following options in order to have Materials Planning generate schedule lines for scheduling agreement items in accordance with required quantities and dates:

a) All time portions of forward scheduling are 0

Set the planned delivery time and the GR processing time to 0 in the Additional data for the scheduling agreement item.

Set the purchasing department processing time to 0 in the plant parameters under External procurement in Customizing for Materials Planning.

If the requirement date lies in the past, the system takes the current date (date on which the planning run takes place) as the delivery date. Otherwise, the delivery date corresponds to the requirement date.

b) Start date lies in the past

In this case, the system always generates scheduling agreement delivery schedule lines whose delivery dates correspond to the requirement dates because the system never carries out forward scheduling.

You specify in the MRP group that a start date that lies in the past is allowed.

MRP Group (for Materials Ordered via SA Releases)

External procurement:

• Scheduling/document type

If you set the Sched. info./agmt. indicator, the system adopts the GR processing time and the planned delivery time from the scheduling agreement item for scheduling purposes (see option (a)).

Planning run:

- Creation indicator

Set the indicator to 3 as a general precondition for the generation of delivery schedule lines under scheduling agreements.

- Start in past

You can also specify that the system is to work with a delivery date that lies in the past (see option b).

Assign this MRP group in the master records of the materials ordered via SA releases.

See also:

PP - Materials Planning

For further information on scheduling, refer to the PP Material Requirements Planning documentation, section Scheduling for External Procurement.

SAP SA Releases (Forecast or JIT Delivery Schedules) using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

Use

The schedule lines of a scheduling agreement release contain finalized information for the vendor regarding quantities and delivery dates. The schedule lines are recorded with the aid of the release documentation and can thus be displayed and verified at any time. The release documentation enables you to see which schedules you transmitted to the vendor during the last two weeks, for example, and check the correctness of goods receipts against the relevant schedule lines.

There are two kinds of scheduling agreement release:

• Forecast (FRC) delivery schedule
  Provides the vendor with longer-term data regarding the quantities needed of a material and when delivery is required. In such schedules, the timing of delivery is usually expressed in terms of calendar months or weeks. Note: equivalent EDI terms for the "forecast delivery schedule" are: "planning schedule with release capability" (ANSI 830) "delivery schedule (message)" (EDIFACT DELFOR), and "delivery instruction" (ODETTE DELINS).
• Just-in-Time (JIT) delivery schedule
  Provides the vendor with data on required quantities and desired delivery dates/times covering the near future. In such schedules, the timing of delivery is usually expressed in terms of specific days or even times of the day. Note: equivalent EDI terms for the "JIT delivery schedule" are: "Shipping schedule": (ANSI 862) and "Delivery just in time message" (EDIFACT DELJIT).

Using creation profiles, you can define the criteria for the creation of SA releases (for example, you can influence the quantities and dates transmitted). SAP recommends defining the Creation profile field as a mandatory-entry field (in Customizing for Purchasing: Scheduling Agreement ® Define Screen Layout at Document Level).

Prerequisites

• Scheduling agreement releases (FRC and JIT schedules) can only be generated for scheduling agreements with release documentation (in the standard system, document type LPA).
• If you wish to work with JIT delivery schedules, the JIT schedule indicator must be set in the material master record (Purchasing or MRP 2 view) and the Additional data of the scheduling agreement item.

Activities

Scheduling agreement (SA) releases can be generated on a regular basis using a report (which can be run online or in the background). To call up the report, choose Outline agreement ® Scheduling agreement ® Create release.
See also Example: Creation Profile/Creating SA Releases.

You can also create SA releases via the maintenance menu for scheduling agreement delivery schedules with Edit ® Create . In this way, you can create either forecast or JIT delivery schedules for the item in question.

See also:

Displaying the Release Documentation for a Scheduling Agreement

Creation Profile

SAP Creation Profile using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

Use

The creation profile determines

• Which event triggers the creation of a scheduling agreement release (changes involving the lines of the overall schedule and/or the reaching of the next transmission date),
• How the delivery dates are shown (aggregation and release horizon),
• Whether
Backlogs and Immediate Requirements are determined and shown in the scheduling agreement (SA) release
• Whether a tolerance check is carried out for SA releases that are created due to changes to the overall delivery schedule in the system.

