Release Customer Schedule, Manually
Explanation
There are two distinct types of information in customer schedules: planning
information and shipping information. For a customer agreement, users define
which type of schedule, either plan or call-off or both, is considered as an
authorization for shipment. The remaining plan data (if not used for shipment)
is either passed to MRP for planning purposes or used only in tolerance checking.
The agreement setting for Delivery Authorization controls this behavior.
Note: This planning information will not be seen by MRP if the demand
has been imported by the master schedule, even if the master schedule line has
been deleted.
Like the reconciliation process, the releasing process must align the schedules
with the previous shipment information so that the final picture does not skip
or double any quantities. While automation is the goal, any discrepancy during
the automatic release process will result in an error message thus requiring
manual intervention for release. Due to the dependency between schedule versions,
no new schedule can be processed until previous schedules are released.
The customer schedule agreement part parameter Delivery Initiation Point
decides about the process that results from releasing a new customer schedule:
- Delivery Initiation Point = Customer Order Line: Schedules that are
to be used as shipping authorization are written as customer order releases
to the order established for the customer agreement part. An important thing
to recognize is that, when a new schedule arrives, it could override the
previous shipment information established on the order. Thus, any customer
release still at a status prior to Picked is canceled and replaced
with new information. The schedule and shipment information is always fluctuating.
Generating new customer order lines may also activate automatic shipment
in the customer order release process. Automatic shipment is made possible
by using create on demand orders, which will create new orders and add order
lines to them, when the schedule is released. As part of the schedule release
process, the orders created on demand will also be released. Thus, creating
a shipment and automatically connecting the order lines to it.
- Delivery Initiation Point = Customer Schedule Line: The delivery authorized
schedule lines with a reconciled qty due > 0 create new available lines
for shipments (with Source Qty = reconciled qty due). The available lines
for shipments of the previously released schedule are deleted. As next step,
the connectable source qty are calculated by reducing the source qty in
chronological order by the already connected but not yet shipped shipment
line quantities. This process avoids release exceptions.
When the customer schedules are connected with the Customer
agreement Cross References, you can release multiple customer schedules which
contains the same customer, same delivery address, different customer’s part
numbers (activated in the same period) and different customer agreement cross
references. Also, when the customer schedules consists of the same customer,
same delivery address, same customer’s part number (activated in the same period)
and different customer agreement cross references, you can release multiple
customer schedules. However, user cannot release multiple customer schedules
when they have the same customer agreement cross reference.
The schedule release function can either be run as a
background process or executed online. In order to run the process automatically
this must be indicated on the customer schedule agreement.
Note: A customer
schedule can be released even if the approver is blocked for use.
Prerequisites
- The customer schedule must have been successfully
approved.
- The release function should not be automatically
run. This is stated on the customer schedule agreement.
System Effects
- If a previous schedule plan or call-off is overlapped by this new schedule
the previous data will be overruled by the new schedule.
- If the schedule line is converted into a customer order line and already
reserved and delivered to the customer, the schedule line will receive
Release Exception status and will need manual intervention (Delivery
Initiation Point = Customer Order Line)
- If the schedule line is converted into a customer order but not yet
reserved, the previous customer order line will be canceled and replaced
by a new one that states the current quantity (Delivery Initiation Point
= Customer Order Line)
- Already connected shipments can be further processed, still based on
the inforamtion of the previous schedule. New shipments will be created
based on the new schedule information.
- If the PO Information Use option is set to Use,
and the purchase order number stated in the schedule line does not match
the purchase order number stated in the customer order connected to the
customer schedule agreement part, the customer schedule will receive
Release Exception status.