Use this activity to define customer schedule management options at the part level by customer address ID and to define supply parameters for released customer schedules by part. This is a mandatory task if using customer scheduling.
You can override the general conditions entered on the agreement. Identical conditions for all parts included in the agreement can be entered in the Customer Schedule Agreement/Agreement Defaults page.
The customer schedule flow starts by entering a schedule, e.g., a plan or forecast. As the delivery dates approach, the customer will send call-offs that give more detailed information on what and how many items should be sent with each particular delivery. To align the schedules with the customer's and company's delivery records, the reconciliation process is run.
The reconciliation process compares the customer’s last delivery note, as expressed on the customer schedule, with the last recorded delivery note. A discrepancy could indicate that deliveries are not yet recorded at the customer’s site, thus schedule quantities should be reduced by this amount. Reconciliation can be run either manually or scheduled to run at certain pre-defined times during the day or week. If you wish to use the cumulative receipts matching function, you can choose whether the customer's and company's cumulative delivery quantities must match or not, to get a successful reconciliation.
In addition to the reconciliation process, you can choose whether backorders should be matched as well. Possible values in the Plan Backorder Option field are:
| Plan Backorder Option | Description |
| Match In Reconcile | Runs the reconciliation process for backorders and compares the backorders to previously entered customer order lines. |
| Ignore In Reconcile | Does not check backorders when running the reconciliation process. |
You can specify whether tolerance checking is done manually or automatically in the Tolerance Checking field.
The approval method must be defined. Possible values in the Approval Method field are:
| Approval Method | Description |
| Manual Approve | All schedules must be manually approved. |
| Auto Approve | Only schedules that are out of tolerance must be manually approved. |
| Unconditional | The schedule is always automatically approved, regardless of the tolerance check results. |
You can define whether the function is automatically or manually executed in the Release Method field. This is similar to the approval function. Automatic Release means that schedules are automatically released upon successful tolerance check (that is within tolerance) or upon approval if tolerance checking is not used.
The Reference Use field in combination with the PO Information Use field determines whether references are required, prohibited or allowed and how it will affect the matching and reconciliation process. Possible values in the Reference Use field are:
| Reference Use | Description |
| Use References | References are required by the system. If a reference does not exist, the incoming schedule is not approved and a message will appear. The reference, e.g. a value received as Ref ID or purchase order information, will be used to match against existing customer order lines during release of the customer schedule. Note, the reconcile option must be set to No Reconcile. |
| Do Not Use References | References are not required by the system. References in terms of purchase order line information can still be received if the option PO Information Use is set to Use. If however also that option is set to Do Not Use, and purchase order line information does exist, the incoming schedule is not approved and a message will be displayed. |
| PO Information Use | Description |
| Use | Customer's purchase order information is allowed to be received as information only, i.e. not to be used in the matching process but only transferred to the customer order lines during release of the customer schedule. Note, at the same time the Reference Use option must be set to Do Not Use References. This setup will not affect the available reconcile options. |
| Do Not Use | Customer’s purchase order information cannot be received as information only. If information is received, and the Reference Use option is set to Do Not Use References, the incoming customer schedule is not approved and a message will be displayed. |
The Deliver Authorization field allows you to define the schedules that will be converted into customer orders once the schedule has been released. Possible values are:
| Deliver Authorization | Description |
| Call-Off | Delivery authorized lines on customer schedules of this type will be used for creating customer order lines when released. No delivery authorized lines on customer schedules of this type will be considered as plan demands. The plans will only be used for tolerance checks. No plans will be converted into customer order lines or be considered as plan demands at later material and requirement planning (MRP). |
| Plan | Delivery authorized lines on customer schedules of this type will be used for creating customer order lines when released. No delivery authorized lines on customer plans will be considered as plan demands. The call-offs will only be used for tolerance checks. No call-offs will be converted into customer order lines or be considered as plan demands at later MRP. |
| Both | Both call-offs and plans will be released, but only delivery authorized lines on call-offs will be converted into customer order lines. No delivery authorized lines on call-offs or plans will be converted into demands, which will be seen in the Inventory Part Availability Planning page, and will be subject for MRP. |
The Plan Consume field allows you to define whether customer call-off schedules will consume customer plan quantities during the release process for overlapping periods when running overlapping schedules. Note that this option is only available when you have selected Both in the Deliver Authorization field. Possible values are:
| Plan Consume Option | Description |
| Consume Partial | The call-off quantity can consume only part of a plan quantity and a remainder is left. |
| Consume Full | The call-off quantity completely replaces any plan quantity. No remainders are calculated. |
The Plan Forecast Option allows you to define how delivery authorized quantities on plan schedules are treated when released. Possible values are:
| Plan Forecast Option | Description |
| Create Forecast | Delivery authorized quantities as well as non-delivery authorized quantities received on a plan schedule will be converted to forecast demands. Note that a schedule of type call-off is not affected by this option. |
| Do Not Create Forecast | Delivery authorized quantities received on a plan schedule will be converted into customer order lines, or will be disregarded depending on the delivery authorization parameter. Note that non-delivery authorized lines will be converted to forecast demands, and a schedule of type call-off is not affected by this option. |
The Forecast Spread Option allows you to define whether demands should be broken down to daily demands or be left untouched when creating the forecast demands. Possible values are:
| Forecast Spread Option | Description |
| Spread Daily | The quantities from the schedule will be spread into a daily demand, and a forecasted quantity per work day is created. Only the demands with no delivery authorized quantities will be affected. A delivery authorized demand or any information only will not be spread. |
| Do Not Spread | The quantities from the schedule are transferred as it is, to the forecast quantity. |
The fields Plan Template or Calloff Template allow you to select a customer schedule template. If the values are already setup in the connected customer schedule agreement then they are inherited and can be edited. A new customer schedule will inherit the template (depending on the schedule type Plan or Call-off). This template then will be used to determine the line types for the schedule lines automatically.
This activity has the following prerequisites:
As a result of this activity: