Promising and Reserving Inventory

This chapter provides an overview of inventory reservation methods and discusses how to:

• Run the Reserve Materials process.

• Correct reservation errors.

• Calculate available-to-promise quantity.

• Manage stock requests online.

• Use the Fulfillment Workbench to reserve or promise orders.

• Reserve using the fulfillment engine enterprise integration point (EIP).

Understanding Inventory Reservations

The reservation processes for PeopleSoft Inventory:

• Reserves stock at the business unit level for demand lines with soft-reserve items.

• Promises stock for demand lines with ATP items.

• Release demand lines downstream for picking by setting the line's fulfillment state to Releasable.

Reservations can be initiated several different ways:

• Using the run control page to launch the Reserve Materials process.

• Launching the Reserve Materials process from the Order Entry Form component in PeopleSoft Order Management and the Create/Update Stock Request component in PeopleSoft Inventory.

  For stock requests, select the Background option for MRS Entry Reservations on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page.

• Launching the online reservations process from the Order Entry Form component in PeopleSoft Order Management and the Create/Update Stock Request component in PeopleSoft Inventory.

  For stock requests, select the Online option for MRS Entry Reservations on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page. The online reservations process enables the user to receive online feedback that the line has been reserved, promised, or set to releasable status.

• Using the application message Inventory_Reservation EIP.

• Using the Fulfillment Workbench.

In addition, the Shortage Workbench can be used to manually control reserving, promising, and releasing demand lines.

Reservation Rules

The Reserve Materials process, online reservations, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP use reservation rules to determine when to reserve, promise, and move the fulfillment state from unfulfilled to releasable. The reservation rules are:

The default setting of the reservation processes is to soft-reserve or promise partial quantities for a demand line and hold the line in the unfulfilled state until a reservation rule released them downstream. The demand line can go through the reservation processes multiple times and could soft-reserve or promise more stock each time. However, a reservation rule can override the default setting and not reserve partial quantities in the unfulfilled state.

If there are no reservation rules that apply to the demand line, then the check box for Partial Qtys Can Ship determines if partial quantities can be reserved and released downstream.

For product kits, the reservation processes also look to the Release Multiple Kits check box to determine when to set the product kit to the releasable state.

Line Backorder Rules

Based on the criteria on the reservation rule, a demand line could be put to the releasable state even if all or part of the requested quantity cannot be reserved. In this case, the reservation rules have released a shortage. The Reserve Materials process, online reservations, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP use the line backorder rule to determine what should be done about the shortage. The line backorder rule can:

• Create a backorder.

• Cancel a backorder.

• Hold the demand line in the unfulfilled state and notify the proper user. Manual intervention is then required using the Shortage Workbench.

• Release the shortage to the releasable state. This essentially lets the shortage flow downstream so that the backorder decision can be made at shipping time rather than during the reservations process.

Note. When a backorder is created and the Create Adhoc Requisitions check box on the Setup Fulfillment page has been selected, then an adhoc replenishment request is created to be processed by PeopleSoft Purchasing or a third-party purchasing application.

Processing Tasks

The Reserve Materials process, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP use the fulfillment engine to reserve, promise, and release demand lines. During reservations processing, the fulfillment engine performs several other tasks to the order lines, including:

• Verifies that the requested quantity in both the ordering and standard units of measure are valid quantities as defined by the conversion rate, precision, and rounding rules specified for the units of measure.

  If an error is found in either quantity, the demand line is identified as an error and the quantities must be corrected on the Correct Demand Errors component.

• Verifies that all other data included in order lines are valid for the business unit, if you have selected the Perform Validation option for the business unit on the Setup Fulfillment-Fulfillment Engine page.

  Setting this validation option is strongly recommended if any of the orders originate from third-party systems. You can view any errors using the Correct Demand Errors component.

• Populates the distribution type field, if blank, with the default distribution type defined on the Default Distribution Type page for the putaway transaction group.

• Pass-through levels can be established directing the fulfillment engine to not allow demand lines to pass through reservations processing if any demand line on an order or request has an error.

  The pass-through level can be set at the demand line, order or request level. For example, suppose that the pass-through level is set at the order level and errors are found on any line on the order then the full order will be held out of reservations processing. Likewise, if request-level pass through is used, then all lines on the full request will be held out of reservations processing if any errors are found. When using line-level pass-through processing, only the demand line in error will be held out of reservations processing.

  Note. Pass-through processing only applies to erroneous data found on the demand line. A demand line that is not eligible for reservations processing due to scheduled dates being outside of the reservations lead days time fence or due to quantity availability is not considered in error for pass-through processing.

  Note. When using pass-through processing on transaction requests that contain multiple group or detail segments portions of the transaction that have selection criteria that selects demand lines in error will be given an error status in the transaction staging tables. Pass-through processing reserves those demand lines that can be passed through but the transaction segment is given an error status to identity the fact that an error was found on one of the demand lines. After the error is fixed, the transaction can be reprocessed and the demand lines held back from reservations processing the first time will be processed. Segments where all demand lines have been processed based on the selection criteria in that segment will always have a Complete status, because those demand lines have already been processed.

The Reserve Materials process page initiates reservations processing using a run control request. When using the run control requests, group level selection criteria can be used when selecting demand lines for processing. The Inventory_Reservation EIP and the Fulfillment Workbench initiate reservations processing using a transaction request. When using the transaction based requests, both group and detail-level selection criteria can be used. The availability of detail-level selection on the transaction-based requests provides the ability to exclude specific demand lines from a group being reserved. In addition, you can also override the quantity being reserved on the detail segment of a transaction giving you the ability to designate a specific reservation quantity instead of using the open order quantity as is done when reserving at a group level.

See Also

Utilizing the Fulfillment Engine

Understanding Reservations for Different Types of Items

The section discusses how the reservation processes handle different types of orders, including:

• Soft reservations

• Non-soft reservations

• ATP-reservations

• Lot allocations

• Pegged supply and demand

• Product Kits

Understanding Soft Reserve Items

With soft-reservation processing, part of the business unit's total available quantity for the item is reserved for an order line and cannot be consumed by other orders staged for fulfillment processing.

To manage short-supply situations, you can require that soft-reserved items be reserved only manually, using the Shortage Workbench, which enables you to control which orders receive the available quantity of an item. You can also control the sequence in which orders for soft-reserved items are processed by establishing inventory priority rules that help to ensure the stock is soft reserved for the most profitable orders first.