The tolerance check is only carried out if lines of the overall schedule for an item have been changed and if you create SA releases via Scheduling agreement ® Create SA release.

Features

A creation profile is defined on a plant-dependent basis and consists of the following areas:

Area	Here you define the following, depending on the scheduling agreement release type (FRC or JIT delivery schedule):
General parameters	Whether - and, if so, under what conditions - an SA release is generated (creation strategy). Whether backlogs and immediate requirements are to be determined for the SA release type. Whether or not the tolerance check is to be deactivated in the case of change documents created for SA releases with backlogs.
Aggregation horizons	The Release Horizon for which released quantities are shown, and The periods for which quantities may be aggregated. If your creation profile provides for aggregation, quantities and delivery dates set out in the lines of the overall delivery schedule stored in the system for a scheduling agreement are aggregated to form release schedule lines. If you use a creation profile without aggregation, or work without a creation profile, the schedule lines of the SA release correspond to the schedule lines of the overall delivery schedule for the scheduling agreement for the relevant period.
Creation periodicity	Whether SA releases are to be created on a periodic basis (and, if so, at which frequency). Each time a scheduling agreement release is created, the system calculates the next creation date. Weekly and monthly releases are always created on a Monday (first workday of the period). The system takes the factory calendar as the basis for calculating the due dates for release creation. If you wish to create SA releases on a periodic basis, you should choose a creation strategy that includes Next date.
Tolerance profile	Whether tolerances are are to be checked for scheduling agreement releases created as a result of changes to the overall delivery schedule. This allows you to specify that SA releases are only to be created following major changes to the overall delivery schedule.

Activities

You process creation profiles in Customizing for Purchasing under Scheduling Agreement ® Maintain Release Creation Profile for Scheduling Agreement with Release Documentation.

You assign a creation profile to a scheduling agreement item in the Additional data.

SAP Example: Creation Profile/Creating SA Releases

The creation of releases (certain kinds of delivery schedule) under scheduling agreements is subject to the following basic conditions:

• Forecast delivery schedules are sent to the vendor to provide the latter with a rough idea of future requirements. More concrete delivery data is provided to the vendor in the form of JIT schedules
• Forecast delivery schedules are transmitted once a month. The quantities are shown as monthly quantities. The release horizon is nine months.
• JIT delivery schedules are created once a week. Changes to the overall delivery schedule in the system also lead to the creation of new JIT schedules if these changes are not minor in comparison with the previous JIT schedule and exceed certain tolerances.

If both situations (new weekly schedule due, changes to delivery schedule in the system) occur on the same day, only one new JIT schedule is created.

JIT delivery schedules transmitted to the vendor set out the daily quantities for the next ten workdays.

JIT schedules determine backlogs and immediate requirements.

• Planning runs and release creation take place on a daily basis.

Settings for the Creation Profile

You make the following settings in Customizing for Purchasing under Scheduling Agreement ® Maintain Release Creation Profile for Scheduling Agreement with Release Documentation.

General Parameters

For JIT delivery schedules, you select Changed or next date. For forecast (FRC) delivery schedules, you select Next date only.

For JIT schedules, you specify that backlogs and immediate requirements are determined.

Aggregation Horizons

For JIT schedules, you specify daily aggregation and enter 10 workdays as End. For FRC schedules, you choose monthly aggregation and enter 180 workdays as End.

This has the effect that JIT delivery schedules show the daily quantities for the next 10 workdays and FRC schedules the monthly quantities for the next 180 workdays (9 months à 20 workdays).

Creation Periodicity

You specify weekly creation for JIT schedules and monthly creation for FRC schedules.

Tolerance Profile

You specify 10 days as the checking period for JIT schedules, since this corresponds to the release horizon. You enter 5% as upper and lower tolerance limits and choose Overall check.

