Product Interchangeability questions

[Former Member]

Dear Gurus -

I am trying to work with product interchangeability functionality in SNP and this is my simple scenario:

There are two locations A (sourcing location) and B (receiving location)

Product 1 has a Forecast at B till the end of 2008

Product 1 is being discontinued after 04/01/08 and being replaced by product 2

I worked with just 1 location and everything worked fine.The system created planned orders for product 1 inside of 04/01/08 and created substitution receipts planned outside of 2008 and it made sense. However I am having trouble with a 2 location scenario

The questions which I have are:

1) Do I have to create location specific interchangeability groups? Or Do I create 1 interchangeability group and have 2 locations in the location tab?

For the 2 location scenario above, I tried both( 1 group with 2 locations). System gives a warning in the other case when a product is assinged in multiple groups

2) I ran SNP heuristic, and I thought the system would create a Purchase Requisition just like planned orders which is Preqs for product 1 before 04/01/2008 and Preqs for product 2 (substitution receipt planned) after 04/01/2008 which did not happen. I still see Preqs ONLY for product 1 even AFTER 04/01/2008. Why is this?

3) When I tried the 1 location scenario, I see planned orders for product 1 before 04/01/2008 and substitution receipts planned after 04/01/2008. The substitution receipts as expected do not go into R/3. We are not using PPDS, So How is this situation dealt?

The plants do need to know that product 2 has planned orders in the future.

Also, how do the substitution receipts planned in the case above become actual planed orders? IS it when we run the heuristic AFTER that date of 04/01/2008 that the system knows that product 2 is now valid and creates normal planned orders instead of the substitution orders?

Please let me know if I need to give more details

Thanks for all your help!

Varun

[Former Member]

Hi Rajesh,

I think the scenario you have mentioned is bit confusing, I will still try to answer some of your questions,

First I assume their is a demand for Product P1 till year end and product P2 is going to be discontinued from 04/01/2008 and after this date stock of P2 will be used to satisfy the demand of P2.

First you cannot define the one product in two different groups in product interchangeability, you need to define multiple locations at which you want interchangeability in the same group.

The substition functionality is location specific, their will be substitution receipts for successor product at that location after the end date till the stocks are available for predecessor product.

After this Pur reqs are created for the successor product at the source location and if the product interchangeability is defined at the source location substitution receipts are created at the source again depending on the stock of predecessor wehn you plan a heuristic at the source.

The substitution receipts cant be transferred to ECC, also substitution receipts are created only for the excess stock of predecessor product after the end date.

I think this will be helpful, for further queries please do revert back with details.

Thanks,

Sanjog

[Former Member]

Thanks for the reply -

Apologize for not being clear:

1) Demand exists for Product 1 ONLY till the end of the year

2) Product 1 is obsolete AFTER 04/01/08( So used ONLY before)

3) Product 2 is used instead of Product 1 AFTER 04/01/08

4) Product 2 uses the demand of product 1 itself as the change is a very small one.

I missed looking at the stock levels! The stock of predecssor product might be the reason why I have PReqs for product 1 even after the validity date. I do not have access to the system at the moment but will do some additional testing and get back to you.

Also, you mentioned that substituion receipts ( for product 2 after 04/01/08 ) cannot be sent to ECC. We would need these orders at some point( after 04/01/2008) to be seen as planned orders in APO and hence in ECC ( in case of source location).

When would these be seen as normal planned orders? As in how will the transition happen from planning and executing product 1 to product 2 ?

Thanks

[Former Member]

Hi Guest,

There can be a situation where orders might generate on predecessor despite no residual stocks post PI dt. being present. This will happen if any unserviced STO/PO of historical dt lies in the system.

Regards,

Satya