Defining Soft-Reserved Items

To flag items for soft reservations processing, the Soft Reserve check box must be selected. You can set this option at the business unit level on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page and override it for specific items on the Setup Item Fulfillment page.

Requiring Manual Soft Reservation

To require that a soft-reserved item be reserved only manually using the Shortage Workbench, select the Reserve Online option for the business unit on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page or for a specific item on the Setup Item Fulfillment page.

Reserving orders manually enables you to control how the business unit’s available quantity is distributed among the order lines flagged for soft reservation processing. All non-lot-allocated order lines identified for soft reservations can be soft reserved manually using the Shortage Workbench. However, those identified only for manual reservations (the Reserve Online check box) must be reserved in this manner, as the Reserve Materials process, online reservations, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP do not pick up order lines that require manual reservations.

Soft Reservation Processing

Order lines identified for soft reservations, but not requiring manual reservations using the Shortage Workbench, can be processed by the Reserve Materials process, online reservations, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP using the reservation and backorder rules to determine when to reserve and move the fulfillment state from unfulfilled to releasable. The reservation processes only pick up demand lines that match the search criteria of the process and that have scheduled shipment dates falling within the reservation lead days. The number of reservation lead days is specified at on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page (business unit level) and can be adjusted for specific items using the Setup Item Fulfillment page (item level). The reservation lead days can be overridden on the fulfillment transaction request.

If there are no reservation and backorder rules, the reservations process reviews the Partial Quantities Can Ship and Cancel Backorder check boxes on the order line to determine whether partial quantities are permitted and whether backorders should be created for any unfulfilled quantity. These options can be set during order entry using the Order Entry Form component in PeopleSoft Order Management or the Create/Update Stock Requests component in PeopleSoft Inventory. For stock requests created automatically by other PeopleSoft application processes (except for stock requests created from planned messages), the default values come from the Setup Fulfillment and Setup Item Fulfillment components.

The Partial Quantities Can Ship and Cancel Backorder check boxes work together to determine the reservation and backorder decisions. The following actions are taken depending on the settings:

• If the Cancel Backorder check box is not selected and the Partial Quantities Can Ship check box is selected, then partial quantities are reserved and a backorder created for the shortage.

• If the Cancel Backorder check box is not selected and the Partial Quantities Can Ship check box is not selected, then either the full requested quantity is reserved and released or no quantity reserved and released. A backorder is created for the full quantity if no quantity is reserved

• If the Cancel Backorder check box is selected and the Partial Quantities Can Ship check box is selected, then a partial quantity is reserved and the backorder is canceled for the shortage.

• If the Cancel Backorder check box is selected and the Partial Quantities Can Ship check box is not selected, then full quantity is canceled if it is not available to be reserved.

At shipping time, if the Partial Orders Can Ship check box on the Setup Fulfillment page is not selected, then the shipping processes do not allow any of the lines on the order or unit of work to be shipped unless all of the lines within the order or unit of work can be shipped.

Note. When a backorder is created and the Create Adhoc Requisitions check box on the Setup Fulfillment page has been selected, then an adhoc replenishment request is created to be processed by PeopleSoft Purchasing or a third-party purchasing application.

Interunit Transfer Order Lines

The fulfillment engine handles interunit transfers slightly differently from other order lines.

• For interunit transfer orders for soft-reserved items, the fulfillment engine calculates the available quantity to reserve by subtracting the interunit par quantity (BU_ITEMS_INV.qty_iut_par) defined for the item from the current available quantity (BU_ITEMS_INV.qty_available) for the item.

  The interunit par quantity is defined for the business unit on the Define Business Unit Item - Inventory: Shipping/Handling page.

• If reservation or backorder rules are not used on the demand line then the reservation process uses the Partial Quantities Can Ship check box and the Allow Interunit Backorders check box on the Setup Fulfillment page.

  If both the Partial Quantities Can Ship check box and the Allow Interunit Backorders check box are selected, the fulfillment engine soft reserves or promises as much of the requested quantity as possible and backorders the remaining quantity. If the Allow Interunit Backorders check box is clear, the fulfillment engine does not create a backorder for the remaining quantity.

Understanding Non-Soft Reserve Items

Non-soft reserve items refer to items that are not identified for soft-reservations or ATP reservations. For non-soft reserve items, the reservation processes do not reserve or promise stock, the line is not checked for whether partial quantity fulfillment is permitted, the line is not checked for whether it is in the reservation lead days window, and no backorders or adhoc requisitions are created. In fact, the reservation processes can be skipped for non-soft reserve items by using the Non-Soft Reserved State field on the Setup Fulfillment page. Select the Releasable option to initially add a demand line for non-soft reserved items in the releasable state, bypassing the reservation process. If you select the Unfulfilled option, then the demand line must go through the reservation processes and meet the criteria of a reservation rule to be set to the releasable state.

For non-soft-reserved order lines, the partial quantity option is verified by the Order Release Request process to determine whether the line can be included on a picking plan. If partial quantity fulfillment is not permitted, and there is not enough quantity available to pick the full demand quantity, the order line is excluded from the pick batch ID. Before generating a picking plan for non-soft-reserved orders, you can confirm that enough quantity is available to pick using the Picking Shortage report and adjust picking quantities as necessary using the Shortage Workbench.

For non-soft-reserved order lines, backorders are created when you:

• Partially lot-allocate a sales order line from the Order Entry Form component in PeopleSoft Order Management or from the Allocate Lots page in PeopleSoft Inventory.

• Ship a smaller quantity than requested for an order line using either the Shipping/Issue component or the fulfillment engine shipping request.

• Pick a smaller quantity than requested and run the Picking Confirmation process (INPBCONF) for an auto-processed demand line.

Defining Non-Soft-Reserved Items

To flag items for non-soft reservations processing, the Soft Reserve check box must be clear. You can set this option at the business unit level on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page and override it for specific items on the Setup Item Fulfillment page.