Settings for the Creation of SA Releases

You create SA releases by means of the Purchasing menu via Scheduling agreement ® Create release and choose the following settings:

Group heading	Selection
Choose release type	FRC and JIT delivery schedules
Select scheduling agreements	Specification of plant
Scope of selection	Changed or next date
Creation	According to strategy in profile Tolerance check active

Result

On the days on which the next FRC date (1st. Monday in the month) or the next JIT date (Monday each week) is reached, scheduling agreements with the above profile settings are selected and SA releases (delivery schedules to be issued to the vendor) created (because the next creation date has been reached).

Between these periods, the relevant scheduling agreements are also selected if the overall delivery schedule stored in the system is changed significantly (either manually or via the materials planning and control system). In this case, a JIT delivery schedule is generated, since this is defined in the creation strategy Changed or next date. A forecast delivery schedule is not created, since this is subject to the strategy Next date only.

The frequency at which new JIT delivery schedules are created to reflect changes to the overall schedule is defined via the tolerance profile.

SAP Messages for Scheduling Agreement Releases

Use

The system can generate a separate message for each release (delivery schedule for transmission to a vendor) created for a scheduling agreement item. That is to say, the vendor receives one document per scheduling agreement release. This enables you to output individual SA releases or re-output an already transmitted release.

It is also possible to create just one message per scheduling agreement. This message transmitted to the vendor then includes all releases relating to all scheduling agreement items (i.e. the vendor receives just one document per scheduling agreement).

Prerequisites

In order for a separate message to be generated for each SA release, you must set the Release message indicator in Customizing for Purchasing under Define Message Schemas for Scheduling Agreement Release/Urging Letter ® Assign Schema: Scheduling Agreement Release/Urging Letter.

If messages relating to a scheduling agreement exist which have not yet been outputted, and you then set this indicator, you can still view the non-outputted messages under Header ® Messages. The newly generated messages are listed in the release documentation.

In order for scheduling agreement releases to be transmitted to vendors as messages, you must note the following points:

• You must designate just one message type as the "main message type" for each SA release type (FRC or JIT delivery schedule) in Customizing for Purchasing, and set the indicator A (update print-dependent data) for this message type. You set this indicator using the fine-tuned control facility for the message type.
• All releases must always be created with the main message type because the system will otherwise not update the print-dependent data. This is particularly important if you are working with different message types.

You send SA releases to the vendor with the main message type LPH1. You provide the forwarder or carrier with a copy (message type LPH2) and create a printout for your own files (message type LPH3).

If you send SA releases to the majority of your vendors as printouts (i.e. in hardcopy form) and have an EDI arrangement with just a few of them, you can create message records for the main message type:

• At document type level with the transmission medium "Print", and
• At vendor/purchasing organization/EDI level with the transmission medium "EDI" for the EDI vendors.

Do not set the change indicator in the message overview. A set indicator has no effect in the case of scheduling agreement releases. As a general rule, the system outputs all releases that have not yet been transmitted.

Further information is available in the Implementation Guide (IMG) for Purchasing (under Messages) and under Messages.

Activities

You can display the individual messages for the releases as follows:

1. From the Scheduling view, choose Item
® SA release docu.
2. Select the desired release.
3. Choose Goto ® Messages per release.

SAP Cumulative Quantities using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

Use

You have the option of monitoring the scheduled quantities set out in the delivery schedule for a scheduling agreement on a cumulative basis. This means that the cumulative quantity delivered is displayed and printed for each individual schedule line. The cumulative quantity represents the total quantity that has been delivered to date after each delivery of a scheduled quantity.

SAP Determining the Agreed Cumulative Quantity

Use

Differences may arise between the quantity the vendor claims he has delivered and the quantity you have received. This may occur with over- and underdeliveries (overages and underages), for example.

When differences occur, you contact the vendor and agree on a common figure. Then you enter this agreed quantity in the scheduling agreement.

If your and the vendor's recorded cumulative quantities differ by 20 pieces, you can reconcile the difference with effect from an agreed date. This agreed quantity is then used as the basis for all schedule lines for the relevant item after this date.

You also use this function to handle the changeover from one year to the next. Scheduling agreements are often valid for a period of several years. At the end of a fiscal year, the cumulative received and scheduled quantities are usually reset. The cumulative quantities should then restart at 0 (or any other agreed figure).

