Material Availability in Group Planning

With the new Check Material Availability parameter for the work order, service order and maintenance sales order, the material availability can be included as an additional constraint in the group planning and work load leveling process. Group planning is now based on the earliest start date of an activity in combination with the material availability of the parts required to execute the activity.

When generating a plan, the material availability date is to be considered. The Material Availability Date is retrieved from the parameters for the applicable activity origin (Service Orders / Work Orders). For the selected Service Order Activity or Work Order Activity, this date (ATP Date / Planned Available Date / Required Delivery Date) is defaulted from the Service Material Availability (tstdm2520m000) session. The material availability date is used as a constraint for the new planned start date for the order activity in case the Respect Material Availability Date check box is selected in the Groups for Service Orders (tsspc3100m000), Groups for Work Orders (tsspc3100m100) and Groups for Planned Activities (tsspc3100m200) sessions.

When the material is available, the required delivery date is used as the ATP Date and Planned Available Date. If the material is not available, ATP date and Planned Available Date is populated with a date, when the material become available. The required delivery date is used as a fallback date for the Material Availability Date in the Activities for Service Orders (tsspc3120m000) session.

The Material Availability Date is used during workload leveling and planning. In both the cases, the start date of an activity cannot be earlier than the material availability date. It is possible to select/clear the Respect Material Availability Date for both group sets and groups, therefore, workload leveling and planning runs can be made with and/or without considering the Material Availability Date.

Based on the Automatically Update Group Planning (service order) and Automatically Update Group Planning (work order) check boxes, the material availability date is updated for group activities. A change in the ATP Date, Planned Available Date or Required Delivery Date must be synchronized with the related group activity.