Understanding ATP Items

ATP-reserved order lines are promised, not actually reserved. ATP-reservation processing refers to the ability to promise a scheduled shipment date based on available-to-promise (ATP) calculations of future supply and demand. Orders for ATP-reserved items can be promised by the Reserve Materials process, online reservations, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP in PeopleSoft Inventory. Quantity for promised orders is not subtracted from the business unit or storage location’s available quantity until the order line has been allocated by the Order Release Request process or confirmed as picked by the Picking Confirmation process.

Defining ATP-Reserved Items

The ATP-reservations option is an item attribute that you set at the setID level. However, due to data validation requirements, you must complete item attributes and fulfillment setup data for ATP-reserved items at the business unit level before activating the ATP-reservation option for the setID.

Here’s how to define an ATP-reserved item:

1. Define the setID attributes for the item, except for the promise option.

   Define the setID attributes for the ATP-reserved item as you would for any other item using the Define Item component. Do not, however, select a promise option for the item on the Define Item - General: Common page.

2. Define the business unit attributes for the item at all applicable business units.

   Using the Define Business Unit Item component, define the business unit level attributes for the item in all of the business units in which the item is to be used.

3. Define non-soft reservation processing for the item in all business units in which it is defined.

   In each of the business units that contain the item, define non-soft reservation processing for the item. To flag items for non-soft reservations processing, the Soft Reserve option must be clear. You can set this option at the business unit level on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page and override it for specific items on the Setup Item Fulfillment page.

4. Once the business unit item attributes and setup fulfillment data have been established for the item, return to the Define Item - General: Common page and select Perform ATP Reservations as the item’s Promise Option field.

ATP-Reservation Processing

Order lines identified for ATP-processing, but not requiring manual reservations using the Shortage Workbench, can be processed by the Reserve Materials process, online reservations, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP using the reservation and backorder rules to determine when to promise and move the fulfillment state from unfulfilled to releasable. The reservation processes only pick up demand lines that match the search criteria of the process and that have scheduled shipment dates falling within the ATP lead days enter on the Setup Fulfillment-ATP Reservations page. The reservation processes call the ATP function to calculate the cumulative ATP quantity of an item that can be shipped on a given scheduled ship date and then promise cumulative ATP quantity to the demand line.

If the scheduled shipment date of the demand line is outside the reservations lead days time period, but within the ATP lead days time period, then the reservation process may promise either the entire requested quantity or nothing at all. When the demand line is within the reservation lead days time period, then partial quantities may be promised based on the reservation rules or the Partial Quantities Can Ship check box.

• Create an order line for quantity that can be promised on the requested ship date.

• Select the next ship date on which the full requested quantity can be promised.

• Break the requested quantity into multiple schedule lines, each having the maximum quantity that can be promised for different schedule ship dates.

If a demand line meets the criteria of a reservation rule, then the ATP item is promised and set to the releasable state.

See Also

Calculating Available-To-Promise Quantity

Introduction to Sales Order Entry

Understanding Lot Allocated Items

Lot allocations associate one or more specific lots of an item with a particular demand line. Order lines for lot-controlled items defined for both soft reservation and non-soft reservation processing (including ATP-reserved items) can be lot allocated. The lot allocation process reserves quantity both at the business unit and the material storage location levels for the order line and inserts the demand line for the allocated lot quantity into the IN_DEMAND table. You can allocate lots to sales orders using the Order Entry Form component in PeopleSoft Order Management or the Allocate Lots page in PeopleSoft Inventory. You can allocate lots to material stock requests from PeopleSoft Inventory’s Create/Update Stock Requests component or on the Allocate Lots page.

See Also

Allocating Lots to Orders

Monitoring Inventory Quantity Balances

Understanding Pegged Supply and Demand

Pegging links demand to incoming supply. You can create a peg chain between a supply transaction and a demand transaction from either side. Only soft-reserve items can be pegged when working with material stock requests and sales orders.

When pegged supply is received and putaway into a PeopleSoft Inventory business unit, the Complete Putaway process reserves or pre-allocates the putaway quantity to an outgoing demand (materials stock request, interunit transfer, sales order, or work order). This prevents the incoming supply from being used to fulfill another demand transaction. The Complete Putaway process performs a soft-reserve or pre-allocation based on your setting in the Pegging Setup page or the Pegging Item Setup page. The outgoing pegged demand line is still in the unfulfilled state. The pre-allocation reserves quantity both at the business unit and the material storage location levels for the order line and inserts the demand line for the allocated lot quantity into the IN_DEMAND table. The soft-reservations is the same as the soft reserve described earlier in this section.

See Also

Pegging Supply and Demand

Understanding Product Kits

Select the Release Multiple Kits check box on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page to allow only complete product kits to be set to releasable status by the reservation processes. When processing product kits from PeopleSoft Order Management, there may be insufficient quantity of one or more of their required components to reserve all of the complete kits requested. This check box instructs the Reserve Materials process, online reservations, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP to send only complete kits downstream to the releasable state. For example; suppose that product kit X consists of 2 units of item A and 1 unit of item B. The demand line requests a quantity of 10 product kit X. Available stock includes 22 units of item A and 4 units of item B. The system can reserve 20 units of item A and 4 units of item B, then 8 units of item A and 4 units of item B (4 complete kits) are set to releasable status and passed downstream for picking.

For any quantities initially reserved, promised, or lot-allocated but could not be set to releasable, in this case, 12 units of item A, the system follows the backorder rules to determine if the items stay reserved, promised, or lot-allocated. On the backorder rules:

If the action is Create a Backorder, then the leftover quantity is backordered and any reserved, promised, or lot-allocated quantity remains reserved, promised, or lot allocated.

If the action is Cancel Backorder, then the quantity is canceled and made available to other demand lines.

If the action is Release as Shortage, then the backorder decision should be made based on the shipping line-level backorder rule. If no line-level shipping backorder rule exists, the backorder decision should be made based on the Cancel Backorder flag.

Note. Kit components with the Optional Ship flag set on their definition, are ignored, when calculating the multiples of kits that can be sent downstream to the releasable state.

Understanding the Order Line Processing Sequence

Understanding how order lines are sequenced for reservation processing enables you to develop prioritization rules and make reallocation decisions to ensure that the most profitable orders are fulfilled first.

How Order Line Sequence Affects Reservation Processing

When using the Reserve Materials process, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP, the sequence in which order lines are processed determines which soft-reserved lines are to consume the business unit’s quantity available and which ATP-reserved lines are to consume the business unit’s cumulative ATP quantity.

