Requirement-date search for sales contract lines

In a typical automotive business relationship, a contract is negotiated between a supplier and a customer before EDI schedule messages are sent to the supplier.

During the effective time period of a contract, an item number can be modified by customers and suppliers in these circumstances:

• Customer: If, on a specific effective date, the customer item number changes, then the supplier is informed in advance. The supplier can then adjust the contract before the item number change is implemented.
• Supplier: If, from a specific effective date, the supplier decides to use a different item number, then the customer is not aware of this item number change. The same customer item number is still used in the communication between supplier and customer.

A functional enhancement has been made regarding the supplier-driven item number change.

When a supplier item is transitioned to another item, some automotive suppliers require the ability to use the individual requirement dates for assigning the requirements to the contract lines (phase out and phase in). This to replace the use of one EDI schedule publishing date to search for contracts, all at once.

To support the phase out and phase in process, adjustments have been made to these processes:

• Handling of incoming EDI schedules
• In-transit quantity calculation
• Schedule netting during shipment