Introduction: Global Available To Promise

(GATP) in APO supports online searches to determine if requested products are available at
specific times in quantities that satisfy customer demand. GATP processes are run via SAP
live Cache, which processes large volumes of data and enables data sharing across several
applications. GATP meets the challenge of providing availability information across a global
enterprise.

The concept of available to promise (ATP) used in Sales and Distribution (SD) module in
SAP R/3 provides check capabilities that deliver results for basic business scenarios. More
complex scenarios, however, require more robust capabilities to make delivery commitments
that are in line with the real-world demands. In short, global scenarios require global
solutions. Global ATP — or GATP — takes advantage of SAP APO technology and picks
up where the SAP R/3 ATP solution leaves off.

Following are the functionalities using GATP allows you to answer questions related to
promising products to your customers. GATP quickly makes information available to provide
real-time optimized decision support.

It offers the functionality to perform availability checks which consist of online searches that
determine if requested products are available at requested times in the quantities that satisfy
customer demand.

GATP can be used for

 Sales Order
 Scheduling Agreement
 Delivery
 Stock transfer orders
 Production orders (for their input components)

GATP Methods can be classified into three areas:

1. Basic methods and their combination (product check, product allocation, and check
against forecast)
2. Rules-based ATP (RBATP)
3. ATP integrated with production

You can combine several GATP methods to provide more advanced capabilities.

Basic methods and their combination

 Product check
  Product allocation
 Check against forecast

Product Check
 A basic product availability check generates positive results if the so-called ATP
quantity for a product is available on the requested delivery date.

 If it is not available, a new delayed delivery date is proposed.

 The ATP quantity referenced during the product availability check is based on
categories defined in Scope of Check.

Product Allocation Check (PAL)

 Product allocation in APO-GATP allows for managing demand when supply is
constrained. It prevents a few customers from purchasing all available inventory

 The second basic method is product allocation (PAL). Using information in the DP
module, PAL lets you know your availability to promise when sales orders compete
for quantities in a constrained supply chain.

 New products, production downtimes, and other factors lead to fluctuating demands,
which can affect product supply. For these situations, PAL provides a tool to ensure a
better distribution of the total amount when a company cannot deliver the full
available quantity to a customer.

Check against Forecast

The last method on the list is a check against forecast.

 An alternative method of an availability check is a forecast check, which might be

used in a make-to-stock environment assuming that the forecasted amounts are always
procured.

 This method is – at least in APO – not very often used since the check against stock
and planned receipts is usually more accurate. However, one business case might be
the planning for phantom assembly groups combined with a multi-level ATP check

 The prerequisite for the confirmation in the forecast check is the correct configuration
of the forecast consumption

Rules-Based ATP
 An ordinary ATP check is restricted to the requested location product and checks only
the according timeseries.

 Using rules-based ATP it is possible to substitute both the location and the product. In
branched supply chain networks, rules-based ATP allows companies to take full
 advantage of multiple shipping assets to ship goods from alternative sites to
customers.

 In addition, it permits certain products to be substituted as required to successfully

satisfy customer demands. RBA is beneficial for Distributors, consumer product
goods Industries

 Rules-based ATP is called with a requested location product from the item of the R/3
order and returns with the same or another location product which is created as a sub-
item. Therefore, only those R/3 objects can use rules-based ATP which support the
sub-item structure, these are only sales orders, inquiries, and quotations.

 Another restriction exists regarding the use of sales BOMs, since these already use the
sub-items and therefore no rules based ATP can be applied.

