Handling a tank material

[former_member590612]

Hi all,

We are implementing MRP right now and we have some raw materials that are storaged in tanks. For these materials we have several problems:

Sometimes in the facility they just "consume" the material once a day, so when we check MD04 we don't have the real stock quantity. From this point comes the problem... When we are looking for the perfect date to fill in the tank, we cannot know when to do it and sometimes the truck is waiting on the door for several hours or one day.

- Is there any way to set a maximum stock in the material master (without using manual reorder point)? In order to do not purchase too soon.

- Can we set an exception message or similar saying that you need to move your purchase because you will be filling the tank with more than your max. qty?

- How do you usually handle this kind of issues?

Thank you!!

[former_member42743]

I feel you are asking the impossible.

You say that "Sometimes in the facility they just "consume" the material once a day, so when we check MD04 we don't have the real stock quantity. From this point comes the problem"

If you already know that you have inaccurate values in SAP, how can anyone expect SAP to figure out when do schedule a delivery for the tank with any degree of accuracy?? I don't even know how you can expect to prompt an error message that you have to move a delivery or anything else if the stock is typically in accurate.

SAP is designed to work in real-time or close to real-time. Inventory accuracy is EVERYTHING in SAP. Until you resolve the issue of reporting consumption accurately in a real-time basis, you will NEVER reliably solve this problem.

Ideally the solution is a real time tank level monitor that every hour sends data to SAP and updates or flags consumption. Costing out the consumption can be difficult in this approach.

But there is a real revolutionary approach to this. You actually make the people who actually use the material go in to SAP and post the consumption when it's used. (yes. loads of sarcasm there). Not once a day. What I've seen is that people consume the material as they use it. The once-a-day check by a person monitoring the tanks is done to confirm or "true-up" the quantities and make sure every else is doing their timely consumptions.

Forgive my sarcasm in previous. I have been at too many places where they make excuses to not have to have people do certain things. Or they don't want to train the workforce for that, or they don't want to deal with the union to get them to do it, or they don't want to put out computers for them, or I-pads, or laptops.. or they don't think their people are smart enough.. or.. or.. or.... but the bottom line is, if they use it, they should be responsible.

Craig

[former_member590612]

Hi,

Thank you for your answer Craig and sorry for the late reply.

I know that the first thing is the manpower, but it is all related to your last paragraf, lots of excuses...

But if in the future (hope it would be soon) we solve this issue with the production employees, we will have the real consumption. At that point of time, is there any possibility to set a maximum stock for the tank in the material master (without using manual reorder point)? In order to be aware that the purchasers are buying too soon and don't exceed the capacity.

Thank you for your help!

[former_member42743]

Why would you not set up an automatic re-order point? (If you solve the problem of reporting).

You can do this with a safety stock setting. Once the inventory level of the tank drops below xxx liters, (or gallons, or kgs), the system automatically creates a purchase requisition for the material. A planner simply converts it to a purchase order and executes it. This is a pretty standard SAP process.

Example, A 40,000 liter tank. A full tank truck delivers approx. 35,000 liters. The safety stock is set at 5,000 liters. As soon as the material inventory drops to 4999 a standard SAP program that is run in batch, creates a purchase requisition. The planner coverts it the next day to a purchase order and out it goes to the vendor.

Craig

PS> reading back I was probably a bit overboard on the sarcasm. Sorry!! 🙂 Must have been having a bad day!

[BalaAP]

Hi,

Probably you may have to measure the tank storage level using lengthy wooden scale (like taking dip memo) and store the stock level using some conversion factor (like litres).

regards,

Bala