Keep customer reqeust ship date without using Contract sales order type.

Hi,

I need your help!

We are using Contract order type (VA41) to save the original customer reqeust ship dates and quantitiy and in the released sales order (VA01)form the Contract order to enter the Production confirm schedule dates/quantities in the Sales order item schdule lines.

We have requirement now that we want to keep both customer request ship dates and production confirm schedule dates/qty in the same sales order. Is there any solution accomplish this situation other than creating a customized input screen?

thanks for your input.