 To apply rules-based ATP first a rule is needed and a procedure to determine the rule.
The rules for rules-based ATP are maintained with the transaction /SAPAPO/RBA04

 Note that these rules are master data and therefore have to be maintained in each
system (development, quality assurance, productive) and are not transported like
customising entries

Capable-to-Promise (CTP)
CTP technology taps into SAP APO Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (PP/DS)
functionality. CTP triggers an online ATP check when a sales order is created. If the supply
cannot cover the new demand, the PP/DS functionality is called on as a part of the ATP
check.
Production can be directly triggered through a CTP Check if the inventory is not available to
satisfy an incoming demand. Production is either triggered for the full requirement quantity
or partial requirement quantity depending on the available inventory. Production can be
triggered for sales orders or stock transport orders. When production is triggered, the system
creates a feasible production plan that respects any material or capacity constraints. The key
driver for triggering production as part of an ATP check is the configuration of the check
instructions - production should be triggered directly or after an availability check.

Product Master- PP/DS Tab - PP Plng Procedure determines the action in CTP. Example -
Cover Dependent Requirements Immediately option is selected, a product heuristic for a
specific product is called immediately when a sales order is created or changed. In general,
the PP planning procedure determines the actions to be executed after a planning event like -
sales order creation, goods movement, planned order change, etc. You cannot use CTP for
backorder processing. The main reason for this is the poor performance of the procedure.
CTP is beneficial for Steel manufacturers, paper, chemical Industries. Please refer SAP
Note#426563 for additional information.

Multilevel ATP
The basic idea of the multi-level ATP is to confirm a customer request if the components for
the product are available in time (i.e. taking the lead-time to produce the finished product into
account). Basically, multilevel ATP explodes a bill of material (BOM) for the assembled
product, then checks the availability of each item at the component level. A multilevel ATP
check determines the availability of each component required by the finished good.

CTP Vs ML-ATP

A big difference between this check and CTP is data is stored in the ATP tree. It's a new
object that prevents the creation of the receipt elements generated by CTP.
It is especially helpful for business scenarios that require products to be configured for
individual customers (assemble-to-order scenarios). If component availability is the critical
factor for your planning, multilevel ATP is the best option. Because CTP focuses on detailed
scheduling strategies, it is the best choice when bottlenecks are the critical factor. SAP note
480292, Multilevel ATP documentation also provides helpful information about the
functionality.
In a make-to-order environment there are no receipts per definition. The idea of an ATP
check is therefore not to check whether there are receipts for the requested product but
whether there is enough available capacity to produce the product and/or whether the
required components are available. This can also be done using third option - ATP check
against allocations, where the allocations represent an aggregated capacity.

Transportation and Shipment scheduling

The transportation and shipment scheduling is an integral part of the availability check in
APO, and calculates the time difference between the requested delivery date at the customer
site and the required material availability date at the factory. In between the requested
delivery date and the material availability date the goods issue date, the loading date and the
transportation planning date are scheduled. The scheduling starts from the requested delivery
date and time. The requested delivery date is meant as the date when the material has to
arrive at the customer site. This is the date which is entered in the sales order.

Backorder Processing
The basic idea of backorder processing is to carry out a new ATP check for a set of order
items. This way backorder processing can also be used to distribute quantities in case of
shortage (resp. lateness) according to priorities. Backorder processing is usually performed in
the background, but interactive backorder processing is also possible. Basically, BOP
consists of three steps: Filter the treated elements, sort those sales documents, and schedule
them.

Event-driven quantity assignment (EDQA)

EDQA automatically starts backorder processing. EDQA is a feature within BOP that allows
the system to react immediately, based on the business events that are affecting the stock
availability situation. Instead of waiting for the next BOP batch run, EDQA resolves the ATP
check inconsistencies with a list of defined activities. Some of the business events that can be
modeled in EDQA are the goods receipt of inventory, changes in purchasing or sales
documents, changes in the sales order confirmation, Changing the stock data, or Changing the
planned order.
Additional References
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_scm50/helpdata/en/04/5e7237412a5249e10000009b38f842/
content.htm
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_apo700_ehp03_on_erp/helpdata/en/26/
c2d63b18bc7e7fe10000000a114084/frames...
http://scn.sap.com/community/scm/apo/production-planning-interfaces-and-global-atp
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_scm70/helpdata/EN/05/7e1f3bc779144ae10000000a114084/
frameset.htm
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Thank you
Satish Waghmare