In manual reservation processing, sequencing is also important. When you automatically distribute quantity across order lines that appear on the Shortage Workbench, the quantity is distributed per your specifications to the eligible order lines, starting with the first order line that appears and continuing down the list until the available quantity is exhausted. The sequence of order lines on the Shortage Workbench enables you to determine quickly which orders should be unfulfilled to free quantity for orders with a higher priority.

When launching the online reservations program from sales order entry in PeopleSoft Order Management or material stock request entry in PeopleSoft Inventory, the program immediately tries to reserve or promise stock for the specific order or line and give immediate feedback about the quantities reserved or promised. This method does not process lines in sequence.

How Order Lines Are Sequenced for Reservation Processing

For the Reserve Materials process, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP, the order lines that meet the criteria are sequenced for reservation processing using a combination of the inventory priority rank assigned to the order and the final sort order defined for the business unit.

An inventory priority rank is assigned to every order line based on rules established on the Priority Rule Definition page. The selected order lines are sequenced first by priority rank value, starting with the lowest rank value. An order may match more than one of the inventory priority rules, but it is assigned the lowest matching priority rank value. For example, if the order line matches rules for ranks of 10, 30, and 50, it is assigned an inventory priority rank of 10. If order line matches none of the inventory priority rules, or if no rules have been established for the business unit, the order line is assigned to a system-defined inventory priority rank of 999.

Order lines assigned the same inventory priority ranking are then sequenced using the Final Sort option specified for the business unit on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page. Options include scheduled ship date, order number, or (for orders created in PeopleSoft Order Management or interunit transfers created in PeopleSoft Supply Planning) the shipping priority. These options represent the top level of multilevel, hierarchical sort criteria for order lines.

See Establishing Default Reservation Parameters.

How Order Lines Are Sequenced for Other Fulfillment Processes

The inventory priority ranking and final sort order are used only for sequencing demand lines processed by the reservation processes. Demand line sequence on a pick batch ID is determined by the picking sort options specified with the Order Release process.

Demand lines on the Shortage Workbench are sequenced by schedule date and time, ship to customer name or location, order number, order line number, and schedule line number. Demand lines on the Picking Shortage report are sorted by item ID, schedule date and time, ship to customer ID or location, and order number. Demand lines in the Item/Product Availability inquiry component are sorted by scheduled shipment date only.

Running the Reserve Materials Process

The Reserve Materials process page submits fulfillment run control requests to the fulfillment engine to soft-reserve stock, promise stock, and move material stock orders and sales orders from an unfulfilled to a releasable state. These fulfillment run control requests are applied directly to the inventory demand tables; the staging tables are not used. Like all run controls, these processes can be scheduled to run one time or on a recurring basis. Any errors in the requests are placed in the Message Log for viewing.

The Reserve Materials process can also be launched from the Order Entry Form component in PeopleSoft Order Management and the Create/Update Stock Request component in PeopleSoft Inventory. To launch from the order entry pages in PeopleSoft Inventory, select the Background option for MRS Entry Reservations on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page.

Page Used to Run the Reserve Materials Process

Using the Reserve Materials Process

Access the Reserve Materials Process page.

Enter the criteria to soft-reserve stock, promise stock, and move material stock orders and sales orders from an unfulfilled to a releasable state. Leave the fields at their default value to use the values defined on the Setup Fulfillment component. If you enter additional search criteria here, then an order must meet all criteria to be selected for processing.

Note. If the business unit requires closure calendar validation and processing for shipping activities as defined on the Closure Calendar page, and the reservation lead days include closure dates, the system adds one day for every number of closed days to the number of reservation lead days to compare against the scheduled ship date. Therefore, the lead days include only open business days.

See Also

Using Routes and Loads in Fulfillment Processing

Understanding Order Fulfillment Processing

Managing Loads

Correcting Reservation Errors

Use the Correct Demand Errors component to view and correct order lines with data errors identified during reservations processing when reserving, promising, or shipping demand lines coming from a unfulfilled state. For all order lines staged in PeopleSoft Inventory’s IN_DEMAND table, the unit of measure (UOM) conversion is validated to confirm that the requested quantity was correctly converted to the item’s standard (base) UOM and that all precision and rounding rules for the units of measure were followed. You can opt for additional data validation for order lines by selecting the Perform Validation option on the Setup Fulfillment-Fulfillment Engine page.

Warning! Changes to the order line fields that appear on the pages of the Correct Demand Errors component may lead to discrepancies in the order data. We recommend that you control access to these pages tightly and analyze the impact of planned modifications carefully before implementing the changes.

Understanding Error Types

There are two types of errors that can be detected during reservation processing:

• Simple data entry errors on the order line.

• Errors reflecting process rule violations.

For simple data errors (such as invalid customer ID or ship to location) no error message appears in the Edit Errors region of the page. To know which of the fields that appear on the Reservation Errors - Errors 1 page or the Reservation Errors - Errors 2 page is invalid, save the page. An error message appears and the invalid field is highlighted. Correct the field and save the page again. If another error exists, another error message appears. You cannot save the page until all of the order line fields that appear represent valid data.

If the validation was performed by the fulfillment engine and a process rule violation was found (an interunit transfer order line that defines both a transfer price and a price markup percentage, for example), an error message appears in the Edit Errors group box. Follow the instructions in the message to correct the problem. If the validation was performed online, the demand row is identified as being in error, but an individual error message is not created. To find the error, attempt to save the page. The field in error is now highlighted.

Note. All of the fields that appear in the Demand Fields group boxes in the Correct Demand Errors component must be valid before the order line can complete any method of reservation processing.

Pages Used to Correct Reservation Errors

Correcting Quantity Conversion and Shipping Information Errors

Access the Reservation Errors - Errors 1 page.

Override GL (override general ledger)

If this is an interunit expensed issue, you can override the General Ledger business unit against which the transaction is costed. The system validates the destination business unit’s ChartFields against the new value, costs the issue using the defined interunit transfer price, and records interunit accounting entries for an interunit expensed issue. If an override value was entered on the stock request, that value appears here; otherwise, the field is blank upon entry to the page.   Note. The business unit defaults established on the Inventory Display Options page govern whether this field appears upon entry to the page. If the default is Yes, the field appears; if the default is No, the field does not appear. This field is only available for internal requests, not for interunit transfers or external requests.

