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RWVLB013 - Automatic Load Building

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Title

Automatic Load Building

Purpose

Automatic load building is mostly used to facilitate the procurement of large quantities of merchandise for delivery to retailers while taking into account certain constraints (referred to in this context as restrictions). An example of a load would be a full truck-load.

For this purpose, the load-building program automatically generates a worklist for the stock planner containing loads that have either been optimized or loads that have not yet been optimized. The loads represent supply relationships between external vendors and plants. The worklist is displayed in the results list (transaction WLB4) for the stock planner to process.

A load is generated on the basis of a range-of-coverage algorithm. The system takes existing requirements elements (= purchase requisitions and purchase orders) into account and may add new order quantities (= additional quantities), while ensuring that the restrictions defined in the restrictions profile are adhered to.

A supply relationship between an external vendor and a plant (a distribution center, for example) or more than one plant (stores in a supply region, for example) is defined by the purchasing organization, which is entered in the master data or in Customizing. A supply relationship included in automatic load building is referred to as a load-building combination. Each vendor/plant relationship in a load-building combination is referred to as a load-building component.

Loads can either be a physical (if not simulated) or a logical (if simulated) entry in the results list.

If a load is generated physically, the purchase requisition items and the additional quantities are converted into order items. The order quantities of order items included are not changed.

If a load is generated logically, none of the purchase requisitions or purchase orders are changed. No new order items are created for the additional quantities. All the values displayed in the results list for load building are simply default values. The user (for example, the stock planner) can examine the proposals and convert them to physical entries, or reject, or delete them.

The entries representing physical loads in the results list cannot be deleted directly by the user. Old entries are only deleted automatically after a certain period of time by the automatic load-building program. You can specify this time period in days in the general Customizing settings for load building (the default period is 100 days).

Loads that comply with all the restrictions are flagged in the results list as optimized. Purchase orders contained in a physical load current program run (and not as a result of conversion in the results list) can also be flagged as optimized by issuing a collective number. This is controlled by the parameter "Control document generation" in the selection screen.

The program cannot always guarantee that all the restrictions have been complied with when a load has been generated. In this case, a load is flagged in the results list with "Processing required"(= not optimized). When purchase orders are created from the results list for entries in a test run, you cannot flag the purchase orders directly with a collective number. The purchase orders involved in a physical load can, however, also be flagged as optimized in manual load building (transaction WLB5) and in the online planning (for example, by calling them in the planning workbench) with the aim of complying with the restrictions. In manual load building, the purchase orders with collective numbers can also be flagged.

Integration

Automatic load building is an Order Optimizing application in the Retail procurement process (for more information, see SAP Library). It replaces the former automatic load-building function (transation WLB3) as of SAP R/3 Release 4.6B.

The program should never be started during production time. It should be started as a background job and at a time (for example, at night) when the system load is low, as it may generate a large load if the volume of data processed is very high.

The program should only be started as an online process in exceptional circumstances (for example, when using load building for the first time, or when adding new load-building combinations). If you run it online, be sure to restrict the selection criteria in the selection screen.

Prerequisites

• Before you start the automatic load building, all other automatic and manual requirements planning processes must be completed if their results are to be included in the form of purchase requisitions or orders in the load building.

• The load-building combinations to be included can be restricted on the selection screen, and by entering (or not entering) the relevant material master data and Customizing settings for plant and vendor.

• The materials for which an additional quantity can be generated using load building can also be restricted by selection criteria on the selection screen and by maintaining the relevant material master data.

• The prerequisites and restrictions for automatic load building can also be checked using the analysis program for load building (transaction WLBA).

• If you use dynamic rounding profiles (for more information, see Quantity Optimizing in the SAP Library) for rounding up order qunatities to the nearest logistics unit, it is recommended that you always round up, if possible, to the same logistics unit (for example, you should always round up to pallets if a quantity restriction pertaining to full pallets exists). This reduces the number of loads that are not optimized because restrictions have not been met.

Features

When you run load building, the system always performs the following activities:

• Find the valid load-building combinations.

• Find the restriction profile for each load-building combination.

• Find the three earliest possible procurement periods for each load-
  building combination. In doing so, it finds the three earliest possible order times (the working day according to the factory calendar) and the earliest possible delivery time for these order times (the working day according to the factory calendar).

• Find the vendor service level for each of the three procurement periods for each load-building combination.

• Find the existing purchase requisitions and purchase orders for each load-building combination.

• Decide whether automatic load building can be performed taking the vendor service level into account for each load-building combination.

• Define the load using the range-of-coverage algorithm, possibly refining the load in a second process for each load-building combination.

• Enter the load that was built in the results list (tables WB01 and WB02) for each load-building combination.

In automatic load building, you can also make use of other functions available on the selection screen (see Selections).

Selection

The selection screen is divided up into a number of tab pages separating the different functions as follows:

Tab page: Load-building combination

Using the following selection parameters, you can restrict the load-building combinations:

• "Vendor"

• "Purchasing organization"

• "Vendor subrange"

• "Plant"

You can only select by vendor subrange if you have activated the purchase order split according to vendor subrange (see the selection parameter "New purchase order per VSR").