You can either:

• Enter the agreed cumulative quantity manually on the Additional data screen of in the scheduling agreement item, or
• Have it determined by the system as at a date specified by you. The system then inserts the figures into the items of the selected scheduling agreements.

You can also reset the figures again. Note that the system also resets the manually entered figures if the scheduling agreements satisfy the selection criteria.

Activities

Entering the Agreed Cumulative Quantity Manually

1. Select the desired item in the item overview when changing a scheduling agreement.
2. Enter the date of agreement in the Reconciliation date field on the Additional data screen. Then enter the agreed quantity in the Agreed cum. qty. field.

Automatic Determination of the Agreed Cumulative Quantity

1. Choose Outline agreement ® Scheduling agreement ® Administer ® Set agreed cum. qty.
2. Enter the selection criteria and choose Program ® Execute.

You get a list of all scheduling agreements to which the system has added the predetermined agreed cumulative quantity.

SAP Displaying Release Docu. for Scheduling Agreement

In the case of scheduling agreements with release documentation, you can display the finalized delivery scheduling information transmitted to the vendor.

Displaying Release Documentation for a Scheduling Agreement Item

1. From the Scheduling view, choose Item
® SA release docu.

You will then obtain an overview of the releases for the relevant scheduling agreement item with the header data.

2. From this overview you can:

– Branch to the display of the individual schedule lines:

Select the desired scheduling agreement release and choose Goto ® Sched. lines/release.
You will then see the schedule lines that were transmitted, with the discrete and cumulative quantities.

– Compare two scheduling agreement releases with each other:

Choose Goto ® Overview JIT schedules or Overview FRC schedules.

Select the desired releases and choose Goto ® Compare releases.
You will see the header data of the two releases and a comparison of the schedule lines in each case, with the quantities, their differences, and the cumulative figures for the difference.

You can view the results in the form of a graphic. To do so, choose Goto ® Overview graphic.

Printing Release Docu. for Scheduling Agreement Item

1. Choose Outline agreement ® List displays ® By vendor. Use the list variant EVERYTHING and document type LPA.
2. Choose Program
® Execute.

You will get an overview list containing JIT and forecast delivery schedules.

3. Choose List ® Print.

To view the schedule lines for an SA release, position the cursor on the desired line and choose Environment ® Display document.

SAP Monitoring the Transmission of Delivery Schedules using SAP MM Outline Purchase Agreements With Vendors

Use

You can monitor delivery schedules created under a scheduling agreement. In the case of scheduling agreements with release documentation, use the latter documentation. See Displaying Release Documentation for a Scheduling Agreement. The following functions are available for scheduling agreements without release documentation.

Features

The scheduling screen for scheduling agreements without release documentation shows you how often changes to the schedule for an item (schedule updates) have already been transmitted to the vendor. The system assigns a consecutive number to each of the successively updated versions of the schedule transmitted to the vendor.

The following two fields are provided on the scheduling screen for scheduling agreement items:

• Last transmission (Date/time-spot)

Date and time the last version of the schedule was transmitted.

• Next transmission no.

Identifies the current status of the schedule, which is to be transmitted to the vendor next.
This consecutive number at item level should not be confused with a transmission number (e.g. EDI) that applies to the complete scheduling agreement.

In a scheduling agreement with several items, the individual items may have different change statuses. The SAP system manages the consecutive numbers for the changes affecting the schedules for each item separately.

In the case of scheduling agreements with only one item, the consecutive number for schedule updates transmitted to the vendor is the same as the transmission number for the complete scheduling agreement.

A new scheduling agreement has an item with 1000 tons of Steel 1. The item has the following schedule, which has already been transmitted to the vendor.

• 100 tons
• 50 tons
• 80 tons
• 20 tons

When you next display or change the delivery schedule, it has the consecutive number 2. You now change the quantity for 30 May from 80 to 100. The schedule still has the number 2.
The system only automatically increases this number after you have transmitted the schedule to the vendor. After transmission, the Next transmission no. field contains the number 3 as identification number for the next change (update).