The shipping information for external order lines, which includes intercompany transfers, is defined by the Customer, Ship To, and Location fields. The Customer is validated against the sold to customer defined for the Src BU (source business unit). The ship to customer must be valid for the sold to customer and the location must be valid for the ship to customer.

Important! Although you can modify the values in the Source and Src BU fields, PeopleSoft recommends against this. Changes to either of these fields break the logical tie with the business unit in which the order line was created and can cause discrepancies in the order data.

The Edit Errors group box displays the Field Name, Msg Seq (message sequence) number, and the Msg (message) text for errors related to process rule violations. For example, if both a transfer price and the price markup percentage have been specified for an interunit transfer, you receive a message that only one or the other is allowed.

See Also

Defining and Using ChartFields

Correcting Additional Shipping Information Errors

Access the Reservation Errors - Errors 2 page.

Demand Fields

Important! Although you can modify the InterUnit check box and the values in the Dest Unit field, PeopleSoft recommends against it. Changes to either of these fields can cause discrepancies in the order data.

The Edit Errors group box displays the field name, message sequence number, and the message text for errors related to process rule violations. For example, suppose that both a transfer price and the price markup percentage are specified for an interunit transfer, you receive a message that only one or the other is allowed.

See Also

Using Routes and Loads in Fulfillment Processing

Calculating Available-To-Promise Quantity

The ATP function calculates the projected quantity available for an item in a business unit on a given date, enabling you to promise orders against future supply. Use the Setup Fulfillment-ATP Reservations page to select optional sources of demand and supply. The following sections describe the variables used in the ATP calculation, the calculation itself, and the processes and components that call the ATP function.

Sources of Supply

To project expected supply for an item in a business unit, the ATP function considers purchase orders, scheduled production in the firmed status, and interunit transfers that should be received between the current date and the scheduled ship date. You can specify additional sources of supply on the Setup Fulfillment-ATP Reservations page, including; scheduled production in the entered status, purchasing requisitions, manufacturing co-products or by-products, planned purchase orders, planned transfer orders, and planned production orders from PeopleSoft Supply Planning.

Purchase Orders

Open, pending, approved, and dispatched purchase orders to be put away in the inventory business unit are included as standard sources of supply in the ATP calculation. The due date on the purchase order schedule line is used as the date when the items are available. Subcontract purchase orders for production IDs are excluded; this supply is captured as part of scheduled production.

Any quantity already received for a schedule line on a purchase order is subtracted from the original requested quantity. Quantity received but not put away is counted as supply with an availability date equal to the current date. Similarly, receipts without purchase orders that have not completed the putaway process are treated as supply with an availability date equal to the current date.

Scheduled Production

Firmed, released, and in-process scheduled production orders are included as standard sources of supply in the ATP calculation. To be counted as supply, an item must be the primary output for the production order or a component on a tear down order. The production order’s due date is used as the item availability date unless the item is produced during an earlier operation sequence; in that case, the operation’s due date is used as the item availability date.

Quantity yet to be completed is calculated based on the expected output of the production run minus the already completed output quantity for the run. Completed output quantity that has not been putaway is counted as supply with an availability date equal to the current date.

In addition, you can select to include production orders in the Entered status in the supply side of the ATP calculation by selecting the option on the Setup Fulfillment-ATP Reservations page.

Interunit Transfers

Stock transfers to be received from other business units are included as a standard source of supply in the ATP calculation. The scheduled arrival date for the interunit transfer is used as the item availability date. Quantity received but not put away is counted as a supply with an availability date equal to the current date.

Requisitions

Approved requisitions can be included as an optional source of supply in the ATP calculation. Only approved requisitions that specify an Inventory business unit and a due date are counted. The due date on the requisition is used as the item availability date. Any quantity on a requisition that has been sourced to a purchase order or interunit transfer is subtracted from the requisition quantity.

Co-Products and By-Products

Both co-products and by-products can be included as optional sources of supply in the ATP calculation. To be counted as supply, the item must be listed as co-product or by-product on the production order. Waste by-products are not counted as supply. The production order’s due date is used as the item availability date unless the item is produced during an earlier operation sequence; in that case, the operation’s due date is used as the item availability date.

Co- or by-product quantities yet to be completed are calculated based on the expected output of the production run minus the already completed output quantity for the run. Completed output quantities of co- or by-products that have not been put away are counted as supply with an availability date equal to the current date.

Planned Supply

Planned purchase orders, planned interunit transfer orders, and planned production orders from PeopleSoft Supply Planning can be used as sources of supply. When selecting these options on the Setup Fulfillment-ATP Reservations page, you will define which planned POs, planned transfers, and planned production should be included based on whether or not the order is approved, the status of the order (planned, firm planned, or both), and if the order is frozen or not.

Sources of Demand

To project expected demand for an item in a business unit, the ATP function considers sales orders and material stock requests that have previously been promised. You can specify additional sources of demand on the Setup Fulfillment-ATP Reservations page, including; dependent demand for an item, work orders from PeopleSoft Maintenance Management, planned interunit transfers and planned purchase orders from PeopleSoft Supply Planning.

Sales Orders

Sales orders that have been promised or lot allocated, but not confirmed as picked, are included as a standard source of demand in the ATP calculation.

Unpromised sales orders are not counted as demand. Sales orders that have been confirmed as picked are not counted as demand because the order quantity has already been subtracted from the item’s available quantity.

Material Stock Requests

All material stock requests and interunit transfers (including those sourced from PeopleSoft Purchasing or created by PeopleSoft Supply Planning) that have been promised (or lot allocated) but not confirmed as picked are included as a standard source of demand.

Unpromised stock requests are not counted as demand. Stock requests that have been confirmed as picked are not counted as demand because the order quantity has already been subtracted from the item’s available quantity.

Dependent Demand

Demand for an item that can be sold as part of an assembly can be included as an optional source of demand. Dependent demand is derived from bills of material for other items or end-products. The Dependent Demand check box on the Setup Fulfillment-ATP Reservations page only includes production orders with a status of firmed, released, or in process are eligible as sources of dependent demand.

Select the Include WIP in Starting Quantity check box on the Setup Fulfillment-ATP Reservations page if item quantities in WIP storage locations should be considered available to promise in the ATP calculation; that is, if item quantities in WIP storage locations is available to fulfill finished good demand. This check box applies to both Dependent Demand and Planned Production Demand.

