Sources of supply

Sourcing is the method to determine the source of supply for a plan item to satisfy demand. Sourcing can be defined on two levels:

  • The sourcing strategy

    Determines if the item sourcing strategy is:

    • Job Shop
    • Purchase
    • Repetitive
    • Subcontract
    • Distribution

    Defining a sourcing strategy is not required, if a sourcing strategy is not defined the default source from the Item - Ordering (tcibd2100m000) data is taken.

  • The supply strategy

    This determines the rules that specify which suppliers and warehouses must be selected for purchasing and distribution. For production, no second level applies in the sourcing of the Business Object.

The supplying relationships between planning clusters can be defined to represent the links between warehouses linked to different sites.

Five sources of supply

Enterprise Planning works with five sources of supply:

  • Job Shop
    Manufacture of goods at a production facility
  • Repetitive
    Mass manufacture of product with few, or no variations.
  • Purchase
    Acquisition of goods from a business partner
  • Subcontract
    Delegation of part or the whole manufacture process: delivering components to a subcontractor who returns a completed product
  • Distribution
    Acquisition goods from elsewhere in your company or from an affiliated company

The sourcing strategy of the plan item is based on the data specified in the Item - Ordering by Site (tcibd2150m000) session.

Sourcing strategies allow you to use a combination of multiple supply sources at the same time, or one after another.

Note

Items with the supply source Assembly are planned in the Assembly Planning module.

The use of sourcing strategies

If you generate a master plan or planned orders, LN first searches for a valid sourcing strategy in the Sourcing Strategy (cprpd7110m000) session.

You can link a sourcing strategy directly to a plan item, or link the sourcing strategy indirectly, via a planning cluster or item group.

If LN finds no effective sourcing strategy, LN uses the default supply source.

For more information, refer to Sourcing strategies overview.

Note

LN generates a signal if you define a sourcing strategy for a plan item for which a date effectivity definition exists.

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