SAP Administration of Scheduling Agreements

Use

In order to retain an adequate overview even in the case of scheduling agreements having a large number of delivery schedule lines, you can aggregate schedule lines, re-assign numbers that have become free, and aggregate the order history.

Features

The following functions are available for the administration of scheduling agreements under Outline agreement ® Scheduling agreement ® Administer:

• Re-number schedule lines
• Aggregate schedule lines
• Aggregate order history

Re-Number Schedule Lines

With long-running scheduling agreements, it can frequently happen that the counter for the delivery schedule line numbers reaches its maximum value prematurely because many numbers are still assigned to schedule lines that have since been deleted.

You can re-assign these numbers by re-numbering schedule lines. The counter then only contains consecutive numbers for relevant lines.

Aggregate Schedule Lines

Over time, a large number of schedule lines may accumulate with respect to scheduling agreement items. This makes it difficult to retain an overview of the overall delivery schedule and has a negative effect on system performance.

To achieve a better overview, you can aggregate schedule lines, i.e. add together the scheduled quantities of lines relating to dates that lie in the past and for which delivery is complete. If you aggregate on a monthly basis, for example, and take a look at the delivery schedule in June, you will see not all the individual schedule lines created since January, but only a few aggregated lines showing the totals for the preceding months. Below these, you see a detailed listing of the open schedule lines that are of interest to you for your current processing.

You can deactivate the aggregated display at any time.

In the case of large volumes of data, you should carry out the data compression (aggregation) process in the background.

Aggregate Order History

This function enables you to select all scheduling agreement items with a large number of order history records and then aggregate the closed transactions (i.e. all those with respect to which goods and invoices have been received) to form a totals record.

You can delete old message records using the report RSCLNAST.

SAP MM Sched. Agmt. Referencing Centrally Agreed Contract

Use

This function enables you to combine the advantages of procuring materials on the basis of scheduling agreements with those of procurement by means of a centrally agreed contract.

Used in conjunction with your materials planning and inventory control system, scheduling agreements make it possible for you to procure required materials on a "Just-in-Time" basis. Two types of "scheduling agreement (SA) release" are available for this purpose: the "forecast (FRC) delivery schedule" and the "Just-in-Time (JIT) delivery schedule". The precise quantities and delivery dates set out in the SA releases directly reflect the requirement situation in the relevant plant.

As their name implies, centrally agreed contracts are negotiated centrally by a strategic purchasing organization (the reference purchasing organization) for the entire corporate group. This usually results in especially favorable conditions for the buying entity.

These conditions negotiated by the reference purchasing organization can be used by all other purchasing organizations through releases issued against the centrally agreed contract.

Prerequisites

In order that you can use a scheduling agreement that references a centrally agreed contract, the following must apply:

• The scheduling agreement must have time-dependent conditions.
• The contract must be a centrally agreed contract.

Activities

To create a scheduling agreement with reference to a contract, choose Outline agreement ® Scheduling agreement ® Create ® Vendor known. Starting from the initial screen for scheduling agreements, choose Create with reference ® To contract.

A box appears, in which you can enter the number of the contract whose prices and conditions are to be used in the scheduling agreement.

The link between the two documents (contract and scheduling agreement) can be seen on the general statistics screen for the scheduling agreement item.

SAP MM Purchasing Info Record

Definition

Serves as a source of information for Purchasing. The purchasing info record (also referred to in abbreviated form as the "info record") contains information on a specific material and a vendor supplying the material. For example, the vendor's current pricing is stored in the info record.

The info record allows buyers to quickly determine:

• Which materials have been previously offered or supplied by a specific vendor

• Which vendors have offered or supplied a specific material

Structure

Content of an Info Record

The info record contains:

• Data such as prices and conditions that you can store for the relevant purchasing organization or plant.

• Number of the last purchase order

• Tolerance limits for overdeliveries and underdeliveries

• Planned delivery time (lead time required by the vendor to deliver the material)

• Vendor evaluation data

• Indicator showing whether the vendor counts as the regular vendor for the material

• Vendor sub-range to which the material belongs

• Availability period during which the vendor can supply the material

The info record contains quotation and ordering data. The data in the info record (prices for example) is also used as default data for purchase orders.