For standard production orders, all components on the component list are counted as dependent demand. For rework and tear down orders, the production ID assembly item is not counted as demand, because assemblies to be torn down or reworked are assumed to be in non-nettable storage locations. Quantities in non-nettable storage locations are excluded from the item’s available quantity; therefore, the production ID assembly item on the tear down or rework production order should not be counted as demand. All other components on the rework or tear down order; however, are included as sources of dependent demand.

The production order’s start date is used as the component item’s demand date unless the component item is required for some operation sequence; in this case, the operation’s start date is used as the component item’s demand date.

If the production order’s status is firmed or released, the scheduled quantity for the component item is counted as the dependent demand quantity. If the production order is in process, the dependent demand quantity is calculated as follows:

• For any in-process production, if the component’s issue method is Kit, or if the component’s issue method is Issue or Replenish and the component’s quantity per is Per order, the demand quantity is equal to the largest of the following values: (1) pending issue quantity, plus pending yield loss quantity; (2) current schedule quantity, minus issue quantity minus the smaller of [a] yield loss quantity or [b] current schedule quantity x (1 − (component yield / 100)); (3) zero.

• If the component issue method is Issue or Replenish, the component’s quantity per is Per assembly, and no routing exists for the production ID, then the demand quantity is calculated using the following formula:

  ((order production quantity − order completed quantity − order scrapped quantity) x quantity per assembly x (100 / component yield)) + pending issue quantity + pending yield loss quantity

• If the component issue method is Issue or Replenish, the component’s quantity per is Per assembly. and a routing exists for the production ID, the demand quantity is calculated using the following formula:

  ((order production quantity − “quantity completed” − “quantity scrapped”) x quantity per x (100 / component yield)) + pending issue quantity + pending yield loss quantity

• If the component item is required for a particular operation sequence, the quantity completed in the above formula refers to the completed quantity at that operation, and quantity scrapped refers to the quantity that was scrapped at that operation, plus quantity scrapped in prior operations.

• If the component item is not required for any particular operation sequence, the quantity completed and quantity scrapped in the above formula refer to the completed and scrapped quantity, respectively, at the first operation.

Note. Dependent demand is considered promised for all ATP calculations.

Planned Demand

Planned interunit transfer orders and planned production orders from PeopleSoft Supply Planning can be used as sources of demand. When selecting these options on the Setup Fulfillment-ATP Reservations page, you will define which planned transfers and planned production should be included based on whether or not the order is approved, the status of the order (planned, firm planned, or both), and if the order is frozen or not.

Work Order Demand

If PeopleSoft Maintenance Management is installed, work orders can be included in the demand side of the ATP calculation.

How Item Lead Time Affects ATP

To determine when supplies of purchased or manufactured items could be available when no supply (or not enough supply) is expected for the item in the business unit, the ATP function calculates availability based on the item’s lead time.

Purchased Items

If PeopleSoft Purchasing is installed, the standard lead time value on the Purchasing Attributes page defines the standard lead time required to purchase an item. For buy items for which no future supply (or not enough supply) is anticipated, the promise date is calculated as the current date, plus this lead time. If PeopleSoft Purchasing is not installed, the lead time for buy items is calculated using the Replenish Lead Days value defined on the Define Business Unit Item - Inventory: Replenishment page as the current date, plus the replenishment lead time.

Manufactured Items

Fixed lead time and variable lead time values on the Define Business Unit Item - Planning: Fences/Lead Time page define the lead time required to manufacture an item. For make items for which no future supply is anticipated, the promise date is calculated using the following formula: current date + fixed lead time + (order quantity in the standard UOM x variable lead time). The resulting date is rounded up to the next day.

ATP Calculations

You can call the ATP function to calculate the cumulative ATP quantity for a current or future date using the Item/Product Availability component. When you promise orders using online reservations or the Reserve Materials process from the Order Entry Form component in PeopleSoft Order Management or from PeopleSoft Inventory, the ATP function is called. No matter how the ATP function is called, the ATP quantity is calculated the same way. After gathering the supply and demand data, the ATP quantity is calculated for each schedule date starting at the furthest point in the future and working back to the current date. The cumulative ATP balance, a running total of the ATP for each schedule date, is calculated next, starting with the current date and working forward to the furthest point where supply or demand exists. The cumulative ATP available on a given date is the quantity that can be promised to orders scheduled for shipment on that date.

Warning! If concurrent Reserve Materials processes are running or if ATP is being checked online at the same time, over-promising can occur. For example, the Reserve Materials process runs for a particular order line for item A. ATP is checked and there is just enough quantity to promise to the order line. At the same time, another Reserve Materials process is running for a different order line but for the same item. ATP is checked and again there is just enough to promise. However, the two order lines together would result in a negative cumulative ATP balance. Because both order lines are not yet promised when the simultaneous Reserve Materials processes run, they are excluded from the ATP calculation that the two processes perform, resulting in over-promising. Use the Item/Product Availability Inquiry page, along with the Shortage Workbench, to monitor and correct situations of over-promising.

When orders are promised in batch, the ATP quantity is calculated for the schedule date on each order line for ATP-reserved items. If the schedule ship date of the order line falls within the ATP lead days, but outside of the reservation lead days defined for the item or business unit, the full order line quantity is promised if available or nothing is promised. However, if the order line falls within the reservation lead days, the cumulative ATP balance calculated for the schedule date is promised to the order line up to the full requested quantity and a backorder is created for any unpromised quantity (assuming backorders are allowed).

When you promise an order using online reservations, the ATP function also uses the schedule date to calculate the quantity that can be promised. However, if the full quantity cannot be promised on the schedule date, you can opt to change the request quantity, change the schedule date to the next date that the full quantity can be promised, or split the order line into multiple schedule lines with the maximum quantity that can be promised on those dates. In addition, if the order is a critical one and you must promise a certain schedule ship date and quantity regardless of whether there is enough cumulative ATP quantity on that date, you can do so by reserving the order line directly from the Order Entry Form component.

When you calculate the cumulative ATP online using the Item/Product Availability inquiry component, if a requested quantity was entered as a search criterion, the ATP function calculates the first available ship date for the quantity, if possible. The following sections describe the ATP calculations and demonstrate how the cumulative ATP quantity is calculated for a specific example.