The vendor subrange restricts (independent of the parameter "New purchase order per VSR") the purchase requisitions and orders included and additional quantities. The purchase requisitions and purchase orders included may only contain materials assigned to the vendor subranges you entered. This is also the case for any additional quantities created for materials.

If you run the load building for more than one plant (= a vendor supplying more than one plant), a plant group must be entered in the field:

• "Plant group".

The system only includes load-building combinations for the plants in this plant group, which means every load-building combination only contains load-building components with plants in this group. In this case, the plants entered in the "Plant" field are only used to restrict the plants in the plant group you entered.

Tab page: Requirement element restriction

Using the following selection parameters, you can restrict the purchase orders and requisitions you want to include:

• "Purchasing group"

• "Material"

• "Material group"

• "Vendor material number"

These restrictions are also included in the selection of materials for which additional quantities can be ordered.

Tab page: Control parameters

You can use the following control parameters to activate or deactivate additional functions that the system performs during load building:

• "Control of document creation"

This indicator controls whether logical or physical loads are built, and whether collective numbers for optimized, physical loads are issued or not.

• "Plant category"

If you enter a plant category, it restricts the plants that are selected for load-building combinations.

• "Restriction profile"

If you enter a restriction profile, the system does not have to retrieve the restriction profile from the vendor master data for load-building combinations. When building loads using a plant group, you always have to enter a restriction profile, as a restriction profile cannot be maintained at plant group level in the vendor master record.

• "Time limit for PO date"

This time limit is taken into account when determining the earliest possible order time

(For more information, see the F1 help documentation on the selection parameter).

• "Include planning cycle"

The planning cycle is included in building loads for a particular load-
building combination.

(For more information, see the F1 help documentation for the selection parameter).

• "Without existing requirement elements"

Loads can also be built without including existing purchase orders or purchase requisitions for a particular load-building combination.

(For more information, see the F1 help documentation for this selection parameter.)

• "Released purchase orders"

In determining existing purchase orders for a particular load-building combination, the system includes purchase orders that are flagged as released.

(For more information, see the F1 help documentation on this selection parameter.)

• "Several loads allowed"

Under certain circumstances, more than one load can be generated in the results list for a particular load-building combination.

(For more information, see the F1 help documentation on this selection parameter.)

• "New purchase order per VSR"

A separate load-building combination is created for every vendor subrange (split at vendor subrange level). The loads built for a load-building combination only contain materials that are assigned to that vendor subrange.

• "Include contract"

In determining existing purchase orders and purchase requisitions, the system includes those that refer to a contract. When additional quantities are generated for a material that is not contained in an item in an existing requirement element (as a purchase order or purchase requisition item), the system does not search for the contract.
(For more information, see the F1 help documentation on this selection parameter.)

• "Activate log for LB run"

All the activities performed by the program are entered in a log which is issued after the program has finished.

• "Only use regular vendor"

For a particular load-building combination, additional quantities are only generated for materials if the vendor of the material is the regular vendor.

Tab page: Technical control

You can control more technical additional functions using the following parameters in the load building:

• "Program stop if error occurs"

If a serious error occurs, then the program is canceled with the error. Activating this function corresponds to the previous behavior of this program.
(For more information, see the F1 help documentation on this selection parameter.)

• "Int. program start per vendor"

This starts a new version of the program (using the BAPI command, SUBMIT) for all of a vendor's load-building combinations.
(For more information, see the F1 help documentation on this selection parameter.)

• "Use parallel processing"

This function allows load-building combinations from various vendors to be processed in parallel. Using the program start, a job begins the parallel processing (parallel processing cannot be done online).
(For more information, see the F1 help documentation on this selection parameter.)

• "Number of vendors in each process"

For each parallel process the number of vendors has to be entered whose load-building combinations are processed in a process.

• "Logon/server group"

Requested logon/server group to be used for the parallel processing.

• "Max. processes to be executed"

Number of processes that can be simultaneously active during the parallel processing.

If the maximum number of parallel processes is reached, no more parallel processes are started. The system waits in the processing until a parallel process is finished and then starts a new parallel process.

For more information on the individual selection parameters and their functions, see the F1 help documentation in the selection screen.

Standard Variants

Output

The result of the load building can be displayed and processed in the results list.

By activating the flow trace on the selection screen an additional log list is issued. However, this function should only be used in exceptional circumstances, as it increases the runtime.

If the program was started as a job, the most important information on the program run and the processed data is updated in the job log.

Activities

You must make all the necessary settings in Customizing and in the master data before starting the program. The program "Analysis program for load building"(transaction: WLBA) provides assistance in this.

You can start the program periodically as a background job (for example, daily at night). Your system administrator should plan a job for this.

In exceptional circumstances, you can start the program online with the appropriate settings on the selection screen. If you do not restrict the selection criteria for the load-building combinations enough, this leads to very long runimes. Depending on the system settings, the system can terminate the program run (for more information, contact your system administrator).

Example

For examples, see the SAP Library.

ABAP Short Reference   General Data in Customer Master  
This documentation is copyright by SAP AG.

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