For instance, you can store the current and future quotation conditions (discounts, fixed costs etc.) in the info record, in order to be able to copy them into Pos. You can also maintain the vendor’s conditions directly in the info record.

Organizational Levels

An info record can apply to the following organizational levels:

• Purchasing organization

• Plant

Procurement Types in Info Records

• Standard

A standard info record contains information for standard purchase orders. The info records can be created for materials and services with and without master records.

• Subcontracting

A subcontractor info record contains ordering information for subcontract orders. For example, if you subcontract the assembly of a component, the subcontractor info record would include the vendor's (subcontractor’s) price for assembling the component.

• Pipeline

A pipeline info record contains information on a vendor’s commodity that is supplied through a pipeline or pipes (for example, oil or water) or by similar means (for example, electricity through the mains). The info record contains the vendor’s price for the consumption of such commodities by the buyer ("pipeline withdrawals"). You can store withdrawal/usage prices for different validity periods.

• Consignment

A consignment info record contains information on a material that vendors keep available at their own cost on the orderer’s premises. The info record contains the vendor’s price for withdrawals by the orderer from consignment stock. As in the case of the pipeline info record, you can store prices for different validity periods.

For more information on pipeline and consignment procurement, refer to the documentation MM Special Stocks and Special Forms of Procurement in Materials Management.

Order Price History

The purchase order price history logs the various prices charged for a material by a vendor.

Texts in the Info Record

The info record contains the following text types:

• Info record memo

An internal note or comment that is adopted in the PO item. The info record memo is not printed out.

• PO text in info record

This text serves to describe the order item and corresponds to the PO text in the material master record. It is adopted in the PO item and included in the printout.

• Short text

For material that has a material master record, the short text (short description) is adopted directly from the material master record in the PO or the outline purchase agreement.

PO Text in Info Record Versus PO Text in Material Master Record

For an info record linked to a material master record, you can specify for each purchasing organization whether

• Only the info record PO text is to be displayed and printed in purchasing documents.

(To do so, set the indicator No m. text in the purchasing organization data of the info record).

or

• Both the info record PO text and the material master record PO text are to be displayed and printed in purchasing documents.

Both texts are displayed and printed if the indicator No m. text is not set.

MM Optimized Purchasing

The user departments of your firm have requirements of materials and services that have to be satisfied by Purchasing. Departments may notify Purchasing of their requirements via the SAP document purchase requisition. In other cases Purchasing may record them as requisitions itself, or create either standard purchase orders or releases against outline agreements directly, without first creating a requisition.

In order to be able to cover the requirements of your user departments quickly and efficiently, you wish to optimize your work processes in Purchasing.

In addition to the Purchasing-specific options available to you that are treated here, you can also speed up procurement activities in the following ways:

• The materials planning system generates delivery schedule lines against existing scheduling agreements automatically, i.e. without any intervention by Purchasing.
• User departments create purchase orders directly (delegated Purchasing).

An example of this is the kanban procedure for controlling production and the flow of materials.

The following graphic illustrates how purchasing activities can be streamlined with regard to source determination for purchase requisitions and the creation of follow-on documents.

Assignment of Sources and Further Processing: Steps

You can choose the degree of automation to be employed in the creation of external purchasing documents from requisitions:

Workstep/Type of processing	Automatic	Manual
Determine possible sources for requisition	X
Assign one source.
When creating/changing the individual requisition item		X
Collectively from a list of requisitions to be assigned		X
In the background	X
Further processing of requisitions with assigned source
Create purchase orders	X	X
Create release orders against contracts	X	X
Create schedule lines/releases against scheduling agreements		X
Create RFQs		X

Recommendation

Automatic processing is recommended if you have a well-maintained system with a lot of possible sources of supply, allowing the majority of requisition items to be assigned to unique sources without intervention from the buyer and follow-on documents (such as contract release orders) to then be created.

Manual processing is recommended if few possible sources are available or if there are several possible sources for a certain requirement. In these cases, the buyer must choose a unique source.

In the case of manual processing, one person can perform both of the steps "assigning sources" and "further processing". However, you can also specify that one person is responsible for source assignment and another for further processing.