Calculating ATP for Each Schedule Date

In PeopleSoft, ATP is calculated for each schedule date. In this context, schedule date refers to any date in the future that the business unit is scheduled to receive supply or fulfill demand for the item. ATP is calculated for each schedule date starting with the latest date where supply or demand exists. Depending on the specified demand options, one of two algorithms is used.

If dependent demand is not included in the ATP calculation, or if dependent demand is included and the Incl WIP in Starting Qty (include work-in-process in starting quantity) option is selected, the ATP quantity is calculated for each schedule date as follows, starting with the latest schedule date and working back to the current date. The ATP balance for a schedule date equals either the net supply or zero, whichever is larger.

Net Supply = Total Supply Qty for the schedule date − Total Demand Qty for the schedule date − Leftover Demand Qty from the next schedule date

where

Total Demand Qty = Finished Good Demand Qty + Dependent Demand Qty,

and where

Leftover Demand Qty = 0 if this is the latest schedule date, 0 if the Net Supply from the next schedule date is greater than or equal to 0; or the absolute value of the next schedule date’s Net Supply, if the Net Supply is less than 0.

ATP for the schedule date representing the current date is calculated slightly differently:

ATP for the Current Date = Starting Qty Available + Total Supply Qty for this and any earlier schedule date − Total Demand Qty for this and any earlier schedule date − Leftover Demand Qty from the next schedule date.

Note. If the Incl WIP in Starting Qty option is selected, the starting quantity available is the current on-hand available quantity for the item (BU_ITEMS_INV.qty_available), plus the total quantity in WIP locations.

If dependent demand is included in the ATP calculation, but the Incl WIP in Starting Qty option is not selected, the ATP balance is calculated for each schedule date as follows, starting with the latest schedule date and working back to the current date. ATP for the schedule date is equal to the net supply or zero, whichever is larger.

Net Supply = Total Supply Qty for the schedule date − Total Finished Good Demand Qty for the schedule date − Non-WIP Dependent Demand for the schedule date − Leftover Demand Qty

where

Leftover Demand Qty = 0 if this is the latest schedule date, 0 if the net supply from the next schedule date was greater than or equal to 0; or the absolute value of the next schedule date’s net supply, if the net supply was less than 0.

In the previous calculation, dependent demand is first netted against available WIP quantity. Once the available WIP quantity is exhausted, dependent demand is netted against non-WIP quantity. Non-WIP dependent demand in the previous calculation refers to any dependent demand quantity that could not be netted against available WIP quantity for that given schedule date. (The Item/Product Availability Inquiry page displays the WIP available quantity. Once this value reaches 0, any subsequent dependent demand is considered to be non-WIP dependent demand and affects the ATP calculation.)

ATP for the schedule date representing the current date is calculated slightly differently. In this case, the starting quantity available is the current on-hand available quantity for the item (BU_ITEMS_INV.qty_available):

ATP for the Current Date = Starting Qty Available + Total Supply Qty for this and any earlier schedule date − Total Finished Good Demand Qty for this and any earlier schedule date − Non-WIP Dependent Demand Qty for this and any earlier schedule date − Leftover Demand Qty from the next schedule date.

Calculating Cumulative ATP

Cumulative ATP is a running total of the ATP quantity calculated for each schedule date. After the ATP quantity is calculated for each schedule date, starting with the latest schedule date and working backward, the cumulative ATP balance can be calculated starting with the current date and working forward:

Cumulative ATP = Cumulative ATP for the prior date (or 0 if today’s date) + the ATP for the schedule date.

Calculating Available Quantity for Each Schedule Date

The available quantity that appears on the Item/Product Availability Inquiry page is a running total of the available quantity calculated by adding supply or subtracting demand in chronological order. The available quantity calculated for the last schedule date should always match the cumulative ATP; however, available quantity and cumulative ATP values may differ for intermediate schedule dates. The ATP calculation is a more sophisticated approach, netting supply and demand across multiple days to reflect more accurately how much quantity is available to promise on a particular date.

Note. Available quantity is calculated for display only on the Item/Product Availability inquiry page. This calculation is not performed when promising order lines.

If dependent demand is not included in the ATP calculation, or if dependent demand is included and the Incl WIP in Starting Qty option is selected, the available quantity is calculated for each schedule date as follows, starting with the current schedule date and working forward:

Available Qty = Available Qty for the previous schedule date (or Starting Qty Available for today’s date) + Total Supply Qty for the schedule date − Total Demand Qty for the schedule date.

If dependent demand is included in the calculation and the Incl WIP in Starting Qty option is selected, total demand quantity in the previous formula is calculated as follows:

Total Demand Qty = Total Finished Good Demand Qty + Total Dependent Demand.

If dependent demand is included in the ATP calculation, but the Incl WIP in Starting Qty option is not selected, available quantity is calculated for each schedule date as follows, starting with the current schedule date and working forward:

Available Qty = Available Qty for the previous schedule date (or Starting Qty Available for today’s date) + Total Supply Qty for the schedule date − Total Finished Good Demand Qty for the schedule date − Non-WIP Dependent Demand for the schedule date.

Calculating the First Available Ship Date

If you specify a quantity requested on the Availability Inquiry Selection page, the ATP function calculates the first available ship date for the specified quantity as follows:

1. The quantity requested is compared with the cumulative ATP starting with today’s schedule date and working forward.

2. When the cumulative ATP is equal to or greater than the quantity requested, the schedule date is checked against valid shipping dates for the business unit defined on the Closure Calendar page.

3. The first schedule date on which the cumulative ATP is greater than or equal to the quantity requested and on which the date is valid for shipping operations for the business unit is recorded as the first available ship date.

4. If no available ship date is found with enough cumulative ATP quantity, a message appears.

When you promise an order online using the Order Entry Form component, you provide the order quantity and schedule ship date, and the ATP function determines whether the quantity can be promised on the given ship date. If the ATP function determines that the full quantity cannot be promised on the schedule date, you can change the request quantity, change the schedule date to the first date that the full quantity can be promised (the first available ship date), or split the order lines into multiple schedule lines with the maximum quantity that can be promised on those dates.

