Units in Enterprise Planning

Explode units

Order planning in Enterprise Planning explodes the effectivity units through the multilevel product structure. During the explosion, Enterprise Planning takes into account the exceptions that are defined at routing level and BOM line level.

LN communicates unit information to lower levels of the product structure. Demand for a unit of the top-level item generates supply for that specific unit. This supply creates demand for the unit one level lower in the structure.

However, exploding the unit information to all levels and items in the structure is not mandatory. For many items, you do not need to know which top-level unit generated the demand. You can use the Unit Effective Supply check box in the Items (tcibd0501m000) details session to determine whether unit information is communicated to supply orders (planned purchase and production orders, distribution orders) of the item.

If you clear the Unit Effective Supply check box, the unit information is not used for the item’s supply orders. This prevents the generation of multiple supply lines in the item order plan, for which unit information is not relevant.

The setting of the Unit Effective Supply check box also depends on the Lot Controlled check box in the Items (tcibd0501m000) details session. For more information, refer to Units in Warehousing .

In the example, the only manufactured item without unit effective supply is the drive pulley. The other manufactured items have unit effective supply.

The following figure illustrates how a unit is exploded in Enterprise Planning. In this figure, demand exists for unit X. For every level, the figure shows which items in the structure have planned orders that contain the unit. Because the drive pulley has no unit effective supply, the planned orders of the drive pulley do not contain unit X. Although demand exists for unit X, supply is not generated for a specific unit. Instead, LN uses unit 0 (zero), which represents the standard configuration. Because the supply for the drive pulley is for unit 0, the demand for the bolt is also for unit 0.

If the Unit Effective Supply check box is selected for the drive pulley’s component, the demand for the component would still be unit 0 (zero). The explosion of the top-level unit ends at the drive pulley.

If you enter two sales orders, the unit numbers appear in the demand lines in the item order plan for the conveyor belt.

A top-down planning run is carried out for the conveyor. For every demand line, a separate planned production order line is generated, one for every unit. Although the two planned production orders have the same delivery date, the orders are not combined due to the orders’ differing effectivity units

At the level of the item order plan of MOTOR, a unit effective supply is again generated.

The Planned Order - Inventory Movements (cprrp0511m000) session shows the planned inventory movements of the effectivity unit of the planned production order.

For the drive pulley, the Unit Effective Supply check box in the Items (tcibd0501m000) details session is cleared. As a result, in the item order plan, no unit effective supply is generated for the unit effective demand. In the session, the supply of 2 is displayed for unit 0, which is the standard configuration. The supply for the parent item, conveyor, is unit effective, which results in a demand that is also unit effective.

Same configuration

The planning system checks whether a configuration is the same for multiple units. If the configurations of effectivity units for a specific item differ, separated production orders are generated. If the BOM and routing are the same, the configuration is considered the same. If the configuration is the same, the units can be combined in one production order, if permitted, according to other planning rules, such as order interval. A combined order consists of multiple lines.

For example, suppose you create two sales orders with lines for various units of a conveyor and two of these units have the same configuration. If you generate the planned orders, the item order plan for the conveyor has a planned production order with separate lines for the two units.

Interchangeability

Suppose a demand exists for a unit that is interchangeable with another unit. If no inventory is present of the requested unit, but inventory exists of the other unit, the planning system consumes the other unit’s stock instead of creating supply for the requested unit.

Exceptions by sourcing strategy

To determine the sourcing strategy by unit or by requirement, you can define exceptions in the Exceptions (tcuef0105m000) session, which you can start from the appropriate menu of the Sourcing Strategy (cprpd7110m000) session. For example, in case of unit 10, the demand for the motor must be purchased. A demand for unit 11 must be produced. You can even define that, for example, 75 percent of the supply for a specific unit must be produced, and 25 percent of the unit must be purchased.

Exceptions by item - purchase business partner

Enterprise Planning uses exceptions that are defined in the Items - Purchase Business Partner (tdipu0110m000) session. To determine a supplier by unit or requirement, you can define exceptions for every item - supplier combination. If, for example, you create a purchase order for the conveyor’s gearbox, supplier A must supply unit 20. If the purchase order concerns unit 21, Supplier B must supply the order.