SAP MM Source Determination MM Optimized Purchasing

Use

With respect to new procurement transactions, you initially wish to fall back on data that is already available in the system. Issuing a once-only purchase order or determining a new source through the more time-consuming process of requesting and processing quotations are functions that will often only take place after you have discovered that there is no suitable source for a certain material or service in the system.

As a rule, a productive system will contain a large number of vendors and outline purchase agreements representing external sources of supply (external procurement), as well as plants belonging to your firm representing internal sources of supply (internal procurement).

The source determination facility helps you to find the most suitable source for a certain requirement from the large volume of data that is available, i.e. it suggests a suitable outline agreement or vendor for ordering purposes.

Integration

The following objects represent the basic data upon which the source determination process for requisitions and purchase orders depends:

• Outline agreement
  Existing outline agreements represent possible sources for a material. If a requisition is assigned to an outline agreement, the system can generate a contract release order or scheduling agreement delivery schedule on the basis of the terms and conditions of the outline agreement.

• Info record
  If a purchasing info record exists for the requested material, it can also serve as a possible source of supply. The prices and conditions in the info record are suggested when you create a purchase order referencing the assigned requisition.

• Plant
  A plant belonging to your firm can also represent a possible source of supply in connection with a purchase requisition.
  If a plant has been assigned as the source of supply, the requirement is covered by an internal procurement transaction. In this case, a stock transport order (for a stock transfer involving transport over a longer-distance) is created For further information, see
Stock Transport Order Without SD Delivery.

• Quota arrangement
  The quota arrangement specifies the portion of the total requirement of a material that is to be assigned to a specific source over a certain period. If quota arrangements exist in the system, they exert an influence in determining precisely which source (perhaps out of several possible ones) is assigned to a purchase requisition.
  See
Quota Arrangement.

• Source list
  In the source list, you specify which source of supply is valid for a certain period. You can define a preferred source of a material (for example, a vendor) as "fixed". The system will then suggest precisely this source even if other possible sources exist. See
Source List.

Activities

The system determines the source of supply of a requested material on the basis of the following factors (in the order shown):

1. Quota arrangement

The system first determines whether a quota arrangement within whose validity period the delivery date in the requisition falls exists for the material.

If a quota arrangement exists, the system determines the vendor from whom the material is to be procured according to the quotas assigned to the vendors and then suggests the source.

If not source can be determined this way, the system checks the source list.

2. Source list
   The system determines whether an entry in the source list within whose validity period the delivery date of the requisition falls exists for the material. The source in question may be a fixed vendor or an outline agreement (contract or scheduling agreement).

If the source list contains a unique source, the requisition is assigned to that source.

If several sources are found, a box appears for selection purposes.

If no source could be determined, the existing outline agreements and info records are examined.

3. Outline agreement and info record
   The system searches for contracts, scheduling agreements, and info records for the material and suggests these.

(If info records with more than one purchasing organization exist, all info records of the purchasing organization(s) that is/are responsible for procurement for the requesting plant are also suggested.)

If several outline agreements and perhaps info records exist, all possible sources are offered for selection in a box.

When an info record is found, the following two additional checks are carried out:

• Check of supply region
  The system checks whether a certain supply region is specified in the associated vendor master record. If so, the system checks whether the plant in the purchase requisition belongs to this region. If not, the info record is discarded as a possible source.
• Check of regular vendor
  The system checks whether a regular vendor has been specified for the material (that is, a vendor valid for the entire corporate group, or client). If this is the case, and it has been specified in Customizing that the regular vendor takes precedence, the info record for this vendor will be preferred as the source.

Source Determination in the Background:

If you carry out the source determination process online and the system finds several possible sources, a box appears with the sourcing suggestions. From these, you can choose and assign one source.

If you carry out the source determination process in the background, the system must determine a unique source to enable a purchase order to subsequently be generated automatically.

If several sources are found in the third step, the system gives the outline agreement precedence over the info record in order to arrive at a unique source.

If two outline agreements are found, the system checks whether one of them is with a regular vendor. If so, this agreement is assigned as the unique source. If not, the system does not assign a source at all. The source must then be assigned manually.