Example ATP Calculation

To illustrate how ATP is calculated for a given time period, consider the following picture of demand and supply for an ATP calculation made on May 1.

In this sample ATP calculation, the current date is May 1 and the latest scheduled date for both promised demand and incoming supply is May 8. Demand or supply orders exist every day between, providing an eight-day period over which to calculate available future supplies.

The May 1 date represents today’s supply and demand, which includes any supply orders scheduled to be received today, any demand orders scheduled to be fulfilled today, and any supply or demand orders that have not been received or fulfilled as scheduled for schedule dates before May 1. The Incl WIP in Starting Qty option is selected in this example, so the available quantity for the item in the business unit (from BU_ITEMS_INV.qty_available), plus the total quantity of the item in WIP locations is captured as part of the supply for the current schedule date. This is the current available quantity in the previous chart.

After supply and demand information has been captured, the ATP balance for each schedule date is calculated, starting with the schedule date at the furthest point in the future and working back to the current date. In this example, the ATP is first calculated for May 8 by subtracting the total demand scheduled for fulfillment on May 8 from the total supply scheduled for receipt: 300 − 60 = 240.

ATP is calculated as the larger of two values: net supply or zero. Therefore, for schedule dates when there is no supply or when demand exceeds supply resulting in a negative net supply, the ATP is zero. For this reason, the ATPs for schedule dates May 7, May 6, May 4, and May 3 are each 0.

For May 5, a total supply of 300 is scheduled for receipt and a total demand of 140 is scheduled for fulfillment. However, in addition to the demand for May 5, the ATP calculation must also account for demand for future dates on which there is no scheduled supply. In our example, total demand from May 6 and May 7 is also subtracted from the May 5 supply to calculate the ATP for May 5: 300 − 140 − 140 − 40 = -20. Since this is less than 0, the ATP quantity is set to 0, with 20 considered as leftover demand quantity.

Demand from May 2, May 3, and May 4, plus any leftover demand quantity is then subtracted from the supply expected on May 2 to calculate the ATP for May 2: 300 −100 − 60 − 50 − 20 = 70. The leftover demand quantity is reset to 0, because there was enough supply to meet the demand. Finally, the ATP for the current date, May 1, can be calculated: 150 − 90 = 60.

Cumulative ATP is a running sum of the ATP quantities calculated for each schedule date. Cumulative ATP for a given date is calculated by adding the ATP for that date to the cumulative ATP of the prior date. The cumulative ATP of the current date will always be the same as its ATP quantity. For example, the ATP (and cumulative ATP) quantity for May 1 is 60 and the ATP quantity for May 2 is 70; therefore, the cumulative ATP for May 2 is 130 (60 + 70 = 130). The cumulative ATP for May 3 is also 130 (130 + 0 = 130).

See Also

Introduction to Sales Order Entry

Managing Stock Requests Online

This section discusses how to:

• Update unreserved stock requests.

• Use the Shortage Workbench.

• View soft-reserved, lot-allocated, or promised order lines.

Pages Used to Manage Unfulfilled and Partially Fulfilled Stock Requests

Updating Unreserved Orders

Access the Update Unreserved Orders page.

The page displays orders that cannot be soft reserved or promised due to insufficient stock or future available supply, orders that are not within the number of reservation lead days or ATP reservation lead days, and orders that are unapproved. It also displays order lines that are waiting to be picked up by the Reserve Materials process or another reservations process.

Using the Shortage Workbench

The Shortage Workbench is an online component enables you to monitor and control stock shortages and other fulfillment issues. Users can view shortages and take action to fill the outstanding orders. The Shortage Workbench only selects demand lines that are in the unfulfilled or releasable state. The Shortage Workbench can perform several actions on a set of orders or a set of demand lines, including:

• Release a demand line with stock shortages to the releasable state enabling the shortage to be viewed and dealt with in the picking and shipping processes.

• Soft-reserve stock. The reservation of the demand line can be done with or without the reservation rules.

• Set a demand line from the unfulfilled state to the releasable state and execute any backorder rules.

• Set the demand line back to the unfulfilled state from the releasable state.

• Create, cancel, or approve backorders.

• Unreserving demand lines with soft-reserve items that are in an unfulfilled or releasable state.

• Unpromising demand lines with ATP items that are in an unfulfilled or releasable state.

• De-allocating demand lines with lot-controlled items that are in an unfulfilled or releasable state.

• Approve stock requests.

• Approve partial quantity fulfillment for sales orders and materials stock requests.

• Override the soft-reserved, promised, or picking quantity of a demand line.

See Also

Managing Stock Shortages

Viewing Soft-Reserved, Lot-Allocated, or Promised Order Lines

Access the Reserved Material Stock page.

View the details for demand lines that have been reserved, promised, or lot-allocated.

Using the Fulfillment Workbench to Reserve or Promise Orders

The Fulfillment Workbench is an online component that enables you to enter requests to move material stock orders and sales orders from one fulfillment status to another. Requests are placed in staging tables and then processed by the fulfillment engine using the Fulfillment Request process. Using the Fulfillment Workbench, you can skip the intermediate fulfillment steps and place an order directly in the state that you need. To move an unfulfilled order to releasable status (reserved or promised) enter Reserve in the Action field of the Fulfillment Workbench.

Pages Used to Reserve or Promise Order Using the Fulfillment Workbench

Using the Fulfillment Workbench Page

Access the Fulfill Workbench page.

Note. The exact fields and field values available on this page are determined by the template ID.

Selection Criteria Group Box

Enter the search criteria to retrieve demand lines for processing. These search criteria fields include both group-level fields (for example, Load ID or Pick Batch ID) and detail-level fields (for example, Order No). The actual search criteria fields that appear are determined by the values in the Template ID, Action, and Search By fields.

Other Options

See Also

Using the Fulfillment Workbench

Reserving Using the Fulfillment Engine EIP

Third-party systems can send PeopleSoft Inventory fulfillment transaction requests to reserve materials using the Inventory Reservation EIP. The Inventory Reservation message is an inbound asynchronous PeopleCode subscribe EIP that creates a transaction request to move material stock orders and sales orders from an unfulfilled status to a releasable status.

See Also

Processing Inbound Application Messages for the Fulfillment Engine

PeopleSoft Integration Broker PeopleBook

PeopleSoft Enterprise Integration PeopleBook